RADIO CONTROL SCALE
Stan Alexander 3709 Valley Ridge Dr., Nashville TN 37211 E-mail: [email protected]
National Scale Championship Rally
It’s always great to see a group, a club, or an individual (sometimes all of them!) come up with an idea to increase participation in Scale competition and Scale modeling in general. Avid scale modeler and webmaster Ed Clayman did just that. He has several web sites and has been a big promoter of Scale competition across the country.
One idea that many think will catch on is similar to the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) Rally series for automobiles. The National Scale Championship Rally is designed to increase participation in Scale contests across the country throughout the year. It’s fairly simple in design and uses the AMA RC Scale rules. In the future there very well could be versions for CL and FF Scale competitors also.
The web site www.scaleaero.com/nasa_scale_rally.htm has a great deal of information for modelers who are thinking about trying Scale competition for the first time and for those who want to hold a Scale competition themselves. Much of it parallels the AMA rule book.
At a local field in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, last year the Murfreesboro Skyhawks held a one-day Fun Scale event to gauge interest from the surrounding area. The result was that everyone had a great time, and most of the judges were full-scale pilots. They used the KISS principle—Keep it simple, stupid!—for the contest and offered lunch and a great dinner afterward.
According to the rules, the rally competitor will attend no fewer than three AMA-sanctioned Scale contests. The contestant prints a form from the web site, has each contest director fill in the data, and the director mails the form (in an SASE) to the National Association of Scale Aeromodelers (NASA) at: 16115 Espinosa Dr., Houston TX 77083.
Key points:
- You can participate in AMA or Scale Masters (www.scalemasters.org) events anywhere in the country.
- The competitor’s name, AMA district, and contest scores will be posted on the My Rally Tally page of the National Scale Championship Rally web site and distributed to the hobby media. No additional information will be disclosed without the entrant’s permission.
- Only data entered on an official NASA web registration form and official submission form will be accepted.
- Scoring rewards consistency: if you place third at one contest, fourth at another, and fifth at a third contest, you could still win the rally.
Classes open for the rally include:
- Team Scale (AMA event 522)
- Designer Scale (AMA event 515)
- Expert Sport Scale (AMA event 512)
- Sportsman Sport Scale (AMA event 511)
- Fun Scale (AMA event 520)
Entry fee: $5.
Incoming: Convair R3Y-1 Tradewind (John Thompson)
John Thompson (Southampton, England) built the scale Convair R3Y-1 Tradewind shown in the photos from plans he scaled up from drawings he found in a recent publication about this rare transport. Electric power allowed John to build the model in a size that is easy to transport to his club’s water fly-ins. With the full-scale aircraft having turboprops, at this size it would be impossible to get the engines inside the cowlings.
Model specs:
- Wingspan: 75 inches
- Length: 67 inches
- All-up weight: 10 lb 12 oz
- Construction: built-up balsa-and-plywood, covered with fabric and painted with Ford automotive paint
- Power: four Speed 480BB Race electric motors, geared down to a 4.5:1 ratio using Cosmotec gearboxes
- Propellers: 8x6 three-blade Tornado props
- Radio: five-channel system, including a Schulze Smart 50B0 speed controller
- "Fuel": two 10-cell Sanyo 2400 Ni-Cd packs and the receiver battery pack
Electric power trend and other models
One of the changes we are beginning to see with Scale models is the increased use of electric power. It gives modelers more options when it comes to powering obscure or harder-to-model aircraft, such as the Bugatti Model 100.
Some might say that Keith Shaw's Bugatti isn't Scale, but it is. The full-scale aircraft hangs in the Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture Museum at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I don't have stats on this model, but I would love to know how it flies.
The 40-size Aeronca Champ shown at last year's Mint Julep Scale Meet at Falls of Rough State Park in Kentucky demonstrates that you don’t need a warbird for competition. Painted in Aeronca's main Champ color scheme, the yellow-and-orange airplane is easy to see in the sky and ideal for a beginner.
Upcoming Events
Western Regional Scale Masters qualifier
- Date: June 11–13
- Location: El Toro Orange County Modelers' Association field, Irvine, California
- Host: Scale Squadron of Southern California
- Contest Director: Sam Wright
- Classes: Expert, Team Scale, Sportsman, Fun Scale
- Contact: Sam Wright — [email protected] or (949) 766-9786
- Alternate contact: Gordon Truax — [email protected] or (714) 525-7926
Denver Warbird Fly-In
- Date: June 11–13
- Location: Chatfield State Park, Colorado
- Field: two 800-foot runways; camping permitted in the parking lot (no hookups)
- Notes: Any warbird is welcome, but no Ugly Sticks or sport jets with warbird markings are allowed.
- Contact: Brian O'Meara — (303) 254-5160 or [email protected]
Bookshelf
Jagdwaffe: Birth of the Luftwaffe Fighter Force (Volume One, Section 1) Authors: Eric Mombeek with Richard Smith and Eddie J. Creek Publisher: Classic Publications (Classicolours series) Pages: 96 ISBN: 0952866759
This volume covers the beginnings of the new Luftwaffe after World War I. Like the American Eagles book in the same series, it provides color side plates with matching photos on the same or adjacent pages. That layout gives the black-and-white photos from the 1930s better clarity and provides modelers with improved documentation for painting and markings.
Fair skies and tailwinds. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
