RC Soaring
Dan Pruss
Officials and Organizers
The officials—bless 'em! Gordon Pearson, Contest Director, and Cal Sobczynski, Scoring Tabulator—both have full-time jobs. That's Walt Good tapping the water cooler. Conducting such an event would seem to require something stronger.
Gordon Pearson, LSF president, directed the official Soaring events, and Dick Crowley, NSS president, ran the unofficial Scale event. Key people like Cal Sobczynski handled the paperwork and unofficial scoring, while John Vennerholm of the DARTS acted as winch-master. Winches were manned by contestants, and timing was done by contestants. In general, the contestants' cooperation in these functions is essential to running the contest.
Brief history and rule changes
Quick! In what year was the first unofficial RC Soaring event held with the AMA Nationals? Some hints: Dave Burt was Contest Director; the site was in St. Charles, IL; and the AMA National Contest was at Glenview Naval Air Station. Can't guess, or you won't admit you're that old? More hints: the classes were for two sizes of sailplanes, 750 sq. in. of area and over, and under 750 sq. in. Some young kid drove his Spitfire all the way from California with a couple of Windwards stuck in the boot, stomped the nearest competitor by over 500 points in the under-750 category, and established a pace few fliers can match to this day. The kid was Mark Smith.
In the over-750 sq. in. category, a gentleman from Maryland showed up with the hottest bird on the sailplane market—the Graupner Cirrus—and the gent had it fitted with his latest contribution to the RC world: a thermal sniffer. He won the over-750 class and beat the 2nd place flier by over 1,000 points, proving that age and wisdom had an edge over youth and reflexes—for at least that year. If you guessed it was Walt Good and the year 1970, you qualify for the club historian's job.
Few things have changed in the thermal competitor's world since then. The under/over 750 sq. in. area rule evolved into a wingspan split of under or over 100 in. for Standard and Unlimited classes. The thermal event in 1970 was for a 15-minute maximum. Organizers soon realized it wouldn't take too many flights like that on the same frequency to eat up a scheduler's day, so 10 minutes has become the maximum, with even less being a more realistic figure.
The 1970 event had an in-or-out landing area for a flat scoring bonus. Graduated landings have, since then, become more acceptable, and the basic Precision Duration/Landing event has become the standard for the competition flier in the U.S.
L/D, the true criterion for sailplane performance, has given way to designs which can be labeled "floaters." The emphasis on precision duration and spot landings established this design trend, and this year at the 1980 AMA Nationals we saw designs which wouldn't necessarily be labeled "scientific breakthroughs"—not in wind tunnels anyway.
However, changes and improvements have been made in other ways:
- Spoilers are now common, with few exceptions, in the Unlimited class.
- Wing spars on which you can do chin-ups have resulted in fewer wing foldings on launches.
- Two-piece wing joiners have become more robust.
- Releasable tow hooks, MonoKote, ballast use, fiberglass and epoxy construction have become common.
- Winches have become standardized for the most part (with no rules to govern them).
Over the past 10 years, multi-task events were introduced. These have been tried, but acceptance has been less than enthusiastic by the majority of fliers. Organizers have also found contests easier to run, and with less manpower, when duration-only events are staged.
1980 AMA Nationals — overall
The 1980 AMA Nationals was no exception to the trend of relying on entrants for volunteer help. Few clubs and organizations have enough non-fliers who will dedicate nearly a week of their time to allow nearly 200 others to participate in the competition. This year saw more volunteers from among the entrants in order for the Nats to be a success.
While golf tournaments have a "cut" during rounds of play and Soaring contests don't, the similarity of missed putts and missed spot landings acts as an indicator for final standings. A couple of blown duration tasks is little different than a couple of bogied holes. The golfer who blows the first round and doesn't make the "cut" takes his sticks and goes home.
This year a similar scene took place at the Nats. Dwight Holley, the Connecticut Yankee hotshot who has given fits to more than a few fliers over the years, missed a couple of "putts" on the first day. Holley never misses landings. That day he missed one, and flipped over on another. Dwight picked up his "clubs," said he'd like to have a cool one on the 19th hole with the boys, but he had more serious things to work on.
As it turned out, another familiar name from the East Coast started off hot, stayed hot, and wound up with the highest score of the meet. That was Bob Baugher from Pennsylvania. No bogies, no missed putts, and a score of 3,547 out of a possible 3,700—95.86% of perfect! That was the highest score of the meet in all age classes and categories. Other scores are printed in the "Competition News" section of this issue. However, Bob's efforts are worth mentioning because he did it with a bird he has refined and rebuilt since 1977. The bird also is a departure from those we're used to seeing in Open Modified Standard.
Twelve Seniors competed in combined categories. Six Juniors competed, and Jim Ealy III scored 90.30% of perfect; he not only had the best score of the Juniors in the Modified Standard class, but out-scored all Open-age fliers in the class!
