CONTROL LINE AEROBATICS
Curt Contrata, 6783 Nightwind Cir., Orlando FL 32818; E-mail: [email protected]
CHARLES MACKEY contributed the
following about J.C. “Madman” Yates, who
was born on July 8, 1915, and passed away
September 7, 2002.
“We have lost a ‘true legend’ wrote David
Brown (AMA President) and Richard Hanson
(Vice President, District X). ‘We have lost our
childhood hero,’ said Don Hutchinson
(PAMPA [Precision Aerobatics Model Pilots
Association] District VII Rep.) and Charles
Mackey (author).
“Don and I were teenagers when J.C.
Yates won our admiration. Now we qualify
for discounted coffee at McDonald’s, but our
hero is still J.C. Yates. We believe Mr. Yates
started the trend to beautiful high performance
Stunt ships, the kind we fly today. We think of
him as the father of modern day Control Line
Precision Aerobatics. Mr. Yates was the
inspiration for the book Pioneers of Control
Line Flying.
“To understand the impact that Jay (he
liked to be called Jay) had on the model
airplane community, try to imagine a time
when most Control Line contests could be
At a Hemet Model Masters’ meeting are, top row L-R, Bill Netzeband, Bill Heyworth, J.C.
Yates, Rich Hanson, Charles Mackey, Dale Kirn. Front row, L-R: Lucky Pyatt, Bob
Whitely, Bart Klapinski.
Don Hutchinson built these replicas of Sammy Mason’s PT-17
Jay Yates designed.
At his last trip to the Hemet field, Jay holds a Quickie design he
built.
won by flying a Loop or a Wingover. The
airplanes were mostly converted Free Flights
or solid wing box fuselages.
“Imagine you open a copy of Air World
magazine and find an article titled ‘Control-
Line Stunt Flying’ by Charles Yates (his later
articles were signed J.C. Yates). You see a
photograph of a beautiful Control Line Stunt
ship with a backdrop of eight trophies. When
you turn the page you find a diagram of
maneuvers that look impossible. There is no
name for the airplane and no construction
details. What would you do? You would
probably do what I did and immediately start
construction.
“When the airplane is 95% complete, a
chance to attend the 1947 Nationals is
offered and accepted. I was completely
blown away when I saw Jay fly his new
airplane the ‘Madman.’ It was even better
looking than the one in the magazine and the
maneuvers were faster than I could have
possibly imagined.
“Bob Arnett, a teenage boy from Kansas,
witnessed one of Jay’s practice flights in
1947. Later Bob would become a national
Control Line Stunt champion, and he would
write of his encounter with Jay: ‘The damn
fool was doing things that I was afraid to
think about.’ My boss at the hobby shop,
Clarence Idoux, used to say that Yates’
airplanes were ten years ahead of the rest of
the country, and we all agreed.
“If Mr. Yates had turned out to be a
despicable human being, he still would have
achieved hero status for his contribution to
the hobby; however, he wasn’t a despicable
person. In fact, Mr. Yates could have made
hero status for his character alone without the
model airplanes. He was a gentleman, kind,
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patient, neat, knowledgeable, caring and had
time for all of our dumb questions. He was
the Gary Cooper type, the kind of a man we
wanted to be when we grew up.
“I could not complete the book about
pioneers without writing about J.C. Yates and
he was nowhere to be found. Bart Klapinski
and Bob Whitely had been flying a Madman
Jay built in the Old-Time event at the
Nationals (they won). That airplane is now in
the AMA museum. Bob had met Jay at a
hobby shop. Their mutual interest in Control
Line Stunt expanded to include RC and Bob
was Jay’s RC [Radio Control] instructor.
“It was 1981 when I interviewed Jay in
Hemet, California. Jay was a prominent
member of the Hemet Model Masters R/C
Club. He helped raise funds to build a new
RC flying site by building highly desirable
models and auctioning them off. The club’s
favorite airplane was the ‘Yellow Bird’ that
he designed, an easy to build aerobatic trainer
that became popular in the area.
“The interview with Jay brought to light
the close relationship he had with Bob
Palmer. Bob had lost fingers on his right
hand while operating a punch press making
parts for the Madman, and also lost his home,
his wife, his daughter, and his job. Jay
insisted that Bob and Bob’s mother move in
with him and his wife until Bob could
recuperate.
“It was at this time that Bob built the
Sammy Mason Biplane that Jay had
designed. Jay took the airplane to the 1948
Nationals, entered it as a team Yates-Palmer.
