Control Line Navy Carrier
Dick Perry [[email protected]]
Electric power at the Nats and other events
THE AMA NATS is yet to come as this column is being written. But by the time this issue reaches you, the Nats results will have been reported in Nats News, and we'll know what effect the high gasoline prices have had on participation this year.
I've abandoned my plans to drive to the Nats in favor of much more economical commercial aviation and car rental, saving travel funds and vacation time to allow for more local contests. Even our "local" contests involve 800-mile round trips here in the West.
Thanks to Pete Mazur, who sponsored the unofficial electric-powered Carrier events at the Nats in Muncie, Indiana. There have been some electrics showing up in the Midwest contests this year, but contest results have been disappointing with challenging winds for the Iowa contests and the Firecracker Stunt Classic in Sugar Grove, Illinois.
The winds have resulted in some damaged models, which I am hoping will have been repaired by the Nats. If all goes well at the Nats electric events, I'll have some good data on electric Carrier equipment and performance for my next column. Sig had a respectable five electric-powered models in Skyray, but the winds kept them from reaching their potential.
The Brodak Fly-In in Pennsylvania held only Profile events this year. John Vlna, the Carrier event director, reported that although Class I/II was offered and there were two entries, there were no official flights. However, there were eight contestants with official flights in the AMA and Sportsman Profile Carrier events and 11 in .15 Carrier.
The best part was that there were 34 advanced entries—lots of Carrier interest back east. Conflicts with other events and a few no-shows reduced the number of actual entries to 21, but that's still a great turnout and a 50% improvement over last year. I'm hoping to see some of the Brodak fliers in Muncie.
Carrier flying continues to be strong in the West, with activity increasing in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest. More of the Top-20 scores are being posted by modelers from the western half of the country. Keep it up!
The great flying site in Woodland, California, will be gone by the time you read this. According to Jim Schneider, a paved RC runway, pond for RC floatplanes, and four CL circles will be converted from recreational to taxable property.
Gary Hull's new Short Seamew, which I showed as nothing but bones in my last column, is in the air and doing well, according to Gary.
The high tail is different from what you see on most Carrier aircraft, but the configuration is docile enough in slow flight. The photo certainly seems to bear this out. Initial problems with tail-section vibration during high speed have been resolved with some additional reinforcement.
I've loved the design for more than 30 years and have drawn a full set of models for both AMA and Nostalgia events. I guess I need to get more serious about building and flying and stop letting work interfere with fun.
The Carrier rules voting is complete, and the proposal to reduce the penalty for having a flameout on one engine of a multiengine model has passed. For 2009, the loss of an engine on a multiengine model will result in the loss of the multiengine bonus rather than half of the low-speed score. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
