IN My FIrst column, I made a brief
reference to the Senior Pattern Association
(SPA). Well, now I know that not only do the
members read this column, but they are very
active in Radio Control (RC) Precision
Aerobatics competitions of their own.
I received a letter from Mickey Walker,
who is a mover and shaker in the world of
SPA. We exchanged a few very enjoyable
phone calls, which resulted in the primary
content for this month’s column.
Mickey wrote:
“I have just finished reading your article in
Model Aviation. I think that maybe you are not
familiar with the Senior Pattern Association. I
am the founder and current president. I have
asked our secretary to send you our regular
new member mail-out. It tells you what we are
all about. I think you will find we cover most
of what you mention in your article.
“We are 10 years old now and have up to
10 contests a year. We have just held our Masters contest in Knoxville;
we had 37 contestants with 12 Novice fliers. At our Atlanta contest this
year, we had 38 contestants with 14 Novice fliers.
“Look over what we send, and if you need any thing else let me
know. I can send you some pictures if you like. We are having a ball
with it. If I can help further just let me know.”
Thank you, Mickey. There is nothing a columnist likes more than
someone writing in. Even more fun is when the person supplies really
good column material.
Eric Henderson, 303 Shady Ln., Marlton NJ 08053; E-mail: [email protected]
RADIO CONTROL AEROBATICS
Daddy Rabbit SPA model was designed by Jim Whitley in 1973, flown by many in 2000.
Dick Konkle poses with his Beach Comber. The model is a 1962
Jim Kirkland design, and it has an O.S. 70 Surpass engine.
A swept-wing Phoenix, designed by Don Lowe in 1962. It was
built by Frank Stuart, and it uses Mickey Walker himself, with his Daddy Rabbit. Has O.S. 91 Surpass. an ST Bluehead 60.
March 2001 81
If you want more information, contact Mickey at 3121 Northview
Pl., Smyrna GA 30080; E-mail: [email protected].
The key term in Mickey’s letter was “a ball”; it is clear that the SPA
members are having fun. I will paraphrase the information sent to me.
Senior Pattern is a style of aerobatics that uses only a certain vintage
of airplanes. The series of schedules is identical to the AMA schedules.
The difference is that they fly only one center maneuver at a time.
The “Senior” part has two meanings: the vintage of the model
designs and the age classes of the pilots.
The airplanes are thoroughbreds and the living history of Pattern.
The SPA includes three age groups of pilots: Pre-Senior, for pilots 45
years and younger; Senior Pattern, for those 45-65; and my favorite,
the 65-and-older group—Super-Senior Pattern.
The schedules flown are Novice, Sportsman, and Expert, and they
contain several of the pre-turnaround maneuvers many of us would
recognize. A most interesting twist is that there are two other
schedules: Antique Sportsman and Antique Expert.
The SPA has two lists of airplanes that qualify for use in contests.
There is a list of roughly 100 models that were designed and flown
between 1965 and 1975. There is also a list called the Antique class, on
which there are approximately 80 airplanes that were designed and built
pre-1965.
The SPA allows any side-exhaust .61 two-stroke or non-supercharged
91 four-stroke in what is called “regular” Pattern, and non-Schnuerle .61
two-strokes and 71 four-strokes in the Antique category.
The SPA has degrees of difficulty that are challenging enough for
any pilot who wants to give aerobatics a try. The equipment is not that
expensive, and the fun factor is clearly very high.
I do not have room to list all the airplanes or rules, but the SPA is a
thriving group that is worth your time—no matter what age you are.
The skills you could develop in SPA would serve you very well in
current turnaround AMA schedules.
Drop Mickey a line, and he will be happy to give you more
information. He has rules, charters, judges’ guides, and a nice
membership card he can send you if you The impressive array of trophies at the 1997 SPA Championships. would like to join.
A popular Sultan, which was designed by Jerry Nelson in 1962.
This one was built by Jack Dunn, and has a K&B .61 engine.
82 M ODEL AVIATION
March 2001 83
One requirement is that you must be an
AMA member.
Some of the adjectives I used in
describing this movement may be accurate,
but they do not convey the spirit of what is
going on with the SPA.
They may have frozen time around a certain
style of Precision Aerobatics because they did
not follow the European turnaround fashion.
They did stop the “Star Wars” trend of bigger,
better, more complex, and price escalation.
The idea of limiting the equipment has
been around for a long time, and it exists in
some form in AMA and Fédération
Aéronautique Internationale limits on size,
noise, and weight.
The idea of selecting a finite number of
designs and engines that fit technology limits
isn’t new either, but it was applied in the SPA
when the rest of Precision Aerobatics kept
escalating.
If you have never flown Pattern, you may
not care too deeply about the history. You will
probably care if you have a competitive
airplane, and you will care even more if you
can do well with that airplane.
The big deal about SPA is the requirement to
perform one maneuver Stage Center, then exit
Stage Left or Stage Right, according to the needs
of the maneuver. You get to regroup and come
back to do another maneuver Stage Center.
This is a great skill builder, with mental
breaks between the extreme concentration. It
could be a very good place to start if you are
not sure. It’s a place to go if you want to fly
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with some old friends or your peers. (Everyone
I fly against these days seems to be half my age.
Thank God for Charlie Reed!)
Any four-channel radio will do the job for
SPA competition, and engines have affordable
price tags, nontuned pipe-type behavior, regular
mufflers are used, and there are no retracts. These
criteria save roughly $1,000 in equipment per
model compared to the current norm!
