This morning, we started finishing up what we had left over from the day before. Luckily, that was only five rounds of GNAT. We were able to get those rounds done relatively quickly, as there were only three pilots competing. The points were getting racked up pretty well considering sticky is not allowed and so few planes were up in the air.
Today we started out with Slow Survivable Combat (SSC). George Pritchett was generous enough to loan a couple of planes to Nats newcomer Andrew Shkolik. That gave us four pilots to battle it out up in the sky.
Each heat of RC Combat lasts five minutes with a 90-second launch window prior to the call of start Combat. In those 90 seconds, the pilot must start their engine and be up in the air with a fully deployed 30-foot streamer. Once Combat starts, everybody converges on each other and a furball develops.
The final day of the 2023 Team Trials looked to be over by early afternoon, as just a mere twelve contestants remained. The short day turned out to be a very long affair, thanks to a record number of re-flights.
It looked a little dim for the Team Trials Saturday morning, with heavy rain and occasional lightning. By midday, the bad weather vanished and was replaced by a beautiful day. During the transition, there was a fair amount of wind which made matches flown during that period fast and furious with most maneuvering downwind at accelerated rates.
The 2023 AMA Nationals (Nats) is the 100th anniversary of the first Nats, and it is also the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Miniature Aircraft Combat Association (MACA). The F2d Team Trials have been expanded from the normal two days for the triple elimination contest to three days for this cycle. The regular AMA events will follow the team selection starting on Monday. That's eight days of combat!
