Just as the EAA has its annual gathering in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, we of the AMA have our annual Nats competition. Both of these pilgrimages include thousands of participants that cover an immense grassy area where aircraft of all types loom. It’s applause time!
     The Nats is an intense time of the year. It’s an event that most who attend plan an entire year around—sometimes more. During competition, how serious each person is can easily be seen in his or her facial expressions. It’s almost painful to see, but that’s how we get, because it’s a serious activity.
     You and I know that competition is about more than winning, don’t we? Sport model aviators are serious also, maybe to the same level as the typical competitor, but the difference I see most often is that the sport modeler smiles a lot more.
     My boys smile, even laugh, while flying their model airplanes or helicopters. Sure, they get serious (they talk about entering the Nats or Extreme Flight Championships almost weekly), and even practice their poker faces, but that’s when they’re trying something new and need that extra focus.
     When they get the maneuver down, it’s smile time again. Laughing while flying—I even have to remind myself to do that sometimes.
     Back to that “applause” remark, this issue is a “thank you” to the AMA members and a tribute to both competitors and sport pilots alike who promote aeromodeling.
     I consider promotion as the direct contact of sharing or simply the positive participation at an aeromodeling event or meeting. It’s the competitor who brings the new technology to the sport modeler, and it’s the sport modeler who reminds the competitor to go out and have a little fun every once and awhile.
     William Lund’s coverage of KidVenture, held at the annual EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, reminded me of the treasure that infecting young people with the magic of flight can be. As AMA members, we’re serious about aviation.
     What the Northern Aces Show Team has done for a number of years in Oshkosh is a model of how other clubs might spur interest and support in their own areas. That the group builds a giant scale model while thousands of spectators breeze by absolutely floors me. If I’m interrupted while turning a screw, I have to double-check my work.
     The EAA festival is held at roughly the same time as the AMA Nats. Someday I hope to break away for at least one weekend from the Nats and head to Wisconsin. But as you’ll read in Jay Smith’s Nats coverage, missing any day at the Nats is like arriving at the flying field only to realize that you left your transmitter on the bench. Something is seriously missed.
     The Nats never ceases to impress me. Model airplanes keep getting lighter, the engines stronger, and the batteries more powerful than the sun our planet orbits. In CL, the winners will soon have to be determined out to the 14 decimal place. And, who knows? Maybe the max time of an FF model will have to be moved past something ridiculous, such as five minutes—as soon as all the trees and cornfields are moved.
     The Nats will always happen, but it’s an activity of change that gleefully filters down to the sport modeler—those like you and me—and brings smiles to our serious faces.
     Speaking of smiles, look at Paul Bradley’s coverage of the SMALL event, held in June. The smiles were overflowing. And you know what? There’s innovation in that event as well—little ideas that affect the performance or enjoyment of the hobby in a big way. In one weekend, the diversity of aircraft mimics what a person (such as Jay Smith) saw during the six weeks of the Nats.
     An event that we think mimics the spirit of the aeromodeler in a big way is the Red Bull Air Race World Championship. Have you ever seen a televised version of this series? Take Hollywood, Chuck Yeager, and a tasty soft drink; mix it all up with 10 totally insane aerobatic pilots and wildly radical single-seat monoplanes; and you have Olympic thrills sprinkled with more color than a comic book convention.
     Jay “Wish I Had His Cool Job” Smith, at it again, teamed up with the famed Bill Oberdieck, the District VII vice president, to give us the details of the event.
     When the entertainment is treated like royalty, what they bring to the show can make the bright stage lights seem like candlelight. Ladies and gentlemen, aeromodelers young and old, thanks for a great year of modeling. Let’s keep up the smiles! MA