It took me a while to write this up, but here goes. First and foremost, I wasn’t planning on going to this year’s NATs. With just about all the contests on the West Coast being cancelled and some being postponed due to the COVID-19 virus, I figured that the NATs would be cancelled too, but it wasn’t. So here are some tidbits on my travels and experiences for attending my first NATs while in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since I returned to competitive flying in 2015, the thought of someday attending the NATs was in the back of my mind. I’ve have always wanted to attend or participate in the NATs when I was a kid back in the late 60’s and early 70’s especially with the NATs moving around to various areas of the country, I thought it might be possible. However, life eventually got in the way and attending a NATs which is now located in Muncie, Indiana was not even on the stove — let alone the back burner.
Now traveling from the West Coast to Muncie, some 2400 miles away seemed to make it impossible. Traveling with equipment and a plane is no easy task, especially since the farthest I’ve ever traveled by myself to a contest was in Canada which was only 950 miles away. I’m very inexperience at making long “road trips” so attending my first NAT’s seemed out of the question.
But I was given an offer that was too good to pass up that made it possible for me to attend my first NATs. It all started just 3 weeks prior to the NATs. Brett Buck made an offer to transport my plane and equipment in his van to Muncie, all I had to do was get myself to Muncie, get a hotel room and get my plane and equipment to Brett’s apartment on Wednesday July 8th as he was leaving for Muncie early Thursday morning. The goal was to meet up in Muncie late Saturday afternoon.
A flurry of questions rushed through my mind. Would there be a NATs this year with the COVID-19 virus surging? AMA said it was a go, but it very easily could have been shut down at any time. Could Brett make it driving across the country with our planes and equipment in 3 days as he planned without incident? With most restaurants and diners being closed would we be able to find places to eat? What would it be like to go through an airport and get on an airplane with this pandemic? Some were saying that most of the hotels in Muncie were closed. Would I be able to find a place to stay? My mind was running wild with all these types of questions.
Believe it or not, these were the easy questions. The hardest one was asking my wife for permission to go. Up until now she has allowed me to go to every contest that I wanted to attend. Why would this be so hard? Was it because of the short notice? Because of the pandemic? —— No.
On Saturday July 11th the day I needed to depart to Muncie was our 47th wedding anniversary! But with her blessing to make this trip. It will be worth every penny (actually many dollars) that I need to spend and make it up to her. When one has found a good wife, one has found a great woman. She is well worth it!
The first order of business was to see if I could get on an airplane and travel across the country safely. With Expedia it was very easy to get a roundtrip flight from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Indianapolis, Indiana and because of the pandemic the flight could be changed or cancelled. I was very surprised to see that the airfares were very reasonable for such a short notice. But could I get to Muncie, Indiana without contracting the COVID-19 virus? Could I get a hotel room? No problem. Would we be able to find places to eat? Again no problem. So with travel arrangement, car and hotel reservation made, I’m headed to my first NATS!
Getting ready for the NATs:
I hadn’t had the opportunity to fly my plane since November of last year. Just a week prior to Brett departing for Muncie, we spent 2 days (Thursday & Saturday) in Napa getting Brett’s new Infinity trimmed and my plane ready. I was struggling with a couple of issues, (1) my Circulas 61 is overweight at 74 oz. (2) I was losing line tension on the outside corners of square loop and square eights (3) stalling in the last corner of the hourglass and inside squares, and (4) plane wasn’t stable in level flight.
In my case I had the help of three individuals who came to my aid for which I’ll be ever so grateful, Brett of course, Jim Aron and Dave Fitzgerald. There wasn’t much we could do for the plane being overweight. I just need to learn how to build lighter! As far as losing line tension, we moved the leadout back incrementally in a number of flights. We ended up moving the leadout back about 3/4" from where they were originally. Line tension improved greatly on the outside corners. We also added a 1/2 oz. of nose weight. This helped in two area, (1) a little more line tension and (2) the plane was a little more stable. But it was still not as stable as it should be and was stalling badly when I hit a hard inside corner.
It was suggested that we add Vortex Generators (VG’s) to the wing. So the next day I drove to Jim Aron’s home and we installed the VG’s. The following day morning (Saturday) we were back in Napa. All of us noticed a tremendous difference in the cornering and the plane was rock solid at the end of the lines. This was my first time using VG’s and what a huge difference these tiny pieces of plastic made!
We were done and it was time to get packing.
Traveling by Plane:
The COVID-19 virus is no joke and I wanted to do the best I could to keep myself free from getting it or from passing anything on to someone else, especially my family when I returned. I’m in the “high risk” category due to my age and health condition. I made sure that I took the necessary precautions and that I had plenty of antibacterial wipes, masks, and hand sanitizers nearby.
Upon arriving at SFO at 9:30am on a Saturday morning, I was surprised how very few people were around that morning. Entering the terminal, I had my mask on and the airport security reminded everyone to wear a mask at all times. The only time one could remove your mask was for eating and when you were done you had to put it right back on.
