Radio Control: Scale
LONGITUDINAL STABILITY. In response to our March column on the subject of unexpected stalls, we received a letter from James M. Ruley, who is an aerospace engineer specializing in aircraft stability and control and working for Aeronautical Systems Division, USAF, Wright-Patterson AFB. His discussion on stability theory follows: "Longitudinal stability is the tendency of an aircraft which has been trimmed to fly at a certain angle of attack (AOA) to return to that AOA when disturbed from it. It is necessary for an airplane to have longitudinal stability in order for it to be controllable. Therefore, it is important to ensure that our model airplanes are longitudinally stable.
Radio Control: Scale
BONUS LIMITS: The Paris FAI meetings always bring forth thoughts of the direct effect of rules changes on future projects of modelers. FAI rules changes will often lead to a trend, and this appears to be happening in the bonus system for RC Scale. The changes that will become effective next year can be expected to have some consequence in the outcome of our team trials. The 20% maximum cumulative bonus should stop the trend toward strategic modeling, wherein the builder includes as many bonus features as possible to overwhelm the competition with high flight scores. Most present-day team models would not suffer too severely with the 20% limit. The three- and four-engine models would all be reduced to an equal engine bonus of 10%.
1986 Nats: RC Scale
RETURNING to our air-conditioned Nats dormitory at McNeese University at the end of each day's flying at Chennault Air Base, we could see the digital thermometer across the street registering 100º to 103ºF. Accompanied by high humidity from the nearby Gulf of Mexico, the heat was of more concern than the competition and certainly had its effect on the performances of both models and pilots. Temperature on the runway pavement at the Nats site was even higher. A varying wind (across the runway, of course) helped to relieve the baked feeling. A fortunate few competitors made cool, early-morning flights when the wind was light. The Air Base, now inactive, has vast areas of pavement which absorb and store heat.
Scale World Championships
NORWAY WAS THE HOST nation for the Ninth Scale World Championships. The action took place at Kjeller Airport, a military field 20 miles northeast of Oslo, and 17 nations competed-47 airplanes in Radio Control and 13 in Control Line. The large entry in RC imposed quite a burden on the contest management, and there was serious consideration given to limiting the flights to only two rounds. In the end, the competitors were each given three flights, and the contest came to a conclusion within the allotted time only because the weather permitted. Had there been another rain shower, an extra day would have been needed.
Radio Control: Scale
A CASE for Scale anatomy: The internal structure of an FAI-type Scale model isn't supposed to be seen by the static judges, and so it doesn't really matter whether it follows full-scale practice in materials or assembly. Jurgen Steinberger of Germany placed twentieth in the World Championships at Paris in 1984. He returned to world competition at Oslo with his BE2e and improved his position to seventh place. A large portion of the improvement was the result of a more than 1,000-point increase in his static score. How were the judges informed of the internal detail that couldn't be seen? Jurgen had made up a handwritten list of items that deserved credit, and it is a truly amazing account of the extent of a Scale modeler's effort to produce a fine model.