Two‑Meter event
Two‑Meter is here to stay! The one-day event had 69 entries. Since this event was held separately from the rest of the Soaring events, it's hard to say how many would have entered the 2M category over any of the others if given only one choice. Tom Killough of Alabama won the event with a Craftaire Drifter, although the 2M category had more innovative designs than any other class.
An engine problem caused one competitor to shorten his attempt. Granger Williams needed a slight tweak of the needle valve for a few more revs of the OS Max .61 in his Gee Bee R-1 racer. Result: a snap roll on takeoff that severely damaged the nose and dummy engine. The Gee Bee was the potential winner, having the highest static points. There were numerous Sport Scale airplanes that could have moved over into Precision with excellent chances to win.
Attrition and causes
The attrition rate among the models in this year's Nats was extremely high. Of the 83 planes entered, only 53 remained at meet's end. Not all of the 30 losses were due to crashes; some were destroyed for other reasons. High wing loadings claimed some, and others were lost due to radio problems. There was no known radio interference. At least one crash was the result of structural failure. One hapless model plowed into the judges on takeoff, and they were disturbed because the flier had failed to close the throttle when the collision became inevitable.
The taxi strip used for the runway was concrete that had been roughened for maximum traction when used by full-scale aircraft. The roughness took its toll on tires, propellers, spinners, and prop nuts. Many nose-overs and aborted takeoffs resulted from tires that were too soft and would not skid on impact with the surface. After four rounds, the runway was littered with broken props and other model debris. After one fast landing, Hal Parenti found his tires in shreds, with long loops of loose tread dangling like rubber bands.
Notable aircraft and entries
Popular kits accounted for a number of duplicate airplane types entered. There were three each of Mustang, Liberty Sport, Thunderbolt, Zero, and Airacobra models. Four Smith Miniplanes, one scratch-built, and four A-4 ducted fan models from Violett kits were listed.
Among the unusual airplanes were:
- A Laser 200 by Bill Hinnant that had two OS .45 engines and a Cass drive unit. The 14-4 Jr model had come from a Mallory Models kit.
- An attention-getting, four-engine B-24 Liberator by F. J. Gonzalez, built from the Stafford kit and using four OS Max .25 engines.
- Granger Williams flew his Gee Bee Z in Sport Scale and a new Gee Bee R-1 in Precision. The Model Z, now four years old, has been thoroughly flight-tested and does an excellent job in the air, including loops and rolls. Engine difficulties have plagued the R-1.
- Charles Nelson and his two sons, David and Glenn, flew a Waco YKS-6, Great Lakes 2T-1A, and Smith Miniplane, respectively. All were scratch-built and used K&B .40 engines.
Scale, Precision, and Sport Scale
There were numerous Sport Scale airplanes that could have moved into Precision with excellent chances to win. Sport Scale had nine entries, and for the first time the event didn't favor any particular kind of design. Judging was done by qualified Scale personnel, Dick Carson and Marty Schindler. They were thorough, fair, and should be called back in 1981.
Helen Olsen of St. Louis won the event with an Airtronics Cadet. It was a simple bird—no fancy stuff, just the right lines in the right place. Highest static points went to Jim Ealy II, who had a Grunau Baby, but his flying score in the first round put him out of the running.
There were numerous Sport Scale airplanes that could have moved over into Precision with excellent chances to win.
Officials, judges, and directors
Officials were:
- Category Manager: John Preston
- Category Director: Dick Carson
- RC Scale Event Director: Dale Arvin
Precision Scale static judges were Bill Knepp, Ford Lloyd, and Art Johnson.
Clubs and trophies
If a club trophy had been awarded, it would have been a toss-up between the St. Louis Eagles and the Mississippi Valley Soaring Association. Combined, they went home with nine trophies!
Gordon Pearson, Dick Crowley, Cal Sobczynski, and John Vennerholm are to be commended for the outstanding job they did. It's one thing to run a large contest on your home court, but it takes added effort to pull one off a couple of states away.
Worth considering / suggestions
- Change rules to allow line lengths of less than 300 meters.
- Give the Two‑Meter class a full three-day shot next year.
- Combine Standard and Modified Standard.
- Don't change the Scale event except to increase flying time by small increments from year to year.
- The Dayton site for future contests of national or international competition—its size and accessibility are the best ever.
Just a thought: people who brag they can break any size of towline with their Hog-lifter 12 should be beaten with sticks and thrown down a well. Worse yet, they should be made to act as winch-master for the next three-day meet...
Best line of the meet: "How far from the spot was he?" — "I dunno; what's the zip code?"
More about the Wright Field site: it's big enough to accommodate more than one contest of this year's RC Soaring Nats size. And that might be the answer when we have all those frequencies. Any predictions what it'll be like in 1990?
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
