The F3K Group photo. (John Butler photo)
By Mengchen Li
The 2025 AMA F3K Nats was finally on a weekend, after being held during the week for many years. The lineup this year reminded people of the Team Selects in Florida a few months ago. The registrants were pretty much the same as the Team Selects, except for the team pilots who are going to Germany for the Worlds. If you win this contest, you are a well-deserved national champion!
Since the usual contest director of the F3K Nats is going to Germany as the team manager, our very own Jon Garber volunteered to be the CD. Thank you, Jon, for taking this over! The pilots meeting started at 8:30 am sharply, and the first round began right after. Surprisingly, we were not experiencing typical Muncie weather. Instead, it was sunny with a gentle breeze. However, the condition was still tricky, with alternative good air cycles and bad cycles. Even in the early morning, it was sometimes still not easy to have a 3-minute flight with a 70-meter launch.
As the day proceeded, the wind picked up and started looking like Muncie. While we were having tough conditions, the tasks at the time were also brutal. With Poker, Single Flight, and Huge Ladder, there were a lot of separations on score already. So there were many landouts and zeros.
Around 3 pm, we had to pause the contest due to an approaching thunderstorm. Seven rounds were flown in total. Your author was on top, with a score of 5862.6 points. Ben Stewart and Adam Weston were both less than 100 points away from the top. It was a very close contest.
We kicked off day two in a similar manner. The eighth round started right after the pilots meeting. The weather forecast didn’t seem promising, so we would try to fly as much as we could.
It was like a typical pre-thunderstorm condition, with moderate to strong wind and no sunshine. In this case, the flying strategy could be important as thermals were not easily found. We saw many people holding their launch on the ground for minutes. After three more rounds, the CD called the end of contest due to the even faster approaching thunderstorm.
By the end of the contest, 10 rounds were flown over two days. I kept the lead and won the title again, two years in a row. Ben Stewart (2nd place) and Joe Dougherty (3rd place) also made the podium, with Jon Garber finishing as runner up. What a tough contest!
The 2025 F3K Nats is in the books! We hope to see more people joining us next year!