Short Seamew
ONE OF THE MOST enjoyable aspects of the scale Navy Carrier events is looking for suitable subjects to model. A few years ago, my search for carrier-based aircraft turned up the Short "Seamew" which appeared to be a good prospect for the Carrier event. The feature which appealed to me most on the Seamew was the unusual shape of the forward fuselage which allows a semicowled, rat racer type of engine installation with minimum frontal area. The Seamew was manufactured by Short Brothers and Harland, Ltd. for the British Royal Navy. The first prototype flew in August 1953. It was followed by production versions which were modified slightly from the original configuration. The production Seamews had slightly more dihedral, leading edge slots to improve aileron control and a vented fillet on the horizontal stabilizer to improve elevator and rudder effectiveness.
Control Line: Navy Carrier
I was quite pleased when Carl Wheeley asked me to write this column. The Navy Carrier events have had little publicity in the past few years, and I am hoping that this column can provide a focal point for Carrier activities and a valuable forum for the exchange of ideas and information. I like to think of all CL modelers as Carrier flyers - those who actively participate in the event and those who haven't yet tried it. I hope to provide good reading for both, and to encourage more of those "haven't yet's" to come aboard and find out what they have been missing.
Control Line: Navy Carrier
THE 1975 NATS will be history by the time this issue reaches you, but there should still be time for you Midwest area Carrier modelers to get in on what should be a top-notch contest. It won't be the year's biggest contest, and it hasn't been around for years like some of our traditional meets, but it offers some of the best awards and rewards of any contest this season. The awards consist of HP 40 engines for the first place winners in Profile and Class I Carrier and a Webra 61 Speed engine for Class II. The rewards to which I refer will result from the fact that all entry fees collected will be donated to the National Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. Bill "Moose" Allen and his friends have done a tremendous amount of work to put this First Annual Aero Challenge for Muscular Dystrophy together to benefit two worthy causes: MD Research and Model Aviation. This contest will be covered on television and should provide a real boost to modeling in northern Illinois and in your own area as an example of how model aviation can benefit the community. Come on out to DeKalb, III., on August 31 and join the fun-it's even tax deductible!
Control Line: Navy Carrier-Scale
THE CL SCALE event was, as usual, one of the big crowd pleasers at the NATS, drawing a large number of spectators on Thursday afternoon. The Scale judging cage drew on-lookers throughout the week and helped generate interest in the flying end of the competition. There were a total of 12 aircraft submitted for static judging: three in Junior, four in Senior, and five in the Open age category. Most of the names were familiar, many of the modelers having competed in previous NATS. Last year's winner, Ernie Violett, brought out his beautiful DeHavilland Comet 88 once again. The three members of the 1974 CL Scale team (Mike Gretz, Bill Harney, and Mike Stott) were also there, with Ralph Burnstine filling out the ranks and making the fifth Open contestant.
Control Line: Navy Carrier
THE NATS is behind us for another year, the flying season in the northern states is drawing to a close, and it is time to start thinking about building new ships for next year. Before you start, however, take time to ensure that your engines will be ready to go next spring when you are. With castor oil rather expensive and mixing rather poorly with larger amounts of nitromethane, many commercial fuels use synthetic oil. While the synthetics do quite well at their assigned job, lubrication, some of them are very poor at a second function which we all expect from oil-rust prevention. Many of the synthetics lose any rust-preventive qualities they might have had when exposed to the air for a week or two. To be safe, put a good rust-inhibiting oil in your engines before wrapping them up for the winter.
