Control Line: Navy Carrier
THE WINNER of the Mystery Plane contest in the July Issue is Monty Greenly (Long Beach, CA). His was one of only four entries to correctly identify the Boulton Paul Sea Balliol trainer used by the Royal Navy. Joe Wagner provided an interesting bit of additional information which he turned up in his research. Although the Balliol was a Boulton Paul design, the Sea Balliol was produced by Blackburn, a more traditional supplier of aircraft for the Royal Navy. Profile Carrier engines. Profile Carrier has seen a lot of engines over the years, but recent history seems to favor the down-sized versions of larger Schnuerle-ported engines-most notably the Tune-Hill conversion of the OS .40 FSR and the K&B 5.8. These engines are heavy and expensive. Recently, two new engines have appeared which offer a lighter-weight alternative. Both are intended for Combat competition.
Control Line: Navy Carrier
EXCEPT for a casual mention from time to time, it has been 10 years since I've taken time in this column to discuss wing flaps in any great detail. Since the readers have, no doubt, changed over the years and because the style of flying is rather different now than it was a decade ago, this seems a good time to bring up the subject again. The original Carrier rules very much favored high speed over low speed in the scoring equations. The models that predominated under those rules tended to be small. Class I models of 125-140 sq. in. wing area, Class II models of 200-230 sq. in., and Profile models very close to the 300 sq. in. minimum were common. Low speeds were flown in a near-level attitude with the wing providing the lift (as opposed to the present nose-high prop-hanging that has become popular in recent years).
Control Line: Navy Carrier
1988 NATS. If you read the minutes of the August Executive Council meeting (in the November 1986 AMA News), you noticed that the site for the 1988 Nats is still under investigation. Cam Martin reports that one of the sites being considered is Fentress Naval Aviation Field south of Norfolk, Virginia. This is, no doubt, good news for the modelers in the southeastern United States. Vince Mankowski and Howard Crispin have surveyed the site and are looking at potential layouts for the flying activities. One of the plans calls for Carrier to be flown over grass. Although some Carrier contests are flown over grass, most of these use grass because pavement is not available. The preparation required to provide a grass flying circle which will allow safe landings (no cartwheels) takes many months, and that won't happen at Fentress.
Control Line: Navy Carrier
THE SERIES on basics of Navy Carrier modeling continues this month. April's column discussed three-line control systems from the handle to the bellcrank. This month, the discussion of control systems starts with the bellcrank and goes forward to the engine. The L-R Products (7787 Archdale, Detroit MI 48228) bellcranks described in the April issue are available in four configurations. Three of these configurations are shown in the accompanying photograph. These bellcranks come with the elevator pushrod either inboard or outboard. The outboard configuration is more compact and is appropriate for installation in narrow fuselages or other confined spaces.
Control Line: Navy Carrier
PROFILE KITS. Although there have always been more kits available for the Profile Carrier event than for the Scale classes, there have been no kits designed specifically for Profile Carrier since the GS kits were available a few years ago. Sterling's Hellcat, though not designed for Carrier competition, can be easily adapted to the event. Two other Sterling kits, long out of production, are also well-suited to Profile Carrier competition. These are the P-51 Mustang, which qualifies for bonus points without any changes in configuration, and the Yak-9, which with minor modifications can become a Bell Airabonita. Both models are small in comparison to other .35-sized profile models like the Ringmaster. They are slightly larger than the 300-sq.-in. minimum wing area requirement for Profile Carrier. They build up into light models, and they have sheet-balsa trailing edges which can be converted to flaps very easily.
