On August 1 & 2, after a week at the LSF/AMA NATS, I returned to Muncie. My reasons for returning were my own curiosity about the electric events and my wife's curiosity about Muncie's finer eateries. This post concerns the former. First off, attendance at electric is considerably smaller than that of R/C soaring. For example, one event had 8 entrants, smaller than some of soaring's flight groups. The events are thermal oriented and they do have classes by aircraft type ("Old Timer" for example) and power. I observed the "Texaco" fly-off, held Monday evening and found it most interesting. The 3 best flyers from earlier rounds launched simultaneously and proceeded to fly an "all up last down" round. As one could run the motor as long as one desired, this became an "energy management" game. The winner had a 32:30 flight. The next morning, I watched and helped time a "battery allocation" event. There was a limit on cell size but that's all - any e-powered plane could compete. The task was to fly three rounds (12, 15, and 20 minutes max time) with only one charge. During each round, the motor may be used as much as desired. This was truly an energy management and find lift event. In their events, they do use a simple landing tape with values of 10 and 20 points. However, measurements are made to the nearest part of the plane - not the nose to which we're accustomed. There were a variety of planes including an electric AVA. I did inquire about the possibility of an F5J event next year and was told interest would be the determining factor. The electric NATS SIG is NEAC (http://www.electricaircraft.org/) Jim Deck
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