[LASS Soaring] NATS Photos/Live Feed/NATSNews, etc.

[Ben Wilson]

I had a number of people ask me throughout the week for some of the 
photos I took and/or appeared in the NATSNews, so here ya go...

Short story: 
 
  http://www.louisvillesoaring.org/  (First post on the front page has 
links to it all.)

Long story:

  Photos - http://louisvillesoaring.org/v/competitions/2007nats/

  NATSNews - http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/nats/natsnews.aspx

  Live Feed @ RCGroups - 
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=714647


For those of you who don't know what it took to get the NATSNews 
together, I think I might have had the easy part... I ran around talking 
with folks, snapping photos and generally doing what I might already be 
doing at the NATS anyway.  Sometime before 9 or 10 AM the next morning, 
I had to put together 100-300 words (or more) for the AMA and get them 
my photos.  Some of what I had written (like the event overviews) was 
already done by the time I got to the NATS, so I only had to write the 
daily recaps.  I tried to spice it up with stuff that had happened, 
notes I had taken, information from the Internet (like 'What did 
Kiesling win at the NATS in 2005?').  I'm terrible with names, so I made 
sure to get spelling on everything!  A big, big help that seemingly few 
people know about is that the AMA site has (and has had) WiFi that 
covers the *entire* campus.  That's how I covered the NATS and Masters 
last year. 

Then I sent the photos and words to Mike Ramsey (Assoc. Editor for Model 
Aviation).  He then had to get it laid out in the form you see.  I don't 
know if Mike does this for the 3 months the NATS goes on - but I suspect 
he might.  He was there every day I was, Saturday through the following 
Sunday!  I wonder what *he* does on vacation?!  If you wanna say 
"thanks", his email address is michaelr at modelaircraft.org.

Despite that level of activity, I had a great time at this years' NATS 
and I wholly expected to be too busy to do any good! However, I managed 
to take wood in Handlaunch and RES, and returned home with the same 
number of plane parts as I came.  There were a few mistakes in the 
NATSNews coverage, but overall it was pretty solid and I received a lot 
of heartfelt thanks from guys that liked the coverage.  "Never was heard 
a discouraging word..."

The RCGroups thread gives us access to a whole different crowd (and 
gives us a little more multimedia freedom!), and that's why I made a 
thread there.  I know there are some of you here on the RCSE that don't 
venture there, but you really should.  It's a vibrant community of 
people - with a section just for sailplanes.  Many of the people who 
frequent it don't belong to the RCSE, don't fly with clubs and generally 
don't know what we may take for granted (like what to expect at the 
NATS).  Your input is needed and necessary.  RCGroups is where many of 
our future glider guiders will come from.  Wanna know where I went way 
back in 2001 when I wanted to know about sailplanes?  Yup... RCGroups 
(right after I joined the RCSE). 

I don't think I'll be able to step up and do the entire week next year 
like I did this year - other vacation plans are zapping my off time, but 
I'll pitch in where I can.  And don't think that you can't do this!  
This sort of thing isn't that hard to do - and I think it adds a lot to 
an event when you hear reports of the events.  It makes people want to 
*be* there and get involved - I've been told this numerous times.  With 
a hobby that is as time consuming as ours is, it's easy to shrug off 
getting out of the house to fly, or getting out of the state to get to 
an event - heck I know I come up with excuses some times.   It might be 
your description or your photos of a contest that brings that new flyer 
to the field.  I know that I come away from each event at the NATS 
saying "Man, I've got to build a [insert class here] plane this winter!" 
and generally reinvigorated about soaring...

That leads me to this:  AMA Exec Director Jim Cherry noted on the back 
page of this month's MA that "lack of youth involvement has always 
concerned [him]", and I couldn't agree more.  How many juniors (<18) did 
we have at the NATS this year?  I can think of only 4 off hand (Lee, 
Cody, Jeff, Adam) - that's out of 130 pilots!  In the unlimited 
competition - out of 83 guys, we had a handful of guys (3 or 4) that 
were totally new to the NATS.    I understand that most people get into 
RC soaring after they've done other RC stuff - but only 4 juniors and 4 
new guys in Unlimited?  *We* should be concerned.  A great number of 
guys I've spoken to in the past few years tell me that they started in 
soaring when they were young men... where are those young men today?  I 
have a feeling that I was the youngest guy there (aside from Juniors) at 
29...  So if there is one thing I can ask of you  is to let people know 
about the NATS (or soaring in general) Bring someone new to the NATS 
next year!  NATS Newbie Dave Beach flew an Easy Glider in 2-meter fer 
crissakes!  Let me hop off my soapbox...

I want to thank Marc Gellart for giving me the chance to to do this this 
year, and all of the guys that allowed me to snap their photo or 
interview them.  It was an interesting experience, and one I won't 
likely forget.  It felt good to do that work for a hobby that I love and 
want to see grow...

Ben Wilson
Louisville Area Soaring Society
http://www.louisvillesoaring.org

PS - Google Spreadsheets is a really great thing 
(http://docs.google.com), and I've got to thank Robin Meek, Barb Steifel 
and John Lindsay for humoring my requests for the Excel sheets with the 
scores.  I can rap all I want about the action, but the scores don't lie :).