What is the Nats?
The National Aeromodeling Championships (Nats) brings 1,100 competitors together in Muncie and Johnson City for three weeks of intense competition—to see who can wear the title of Nats Champion in various events. It's the largest aeromodeling competition in the world, and the most diverse.
It's the quiet elegance of Indoor; it's also the unmistakable sound of Pylon racers, Jet Speed models, and rocket-climb F1Cs. It's up-at-daybreak for Dawn Mulvihill, and it's flying past suppertime to get those last Pattern flights in the books.
It's suntan lotion and lip balm, broken props and borrowed lines, victory and defeat, triumph and tragedy—all played out during a few summer days at the International Aeromodeling Center.
But more than anything else, the Nats is about people.
People
Good people. The special sort of people who are aeromodelers.
People who may see each other once a year, but are still best of friends.
People who know all about the will to win, yet have enough compassion to help a fellow competitor in need.
People who truly love the hobby, its supporters, and its history.
These are special people. And we'd like to tell you about a few of them. Throughout this issue you'll see sidebars titled "Nats People" that will show a little of what makes these modelers—and the Nats—something special.
Welcome to our look at the 71st National Aeromodeling Championships!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
