AMA News: District X-2011/12
NAPA, CALIFORNIA: The Napa Bunch put on a CL Speed contest September 11–12 at the Jim Tichy Memorial Flying Field. Through the efforts of Jim Tichy and other modelers in the area, city officials replaced the old field when it was closed for a flood-control project. The field has been renamed in the late Mr. Tichy’s honor. The new field, at Napa's John F. Kennedy Park, is a beautiful facility with a 180-foot-diameter blacktop circle surrounded by a protective fence. The city's park system handles the basic maintenance work; local CL fliers do the extra labor to keep the field ready for contests. It is one of the best flying fields in California.
There were 11 contestants and a total of 25 flights. All speeds are in miles per hour.
Results
- 1/2A Proto:
- Randy Bush — 103.228
- Jerry Rocha — 98.899
- Karl Caldwell — 90.212
- Jim Rhoades — 80.386
- A Speed:
- Brad Anderson — 180.564
- B Speed:
- Glen Dye — 130.666
- C Speed:
- Karl Caldwell — 147.445
- D Speed:
- Karl Caldwell — 160.078
- .21 Sport Speed:
- Brad Anderson — 146.128
- Karl Caldwell — 144.811
- F2A:
- Jim Rhoades — attempt
- Perky Speed:
- Phil Heller — 97.785
- Jerry Rocha — 93.039
- Kurt Kerner — 89.753
- Ed Solenberger — 84.340
Average: Kurt Kerner — 89.753
Contest organization and hospitality
- Contest Director (CD) Jerry Rocha did the lion’s share of the work getting the field ready for the contest.
- Arnold Nelson handled the paperwork, and Luke Roy provided a hand.
- Winners received a bottle of wine.
- Jerry and his wife, Sue, hosted a barbecue at their home on Saturday evening for all the contestants. Thanks to the Rochas.
History and club notes
CL flying has a rich history in California, peaking in the mid-1940s. The Western Associated Modelers (WAM), led by "Pop and Mom" Roberts, was formed to provide rules for all forms of CL flying in the California area.
The old days bring to mind the Hells Angels of Napa club, formed in 1947–48 by a young group of mostly Speed fliers. Among them were Mr. and Mrs. McGowan and their three sons, Ray, Stanley, and Eddy. Others included Phil Green, Floyd Bradford, Arnold Nelson, Karl Caldwell, Gordon Wheeler, Ed Smuts, Bob Wakerly, and Donnie Glaser. This club dominated the Speed circles in the late 1940s through the 1960s.
The club's name first showed up in the 1930 Howard Hughes movie and was later picked up by the 303 Bombardment Group in World War II. The Napa club copyrighted the name. In the late 1950s or early 1960s, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club came to Bob Wakerly's front door in Napa with about 50 members on their bikes and asked for the copyright to the name. By that time, the model club had mostly disbanded and the remaining members were not opposed to releasing the copyright.
Five members of the former Hells Angels of Napa model club showed up at the Napa meet: Karl Caldwell (contestant), Arnold Nelson (official), and Ray and Eddy McGowan and Gordon Wheeler (visitors).
AMA Speed classes and rules
- Today there are 10 AMA Speed classes. Engine-size classes range from the .049 1/2A class up to the .65 D class. There is also a jet class.
- Aircraft are flown on either one or two lines. The single-wire CL has the least drag, resulting in higher speeds. Five of the classes can be flown on either one or two lines; the rest must be flown on two lines.
- In an official AMA contest such as Napa’s, a steel pylon must be affixed in the center of the flying circle. The contestant must run around the pylon while flying the model in level flight, with speeds reaching more than 200 mph.
- Because many contestants are getting older, rule changes now allow proxy fliers for fliers who can no longer run around the pylon. Without this proxy rule, there would be little Speed-Flying in the U.S.
Thanks to Arnold Nelson for covering the seventh annual Napa CL Speed Bash and describing a group of fliers who first met in the late 1940s and more than 60 years later still get together to enjoy modeling.
To read an expanded version of this column and see more pictures, visit www.ama10.org and click the blog link at the top of the page. There you'll find the last 10 blog postings and, under the archive link at the top center of the page, all of the district coverage.
Happy landings.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
