N o I O f A T S C I A C L O E S S F F R C A A E R L C L O A M N O O D I T E A L N E R REPLICA S Newsletter of the National Association of Scale Aeromodelers May/Jun 2015 NO FLY L-Pad To Overfly or (Site 1) ZONE NO FLY Not to Overfly. ZONE Please excuse my butchering and plagiarism of Hamlet, but it seemed C/L Speed an appropriate headline to bring attention to an issue we face at this Circles years AMA Scale Nationals. 1127 feet to Most of you know Jim Martin, especially those of you who compete, road 1599 feet as he’s one of our top flight judges, as well as the contest director of 1160 feet to L-Pad the NATS for the past few years. Jim was part of our recent Rough to Speed Circles River Scale Rally and during our NASA board meeting he brought up a subject that he’s been working on in conjunction with the AMA, and it concerns overflights - specifically R/C Scale competitors overflying the R/C (Site 3) control-line circles while C/L events are underway. Those of us who’ve competed at the NATS have An overview of the AMA's R/C and C/L sites. Note the no-fly area always heard rumblings from beyond the road that we've highlighted in red. either the AMA or from some of the C/L competitors about SO, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? R/C overflights, but not First off, here’s an overview of AMA sites 3 (R/C) and 1 (C/L L-pad). much has ever been asked of If you measure the distance from the center of the paved “X” runways us, until now. R/C and C/L Scale: on site 3, it is a good 1600 feet to the center of the closest C/L circle July 17-19 2015 on site 1. That’s long way and probably larger than any of us have at WHY IS THIS AN our own fields where we fly on a daily basis. Now, the AMA is asking us ISSUE THIS YEAR? to say within the boundaries of the road (Aeromodeler’s Blvd.). Again The last couple of years we’ve been saddled with hosting the Scale measuring from the center of site 3’s runways to the road is a 1127 feet NATS the same weekend as Muncie’s popular Ironman competition. - that’s just under a 1/4 mile away and still probably larger than your This has led to a shortage of rooms, food vendors, and a simply made it local field. very tough on all of us. Well, the good news it that we’re the weekend after the Ironman this year, but the bad news is that it pushes us right SO WHAT CHANGES ARE IN STORE US? up against the end of the NATS for C/L Aerobatics. More specifically, Friday: According to the AMA’s NATS schedule, there will be activity part of the C/L event (the Walker Cup) will be taking place on Saturday on the C/L Speed circles. These are the circles with the fences around morning. While that won’t effect the Scale C/L competitors, it does them and they are located on our side of Aeromodeler’s Blvd. There pose a problem for R/C. In the interest of safety, the AMA is really can be NO practice flights on site 3 until activity in the speed circles is pushing us to make sure that R/C does not overfly the control-line concluded. We expect them to be done by 3:00pm or so, but the final areas during our Friday practice flights or during the competition on word will come from Jim. Saturday and Sunday. ...continued on page 2 NASA OFFICERS REPLICA EDITOR/ PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT SECRETARY/TREASURER NASA WEBMASTER MIKE BARBEE DALE ARVIN TINA PATTON MARK LANTERMAN 3903 Whispering Creek Lane 3428 Charlestown Pike 572 Cedar Pointe Drive 7414 Burton Drive Delaware, Ohio 43015 Jeffersonville, IN 47130 Somerset KY 42501 Liberty Township, Ohio 45044 740-362-5504 812-284-0162 217-377-7115 513-755-7494 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Replica www.NASAscale.org Page 1 ...continued from page 1 Once the field is open for practice, we MUST keep on our side of the 2015 RC SCALE NATS road as other C/L activity will be on the L-Pad. One note is that site 4 (the grass runway at the back of the property) will be open to us. You’re more than welcome to practice there if you’d UPDATE like, however we can’t guarantee how suitable that site will be for smaller models. Formal planning for the 2015 NATS is pretty much finished for the event on July 17 – 19, 2015. For all of the static judged classes (Open, Saturday: We will have our normal pilot’s meeting at 9:00am. To Sportsman, Expert, Team, and Designer), static judging will begin at help aid in showing each of where the limits to the road are, the 10:00 am on Friday, July 17. One important note – Friday is normally thought is to have a couple of “calibration” flights during the meeting. used as a flying practice day. Control line stunt will be flying on the We’ll fly two sizes of planes - one a typical smaller 1.20-sized, the L-pad, in front of our flight line, just across the road. Also there will be other would be one of the larger planes we have entered. We will activity on the C/L speed circles. This means we will be delaying any R/C have a person stationed on the road, straight north of site 3, and have practice flying until they are done so that we do not fly over the top of themm report to us via walkie-talkie/cell-phone as we do a few passes them. over that road. All of us will then be able to judge the relative size of Saturday’s flying will start approximately at 10:00 am. Hopefully the planes and it hopefully will help us with our own models. the weather will cooperate with us this year so that y’all can get some Competition will start at 10:00am on Saturday. good flights in. The Saturday night cookout will start approximately at 6:00pm. The cookout is free for all registered pilots and it will be held Sunday: Competition will start closer to our normal 9:00am under the big tent at the flying site. Additional people will cost $10 schedule. each. Another note: If you declare on your flight score sheet that the Where this will effect R/C competitors the most are the maneuvers aircraft is “Non Aerobatic”, remember that all bank angles throughout where we fly away from the flightline - horizontal figure 8’s, the whole flight shall not be more than 60 degrees and all pitch descending 360’s, traffic patterns, etc. While this certainly won’t effect angles shall be less than 45 degrees. Exceeding these limits will cause a the majority of the competitors, those who choose to bring larger (or deduction in your Realism score. faster) planes might have to adjust. I hope all R/C NASA members will come and enjoy this year’s NATS Another component of this is the height of the maneuvers. Many of along with the camaraderie of seeing your friends again. It’s not always us do our 8’s fairly low. If we can raise them up as little as 40-50 extra about winning or losing, it’s about spending time with friends and feet, it could make a world of difference in the perception of how close family that really matters. See you at the NATS! our models are to the C/L site. JIIM MARTIN WHAT HAPPENS WHEN (NOT IF) SOMEONE [email protected] OVERFLIES THE ROAD? As we build larger and larger planes, our flight routines have also become larger and larger. We’ve been assured by the AMA that they are not out to cancel the R/C Scale NATS if someone gets too close. Nor are they wanting to disqualify any competitor for this infraction. It all amounts to AMA working with us to reel-in our flights a bit. Jim will be notified of infractions and he will make the appropriate calls as we progress through the weekend. In closing, we certainly hope this doesn’t scare anyone away from competing at the NATS. We have the same amount of airspace we’ve always had to fly. We just need to be aware of our surroundings and make sure the site is safe for others who are competing. Please come out and join us, bring your planes, and enjoy a great weekend of fellowship, competition, and fun under the Muncie sun. MARK LANTERMAN R/C and C/L Scale: [email protected] July 17-19 2015 Page 2 Scale Modelers Helping Scale Modelers. Replica president's notes Control-Line NATS My view from the cockpit the last few weeks has been like the Here it is coming into June and it is time to think about registering. perfect VFR flight. No wind, no turbulence, clear of clouds and ideal As many of you know our trophy count with AMA depends on the fuel consumption.