According to SPA rules, you use
inexpensive, all-season, tough, and primarily
balsa-based kits. However, building is still a
required skill, and it is fun.
Last but not least, the whole SPA experience
provides buckets of living nostalgia with the
same adrenaline they had in the “good old days”!
(Editor’s note: In a recent telephone
conversation, Mickey Walker indicated that a
possible new SPA class in the offing will
allow retracts and tuned pipes. Contact
Mickey at the address listed if you are
interested in this proposed class.)
six-sided Loop: You may think it looks like I
am writing about more and more complex
maneuvers each month.
I say “looks like” because this month’s
loop has six sides; it’s actually relatively easy
to do, because you pull the same corner six
times. In theory, you should have gotten it
right by the time you do the last one.
Joking aside, this is a very attractive
maneuver to perform. It builds on the round loop
and the triangular loop from previous columns.
(If you want to print these descriptions out, they
are being added to the NSRCA.org Web site and
assembled for your convenience.)
Once you can do a symmetrical Six-Sided
Outside Loop, you will have mastered one of
the more contentious maneuvers.
Why is it contentious? you might ask.
The maneuver requires you to put six equallength
flat sides on a loop. Each side is at a 60°
angle to the next one; this seems hard to do, or
hard to estimate—even by an observer. A 60°
angle is just a 90° angle divided by two-thirds.
To learn to do a Six-Sided Loop, you need
to practice pulling the first two angles.
Fly level and pull what you think is 60°, then
pull 60° again. If you have done it right, you will
be able to pull one more 60° corner and be
inverted. Then pull a half-loop and do it all again.
This first half is the most important part
to master. Do it as many times as it takes for
88 M ODEL AVIATION
you to get comfortable with pulling and
releasing the elevator.
As you gain more confidence, and you can
hold the inverted portion of the top line by
pushing in some down-elevator, pull the last
three corners. Throttle back to avoid putting
excessive gravity on the wings. Pull more
gently when inverted, because the airplane
will respond more quickly.
You should have begun the first line
centrally in front of you—far enough out
that you can see the loop without
dislocating your neck!
If you can hold the inverted line with
comfort, throttle back and pull three
more 60° corners.
Each line should be the same length, and
shoot for each corner to be the same
roundness (often referred to as the radius). At
first, you will be happy just getting six sides.
Then as the inevitable desire for perfecting a
challenge creeps in, you will need that friend
over your shoulder again.
A well-sized Six-Sided Loop should fit
inside an imaginary round loop, where
each 60° corner just touches the circle of
the loop. Your friend could use a hoop
behind you as a sighting gauge, to give
you an idea of how you are doing. It is
also helpful if he or she calls a signal as
you almost touch the circle.
To do a well-paced six-sider, you need to
use the throttle as much as the elevator. The
maneuver begins Stage Center, at roughly 1/2
throttle. Let the airplane draw a line equal to
half the length you are going to use for all
remaining lines, then pull the 60° corner and
go to approximately 3⁄4 throttle.
(Throttle depends on your airplane
engine/weight, so adjust these guidelines
to suit you.)
As you pull the next 60° corner, add most
or all of the throttle. On the top corner, the
temptation is to pull the throttle back; it is
better to wait until the speed has been
established for inverted flight, then ease it back
to quarter-power by approximately the time
you are ready to pull the downhill corners.
You may have noticed that you were not
advised to go to idle. This is because the 60°
down-line needs speed; otherwise, the airplane
will sink slightly as the 60° down-line begins.
Throttle back before or well before the
next corner. If there is a headwind, you may
have to add a little throttle to pull the airplane
through the last down-line, but gravity
usually provides enough help (acceleration).
Pull the last corner, and head back to
where you started. The maneuver is complete
when you cross the centerline again.
In a headwind, you will need to finesse
the up- and down-lines. It will be necessary to
pull slightly less into the first two corners, to
compensate for the drifting effect of the wind.
On the two down-lines, you need to hook a
little tighter to get a true 60° line. In some
cases, you may have to add elevator to
counter the effect of the wind.
A crosswind may require you to hold
corrective rudder all the way through the
maneuver. The problem is that each time you
pull a corner, the airplane needs to be going
straight; otherwise, the result will be an
unwelcome cant as you enter the next line.
One solution is to rotate your model’s
wings ever so slightly as you pull the corner,
so that your airplane keeps attacking the
wind. Stated another way, the nose is pointed
slightly into the wind on each pull.
Try flying crosswind. Let’s discuss the
wind blowing out, away from you, with the
airplane going left to right.
As you pull the first corner, roll the
airplane roughly 5° to the right. Do the same
on each corner, and the airplane will come
down close to where it started. If it comes in
too far, you induced too much roll as you
pulled.
This method is almost invisible to the
observer, and it doesn’t usually incur a
downgrade from the judges.
This maneuver may seem like a lot to do,
but the extra effort will be worth it if you are
searching for the perfect loop. It is a great
maneuver to do in front of the peanut galley,
and it will definitely increase your stock in
the eyes of knowledgeable pilots.
You can do the Six-Sided Loop four
different ways: from the bottom, the right
way up; from the bottom, entering inverted;
from the top, the right way up; and from the
top, entering inverted.
By the time you perfect all those
combinations, I will have written about the
next maneuver. MA
