CONTROL LINE SCALE
Bill Boss, 77-06 269th St., New Hyde Park NY 11040
This month's column is dedicated to newcomers. It's an opportunity to tell you about the activities of some of the clubs that promote control-line (CL) scale modeling and have been great contributors to this column.
Clubs that have reported some of their newcomer activities are:
- Garden State Circle Burners (GSCB) of New Jersey
- Circlemasters of Wisconsin
- Rocky Mountain Aeromodellers of Colorado
Garden State Circle Burners (GSCB)
The GSCB club has promoted CL flying of all types for many years and runs a Learn to Fly program at least once a year at its field in Lincoln Park, NJ. The Learn to Fly program allows those who might be spectators at a contest to try their hand at flying a CL club trainer airplane.
The members' latest effort to promote model aviation involved the Morris County, NJ, 4-H organization. Club member Carl Holzwarth read a short article about the Morris County 4-H organization and its plea for adult volunteers willing to work with children and teach them a hobby or craft. Carl thought this would offer a great opportunity to give back to the community some of the skills and life lessons learned through the sport of model aviation. One telephone call to the listed number at the end of the 4-H article and, as Carl put it, "the rest is history."
A few telephone calls to other dedicated GSCB members produced a working group of Mary and Al Knight, Mike Cooper, Tom Hampshire, and Mike Ostella. Mary and Al run the Learn to Fly program each year.
The first meeting with the Morris County 4-H organization took place in January 2001. That night was a show-and-tell affair; several CL models were shown and their operations explained. 4-H associate director Jenny Saliba, two children, and their very enthusiastic parents were on hand to learn about building and flying model airplanes.
Since that meeting, the size of the 4-H group has increased to six members (ranging in age from eight to 11 years old) and their parents. At subsequent meetings, a club called the Flying Wildcats was formed.
The children have been taught aviation terminology, flown paper airplanes, built AMA Cubs, completed word-search and crossword puzzles, and have five- to ten-minute lectures on model aviation at each meeting. When the club completed AMA Cubs and a clear evening was found, it held its first flying session.
Carl noted that the flying session was great, and that every modeler should experience the smile that appears on a child's face as he or she watches that first creation take to the air. He said the overall activity has been one of the most rewarding tasks he has ever undertaken.
With the help of GSCB members, the 4-H club members built two .15-powered trainers that they expected to be complete and able to make solo flights by May 2001. The 4-H group asked Carl and his club to put on CL flying demonstrations and set up a model-aviation display at the Morris County Fair this year.
Carl expresses his heartfelt thanks to fellow GSCB members who have given greatly of themselves to make this venture successful and rewarding.
Rocky Mountain Aeromodellers
Rocky Mountain Aeromodelers newsletter editor Court Hughes reports that, although the club does not have a specific newcomers program, it goes to local mall shows and promotes CL flying. Last year roughly a dozen youngsters tried CL with the club trainers.
The club was working with a local hobby shop to get some good newcomer package deals set up for the club's mall display planned for Armed Forces Day weekend.
Encouragement for other clubs
This is a small sampling of what clubs are doing to promote model aviation and to bring new members into aeromodeling. If your club is not involved in a newcomer program, the preceding activities should give you some idea of what can be done to show off our sport and bring in new people.
My appreciation and thanks to Carl Holzwarth and Mary Knight of the GSCB, Art Weber of the Circlemasters, and Court Hughes of the Rocky Mountain Aeromodelers for their quick responses with material and photos for this month's column. You did a great job.
Contest Activity
The GSCB's George L. Gaydos All-Scale CL meet will be held September 9, 2001.
Events to be flown:
- Standard AMA
- Precision
- Sport
- Profile Scale
- FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) CL Scale event
- GSCB Fun and Team Scale events (per GSCB rules)
The meet is scheduled to take place at the GSCB flying field, located in Lincoln Park, NJ. Full details about the meet, site location, and travel instructions can be obtained from Contest Director Bill Reynolds:
Bill Reynolds 18 Myrtle Ave., Caldwell NJ 07006 Tel: (973) 226-5611
Don't miss this great Scale meet. It's a day of fun and fine CL Scale modeling.
Submissions and contact
Please send ideas, notice of upcoming CL Scale events, contest reports, and photos of CL Scale activity to Bill Boss at the address at the top of this column. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
