Ben Wilson is covering the Soaring NATS for the AMA’s NATSNews daily publication.

View our 2007 NATS Photos (updated daily, hopefully!)

Live(ish) updates on RCGroups: The Road to the 2007 NATS

Update: Ryan Woebkenberg has made a report on the NOS NATS: 2007 Nostalgia Nationals.

Update: Unlimited Final Scores. F3J Preliminary and Final Scores.

I have been going to Toledo almost every year since 67. That’s 1967! For forty years I have seen many new ideals displayed for the first time. I remember DuBro showing their new Helicopter where the engine sat above the rotor head and turned the rotor by reaction torque from the regular model propeller mounted above the engine. Stone age by today’s standards.

Receivers at one time were as big as coffee mugs. Control was either on or off as it was on the early reed units or it was “somewhere about here or there” as in Galloping Ghost. Today we have full house receivers as small as your thumb with precession from our servos better than we can feel or sense. At one time you paid $100 or more per channel for your basic radio. Today you can get twice the radio with programmable mixing and 20 plane memory for a fraction of the cost of those early radios.

I have seen models change from all wood affairs to today’s man made construction material. A .60 size model engine was considered big at one time. Today we see engines big enough to use in a riding mower and I am not even mentioning the jet turbines. The day of these big fuel hog planes may be numbered as well as we are seeing more batteries replacing fuel as the primary source for power. Size and complexity does not seem to be a barrier as these electric models are doing things today that were not possible even 5 years ago.

Like I said I have seen a lot of progress as well as evolution of our hobby no mater what your interest is. There is something for everybody.

To the old guys like me we are seeing what may be the opening shots of the biggest revolution our hobby has ever seen. I’m speaking of the explosion of 2.4 GHz on the radio scene. There was a time a CB operator could lay down on his mike key and shoot down every model for 20 miles. Later on the narrow band receivers we use today were a big help but we are always competing against pagers and industrial equipment for our frequencies. If you don’t believe me let me show you what electrical noise you are flying in. It will scare you. Channels that have been clear of interference for ever and ever can suddenly become useless and there is nothing you can do except pick up the pieces and move to a different channel with your next plane. All the while knowing it can happen all over again. The 2.4 GHz radios will end this version of Russian roulette as they have millions of channel combinations. There are several protocols for how these radios work. Some lock onto several channels at a time. Others move up the band through the channels so fast that if they hit inference you will never know it before they have moved on to another channel.

How they work is not as important as the fact they do. Futaba has come out with dedicated radio systems. A new company called Xtream is selling replacement modules and receivers to update your current systems. But JR in my opinion is leading the pack. Not only are they selling new dedicated systems for 2.4 GHz but they are selling replacement modules for some of their older systems that are on 72 MHz. If that wasn’t enough they showed systems where JR modules would plug in and run Futaba radios. It’s just beginning.

Show highlights:

• A matching set of three Apache helicopters with rotors I guess 45-50in span all electric power. Just Awesome!
• A large heavy missile cruiser with detail I could NEVER do. Inside and out!!!
• Jerry Shape’s “Grand Espree” which was still wood sheet 3 weeks ago.
• Lee testing all the flight simulators. The one by MRC he liked best.
• Great guys in both the LSF and Kennedy Composite booths.
• Lee came home with a new Blaster 2 hand launch. Bruce – Lee has been warned about the goat.

The weather looks to be excellent for this weekend with 10-15MPH southwest winds and sunny/partly cloudy all weekend.

Walk-up registrations are more than welcome – but get there early to avoid the rush. Plenty of frequencies are still open – but bring an alternate just in case!

See ya there! Watch the website for photos and scores.

As Ed Wilson put it – this is the “world’s biggest hobby shop”, which I initially took as an overstatement. Man, was I wrong! Just about every vendor I’d ever heard of was there and I’d been saving up my dough for just such an occasion. Careful planning is required in such situations, so LASS-mate Brian Kopke and I scoped out what could be had before making our purchasing run.

