We could almost hear the theme song to the TV show Airwolf!
By Tim DiPeri
Tuesday arrived way too early for many helicopter pilots (including me!). Today, the day before the final day, recorded the largest number of competition flights—50 formal flights! This is most certainly the largest number of model helicopter flights in modern history. Again, the benefit of favorable conditions allowed us to fly continuously from 8:00 a.m. until after 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday was the beginning of the “final” flights to earn a spot on the US teams for F3C (Precision Aerobatics—Pattern style) and F3N (3D Freestyle). These teams, with three pilots on each, will represent the US in Romania in the 2025 World Championships.
In addition, Sportsman and Expert also completed two full rounds of competition flying. Only one final round will be flown for these classes on Wednesday, August 7. F3N will fly a final “Freestyle with music” round, and F3C will fly two final rounds.
Scale finished up with three full rounds of flying and a single static scoring round.
Note from AMA: Do you have photos from the Nats that you’d like to share? If so, email them to Clarissa Poston at clarissap@modelaircraft.org. Please include a brief description in your email, naming any individuals pictured in the photo(s), the name of the event that the photo(s) were taken during, and the name of the individual who took the photo(s). Your submission(s) might be posted on AMA’s Flickr page, which can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/modelaircraft/albums!