Radio Control: Helicopters
Walt Schoonard
THE SOUTH BEND location proved to be a great place to hold the Helicopter Nationals. A great deal of thanks must go to Cliff and Dorothy Bennett who so graciously let us use their "backyard." Some of the plus points were: a golf course-like flying site, cool weather (in fact, cold sometimes), low winds, ample parking, easy access to the field, and a fully equipped machine shop right on the site! In fact,
HELICOPTER NATIONALS WINNERS
- NOVICE:
- First Place . . . . . . Charlie Sjobeck
- Second Place . . . . Thomas Knerr
- Third Place . . . . . Dwayne Stephens
- INTERMEDIATE:
- First Place . . . . . Dave George
- Second Place . . . Wendell Hostetler
- Third Place . . . . . Dan Dougherty
- EXPERT:
- First Place . . . . John Simone, Jr.
- Second Place . . . Hubert Bitner
- Third Place . . . . . Ray Hostetler
- SCALE:
- First Place . . . . . Ray Hostetler
- Second Place . . . Wendell Hostetler
- Third Place . . . . . Bill Curtis
MOST OUTSTANDING HELICOPTER Wendell Hostetler
BEST SCRATCH-BUILT HELICOPTER Helmut Holder
Sponsors of the Helicopter Nationals were: Carl Goldberg Models, Sig Manufacturing Co., M R C, Duke Fox, Cool Power Fuels, Kraft Systems, Inc.
Cliff spent most of the first day in the shop making parts for some of the contestants who had problems. In the evenings we even had the pleasure of seeing wild deer in the nearby fields. Apparently all of the noise didn't seem to bother them.
The Tri-Valley R/C club supplied us with sixteen good judges plus a flight line coordinator. Jerry Smith filled this position and was also chief judge. He energetically rounded up all of the help and operated the flight line for three days without a single problem. I cannot thank him enough, and all those who helped, for without them we could not have had the meet.
At his own expense John Burkam came to help judge. Thanks for your help and fine comments, John. He said he felt that there was a better exchange of information and ideas at this contest than he had ever seen before. If you want to learn something about helicopters, there is not a better place to learn than at a contest.
I also want to give special thanks to the women who kept the records. They included my wife, Florence; Virginia Bennett, Louise Sjobeck, and Jane Dougherty. They worked at scoring for three days and did a perfect job—no mistakes, no foulups, and the scores were posted promptly.
Dick Bennett took off work to help in this meet—he judged and kept time. I have conducted these Nats for four years, and I believe that we had better flying this year than we have ever seen before. Everyone seemed to be making a special effort to fly smoothly and within bounds. I did not have a single contestant try to outsmart me by some special interpretation of the rules. This alone made the job more pleasant. We had a contestant who flew all the way to South Bend from Hawaii. He completely disassembled his Kalt Jet Ranger and brought it over in a hangup clothes bag! He was plagued by small problems throughout the meet but managed to overcome them and was able to compete. His wife is an airline flight attendant and flew over the last day to cheer him on.
I must congratulate Ray Hostetler Jr for his superb flying of his Jet Ranger. He led in most all the rounds only to be beaten on the last flight by John Simone Jr. John flew the Rev-O-Lution 2 to a first place Expert win. He did a fine job of flying and was able to come from third to first by doing a loop. He conducted himself as a gentleman throughout the meet, and his demonstration flights were done smoothly and safely. He has become a very accomplished flier!
Charlie Sjobeck from Vermont did an excellent job of winning Novice. At Tangerine last December he could hardly hover at all and six months later he wins Novice at the Nats! That shows you what a well trimmed helicopter and some hard practice will do.
Bill Curtis did an excellent job flying his flybarless Jet Ranger. There were three helicopters there without fly bars. Two Jet Rangers developed by Don Chapman and one Groupner 212 by Ron Barker from Mass. Ron's system seems to be very smooth and apparently flew easily because he let John Simone fly it after the meet, and all that they had to do was switch the tail control over. John flies the tail, believe it or not! The entire Texas contingent came, flying Jet Rangers and Hughes 500's and unique homebuilts that flew better than most helicopters you will ever see. Helmut Holder from Texas won the best scratchbuilt award with his beautiful workmanship on his original design that flew as good as it looked.
Bill Youmans from Lakeland FL flew exceptionally well with high scores on all maneuvers but not enough maneuvers to make the cut. I hope the day will come soon when we all do the same maneuvers, and the one who does them the best wins.
Speaking of maneuvers, I am going to recommend to the Contest Board that we drop the loop, the roll and the stall turn with a 360° turn coming down. The reason is they are dangerous and only prove that someone has enough money and guts to do them. In all of these three maneuvers there are times when the pilot does not have control of his machine. I don't mean to say 'always,' but in most cases. Therefore they are dangerous and should be eliminated from competition from a safety point of view only.
The only disappointing thing about the whole contest was the low turnout. We had only 23 contestants. It takes the same effort and expense to put the meet on for 23 as it does for 123. Where are all the contestants? Why don't they enter? Do we have to give massive amounts of merchandise to induce the contestants to come? I am dead set against this for many reasons. One of which is: where do you stop? Second, it's not fair to the hobby shops and retailers to give all this merchandise to a few contestants. Proof of this is the Tangerine, which I directed for 7 years in a row with no help from the hobby industry, and it has become one of the largest and most prestigious meets in the country.
Hopefully R/C helicopters will be a regular part of the AMA Nationals in the future. If you are not flying, you are not trying hard enough!
Walt Schoonard, 2080 Sharon Rd., Winter Park, FL 32789.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
