Old-Timers
WE TEND TO consider this a male-oriented hobby. Okay, "sport" if you insist. That's true in terms of numbers, but it seems that women who participate—especially in competition events—do rather well. Long before it was fashionable, gender equality was present at the 1954 Nationals when 19-year-old Shirley Ann Austin won Senior Control Line (CL) Combat. She flew a Half-Fast III designed by "Wild Bill" Netzeband, who at the time was a St. Louis. Missouri neighbor. Shirley's present location is unknown.
Vintage CL Stunt Champs
IMAGINE, Control Line Stunt fans, sharing a circle with George Aldrich, Bob Palmer, Ed Southwick, Charles Mackey, and others from the Golden Era of Stunt. Include, if you will, present-day experts Ted Fancher, Tom Dixon, Kaz Minato, and Bob Whiteley, among others. Add to that the discovery that the judges include Paul Walker Bart Klapinski, and Tom Warden, to name a few. Sound like someone's fantasy? It was. It's also a capsule sketch of one fun-packed weekend at Whittier Narrows (South El Monte), CA last February.
Vintage Stunt Championships
In contrast to last year's rainout by El Niño, edition 11 of the Vintage Stunt Championships (VSC) was blessed with perfect weather. One hundred and one participants from 27 states and eight nations gathered at Tucson AZ, March 18-21, for the annual trip down memory lane. VSC has evolved from a one-time experiment in 1989 into a four-day celebration and the largest Stunt (Control Line Precision Aerobatics)-only meet in existence. It's called a "contest," and has been given a fancy name, but it's really more of a reunion and fly-in where "Joe Bellcrank" mingles with current-day experts and legendary designers and fliers.
VSC-III
FORGET those rumors you've been hearing. "Control Line is dead"? As far as Vintage CL Stunt enthusiasts are concerned, nothing could be further from the truth. Had you been in Tucson, Arizona on the weekend of March 23 and 24, 1991, I'm sure you'd agree. As you read this, daily temperatures in Arizona exceed 100 degrees. Late March was different. Both ends of the third annual Vintage Stunt Championships were subjected to the worst winter storm system that Tucson had seen in five years. Then on mid-Friday, as if by magic, warm sunshine greeted us. Of course it can't be confirmed, but many fliers wondered whether Duke Fox hadn't reached down and parted the clouds.
1/2A Owl Racer
YOU'D THINK I'd defected from the faith. "Racing? Scale? What is this?" my modeling buddies protest at sight of the Lil' Quickie. "We thought you were a Stunt flier!" I thought so too. Still do, in fact, despite certain recent contest results. (Some judges just don't appreciate the "Underground Eight.") As it happens, however, my favorite event, OTS (Old-Time Stunt) requires the use of OPDs (Other Peoples' Designs), and so I've yet to produce an original Stunt
