FF Power
Larry Kruse
Site and general impressions
Those free-fighters who remembered clearly the logistics problems and overall sense of frustration experienced at the '79 Nats FF site at Meade had more than a pleasant surprise awaiting them in Ohio this year. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, located on the northern edge of Dayton, was the site of the FF portion of the 1980 Nats. Sharing the field with RC sailplanes, free-fighters found a triangular grassy venue, approximately a mile across, with intersecting runways at short intervals. While it became necessary to move the launch site several times due to wind shifts, the field proved, for the most part, outstanding for Cat. III rules.
It was neat to see max flights dethermalize and then, thanks to the manicured condition of the field, watch them again and again drift down to the ground. Those of us who fly in windier regions rarely get that privilege; ordinarily our ships are so far downwind that dead reckoning is the only hope of retrieval.
Tuesday — Open C Gas and C Gas (Junior/Senior)
Tuesday opened with beautiful weather: minimal drift, large frequent thermals, and easy lift selection. Dick Smith was clearly the class of the field in Open C Gas. While Dick Covalt and Brad Bane pursued him early, Smith's white Satellite found good air time again, surviving a couple of bad launches to record 10 straight maxes before an overrun put the quietus to a national record attempt.
Junior and Senior C Gas flight scores were very close, denoting several juniors who are really up-and-coming fliers. The Fulmer boys, Brad and Bryan, in particular, and David Willis, who won his class, deserve mention for their efforts.
Rocket (Jetex) and Payload
The Rocket event, more familiar to most of us as Jetex, had a surprising number of entrants this year despite the scarcity of fuel and fuse. Some outstanding flights with spectacular power patterns were in evidence on several occasions. O. C. Stewart's Hot Stuff got a good burn on at least a couple of flights and climbed quickly. Stewart was followed by Sam Sheetz and Charlie Sotich in Open. Sotich's Zip Dip had an unusual high-thrust arrangement and an extremely long tail moment. Rocket is appealing enough to those restricted to small flying fields that a real renaissance could take place if supplies were more available and the engines were not quite so temperamental to operate.
Bill Hale, fresh from a good weekend at the SAM Champs flying Old-Timer events, showed his versatility by winning Payload with a respectable 317 seconds. Fred Anderson, flying his reliable Muscle Man, was second. Hard-luck Payloader was Lou Willis, who got early flights off to good power patterns only to have the dummy fall out of the plane repeatedly.
Juniors and Seniors showed only marginal interest in Payload, which is a shame since it could be a good low-cost event for younger fliers.
- Payload (Open): 1st Bill Hale (317s), 2nd Fred Anderson.
- Payload (Senior): Susan Brown.
- Payload (Junior): Brian Schuetter.
Wednesday — 1/2A Gas
Wednesday's sole FF non-scale power event was 1/2A Gas. Considering the deteriorating weather later in the week, many will look back on Wednesday with some degree of longing since national records were set in three classes. Junior Mike Wineland led the parade of record-setters flying a high-thrust design featuring a Jedelsky wing. Senior Barry Ziegenfuss had five straight maxes. Open "Dirty Harry" Murphy (CIA — Central Indiana Aeromodelers) cleaned up with a total of 1,525.
Throughout the day, numerous wind shifts challenged contestants; finally, shortly after mid-afternoon, the air deteriorated and the event was effectively over.
Thursday — D Gas and FAI
Thursday dawned hazy and partly overcast. Although the sun burned through, the air never really set up good thermal activity, and scores tended to reflect that.
D Gas, a crowd favorite, brings out the heavy artillery. Dave Wineland followed his son Mike's lead from the previous day and walked away with the event. One unusual aspect of D this year was that several of the big ships had either never been trimmed or were badly out of trim. At least three of these large models splattered themselves on the runway and were taken home in large doggie bags.
FAI, unlike 1979, was well represented both in quality and quantity. As the day progressed and the wind increased, nearly everyone tried to get flights in early in each round. The event was well contested: Chuck Markos broke a long dry spell in FAI by winning with his contest-seasoned Par FAI design (1260), hotly pursued by Norm Poti (1240). If there had been a Best Finish award, Poti would have won it with his immaculate Niblet design.
- D Gas: 1st Dave Wineland.
- FAI: 1st Chuck Markos (1260), 2nd Norm Poti (1240).
Friday — A Gas and Electric
The weather steadily worsened on Friday, with both wind and some rain later in the day. While the field had been more than adequate on previous days, as the contest tightened up in A Gas the site became a significant factor in determining the outcome. Norm Poti, Dick Covalt, and Gil Morris were locked in matchups most of the day. About 3:30 the wind picked up and it began to rain; since it was so late, officials could not move the launching site. The contest ended with Morris going over the south perimeter fence at 4:00 for his last, and winning, max.
Electric was a repeat of last year in Open, with Bill Jenkins taking first place with his national-record-holding Electric Country Boy.
The younger set did it up Brown, so to speak: Karen Brown won Junior Electric and sister Susan Brown wrapped up Senior Electric. Electric is still an emerging event at the Nationals level, but the potential is certainly there for it to become very popular.
- A Gas: 1st Gil Morris (won on last max).
- Electric (Open): 1st Bill Jenkins.
- Electric (Junior): Karen Brown.
- Electric (Senior): Susan Brown.
Saturday — B Gas and finals
Saturday, the final FF day, saw close battles in B Gas. In Open, Bill Dunlop, Gil Robbins, and Richard Bloomquist were the primary contenders; Dunlop finally topped Robbins by just 7 seconds after an all-day struggle. In Junior, Bryan Fulmer, David Willis, and Brad Fulmer battled; Bryan Fulmer took the win after Willis launched into bad air, and Brad Fulmer chased hard but came up 6 seconds short of a brother 1–2.
One interesting design note from B Gas was that both Bill Dunlop (1st place) and Bill Jenkins (5th place) were flying 500 sq. in. versions of Jim Clem's Witch Hawk, which had each apparently independently scaled up to B-size.
- B Gas (Open): 1st Bill Dunlop, 2nd Gil Robbins, 3rd Richard Bloomquist.
- B Gas (Junior): 1st Bryan Fulmer, 2nd David Willis, 3rd Brad Fulmer.
Acknowledgments and conclusion
Let me conclude by thanking Roger Wathen, who assisted me photographically in covering the Free Flight power. Roger, your efforts were appreciated, as were those of all the contest officials and support staff.
In all, FF Power at the 1980 Nats showed a decided resurgence of numbers and a positive contestant attitude. Most certainly, FF was being treated as a stepchild this year, at least as far as location was concerned. If you missed this contest, you missed a good one.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
