RADIO CONTROL HELICOPTERS
Craig Bradley 12400 Burlingame Dr., DeWitt, MI 48820
Once again we have completed another successful year for the Nats. Rather than bore you with the rehash of the stats that are listed in other locations in this issue, I'll just touch on some of the highlights.
The weather was different this year from what it has been in the past. Usually it's hot and dry, which is what it was the day of registration, but the first day of competition it was cold enough for people to be wearing warm coats and dealing with the wind coming from the north. Each successive day brought a different wind direction and a little bit warmer temperatures. By the time competition was over, the temperature was back where it was supposed to be.
As everyone was forewarned, we again used contestant judging, with FAI judging Class III, Class III judging Class II, etc. We didn't encounter any major problems. All of the competitors did an excellent job of judging, no matter how many times they were called to the judging seat. Always fair and always consistent, just the way it's supposed to be.
The only problem we had were the two judges for FAI who failed to show up and neglected to notify anybody; I hate it when that happens.
Here's the breakdown by class:
Class I
Four first-time competitors joined us this year. A warm welcome to:
- Annette Guisewite
- Jeff Dickison
- Bob Boop
- Brian Kieffer
Annette finished in third place. Everybody look out—she's a pretty tough competitor.
Red Stevens not only competed in Class I but also judged FAI all days and all rounds. Thanks, Doc.
A word of warning to you Class II pilots: Marshall McClung won this class this year and has decided to move up to Class II.
Class II
In his first Nats since moving up to this class, Jimmie Chaney finished in a respectable fifth place. He was last year's winner in Class I.
Dr. Rene Recinos returned to competition after being absent for a couple of years, and finished fourth. Nice to have you back, Doctor.
We had one serious crash during the Nats; in Round Three Ben Minor lost an aileron servo during one of his maneuvers and turned his helicopter into a lawn dart. In a show of good sportsmanship, Dave Sellars, also a Class II competitor, let Ben use his backup helicopter to finish the competition. Ben finished in third place. Nice going, Dave.
In addition to doing yeoman service with scoring, Dan Monroe flew to a very respectable second place. Dan is the person who wrote the program CD Pro '94, which we use to run the contest. It works great! In first place was Dennis Purduski, who had 5,929 of a possible 6,000 points.
Class III
We had a new competitor in this class, Justin Chien, who finished in second place. A good start for a first-time Nats competitor and someone to watch for in the future.
David Harkey and Kevin Cordell served as assistant CDs and FAI judges, while still flying Class III. Tough way to go!
The class lost three pilots who decided to make the big jump to FAI.
FAI
As in past years, we had an international group of competitors:
- Juan Esterlizi (Argentina)
- Jeremy Fox (England)
- Mark Tilbury (England)
- Scott Gray (Canada)
- Steve Gray (Canada)
Jeremy was the UK 1999 World Championship judge.
There was a lot of competition in this class, but a good deal of it developed between Curtis Youngblood and Wayne Mann. The lead seesawed between these two, with Scott Gray and Dwight Shilling also winning one round each. First place eventually went to Curtis—again!
Scale
I was disappointed in the turnout for this class. If everyone had shown up who said they would be there, we could have had a good Scale competition. As it stood, we only had one competitor, Paul Strobel. He won the class for the second year. We need to work on finding more competitors for this class next year!
The Nats isn't just about competition, but the camaraderie of all the people involved, not only on the field but after hours as well. I would encourage those folks who have dropped out of Nats competition, for whatever reason, to give it another try. I would also encourage those pilots who have never flown at the Nats to come out and give it a try.
Remember that this was the last Nats that was flown with the old rules. In the year 2000 we will be flying with a new and more demanding set of maneuvers.
Thanks to Don and Naomi Griffith for their continuing support during the Nats. Without people like Don and Naomi it would be hard to put on an event like this.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
