Indoor News and Views

National Building Museum – January 6, 2013 Contest Report

Brett Sanborn

The DC Maxecuters’ biannual flying contest in the Great Hall of the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. was held on January 6, 2013. Built in 1887, the National Building Museum housed the former US Pension Bureau and was later expanded into the structure that stands today.  Towering Corinthian columns serve as dividers between the center section of the atrium and the end sections where free flight and RC models are flown separately throughout the day. Standing at 75 feet, the massive columns have entrapped several free flight models over the years including one particularly well trimmed Parlor Fly belonging to Steve Fujikawa lost during the final fly-off at the April event in 2012. The maximum height of the center section of the atrium is about 120 feet while the end sections are about 10 to 20 feet shorter.

Unfortunately the HVAC in the building is not turned off for the flying events, so the entire height of the building is not flyable for light models. It is possible to fly a pennyplane up to about 40 to 50 feet without having to steer. Many of the heavier scale models and NoCals can blast through to the top. Since the HVAC is on, light models typically are blown toward one of the walls, and end up resting on balcony levels surrounding the atrium.  Luckily, several staircases allow fliers access to upper levels to retrieve lost models. The primary challenge in this case is reaching your airplane before one of the numerous child spectators is gracious enough to pick it up for you and run it over. Tattered models aside, the Maxecuter event at the National Building Museum might the best exposure event in the nation for modeling. Countless families attend the NBM contests as spectators and get a chance to see the models in action and talk to the Maxecuters. Additionally, stray high school students participating in Science Olympiad and TSA turn up to the National Building Museum for help with their models.

The contest was a bit more sparsely attended than in the past. Fewer modelers did not subtract from the numerous exciting mass launches. Glen Simpers yelled himself hoarse over the course of the day repeating “THREE, TWO, ONE…LAUNCH.” The Maxecuter contest also features a Grand Champion award that uses a new system to calculate the winner based on the number of other entrants in an event. This system awards more points in an event to the flier who beats a greater number of competitors. Another new rule that came into effect states that a model that has won more than three Maxecuter contests must be retired. This rule prevents perennial winners and keeps the spirit of competition alive. The Grand Champion for the January 6^th contest was actually a tie between Doug Griggs and Henry Guth. Timothy Thompson also had a notable performance in Phantom Flash as the highest ranking flier who had never won the event previously. Tony Pavel’s win in the WWII NoCal mass launch was also quite exciting. Tony’s NoCal version of a Heinkel He-100 is pulled through the air using prop blades constructed from a blue Solo cup, which carried his plane frighteningly close to the top of one of the columns in the second round.

The full results are shown below. Thanks to Glen Simpers, Paul Spreriengen and all of the Maxecuters for making the event happen. Come join us at the next NBM meet on April 7, 2013.

Photos

Results