Control Line Navy Carrier - 2010/10
Nostalgia Carrier
Nostalgia Navy Carrier seems to be growing in popularity this year, following the rules change that took effect in January. The class originated as a means of preserving the roots of our event. It is flown according to the scoring system that was used for the first quarter-century of the event, a system that emphasized high speed.
Because the scoring system is different, the flying style and the models tend to be different. Airplanes and a flying style that keep the aircraft supported by wing lift throughout the flight, instead of hanging on the propeller during low-speed portions, are preferred by some and enjoyed by all who try the Nostalgia category.
To encourage the use of models that were flown during the early years of Carrier, the historic-model bonus rewards contestants who enter replicas of aircraft from that era. This year that bonus was increased significantly, making vintage airplanes all but mandatory.
Also changed this year were the criteria for a model to qualify for the bonus points. We now allow any design that can be documented as having existed prior to January 1, 1978. That modification seems to be largely responsible for the increasing popularity of the event this year.
I have had a great time going through old drawings and photographs, researching models that would qualify. My Short Seamew for Class I and my Profile A-4P were published, so they have always qualified for the historic-model bonus.
I’ve resurrected my 1976 Handley Page HPS-1 Class II design and have begun to prepare one for Nostalgia. I originally used an OPS Schnuerle engine on the HPS-1, but the new one will most likely have a Super Tigre G65 to take advantage of the non-Schnuerle-engine bonus.
I also dusted off plans for the Profile Grumman Guardian that I built in Arizona when I was flying with the Balsa Bugs in 1971.
Digging out the HPS-1 was particularly interesting; the only plans I had in 1976 were sets I had found in Hermann Goering’s scrapbook (multiple volumes, actually), in which he documented aircraft development between World War I and World War II. I had found those records in the Technical Library at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base while researching something for my degree.
A three-view of the HPS-1 was included in the Goering documents, but its source wasn’t cited. The drawing matched photographs of the aircraft, but without an indication of where the drawing was published, I couldn’t use it as documentation for a Carrier model.
I have the original letter, drawing, and photocopies I sent to Frank Ehling, the AMA technical director at the time, at the old downtown Washington, D.C., offices of the Academy. Frank’s signature is on the drawing, approving the three-views. It was a real nostalgia trip.
As this column is being written before the Nats, because of publication lead time I can’t discuss the Nostalgia models from this year’s Nats. Watch for details of all new Carrier models in the January MA, and check out NatsNews on the AMA website for photographs if you haven’t already done so. The Navy Carrier coverage ran through the week beginning July 12.
Brodak Fly-In
The Brodak Fly-In takes place in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania, and is traditionally held in June each year. It features AMA Carrier events, plus Sportsman Profile Carrier and .15 Carrier. John Vlna is the event director for two days of Carrier flying. This year the deck was busy the whole weekend, with 37 entries vying for awards. John hopes to add electric to .15 Carrier in 2011. This year the Brodak event hosted one of the biggest Navy Carrier contests in the country, outside of the Nats.
John found time, even with his event director duties, to take photographs at the Fly-In. Included here are pictures of a couple of new and interesting aircraft flown in Profile. One is Jo Shoemaker’s Fieseler Fi 167 biplane. Jo flew it in .15 Profile.
The prototype Fi 167 was designed to a German specification issued in 1937 for a carrier-based torpedo bomber and reconnaissance aircraft. Its original order called for dive-bombing too, but that task soon went to a carrier version of the Ju-87 Stuka instead.
The Fi 167 was evaluated for potential use on the Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier that was launched in 1938 but not finished during World War II. With the decision to halt work on the Graf Zeppelin, the Fi 167 program was scrapped after production of only maybe a dozen service-evaluation aircraft.
The original North American Fury, the FJ-1, was a straight-winged excursion into jet propulsion offered to the Navy in 1945. With the German work in swept wings coming to light, the Army version of the Fury (the XP-86) was changed to incorporate those features and a swept tail, producing the F-86 familiar to many aviation enthusiasts.
That design made it back to the Navy as the FJ-2 Fury. With improvements (leading-edge slats and a larger engine), it became the FJ-3. With a significant increase in fuel carried in the fuselage and considerable changes and enlargements to the wing, the final Fury was quite a different airplane but still recognizable as a descendant of the original Fury/Sabre line.
Bob Reeves produced a Profile Carrier version of the FJ-4 and flew it in the Brodak Fly-In Sportsman Profile Carrier class. This Fury is large, with roughly 479 square inches of wing area, and a Thunder Tiger .36 engine pulls it around. It’s a great-looking model.
John Vlna has been working on electronic controls for Carrier, with flight tests starting as I write this column. He has provided photos of his hardware and promises to tell all when testing is complete. Look for details in a future edition. MA
Sources
- Brodak Manufacturing
(724) 966-2726 www.brodak.com
- Navy Carrier Society
http://clflyer.tripod.com/ncs/ncs.htm
- Richard L. Perry
427 Live Oak Ln. NE Albuquerque, NM 87122
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
