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The NATS this year was a very good one as far as weather was concerned. Dave and I stayed for all but the last day of electrics, 12 days in all if you include travel time. It was a test for me to compete and see what I thought about the Electric NATS and their events. It mostly validated what my pre-conceived ideas were, a couple of small surprises, but mostly the events were what I thought they would be. We flew MOM in Electric this year (a first for most of the electric guys) and that made it somewhat interesting but mostly because the weather was so nice it was a launch, fly the max and land contest. Landing a heavy electric is one of the big surprises as a spike is really a no-no as equipment gets hurt really badly if you do. Nostalgia and RES had a full day and it really helped attendance and the feeling that these were real contests because we flew a lot of rounds. 2M and UNL were normal for the NATS with no surprises or anything new to report other than every plane there was a Supra (almost true). Hutch and Mike were there for Unlimited: Hutch flew the Hera and Mike's brand new Emerald bit the dust when the stab let loose on launch, so it was not a lot of fun for Mike. I think Hutch had a good time at the Michigan tent with the guy's (Dave and I were manning the Kennedy Composite's vendor tent so missed being with the fellow Michiganders). F3J was fun for Dave and I, he flew and I worked for the team doing normal team manager kind of things. It did get exciting during the launch with 6 to 8 planes launching together in very close quarters, there were some mid-airs but not many. Dave's excitement came when he picked up the wrong plane on one round and launched it with the elevator backwards from the one he was supposed to be flying. He got it down OK and picked up the second ship and managed to do a fairly good round. To see and go dinning with all the old friends is great - not being home to do lawn work was also great. Hope next year is just as good. Jack
	Dave Corven and his well organized van almost ready for the trip to Muncie and the "NATS". He had about twice this much in it by the time he left. We were out the day before lift-off to play a little at our field. Dave's new winch is neat.
	My van is not quite as neat and not all the stuff is in here either.
	First day at the NATS was Nostalgia. This is just a few of the entries, I think there were about 30. Air was a challenge and going a long way down wind was the way to win a round or get a zero for not making it back to the small field boundaries in place this year.
	Mike McGowan was the Event Director for the Electric NATS this year. Mike called MOM for the first time for Electrics this year. It went very well with Corven being the scorekeeper and I did CD two of the events for Mike. Mike is an ORF from piloting heavy iron at Delta and now races sports cars and fly's models for fun and games.
	If you don't know Denny Maize, you should. Denny owns Polecat and makes a great DHL series. He also does electrics and did a lot of CD work for Mike this year. Check his web site at www.polecataero.com.
	The best of the McGowan's, Mary. She is just a great person and it is so nice to have her around us during all the hot competition, she just gives a little comment now and then to keep you focused on what is really important. As a gift to Mike's workers, Mary set up the wine, cheese and munchies after the days hard work. This is class aero-modeling, none of that beer drinking, body scratching stuff going on here.