2015 Nats and the B Nos Dixielander

A couple of weeks have now passed since the 2015 Free Flight Nats, where I again had a great time. I flew three RC events over four days then spent Wednesday at Free Flight with Larry, Bob and Jimmy. My E-36 endeavors did not go as hoped, but I learned a lot and enjoyed it immensely.
Perhaps the biggest lesson was the importance of reliable surfaces and trim. Just a week earlier my E-202 Pearl had been in perfect trim and flying great. Then on Sunday the power pattern was way off, I spent some time chasing it before realising the fin had taken a warp due to the way I had the model stored at my campsite. I got it dialed again only to have to chase the trim again during test flights on Wednesday morning. Thinking it was OK I launched my first official flight only to see the climb again go flat and I recorded 93 seconds, well short of a max. The rest of the day was spent watching Larry and Bob fly their Lindys in B Nos Gas. It was painful to watch Bob's model glide into rising ground and miss a flyoff max by one second, but Larry was able to get the win on the day. Jimmy took second in 1/2A Classic Gas.

Next year I plan to compete in additional events, and my build list has been refined with an aim to having models for at least Monday through Wednesday next year. The A Pearl is now complete except for some small details, so on to the B Dixie. This week I added some DT hard points to the stab, made the fin, ordered a few missing hardware items, built and mounted the firewall and cut the remainder of the wing ribs. In the coming week I'll start assembling the wing and add the firewall cheeks and skid.