That’s right, folks! It’s time for the 2007 AMA/LSF Soaring Nationals in beautiful Muncie, IN at the AMA Headquarters. There are 4 pilots from Louisville competing in this week-long marathon of RC Soaring! Handlaunch is Sunday, along with Nostalgia. Rudder/Elevator/Spoiler (RES) is Monday, 2-meter is Tuesday and Wednesday, Unlimited is Thursday and Friday and F3J is Saturday and Sunday.

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.

Bruce Davidson has grabbed a bunch of guys from around the region and we are going to have a Handlaunch (F3K) contest this Sunday, July 1 around noon at Charlie Vettiner Park - be there, or by a winch-monger!

Seems that LASS regular and handlaunch enthusiast Brian Kopke got together with fellow DLG-flinger Bruce Davidson and flew out at Bruce’s “ranch” in Shelbyville a few weeks ago. One of them returned home one plane shy of a quiver.

Brian got his Photon II discus-launched glider caught in the tallest tree on the lot. Repeated attempts to extract the plane have been fruitless. Bruce has sent in some photos to attest to it’s predicament as his goat (”Nickolas”) and his pygmy donkey (”Lucy”) stand guard.

LASS members Bruce Davidson and Ken Marks represented Louisville at the East Coast Handlaunch Glider Festival in Wilson, NC from October 20-22. The brand-new XP-5 DLG from Polecat Aero was unveiled, and Ken and Bruce had a grand old time.

In the end, Bruce placed 3rd and Ken was 14th out of 24

Results are here, pictures are here, and you can read all the war-stories you want over at RCGroups!

Local boy Bruce Davidson recently competed in one of Europe’s largest handlaunch glider contests in Laucha, Germany - about 2 hours south of Berlin. Over 80 competitors from a dozen countries were involved. Bruce, along with US handlaunch hot-shot Phil Barnes travelled to Germany to represent the United States. Bruce ended up 13th in the preliminaries, with Phil in 3rd. Bruce missed the cutoff by just a hair, as only the top 12 pilots proceed to the final fly-offs. Phil ended up in 11th place.

The competition was of a very high level compared to our US competitions, and you can read Phil and Bruce’s reports of the contest here at RCGroups: German Championship F3K @ RCGroups.

We’re very proud of our teammate and are glad he was able to represent the US well!

Photo courtesy of Arne Asper

Hey All! We’re at the 2006 LSF/AMA RC Soaring Nationals this week - a.k.a “the NATS” up in Muncie, IN. We’ll be posting photos in the Competitions gallery, so keep your eyes peeled for updates.

Already, our man Bruce Davidson took home 2nd place in NATS Handlaunch!

More later. Until then, you can keep up with all the NATS news with the… NATSNews from the AMA.

The round robin had brought this special contest back to Louisville again for the fourth time. The Mid-South Championship has always brought some of the best from both the north and the south for a head to head meeting of some of the best pilots around. This year there were some challenges for the pilots to work through besides trying to meet the usual flying task. The biggest change was the new site for the ‘06 contest. Leaving Tom Sawyer Park behind, where all the previous Louisville MidSouths have been flown, A polo field inside of Hayes Kennedy Park was chosen to use for this years contest. This field was adjacent to the Ohio River. The micro weather effect this great body of water could or would challenge the pilots was a great unknown. This included the local club as no one had ever flown there before.

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All the winches have new line, new landing tapes are marked, trophies are in order, and the LASS crew members are restless! The 2006 MidSouth Soaring Championships are only a day a way and we are excited!

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.

I just got home from another excellent soaring adventure kicked off at the IHLGF. It was 6 days of soaring with friends in SoCal, what a blast. The long version follows…

Things got started for me on Thursday morning. I carried on JR 8103 radios in my case and a backpack over the shoulder, also checked a sportube full of XP-4’s and a bag with no trouble, harassment or extra fees, I flew Northwest. I met my flying buddy, Ken Marks in San Diego and after a quick stop at the
FedEx to pick up a sport tube full of slopers we headed to the flying field.

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LASS club members Bruce Davidson and Ken Marks made their way out to Poway, California last week to the Torrey Pines Gulls 2005 Int’l Handlaunch Glider Festival. Something like 90 pilots from many different countries attended the three-day event. Friday there was a discus-launch “clinic”, with our own Bruce Davidson heading up one of the topic (I believe it was “What to carry in your field box”). Saturday and Sunday consisted of the best-of-the-best in handlaunch battling it out in the heat and winds that Poway is known for.

In the end, East-coaster Phil Barnes won the contest over 2nd-place Paul Anderson and 3rd-place Joe Wurts. Bruce ended up in 5th place, edging out Mark Drela and Adam “Red” Weston for 6th and 7th.

Images and results are just now starting to trickle in. Expect more photos and reports soon!
In the meantime, check out these RCGroups threads: Poway International Hand launch Glider Festival, Poway Results

Ken and Bruce are staying out in Cali for a little while longer, hoping to catch some mean dynamic soaring (DS) action at Parker Mountain. What a blast!

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