RC Helicopter

The final day of flying began again at 8:00am. Unfortunately, the fog was way too dense to begin flying on time, but it did not take long to burn off. I was elected to test the ceiling height with one of my models and we got started about 30 minutes later.

Today began with a gloomy gray sky and ended with sunshine after a very short downpour around mid-day. Again, we were able to get three rounds of AMA/FAI competition, as well as one round of Scale flying and the static portion of the judging.

Most of the competitors arrived bright and early (8:00am) for our pilots meeting by the Event Director (ED), Chris Goodin, for the AMA and FAI classes. Scale helicopters, due to slight miscommunication, will have its official pilots meeting on Monday morning.

Saturday (7/5/2025) was the first day of setup for the helicopter national championships for all classes of AMA and FAI disciplines.

By Tim DiPeri

The 2024 AMA RC Helicopter Nats and US F3C & F3N World Team Selections have concluded. In addition, Sportsman, Expert, and three different categories of Scale have also concluded. With a single flightline and about 150 “competition” flights in front of judges, all involved needed to be on top of it all.

By Tim DiPeri

Wednesday, day three of competition, began cold and windy with light rain. There was definitely a good deal of flying to do before the end of the day, and we got a little bit of a late start. The rain cleared about an hour after the planned start time. As the skies began to clear, the wind really kicked up!

Tuesday arrived way too early for many helicopter pilots (including me!). Today, the day before the final day, recorded the largest number of competition flights—50 formal flights!

On Monday morning, the first day of most people’s work week, we all began our second day of competition flying in the 2024 RC Helicopter Nats.

The 2024 AMA Nats has been in progress for several weeks. This week, at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana, model helicopter pilots are arriving from all around North America to compete with model helicopters in a variety of classes and difficulties.

Well, this is it. Another Nats is in the books—a special one, considering it’s the 100th anniversary of the first Nats. Everyone had a great time, and I look forward to seeing everyone continue to improve with their flying in the future.