Districts
District News
D1 |Salvatore Piu spiurc@comcast.net CT•ME•MA•NH•NJ•NY•PA•RI•VT
This year, 2020, D1 has decided not hold district championship selection due to Covid-19 creating a year of very limited contest opportunities and few pilots participating in only one or two contest events at most. Hopefully, our situation will vastly improve in 2021 ! As for me, thanks to a good friend finishing off the build project that I started with a handicap of not receiving a fully regularequipped kit, I finally got my Shinden flying this year. I had a few initial start-up issues that needed to be corrected to make the model consistently flight-worthy, that are now resolved, allowing me to fly it at each opportunity. Even though I found photos of this design being around since 2004, even with flying on a single prop, this model is still a highly competitive design: it’s all about pilot skills now! So far, this model flies great, and that is with minimal tweaking conducted so far.
I suspect everyone in D1 is hoping for a better 2021 pattern-event season, as I know I am. I suggest our regular annual contest schedule from 2019 be used as guide to start planning events for 2021. I recognize that the beginning of 2021 may have similar covid-19 impacts that occurred in 2020: this should not be a reason to at least start tentative plans. In my opinion, 2021 scheduled events can be cancelled as the contest events approach their respective dates based on whatever the covid-19 situation is at that time. I’ll be soliciting D1 CD’s to plan for 2021 events soon, and may try to hold a video conference on this subject before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. One thing covid-19 did not impact: the need for pilots to renew their AMA, NSRCA, and local club memberships. Renewing the NSRCA membership can easily be done on line somewhere within the NSCRA web site, and keep a copy of the payment for your records. The NSRCA board has been working on a new media format of the k-factor, using ISSUU. Demo versions are accessible on the web for the September 2020 https:// issuu.com/nsrca/docs/sep2020hd. This September 2020 edition also includes an imbedded video of the sportsman sequence: check it out! A link to the ISSUU media version will be added to the web site, and included in monthly email announcement of the monthly k-factor publication. Since there is a small monthly fee involved, the board is interested to get feedback from members if we should continue with this format, which can be saved in pdf format, or go back to pdf – only format. D1 members need to review this and send me feedback on keeping or ditching this new media format. Maneuver complete, Sal Piu
D2 | Tim Pritchett 1417 Deer Forest Drive Fort Mill, SC 29707 | tjpritchett@aol.com DC•DE•MD•NC•SC•VA
I’ll try and keep this brief this month; I tend to write more volumetrically when I have less to say, it would seem. The KF article this month is being posted on Facebook, to avoid publication missing our last contest. If you like it there let me know, and I’ll keep posting them. I’ll also load up the last couple of years’ worth of articles in the ‘Files’ section for archiving purposes. The second order of business is to announce a sabbatical I’ll be taking from the NSRCA BoD for a few months. No harm intended, but serving there has become wearisome, and burnout is beginning to set in. Plus, in full disclosure, the battles I’ve fought (and lost) don’t seem to align with everyone in D2, so I need some time to let the gear down, and make sure I’m not fighting windmills in my own mind. This announcement was made at the Charlotte Aeromodelers contest, and further discussions were had with active members privately, such that I don’t sense any imminent need to rethink my intention. I plan to rejoin in early 2021, certainly before we begin flying. Everything else, including KF articles, quarterly D2LT meetings, and certainly flying will continue as normal. On the “New” front, I’ve been working with the US F3A Team a lot to get them in front of their supporters; that’s us. The
12 | K-Factor November 2020