It is amazing just how often you can inadvertently come in contact with someone or something and not realize it. Going through the security checkpoint they wanted to see and handle my driver license. With a cell phone you have your boarding pass so there no need to carry any papers which was nice. However, when my carryon bag and backpack was x-rayed, I took out my laptop but forgot to take my iPad out of my backpack. This required the security officer to handle my backpack and remove my iPad. All was good and when they were finished I proceeded to take out my antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer and wipe everything down including me. I may have been paranoid but I wasn’t taking any chances!
Boarding the plane was very interesting as they were calling only 5 rows at a time and reminded all passengers to maintain the 6 foot distance between each other. But this seemed to get ignored when it came time to placing your carryon luggage in the overhead bin compartment. It was a pleasant surprised when the flight attendant handed you antibacterial wipes when stepping on the plane to wipe down your seat, tray and area, which I did thoroughly once I got to my seat.
Ah now for my seat! I noticed in the row and seat that I was assigned there was an older elderly Asian couple, one seated near the window and the other on the aisle seat, with me supposedly sandwiched in between them. They not only hand their mask on, but had face shields and gloves on. Oh boy! No way was I going to sit there. Their son who was traveling with them was sitting on the opposite side of the aisle asked me if I would like to change seats. I was relieved at this request. As it turned out there were many more empty seats to choose from to maintain social distancing from other passengers if needed as the plane was not full.
You were required to keep your mask or face covering on at all times during the flight except for eating or drinking. It’s interesting that you will always find someone who tries to get around it and leave their mask off. One passenger who was seating 2 rows in from of me was reminded 3 times to put his mask back on! I like and value my freedom, but come on – is it too much to ask to wear a mask during a pandemic?
Upon arriving in Indianapolis and departing the plane, there wasn’t a soul in sight. It felt like one of those movies where an apocalyptic event had just taken place and you are the only survivor! Very strange. I’m thankful for the signage that allowed me to find the car rental area as there were no airport personnel to ask. My hat go off the Enterprise car company for their professional, courteous and outstanding treatment! Within 15 minutes I had my car and was on my way to Muncie, Indiana.
It’s time to get serious:
Brett and I both arrived in Muncie on Saturday late afternoon and headed out to the L-Pad to see who was there and for me to get familiar with the site. What an amazing site!
We returned to our rooms to get our planes ready and to get some rest. Brett had been driving for 12-13 hours each day for 3 days to get to Muncie. I don’t know how he did it!
On Sunday morning we were off again to the L-Pad to get some practicing and final trimming done. This is my first time being in the Midwest and to describe the weather as “unusual” is an understatement. During the week I believe we had every condition you can think of except snow!
All the practice days were very mild with slight breeze in the morning with the wind picking up in the afternoon then settling back down in the evening, conditions that I liked.
For this trip all I was hoping to do is make the cut for the Sweet 16 in Advanced and get the “I Made the Cut!” tee shirt, which was accomplished. Strangely enough I now found myself in the Finals and it was time to get ready for the Friday.
On Friday morning, we were greeted with heavy fog and dead calm wind. The air was so dead I thought rigor mortis had set in. Not good for an overweight plane. I drew the first flight on Circle 2 and I couldn’t backup fast enough to get out of the way of my own turbulence! I’ve never hit turbulence on coming back over the top on a reverse wingover! This was bizarre to say the least. Brett reminded me before leaving for Muncie that strange things can and do happen at the NATs and they certainly did.
My first NATs experience was a trip of a lifetime and to finish in 3rd place in the Advanced Finals still hasn’t sunken in completely.
I can’t thank Brett enough for what he did in getting my plane and equipment to Muncie and back home, some 4800 miles! His insight and knowledge of the NATs helped me tremendously and then having to put up with me during our week together was probably no easy task. But I couldn’t have done it without him.
Also thanks goes to Jim Aron and Dave Fitzgerald for their assistance, coaching and encouragement that they gave. There was no question that this was a “group” effort and what a great group of gentlemen to be around!
When I was a young teenager flying model airplanes, I could only read about the NATs in various magazines and dreamed about going to one, either to watch or to participate. Going to the NATs was a “bucket list” item. Surprisingly it only took 50+ years to finally make it and scratch it off my list!
Some may think I was crazy to risk my health (and life) to make such a trip. I can't and won't argue that point. Would I do it again during such a trying time? May be, may be not.
No doubt these are trying times with the COVID-19 virus, which makes traveling difficult and challenging. But through it all this was an outstanding experience. It was a pleasure to meet new people, to meet those you only read about or seen a pictures of, and those who I know only from emails and the internet.
If you never been to the NATs --- GO! Hopefully this pandemic will be over with some day and we can try to get back to some form of normalcy and enjoy the things we really love to do.
Stay safe,
Dennis
Topic: Attending my 1st NATs - Better late than never... (Read 1059 times)