Radio Control: Soaring
Dan Pruss
Back when this sport of Soaring was still growing, contests of a national level were held with some concern that too many folks would show up and that RC-frequency saturation might occur. As the contests grew in size, the logistics adjusted until finally there were too many fliers per frequency to run a meaningful event (meaningful being your average three-rounds-per-day contest).
When it was no longer practical to leave entries unlimited, restrictions as to the number of contestants per frequency had to be levied, and a lot of folks had to stay home and try again the following year.
If you were part of that pattern and growth back in the early Seventies, you probably noticed that most of the fun was occurring in the pit area between rounds. There was more time for looking over someone else's latest design or newest gadget. There always seemed to be more than a few who dragged a latest creation (or at least part of one) out of a car trunk or van, sparking interest and taking attention away from the Contest Director's duties.
This column isn't meant to put down contests or contest-goers (or even Contest Directors), but it can be used to lead to an event from which we can all benefit and have fun participating in. Too often we read an article about a new idea or a design which isn't primarily for the contest circuit, which means there's a good chance you won't see it at any sailplane meets—unless these ideas are kept in a car trunk. Modeling columns abound with such designs and features. It's like show-and-tell without the live show.
To get to the point: with RC Soaring growing at its present rate, why not have an annual event for the masses with no restrictions on the number who could attend? Let the event be organized with no restrictions governing the type (or types) of models one could enter, no restrictions on designs, and with the purpose being to exchange ideas rather than to fill blocks on some massive scoreboard.
The larger contests are fine; but when they're at the national level, most of us have found the logistics approaching those of Hannibal's—give or take a few elephants and winches.
The 1983 AMA Nats saw the biggest gathering of Soaring contestants ever at a U.S. contest, with some 250 fliers showing up. There were a couple of irregularities, however. One: the competitors also had to run the show—an excellent display of camaraderie, I might add. Two: the flight schedule started early and ended late—really late. This is what some of the top competitors have come to accept, and some even like that pace.
But many don't.
How would you like a national-type event that started late enough so you didn't need to leave a wake-up call to make a seven o'clock briefing and had all organized activities ended before the late-night TV shows started? An event where you could fly when you wanted and what you wanted. And where you could also prefer not to fly and just roam the pit area, take notes, meet new and old friends, break away for a day and take the family to the local tourist attractions, or fly as long and as often as your frequency was clear?
Sound farfetched? Let's take it a step further: how about a five-day Soaring week, Monday through Friday? That would give weekends for traveling. Events? You name them. Rather than events, let's say classes of sailplanes. We can start off with what has been popular over the years:
- Two-Meter
- Standard
- Modified Standard
- Unlimited
- Scale
Add classes for the often-talked-about (but seldom seen up close) such as:
- Flying Wings
- Museum Scale
- Large Scale
Why not throw in an Old-Timer event (a few of you have been around that long)? That could be any model designed B.M. (Before MonoKote), but the model would have to be covered in B.M.-materials, such as silk or silkspan, to qualify for awards.
Why not a class for sailplanes using aerotow (scale and other)? There are enough pilots with quarter-scale Super Cubs and similar tugs who would fit in nicely.
By all means include hand-launched gliders—probably one of the fastest growing classes in our sport. You could have two categories:
- Small: under a pound and under five feet (very popular now)
- Large: "if you can lift it, you can heave it"
Back in 1976, when the last SOAR Nats was held at Lewis University, the League of Silent Flight and the National Soaring Society gave awards for Best Technical Achievement and Best Original Design—two categories that surely merit reinstating. Great ideas and gadgets were displayed at those contests, but too few saw the brainstorms or had time to really pay attention to new ideas or original designs because of the time spent in timing chores and getting in those three flights a day (even more flights if one flew Scale).
F3B surely is a class that bears merit, even though it involves only a small percentage of fliers. But what better exposure could this exciting category get than at a National Show-and-Tell?
Tasks would have to be determined, as would the number of them required; F3B would be the exception. One thing many of us have learned is that when pre-registration goes over the 200 mark, it takes a lot of manpower, horsepower, and willpower to grind out a three-day/nine-round event. If this is to be basically a fun get-together, why not just fly in order to qualify one's design for a "best in" category? Fly more if you want, or let your buddy or girlfriend fly, or, if you like, just sit around and talk about your next worldbeater.
Sponsoring group? Anybody care to step forward? Basically, the organizers would need to:
- Sort the entries from what could be expected to be a very large pre-registration list
- Sort out the various classes and coordinate each group
Winches or other launching devices? No one group could expect to furnish all that would be required. Fliers would have to bring their own or share.
A few organizational ideas to kick around:
- With so many frequencies available and with on-the-field changeability a reality, some frequencies could have their flier roster filled during pre-registration.
- A Contest Director for each class could manage his or her respective group.
- Small transmitter-impound areas for each class would make a large group easier to manage.
- More frequencies could be allotted to the larger groups, with a proportionate number for the smaller groups, allowing maximum activity with minimal waiting.
Judging? Contestants in each class would judge their own. After all, what better-qualified people would there be? Scale fliers would judge their own class, as would fliers in Flying Wing and other categories. Models could be judged for design, construction methods, finish, etc. Flying, as mentioned earlier, would qualify any model for an award in its particular category.
All flying would start after restaurants opened for breakfast, and flying would end before the late-night briefings began. However, if any particular group wanted to night-fly, that would be easy to arrange, along with awards for that nocturnal nuttiness.
Throw in an on-the-field barbecue, a banquet, some prizes and awards—both dubious and serious—and this could be the biggest Show-and-Tell, Homecoming, and Fun-Fly this side of Mars. Imagine: Scale models, flying wings, sleek F3B ships, hand-launch types, glider tows, and every type of glider imaginable all in the air at the same contest!
Interested? Drop a postcard stating briefly what you are interested in and include any category not mentioned. Remember, maxing-out in fun would be the number one priority!
Cross-country news
The Central Ontario Soaring Society ran their event in July and got a taste of the same type of weather that plagued other Midwest contests, which were reported last month. After 20-mph winds kept everyone near the winches on the first day, the breezes eased up to 10–15 mph on day two, but a low overcast kept all flights short. Mark Wencel from Detroit reported that 12 teams entered and the COGS' own John McMillan clocked off 3.3 miles, which was good enough for first place.
From the West Coast, Larry Pettyjohn reported the San Francisco Valley Silent Flyers' annual Desert Dash was a downwind race. Teamed up with Jerry Krainock were Collin DiMaio and Derik Meacham. Pettyjohn, Mike Bame, and Gary Ritter flew the latter's Tai-Tai. After the dust settled and all flight points were added, Krainock's effort—with a 6.7-mile run (the course length) timed at 14.58 minutes—was enough to boost his team and Collin's Wild Wind into first place.
Last-minute briefs
- Chuck Beeman from California is the latest to achieve LSF Level V. That's number 34 in that select group from over 5,300 members. Congratulations!
- LSF President Warren Plohr says that mail will no longer be forwarded from the old Chicago mailing address (it's been a year since the change). Suggestion: if you have a level form with the old address on it, change the address now! The correct address is: League of Silent Flight, P.O. Box 647, Mundelein, IL 60060.
- Remember Jerry Mrlik? His Astro Jeff design carried more than a few contest wins around the country over the last several years, along with LSF Level V for a few fliers. If you thought that design had fine engineering features and showed craftsmanship, take a look in the August 1984 issue of Road & Track, page 110, and see what he did with a quarter-scale Ferrari.
In the meantime, good lift.
Dan Pruss, 131 E. Pennington Ln, Plainfield, IL 60544
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
