CL Speed FAI Team Finals
THE FAI control-line team finals were fractured into several parts this year as a result of preferences of the participants. This resulted in the different categories having their selection finals at widely differing dates and times and, unfortunately, the last to occur becomes rather anti-climatic. Speed in the FAI control-line program has always battled vigorously with Team Race for the event of least interest and has managed to hold securely to the lead for the past few years. It would seem that .15's would be .15's in Speed fliers hands since the same engines win (that is the same name brands) regardless of what you pour into the tank. I realize that set-ups vary and the ships are of different sizes and sometimes shapes, but the general principles are similar. Anyway, there are not many FAI Speed fliers and nobody knows why for sure.
Control Line World Championships: Woodvale 78
World Championships begin before the gathering of competitors on the field for the first official flight. They really begin in workshops and practice fields tucked away in Dallas, Bellflower, Middlesex, Miami, and Mount Holly. They begin to take shape at contests and then team trials where winners become team members and losers become supporters and cheering sections. But the team's work begins with assembly to get to the contest and then the hard hours of practice before the first competition flights. Travel to the 1978 contest was different than in the past because of the changed status of airline flights and prices. Teams have traveled as teams in the past with mass assembly at one point and utilization of a single flight for all to an overseas point followed by car caravan transport to the contest site. This year the only assembly was by telephone and scattered arrival at several airports in England from flights originating conveniently in hometowns across the U.S. This was undoubtedly handier for the individuals; whether it lessened the team spirit or not is hard to say.
Control Line: General
THE 1980 World Control Line Championships held in the southern Polish town of Czestochowa from July 12th to 18th, for the U.S. participants, was an event which ended with mixed feelings. The weather, the country, and the final result of the last-run event left most of us wondering if the trip was really necessary. Things had started on a high note, for the first time, as there had been an assistant team manager approved by the AMA Executive Countil to help with the burden of planning for a large contingent on a long trip into Eastern Europe. Bill Lee had been selected by Team Manager Don Jehlik to fill this job, and Bill did admirably in pre-trip planning and organizing.
1982 Control Line World Champs
SWEDEN IN JULY doesn't sound nearly as good as it actually was. The 1982 Control Line World Championships was held in glorious weather in the small seacoast town of Oxelosund (oxel is the name of a local tree, o means island, and sund means sound) about an hour's drive south of Stockholm along Sweden's Baltic coastline. The town has a large steel mill (which is depressed like all current steel mills) and a summer tourist population (parts of which were displaying themselves enticingly on the local boats and beaches).
