Focus on Competition
Technical Director
Steve Kaluf skaluf@modelaircraft.org
Pylon Barrier
Pylon barrier cage testing is complete. Test results have been evaluated and accepted by the AMA Safety Committee. Present at the meeting on behalf of NMPRA and AMA were:
- Vern Smith, NMPRA president
- Duane Gall, RC Racing Contest Board chairman
- Al Watson, engineer
Each was satisfied with the results obtained.
A Safety/Emergency Rules Change Proposal, authored by Vern Smith, Duane Gall, and Al Watson, would—if ratified—put the new cage specifications in place January 1, 2000. In the meantime, AMA is working to provide as many sets of cages that meet the new specifications as possible for the 1999 racing season.
Details of this program were not available at press time but will be released soon. If you are a Pylon Racing CD (Contest Director), keep an eye out for more details—you will probably have received them by the time this magazine issue reaches you. If you have not heard anything, give me a call.
National Aeromodeling Championships (Nats) — 1999 Planning
The Nats Management Committee met October 17, 1998, to critique the 1998 Nats and plan for the 1999 event. High accolades were placed upon the 1998 event; both locations (Johnson City, TN and Muncie, IN) received equal praise.
The outdoor site at Muncie continues to improve. More than 1,000 acres of prepared surfaces are dedicated to model aviation.
Planning for the 1999 event went smoothly. As in the past, all Special Interest Groups worked very well together. No major changes are planned for 1999.
The Indoor Nationals will take place at East Tennessee State University from June 1–6, 1999. Outdoor will run from July 9 through August 5. This slight time extension over 1998 keeps the Free Flight events clear of the Soaring events; winches used for Soaring create a retrieval problem for Free Flight modelers.
A complete schedule of all events will be published shortly in Model Aviation. Entry forms will be mailed to the past two years' Nats competitors in January 1999. If you have not received your entry package by late January, please give us a call and we will mail one to you.
Basic schedule for the 1999 National Aeromodeling Championships
#### Indoor
- June 1: Dome setup
- June 2: Check-in, practice, and USIC events
- June 3–6: Flying
#### Outdoor
- RC and CL Scale (fixed-wing only)
- July 9: Check-in, processing, and static judging
- July 10–11: Flying (all events)
- RC Helicopter
- July 9: Practice, check-in
- July 10–13: Flying
- July 14: Rain day
- RC Racing
- July 11: Processing, check-in
- July 12–16: Flying
- Control Line Speed
- July 12–16
- Control Line Racing
- July 11–16
- Control Line Combat
- July 12–17
- Control Line Navy Carrier
- July 15–17
- Control Line Aerobatics
- July 12–17
- RC Acrobatics
- July 18: Processing, practice, flying events
- July 19–21: Finals, Masters, F3A classes; 3-D Aerobatics unofficial invitational
- RC Soaring
- July 24–31
- RC Electric
- August 1–5
- Free Flight
- August 1–5
An event-by-event schedule will be published in the first Nats ad in Model Aviation.
Till next time...
Key Dates
(Events attended by AMA HQ staff and/or officers)
- January 15–17
AMA/IMS Convention '99 — Pasadena, CA
- February 6–7
Northwest RC Model Expo — Puyallup, WA
- February 25–28
Florida Jets — Bunnell, FL
- February 26–28
WRAM Show — White Plains, NY
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
