2017 CL Scale Nats
by Fred Cronenwett
clscale7@gmail.com
Bob Heywood was the Control Line (CL) Scale Nats contest director this year. He did a great job of pulling together the organization and the manpower to run the event. With a total of 30 entries, events included Fun Scale, ½A, Profile, Team, Sport, and Authentic Scale.
The ½A Scale contest had the most entries, and Authentic Scale has found a following. Regardless of what level you fly, there is an event that you can enter and have a great time.
1/2A Scale
The ½A Scale event always brings out the fun side of this hobby. Flash back to the 2016 Nats when Dave Betz won the raffle prize of the ½A-powered Brodak P-51 Mustang kit that was donated by John Brodak. Dave and his grandson, Christopher DeGroff, built the model, and Christopher entered it in this year’s contest.
Although 5-year-old Christopher needed some help flying, he competed and placed fifth out of nine entries. It was a family affair with Mom, Dad, and Grandma also in attendance.
Jeff Traxler flew his new P-61 Black Widow—which placed only 1.5 points behind Bob Whitney’s Pond Racer in static points—earning first place and the high static award. Allen Goff received second place with his new C-47, and Mike McHenry was third with his P-39. Out of seven entries that flew, only two had a static score of less than 70 points (with an 80-point maximum). The ½A Scale event requires a great static score to do well.
Make sure that your engines run well and the model has stable flight. Consider moving the center of gravity forward to make the aircraft fly level without a lot of elevator control—almost like a Speed model.
Sport Scale
Chuck Snyder flew his Brian Taylor-designed Hawker Typhoon, easily earning the top static award for Sport Scale. Chuck had a 9-point lead coming out of static judging, but Peter Bauer was able to pull off some impressive flight scores that exceeded 92.5 points, allowing him to edge past Chuck for first place in Sport Scale. Chuck placed second, and Ed Mason earned third place with his DC-6.
Profile Scale
With all four static scores within 5.25 points of each other, the overall winning score in Profile Scale was determined by the flight scores. I returned with my 96-inch wingspan B-29 and earned the top static score by only a quarter point over Allen Goff’s new Brewster Buffalo, so the race was on to see what flights we could put in.
When all of the flights were in, Charlie Bauer’s D.H.88 Comet was the only one to score in the 90s—all other flight scores were in the 80s. With only a .07-point difference, I was able to
aircraft was flown during World War II by dropping the wheeled dolly used for takeoff. This was an example of using an RC foam airplane that has all of the features built into the model.
Wayne Smith flew a P-40 Warhawk that was made from a foam RC ARF, complete with retracts, bomb drop, and throttle—remove the elevator servo and install a bellcrank, and you now have a CL model. These lightweight aircraft can easily be flown as CL models.
Mike McHenry took first place with his P-39 Airacobra; Jim Smith placed second with the Me 163B; and Burt Brokaw was third with a P-51C Mustang that has retracts. Burt had won this event in the past with this model.
2018 Nats
The 2018 Nats will be here before you know it, so start thinking now about what contests you want to enter. We are in the middle of the building season, so I hope everyone has something on the workbench.
I always welcome contest reports, upcoming contest flyers, and pictures of projects you are building and flying.
Land softly!
SOURCES:
National Association of Scale Aeromodelers (NASA)
www.nasascale.org
AMA Nats
nats.modelaircraft.org