Jay won first place in the Scale event by
flying the complete AMA stunt pattern.
“The Yates-Palmer team was well known
for their spectacular team flying. They flew
Madman airplanes with Orwick engines at
speeds approaching 90 mph. Bob would fly
the lead plane with a ten-inch streamer
mounted on the canopy. Jay would drop
down from behind and cut the streamer while
avoiding taking off Bob’s rudder. They never
chewed up a rudder and they never missed a
streamer cut. There were many more thrilling
parts in their routine, but they are almost too
dangerous to write about!
“Jay dropped out of modeling, but Bob
Palmer became more active. Bob toured
many countries. He designed the Smoothie
and the Thunderbird and became world
famous. Bob Palmer may be one of the bestknown
names in the history of Control Line
Stunt. Bob planned to speak at Jay’s funeral
service, but was too distraught.
“The recognition of J.C. Yates’
contribution to model aviation would not
come until late in his life, but it was
appreciated by him as well as his family. The
first recognition came at a luncheon in
Hemet, California. All who attended
presented Jay with a copy of the book
Pioneers of Control Line Flying that he had
signed.
“The second recognition was a dinner
held in Hemet, California, and attended by
the Hemet Model Masters, Knights of the
Round Circle, and Jay’s family. The first
presentation was a painting of a Lockheed
Hudson, the airplane Jay helped build during
the war.
“The second award was a beautiful plaque
made by De Hill. It had an Orwick engine,
complete with a working spark ignition and
Y&O prop. Jay had a partnership with Henry
Orwick and helped in the development of the
first specially built Control Line Stunt
engine. Tom Lay, Bill Netzeband and
Charles Mackey contributed the Orwick
engine.
“The next award was a beautiful laser cut
plaque that inducted Jay into the PAMPA
Hall of Fame. The presentation was by Keith
Trostle, a charter member of the PAMPA
Hall of Fame. You can see photographs of
the evening’s presentation on the Internet at
www.ivic.net/~spider which is the Hemet
Model Masters’ club Web site.
“Jay was awarded a Pioneer Award in
1998 at a regular club meeting. The next
award Jay received was the Model Aviation
Hall of Fame Award. This was presented at
the Hemet Model Masters’ club meeting.
Rich Hanson presented the award. Jay’s
family attended, along with many members
of the Knights of the Round Circle. Jerry
Neuberger gave a talk about the Hall of
Fame. It was a great evening and everyone
enjoyed themselves.
“As it turned out that would be the last
club meeting Jay attended. Jay had planned
to attend one other meeting. He was going to
be presented with the first laser cut kit of his
1946 design Dragon, but Jay was unable to
attend the meeting so the presentation was
made at his home by Eric Rule of RSM
Distribution.
“Mr. Yates is survived by two daughters,
two sisters, six grandchildren and five great
grandchildren. There are no words to express
our loss.”
I hear from many modelers about all the
different trick devices and exotic materials
they are going to use on their next killer
models. Believe me, I understand how easy it
is to get carried away with technology and
modifications during construction. It does not
matter whether you are flying sport models
or trying to win the Nationals: a proven
design built light and straight with lots of
power is going to fly best.
We used to say that if you made it cool, it
was going to be heavy. Adding carbon
reinforcement to a successful and structurally
sound design just because it seems cool only
adds weight. This is much like an adjustable
feature designed to correct building
misalignments; if you build it straight in the
first place, you can save the weight of the
device and possibly eliminate an additional
failure point.
Think “simple and straight” throughout
the construction process, and weigh every
component along the way. Doing this and
recording the information will force you to be
weight conscious on the entire project.
Good equipment never hurt anybody, and
the fastest way to become a better flier is to
start flying better equipment. Many of my
bad habits can be traced back to flying poorly
built and out-of-trim airplanes. A good model
will go exactly where you point it and will
seem to fly perfectly round loops all by itself.
This is what we will be working toward in
the next few columns.
We have moved to Orlando, so please make
note of the address change if you are
planning on sending in photos.
Have you ever wondered where all those
2-56 blind nuts, eyelets, and line thimbles go
when they fall on the floor and roll out of
sight in your shop? How many times have
you gotten on your hands and knees, and
after all your searching concluded that they
somehow just vanished? In my entire shop I
found one set of yellow goggles for a 1⁄10-
scale plastic pilot and one #6 washer. MA
