I too am disappointed with the way Nostalgia at the Nats has developed. I
understand the necessity of using the existing winches even though they are
much too strong and have too heavy line since it is not practicable to have
special winches for one class. I do object to restricting it to one day
combined with RES while wasting two days on 2-meter, a class very few would
be flying if it wasn't sandwiched between hand launch and unlimited. I
also object to flying modern man on man tasks and landings instead of the
tasks and landings as flown at the SOAR Nats. The old events are much more
suited to the old models. I have entered Nostalgia every year since it was
first proposed at the LSF tournament in 1994 and flown in all but
four. The first two years were rained out and I didn't stay for the last
two because of the weather forecast. (My wife was with me and getting
tired.) I will not be entering Nostalgia this year. It is not worth
spending another night and paying the high entry fees for three
flights. Another day will cost at least $100 or $33 per flight. Maybe I
will go back to flying my Sailaire in Unlimited. After all, my best place
at the Nats in the last 20 years was with the Sailaire in 1996. That year
I placed 17th and beat a lot of high tech sailplanes. Almost as good as a
win. :-)
Chuck Anderson
At 06:07 AM 5/21/2005, you wrote:
It is very early am, I can't go to the OVSS in Cinci, so I'll take my
frustration out by beating the dead Nostalgia horse. My apologies to
everyone.
Having an AMA Nostalgia class is good, accept it or not, most entry level
into RC Soaring ( non electric) is with a woody, ARF or home built. I don't
classify an AVA, etc. as a woody ( beat on that one for a while) because it
has a molded wing section.
The current NOS rules need to be amended through the AMA process of rules
changing ( won't this bring out the know it alls), but NOS will be in
trouble because there will be some really goofy rules changes proposed,
mostly by people that have no experience of building and flying back in the
days of nostalgia and likely no experience flying in a current NOS contest.
I truly hope the AMA Nos Nats will grow, so far it hasn't and for several
obvious reasons. One of the reasons is the rules are not right and do not
reflect what really was going on in the good old days when the SOAR NATS
attracted so many more contestants then what we see at the NATS currently.
A good example is, it was fairly common practice to fully sheet or partially
sheet the wings of a Windfree, Astro Jeff, and etc.. The irony of the rules
administration at the NOS NATS is the planes are not checked for compliance,
a process that would be impossible to undertake. Another problem at the NOS
NATS is the tow lines (and winches) do not comply with the tow lines used
during the days the so called NOS rules are trying to duplicate. 280 to 300
lb test tow lines used at the NOS NATS are not compatible with small NOS
designs, so it didn't take long to realize the NOS planes to fly at the NATS
( if you were competing to win) were the larger designs and for the lack of
size classes in the NOS NATS ( another mistake) it makes flying the larger
designs almost mandatory. These conditions are not the best for attracting
larger numbers of entrants.
My Wood Crafters event was created to attract people who enjoy building and
flying a woody, I think the AMA NOS event is developing a reputation for
turning people off to NOS. I personally enjoy flying the AMA NOS event,
but I have given up on flying my 23 oz Windfree there.
Participate in the Rules changing process and hope for the best.
Ray Hayes
http://www.skybench.com
Home of Wood Crafters
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