The assembly of judges during the warm-up flight.
By Matt Neumann
As the rooster crows, the sun sort of starts to shine, illuminating the words for the page of August 7.
Control Line (CL) Precision Aerobatics contestants today were greeted with lots of clouds, wet ground, cool air that was misting, and worst of all … wind. A cold front came through late yesterday and overnight. It was a stark contrast from yesterday’s temperatures. The “yawn patrol” club still arrived at 6:45 a.m., but instead of rushing to get set up to try and get in line for a practice flight before officials, those that were there were basically standing around. Fashionable sunglasses were substituted for fashionable jackets. Even my Canadian friends had jackets, and you would think that they would be used to the cool weather. I even turned my AC off in my car, which is a rarity for August in the Midwest.
Contestants may fly two flights, with the best score of today being added to the best score from yesterday. The total will then determine the top five pilots in each group in the Open class and the top four pilots in each group in the Advanced class.
I got it wrong previously when I said that the top 20 pilots in Advanced will move on to Thursday. This is because of the total number of entrants in Advanced. When the total drops below a certain point, the number of fliers moving to Thursday is decreased. This is because, let’s face it, if there is a Top 20 day and you only have 20 contestants, it is not much of mystery as to who will move on. So, this way, there is still some reason to have a flyoff. This year, there is a sweet 16 moving on to Thursday in Advanced.
Today is a little different than yesterday because the fliers know where they stand at the beginning of the day. If you are leading and put in a good flight, you know that nobody can catch you. So, many leaders will pass on the second flight, not wanting to risk the airplane needlessly, especially if the weather turns sour like it did today. The same goes for those who are too far out to be able to catch up. They will fly the one flight and then decide that there is no sense in risking the airplane needlessly. This old phrase comes to mind: “Run away today to fly again another day.”
Then, there are those who are on the bubble. This is where things get really interesting because this is where the battles really take place. So, while the day may wind up being shorter than yesterday, the competition is actually fiercer. If you are one of the fliers on the bubble, you almost always have to take that second flight to try and improve your score. This is because you can bet that the guy just below you will take his second flight to try and score enough to move up in position to make the cutoff to get into Thursday. And since there is typically a little bit of a lag in posting scores, the guy on the bubble may not know what the other guy did, so, to be safe, he will try and do better.
So, with the weather turning sour and the number of passes, it was a shorter day. We got done around 12 p.m. or so. By this time, the wind was starting to pick up and make things a little too interesting on the flying side of things.
Here are some things of note that happened during the day. It was interesting to watch the two pilots who volunteered to warm up the judges. These are pilots who fly in front of the judges before the competition starts for the day. This way, the judges can then hopefully get in sync with each other as to what counts for what score. These flights took place during some of the worst weather.
We also had two fatalities during the day; we lost two airplanes. One pilot just turned out of a hard corner and leveled out like he was supposed to when his airplane just dropped and pancaked in. It probably got hit by some weird wind current. Another had a slow run but tried to fly the pattern anyway. Well, in one maneuver, he ran out of altitude by a foot. This resulted in the airplane skidding across the L-pad for quite a distance. Both airplanes appear to be unfixable. Another incident happened when an electric airplane just quit when inverted. Only minor damage occurred, but it took the pilot out of contention. The problem was traced down to a faulty connection in the arming plug.
So, after the final flights were flown and the scores were determined, the last of the people checking the scoreboard left for lunch or somewhere to rest. The winds have stayed high throughout the rest of the day, so there are not many fliers looking for practice tonight. We are saving our energy for tomorrow.
With that, the sun has now set on the history book’s page for August 7, illuminating the words for this day. It is time to get a good night’s sleep. I get to fly in the morning. History has shown that anything can happen tomorrow.
We get no second chances tomorrow. It is either do or scoreboard watch for the rest of the contest. One thing is for sure—it is going to be a very interesting day.
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!