124 M ODEL AVIATION
The mySTeRy Airplane in the February issue was the Avia B-
534. This biplane was designed and produced in Czechoslovakia
before World War II. It was one of the last biplane fighter designs in
the world, and is credited with the last air-to-air victory by a biplane.
If you can’t recall any air actions for the Czechoslovakian Air
Force, your memories are correct.
The Czechoslovakian B-534s were part of the spoils as the
country was divided up during the early stages of what was
becoming WW II. By the time WW II began in earnest, Germany
had annexed Czechoslovakia along with many of its Air Force
assets—among them some B-534s.
As Germany was preparing to build its first aircraft carrier, the
Graf Zeppelin, many aircraft designs were modified to include
catapult and arresting gear. The airplanes were tested to gain
experience in carrierlike operations and to evaluate some of them as
potential production carrier aircraft.
Three of the confiscated Avia B-534 biplanes were modified for
that purpose. Thus the Avia B-534, designed and built in a
landlocked country and nearly obsolete by the time it entered
production, is a legal prototype for our Control Line (CL) Navy
Carrier events.
I’ll announce the winner in the June column. There is no Mystery
Airplane this month, so I can devote more space to photographs.
carrier nationals: Unofficial events at the Nationals will include
Sportsman Profile Carrier, sponsored by the Navy Carrier Society.
The event will be flown in conjunction with the regular Profile
Carrier competition Thursday, July 12.
Sportsman is a Profile Carrier event for modelers just getting
started in the event or for those who don’t care for the all-out
competition aspects of Carrier flying and enjoy flying in a lesscompetitive
atmosphere.
The Class I and II events will be flown Friday, as usual.
Processing for Profile and Class I and II Carrier events will be the
evening prior to the event.
The unofficial Carrier events will be flown Saturday. Processing
for these categories will take place on the field before the
competition begins.
And we’ll all be at the Navy Carrier Society Banquet and
Awards Ceremony Friday night!
Bill Bischoff is sponsoring .15 Carrier, and will include a Sportsman
category this year for contestants who score less than 200 points.
Sig usually sponsors a Skyray Carrier event, although the company
has not yet committed to the event as I write this in December.
I will sponsor Nostalgia Carrier and the Roland Baltes Award
again this year. Nostalgia Carrier is flown using the rules from the
1974-1975 rule book. The scoring is the traditional system used
before the present method was adopted in 1976. It emphasizes high
speed more than the current rules do.
There are small bonus-point awards for non-Schnuerle engines
and models kitted or published prior to 1978. There will be two
categories: Class I and II combined and Profile.
I will provide rules for anyone interested; just contact me at the
address or E-mail address in the header of this column.
Brodak Manufacturing (www.brodak.com) offers two kits that
are eligible for bonus points in Nostalgia Profile Carrier: the Bearcat
and Skyraider, originally designed and produced by Bob
Smurthwaite.
carrier activities: Bill Bischoff sent photos of his new Class II
MO-1. It’s like the previous ones, which have been so successful for
CONTROL LINE NAVY CARRIER
Dick Perry, 427 Live Oak Ln. NE, Albuquerque NM 87122; E-mail: [email protected]
Bill Bischoff completed Class II MO-1 last winter. Power is K&B
.48—unusual engine for Carrier, but shows promise.
Eric Conley and Bill Calkins prepare Eric’s beautiful Bf 109 for
Profile Carrier flight at November Phoenix contest.
Pete Mazur with MO-1 he built specifically for airline travel.
Carrying case holds all he needs for flight except fuel.
April 2001 125
him and for others, but it includes a K&B
.48 engine (www.modelengine.com/).
The reverse crankshaft from the K&B 7.5
outboard marine engine fits the .48, to
produce a left-hand-rotation engine. Initial
flight tests with the stock carburetor have
resulted in high speed times of approximately
19.6 seconds, with more testing scheduled.
The front end of the model consists of 1⁄8
plywood bulkheads with a 1⁄16 plywood
doubler. The 1⁄8 balsa fuselage sides are built
around the doublers.
The assembly appears to be very rigid,
which should provide an excellent mount for the
engine. Bill uses aluminum pads for the engine
mounts, as I described earlier. It all adds to the
engine’s ability to provide optimum power.
The landing gear is an aluminum sheet
gear available from MVVS
(www.mvvs.com/). It is produced for its VVector
RC Pylon racer.
Another product available from MVVS is
its .15 engine. Bill tested one as a .15 Carrier
engine and found it quite ample for the task. It
is available in a reverse-rotation configuration.
The carburetor supplied produces adequate
power, but Bill has learned that the Perry
carburetor for the old-style K&B 40 is easier to
adjust for reliable operation.
Bill is also experimenting with solid
lines, to identify potential advantages in
using them. They are stronger than cable,
and they are slightly heavier. Reports from
the Slow Rat fliers indicate that they picked
up a little speed with solid lines. Bill will let
us know what he finds out.
Record Performance: At the Phoenix,
Arizona contest in November, Pete Mazur’s
performance in Class II exceeded the
record. It is the first score posted to top 500
points since the current scoring was adopted
in 1976, and it clearly puts Pete at the top of
the performance ladder for the year.
We are waiting for a reply from AMA on
the status of the record application. It is
currently (in December) in review by the
Control Line Contest Board chairman. I
expect the new Class II record to be
confirmed by the time you read this.
Pete posted a high speed of 108.2 mph and a
slow speed of 5.2 mph (348.9 seconds), for a
total score of 517.9 points. Well done, Pete!
Pete’s model is one of two new MO-1s
he has built specifically for traveling on
commercial airlines. The models are packed
in a plywood box with everything needed
for flight except fuel. It is against Federal
Aviation Administration regulations to carry
our fuel aboard commercial aircraft.
I’ll be including a complete description
of the models and their carrying cases in a
future column.
new Profile: Eric Conley of Clovis,
California brought his new Bf 109 to
Phoenix and performed very well with it.
Power is a Nelson with reverse rotation
turning an APC 9 x 6P propeller.
The model contains a number of interesting
features. You will have to wait for a future
column for the details. MA
