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 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, 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 event.
David Fortuna: Nieuport 11 and de Havilland Beaver
David Fortuna of Evington, Virginia, sent in 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 Wanted — Arizona/California Scale Circuit
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:
- Tucson, Arizona — January
- Los Angeles, California — May
- Valley North, California — August
- Phoenix, Arizona — 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 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, 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 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, the newsletter of the National Association of Scale Aeromodelers.
Submissions
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
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
