CONTROL LINE SCALE - 2003/11

132 MODEL AVIATION
CONTROL LINE SCALE
Bill Boss, 77-06 269th St., New Hyde Park NY 11040
ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW: In the January 2003 column I
featured a photo of Dave Dulaitis and his Martin P4M-1, along with
some of Dave’s comments on the state of Control Line (CL) Scale and
that perhaps we should return to a time when things were much
simpler.
Fran Ptaszkiewicz of Tonawanda, New York, responded to the
column with some comments of his own. Fran was a CL Speed flier
this month’s photos of the fine-looking
Nieuport 11 and de Havilland Beaver. Each
model is powered with a 60-size engine. The
Nieuport has a wingspan of 60 inches, and
the Beaver has a span of 73 inches. Both
models were built from David’s plans, and
each weighs roughly 10 pounds.
The Nieuport is finished with Koverall
and dope, and David noted that it is most
realistic in flight. However, he also pointed
out that as with most biplane subjects, it is
not a windy-weather flier.
The Beaver has complete cockpit detail, a
detailed dummy engine, panel lines, and
rivets. The model is all balsa-covered and is
finished with silkspan and dope. It features a
scale undercambered airfoil. David will keep
us informed of his next undertaking, which
he expects to be a twin-engine project.
Contestants are wanted for an established
annual Scale (and Carrier) circuit of contests.
Ron Duly and Ted Kraver have created these
competitions in the Arizona/California
region. The meets are held in Tucson,
Arizona, in January; in Los Angeles,
California, in May; in Valley North,
California, in August; and in Phoenix,
Arizona, in November.
Turnouts have been light to date, and Ron
and Ted believe that it is mainly because of
their inability to get notices to CL Scale
modelers in the southwestern quarter of the
United States.
If you are a CL Scale or Carrier modeler
in that part of the country and want to learn
more about these contests, contact Ted
Kraver at 225 W. Orchid Ln., Phoenix AZ
85021; Tel.: (602) 944-8557; E-mail:
[email protected].
Glow System: Mike Stokes uses a simple
glow system on his large Saito four-stroke
engines. The system consists of a C-size
battery, a battery holder and a simple toggle
or push-button switch, and small e-clips.
Mike notes that you can find the battery,
holder, and switch at your local electronics
store, such as RadioShack, and the e-clips at
your local hardware store. You can also
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purchase a McDaniels remote glow
connector.
Solder the positive side of the battery
through the switch and to the e-clip, which
will fasten to the top of the glow plug with no
problem. When you’re ready to fly, choke the
engine, flip the switch for the glow battery,
and start the engine. You can leave the power
to the glow plug on for the entire flight. That
will provide you with smoother idle and
better transitions with glow engines.
This setup and an alkaline C-cell should
last for several flights. You will not burn up
your glow plug. To conserve battery power,
remember to turn off the battery power after
each flight. (Although this item was directed
at RC flying, it should work equally well for
CL.)
According to Mike, there are fancy
onboard glow systems that come on when
you reduce the throttle, but they require a
battery and an electronic gizmo or micro
switch. He has found that simpler is better,
and the simple system only costs
approximately $3.
Adding this onboard system might also be
helpful if weight is needed in a model’s nose
for balancing. This item was found in
Replica, which is the newsletter of the
National Association of Scale Aeromodelers.
Please send ideas, notice of upcoming CL
Scale events, contest reports, and especially
photos of CL Scale activity to me at the
address at the top of this column. MA
from 1947 to approximately 1951, when he was drafted for the
Korean War. He attended many contests up and down the East Coast,
including the Mirror Meets held at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn,
New York, and the Nationals, and he had a great time traveling with
Harold deBolt.
He commented on the large number of Scale models entered in the
“Beauty” or “Flying Scale” contests of those days and how simple the
events were. Your airplane was static-judged on the basis of scale and
appearance.
To qualify, your aircraft had to take off, fly 10 laps, and land.
There was no retracting gear, no bomb-dropping, etc., and throttle
control was seen on few models. Even if you had throttle control,
there were no extra points for it. Fran went on to say how great most
of the models looked and how they compared favorably to those seen
at current contests.
Although there were many entries, the biggest problem was that
most competitors who entered the events were poor at the flight
portion. It appeared that many never flew the models until the day of
the contest (some still do it that way), creating devastating results. As
I have pointed out many times in this column, you must practice,
Simple onboard glow-plug igniter can help with better engine
runs, especially in low throttle or engine idling. Author sketch.
David Fortuna scratch-built this fine-looking Nieuport 11. It spans
60 inches, has a 60-size engine. David Fortuna photo.
David’s scratch-built de Havilland Beaver has a detailed cockpit,
dummy engine, panel lines, rivet detail. Fortuna photo.
practice, practice with any new model.
Fran’s major point was that because of the simple nature of these
Beauty and Flying Scale events (no requirements for complex
operational features), they were well attended; it was common to see
15-20 models compete in local contests.
He also made a point about how in recent years we created the
Profile event for Scale, which was intended to encourage beginners
and other event modelers to try CL Scale. But what has happened?
The hoped-for numbers of new Scale entrants at local contests have
not materialized.
Although the Profile event has two divisions, one of which is
intended as strictly entry level, we have fashioned it after the Sport