Of course, our planning run was met at every turn with some sort of new, shiny gadget or extremely well-finished model. Topping the list is a lot of new synthesized stuff! That Hitec Fusion 9S nine channel synth RX looks neat. 9 channels stacked in two rows of five and it’s about the size of a lipstick tube. They’ve also come out with the Mini 6S and Supreme IIS 8 channel RXs that are both auto-shifting. Didn’t really see much in the way of whiz-bang new TXs, save for the not-brand-new-but-new-enough Spektrum spread-spectrum 2.4ghz systems.
Their stock response to the question of “When will you have it ready for big planes?” was “We’re WORKING ON IT!” Brushless systems and LiPo remain hot, as well as micro stuff. I personally made the leap to brushless and picked up a Himax brushless and 3 cell LiPo from the dudes at RadicalRC. Gotta get ready for F5J that is popping up all over!

Sombra Labs also unveiled it’s 4-channel “Lepton” that is crystal-controlled and super-tiny. With the new Berg 4s and the Mikro SPF-5’s, there are more options than ever for lightweight, “full-range” (your mileage may vary) RX’s. While Castle still hasn’t released the Berg 7, the Berg 4 series were in plentiful supply throughout the show.

Big crowd draws were any one of the 3 RC simulators. Great Planes Realflight was cool, but the big news was the “FS One” sim from Hangar
9. It was announced on the 5th of April – and it’s only in BETA, with a Mid-July sell date. It’s got a bunch of wicked sailplane feature
including Handlaunch, Histart, Winch, Tow plane, vario support, thermal and slope soaring AND DS! Steve Siebenaler said the DS groove was pretty tough!

www.realflight.com

http://www.fsone.com/

Hitec had their booth set up with all their new synth stuff – but the big crowd draw there was their RC robot they had on demo. It could do
headstands, cartwheels and one-handed pushups! Amazing balance out of this little guy! That stuff is big in Japan. A very similar model won
the Robo-One competition in Japan last month:
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/03/robot_fighting.html

The Kennedy Composites booth was one of the few soaring-related booths at the show, and they had the Supra out (purdy!) and their new electric
sailplane the “Electron” (I think that was the name). Looks good. F5J is starting to blow up all over the country – it’ll be campaigned out
there for sure. Brian K. picked up a Photon DLG – one of the prettiest and well-built models I’ve ever seen. The fit and finish on it is top
notch. I think in a pinch you could throw it together with some CA in under and hour It packs up nicely, too – Brian was toting the whole
thing around in a grocery sack!

One thing I picked up there (in the swap meet) was a neat little $35 altimeter doohickey that weighs 2.2g! From Winged Shadow, called the
“How High”, it’s a relative altimeter that reports the altitude in a fairly novel manner. It’s got a little LED on it that when you wave
your finger over the LED, it will flash out your highest altitude. Nothing a RAM or a Lolo can’t do, but it’s small, lightweight and stupid
simple to use. DLG pilots always want to know “how high am I launching?” and with this thing, it’s a snap. Launch, land, wave, repeat. Tested it out on Sunday in my XP3 DLG. Activating the sensor takes a little getting used to, but it worked well for me.

www.WingedShadow.com

An excellent show, and I’ll certainly be back next year!

Want some photos and videos? I got ‘em here:
http://thelocust.org/gallery/v/soaring/20060408toledo/

The Lexington Kentucky Model Airplane Club (LMAC) is holding the 5th annual Swap Meet on Saturday, November 12, 2005. The Swap Meet will be held at the Aviation Museum of Kentucky which is at the back of the Bluegrass Airport on the West side of Lexington, KY. A flyer is attached that contains the pertinent information and a map. This is a WORD document.

Last year, was the first year that we were in this excellent and interesting facility. We had 60 tables and expect to have more this year. Please provide this information to your club members so that they do not miss out on table rentals and to inform them of good buying opportunities.

Thanks for your help,

Joe Woods

LMAC Swap Meet Chairman

Download the flyer here: LMAC Swap Meet 2005 Flyer w/ Map.

My experience at Toledo this year:

I missed friday but all of the vendors I spoke to said that was the money day. The general consensus was that the crowd was down though.

