Control Line Scale
Bill Boss [[email protected]]
NASA-hosted 2007 FAI Scale Championships to be FAI qualifying event
The 2007 USA FAI Scale Championships, hosted by the National Association of Scale Aeromodelers (NASA), is scheduled to be the qualifier for US teams that will compete at the 2008 Scale World Championships.
The National Championships will take place Thursday, September 20 through Sunday, September 23. The site for the competition will be the AMA National Flying Site in Muncie, Indiana, which is approximately 1 1/2 hours from Indianapolis International Airport.
The team selection will be for the FAI F4B (CL Scale) and F4C (RC Scale) teams that will participate in the 2008 Scale World Championships in Wloclawek, Poland. The events will be conducted under the direction of NASA with support from AMA.
A unique feature of these events is that there will be monetary prizes amounting to $5,000 in F4B and F4C events:
- First place: $2,000
- Second place: $1,000
- Third place: $800
- Fourth place: $700
- Fifth place: $500
These championships are open to any US resident and AMA member who holds a valid AMA member license. No foreign modelers will be allowed entry since this program of events is offered in an effort to improve our country’s FAI Scale program.
There will be a limit of two helpers per entry. The helpers are considered pit crew only — not the contestant who builds and flies his or her model.
The Scale Championships will be run according to the FAI Sporting Code, Sections ABR, Section 4 — Aeromodels, as published in January 2007. This contest will employ two flightlines in F4B and F4C.
Static judging for both classes will be Thursday (site to be announced) starting at 9 a.m. Competitors will select numbers at a random drawing. That number will be his or her static and flight position for the remainder of the competition. Static judging will continue Friday to its conclusion. RC and CL sites will be open for practice flying that day.
Flight judging will take place Saturday and Sunday. The competition will employ two flightlines in F4C and F4B. Two sets of flight judges will be used, with the best of the two of four flights determining the flight score.
Saturday at 6:30 p.m. there will be a dinner at the field, with some good times provided by the NASA LTD crew. The awards ceremony for F4B and F4C will take place at the conclusion of the competition on Sunday.
Entry fees for the competition are $75 per competitor and $35 for official helpers. All entries, as well as full payment, must be postmarked by August 1, 2007. The late-entry fee will be $150 for each competitor, and entry will be closed at 9 a.m. Thursday, September 20, 2007.
The 2008 Scale World Championships will be hosted by Aeroklub Polski of Poland and is expected to take place in the later part of July. The venue is Wloclawek, a town situated 155 kilometers northwest of Warsaw.
The Wloclawek Aero Club has organized many events in various air sports, including national competitions such as the 2001 European Championships. The flying field is located approximately 10 kilometers from Wloclawek and offers great conditions for a Scale contest. There are asphalt runways for RC and CL models, three hangars, an office building with a conference room, rooms for FAI Jury and judges, and a café.
For the first time in world competition a Junior F4B event will be offered. At this Scale World Championships each country may enter a team consisting of:
- Three F4B competitors
- Three Junior F4B competitors
- Three F4C competitors
Individual F4B and F4C World Champions will have a right to defend their titles. Also included as part of the teams are F4B and F4C team managers as well as official helpers, supporters, and observers.
Any Scale modeler who is interested in trying his or her hand at FAI events in September 2007 should visit the NASA Web site at www.nasascale.org for information. You can download printouts of FAI event rules and scoresheets for RC and CL. There is nothing like learning the rules and being prepared.
Having a Junior team participate in the Scale World Championships is an effort to bring younger modelers into FAI Scale events and cultivate future championship-caliber modelers. According to page 29, ABR Section, of the FAI rules, "a competitor is considered to be a Junior up to and including the calendar year in which he attains the age of 18."
I don't know of a movement within the US for the formulation of a Junior world team, but I hope AMA and NASA would consider developing a Junior team-selection program. It might help improve Scale modeling in our country and especially help promote the FAI Scale category. Watch the NASA Web site and MA columns for more information.
Wrong Engine
In the October column I identified the engine in Karl Krafft's Boeing 100 as a rotary. AMA member Tony Greene sent an e-mail telling me that the Boeing 100 was equipped with a radial engine — not a rotary one.
He correctly noted that many World War I aircraft had rotary engines where the crankshaft was fixed and the engine cylinders with the propeller rotated around it. Thanks for the information, Tony.
Featured Modeler: Dave Dulaitis
Dave Dulaitis of Sun City, Florida, who has been featured many times in this column, is back again. He just passed his 84th birthday, is still building prolifically, and flies at least twice a month.
This month I'm featuring Dave's latest endeavor: a Bücker Jungmeister. He built the model to a scale of 2 inches equaling 1 foot, which gives it a wingspan of roughly 44 inches. That size allows the model's Fox .35 engine to be totally enclosed in the cowling.
The Bücker weighs 3 pounds, which Dave considers heavy even though he reports that it flies well with the .35 engine. His complaint is that it is not aerobatic, as the prototype Jungmeister is. It would probably be capable of mild aerobatics if it were fitted with a larger engine.
Dave's models generally have color schemes that emulate aircraft flown in the Lithuanian Air Force. His Bücker is finished with the color scheme of the six Jungmeisters that served in the Lithuanian Air Force. I hope to see his next project, which is a Focke-Wulf Ta 152H.
Please send ideas, notice of upcoming CL Scale events, contest reports, and especially photos of CL Scale activity. You can send your reports to me at the e-mail address above or by regular mail to:
77-06 269th St. New Hyde Park, NY 11040
Remember that 35mm film pictures are okay and that digital camera photos must be submitted on a CD.
Keep your landings good. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
