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%.
Radio Control: Scale
FLAP OPERATION: The value of flaps in model performance has often been argued. It's true, if a model has a low wing loading and never flies very fast, flaps are merely employed because they were used on the prototype, and the model's performance will change very little with flaps deployed. If the full-size airplane was fast and heavy, and the model also flies like a streamlined brick, flaps are indeed beneficial. Almost all modern planes (those built in the past 50 years) will have used some form of flaps. Their basic purpose is to allow decreased speed without loss of lift and to steepen the glide path for a more predictable touchdown in landing. Drag is increased considerably, and throttle may need to be added to compensate.
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.