Saturday seemed packed in the morning, but after lunch the crowd seemed to thin out. The general answer to “how’s the show going?” was “nobody’s buying today”. A couple of older gentlemen who shared their table with me at lunch time were commenting about the show. They both agreed, after some lively discussion, that one day of “this s*#@” was plenty and that was the plan for next year. This kind of went along with the general consensus this year.

Talked to Gordy at the Kennedy Composites booth, along with the Blaster DLG and the AVA they were selling the Sombra Labs Shadow3. He said they were moving pretty good. Same story from the SL booth.

Looks like the wave of the future will be synthesized transmitters and receivers, just dial up your channel. I would expect all of the major players in RC equipment will be offering this technology before long.

While I’m on the RX subject, I talked to the guys from Castle Creations about the Berg Rx’s. They recently aquired the rights to Peter Berg’s line of SC full range DSP RX’s. They plan on giving full support to the existing product line as well as developing new stuff in the future.

In light of LASS’s recent interest in electric sailplanes, I was moved to talk to Don Stackhouse at DJ Aerotech’s booth about the Chrysalis 2m electric sailplane they had on display. Although they have shifted their focus from composite constructed sailplanes to small electric models (a result of the dreaded epoxy allergy) they still have the laser cut wood Chrysalis 2M and 60″ HL. The 2m electric on diplay had a small geared brushless motor, LiPo battery, and a 14×9.5 folding prop, resulting in a mid 30 oz. AUW and according to Don, an impressive climb rate. He also mentioned that the design was recently revamped with a stronger wing structure, simpler spoiler linkage and revised building instructions. The 2m electric kit goes for $85. More details can be found here: Chrysalis 2meter @ DJAerotech.com

Northeast Sailplane Products was there and along with their usual offerings they had the Hyper (AKA Fireblade) DLG for $199, I couldn’t pass it up. This plane features a carbon d-box wing with carbon capped balsa ribs. I managed to finish mine already and it came out at 10.5 oz. I haven’t flown it much yet but launches are straight and high with little effort. More to come. Northeast Sailplanes also had a nice selection of electric gliders inculding the Hyper 1.8m a good choice for LMR class.

Even though I have only been a regular at this show for about 4-5 years, I have noticed a significant increase in the number of electric models available.

I saw models ranging from indoor slow flyers to large scale 3D pattern planes. Pretty much anything you could want has gone electric. With the latest technology, like brushless motors and LiPo batteries, these models are equal to or better than fuel powered models. It’s all good.

There were several Asian vendors there this year. Mostly selling power (gas and electric) stuff so I didn’t look too closely, but the quality seemed decent and I am sure the prices were low. I wonder if the sailplane crowd can expect the same in the future?

There were some very nice models in the display contest this year, I took a few pictures to represent what was there. Lots of scale planes and boats. One in particular was a GeeBee racer that was beautifully finished. The fuse was as big around as a 30 gal
trash can!

I went back on sunday to resolve an issue with my Hyper DLG and I was surprised that the crowd was practically nonexistent. Everybody I talked to said that nobody was buying, just a lot of “tire kicking” going on. I didn’t stick around for long so I missed the results of the model judging. If you are
interested the results are posted on the Weak Signals website here: www.toledoshow.com

All told this year wasn’t exactly disapointing, but it wasn’t as good as the last couple of years.

Last weekend was the 51st Weak Signals Hobby Show up in Toledo, Ohio. A whole cadre of LASS members went up there, and some have sent back photos and reports. President Ed has sent me a bunch of photos from the Toledo Hobby Show, and I have posted them in the Toledo Hobby Show gallery.

Gordy went up to the show to help out Kennedy Composites, who sold the heck out of the AVA RES and Blaster DLG models. However, it would seem that the real sales champ that weekend was the Sombra Labs “SHADOW 3″ fully-synthesized receiver! Other models debuted, including the “Fling DLG” (see Ed’s photos).

Jay Burkhart chimed in to give us this short summary:

Friday was good to great for Old Guys day. I can say that since I’m an old guy. Saturday was slow and weak for the $$$$. Sunday sucked, the dealers were buying from each other. The only other time I’ve seen it this bad was back in 1991 when the Gulf war was on. Sure don’t know where all the people were.