Control Line Navy Carrier
This year's Control Line (CL) Navy Carrier Nationals (Nats) events were truly outstanding. The weather was great and so was the competition.
The exceptional conditions both mornings of the official events (July 12-13) led to a number of personal-best performances and three records.
A new CL Navy Carrier National Champion was crowned with the Eugene Ely Award at the annual banquet, and we had a spirited discussion about rules proposals for the next cycle.
It was a great time to renew old friendships and make new ones during three days of Carrier activities. It just doesn't get much better for a Carrier modeler!
The first day of competition was for Profile Carrier. There was a new twist this year, the Sportsman Profile events flown concurrently with the official Profile Carrier competition.
It was a good fit, providing more flying on the first day of competition and offering the spectators a variety of flying styles and models. The concept seemed popular with the Sportsman contestants as well; there was a larger-than-usual number of participants in the event.
The weather was nearly perfect from the first flight through the morning hours, with a very steady light breeze blowing.
Pete Mazur emerged from the lottery with the first flight position and used it to set a Profile Carrier record of 390.3 points.
Others followed Pete’s example with very good flight scores. At the end of the first hour of flying, the top five contestants were Pete, Kelly Hite, Marc Warwashana, Bill Bischoff, and Mike Greb.
Those five maintained their hold on the top positions throughout most of the day, demonstrating without question that preparation and the ability to take advantage of good conditions whenever they occur are key to excelling in competition.
Within the next hour, Bill Calkins had bumped Mike from fifth place, but Mike responded with a 339.9 to better Bill’s score by seven points and regain his position.
Before the lunch break, Bill Bischoff posted a 366.1 score to edge Marc Warwashana out of third by less than a point.
Pete Mazur put up his second flight and added a point to his previous score, to bump the record up one more time to 391.5.
Andy Westerheim, the Senior category contestant and the Senior records holder, used the good morning conditions to post a score of 334.6. He’ll be competing as an Open contestant next year and will be doing very well if he keeps up his current level of performance.
As the sun burned through the clouds and started some thermal activity, the winds became a little stronger and much more variable. Those who waited to make their flights in the afternoon, in the hopes of finding stronger winds, were thwarted by the variability.
Dave Wallick and Dale Gleason each achieved flights exceeding 300 points, but not high enough to unseat any of the top five finishers.
The Navy Carrier Society (NCS) sponsors Sportsman Profile Carrier each year for modelers who prefer an event that is less demanding than the all-out competition in official Profile Carrier.
Official flights were completed by five contestants this year. Mike Shull (224.4) emerged the winner, followed by John "Doc" Holliday (219.7) and Dave King (206.2).
Two youngsters, Rob and Charles Schwalbe, also competed.
At the end of the first day, Pete Mazur was in the lead for the Eugene Ely Award as the outstanding Carrier modeler at the Nationals, but there were plenty of contenders close at his heels.
Day Two of competition brought out the usual proliferation of MO-1s in Class I and Class II, but there were some new models of other types.
Bill Calkins introduced his Japanese A6M Zero, and Ted Kraver brought out a Supermarine Seafire and a Douglas SBD Dauntless.
Marc Warwashana puts his MO-1 through its paces during his 7.2-mph slow flight in Class I Navy Carrier. He finished third.
Bill Melton died just before the Nats. There was a "Missing Man" formation to honor him; his Profile Grumman Guardian was the third aircraft in the four-model formation.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
