Bruce Kimball and Stephen Griggs flying Standard Catapult Glider.
By Nick Ray
Day two of the Indoor Nats saw competition flying begin in earnest. The F1D Nats event ended on July 2 in order to accommodate the nine rounds of the F1D World Cup. This scheduling nuance wasn’t initially understood by some of the competitors, who thought that the two events would overlap by a day on Wednesday. The result was a scramble for F1D supremacy. The top three competitors all posted their top times in the final hour and a half of the contest. First, Brett Sanborn landed a massive 27:54. John Kagan and Yuan Kang Lee answered that flight with a 26:19 and 26:36, respectively. Brett followed up his first flight with a 27:02 for a two-flight total of 54:56.
In addition to the obvious hazard of landing on top of a ceiling tile, the Kibbie Dome offers a more subtle challenge. As the building warms, a strong air current forms, which rapidly moves models that come within six feet of the ceiling west to east. We colloquially termed this phenomenon the “jet stream.”
With time running out, Kang pushed a flight high into the jet stream. Brett watched with trepidation to see if Kang’s risk would be rewarded. At first, it appeared that Kang’s model might become stuck on the wires of the scoreboard at the center of the room. He was fortunate to avoid the scoreboard by being slightly south of the center of the building. Although Kang’s flight landed safely, his gamble only gained him 12 more seconds. It will be interesting to see if the rankings hold for the World Cup contest over the next three days. The lightweight Nats events have one more day to post official flights, as do the glider events.
John Kagan’s Open Pennyplane launch.
Watch David Aronstein trimming his Manhattan Cabin on Youtube.
Use the QR code below or visit this Google document to monitor the scores live as the Indoor Nats progresses.
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!
