Pat King kits
by Fred Cronenwett
clscale7@gmail.com
There are not many Control Line (CL) kits available these days, but Pat King sells laser-cut kits designed for CL Scale and other events. He offers both profile and full-body kits that can be flown in Profile and Fun Scale.
With additional details, the full-body models could even be flown in Sport Scale. Pat can tell you what three-views he used to develop the plans so that you can increase your chance of getting a better static score in terms of the outlines.
The CAD-drawn plans show the pattern of the parts and the overall structure. He does not include any of the hardware such as the bellcrank, control horns, and pushrods, but those are available at your local hobby shop.
Another source for the hardware is Brodak Manufacturing. I picked up the Fun Scale F8F Bearcat with a 54-inch wingspan. The cowl is built by stacking the balsa parts and then carving the cowl.
Laser-cut parts allow you to quickly build the model because all of the parts are cut to size and are ready for use. If you have ever scratch-built a model, you know how much time it takes to cut out the parts and engineer the structure. All of that work has been done for you with these kits.
Pat also offers a variety of laser-cut kits, including several Ringmasters, CL Stunt, and CL Racing airplanes. In ½A Scale, he offers a P-38 Lightning, F6F Hellcat, and a P-51D Mustang, just to list a few. For Profile Scale, he offers an AD-6 Skyraider, AM-1 Mauler, F8F Bearcat, P-47D Thunderbolt, a Hawker Hurricane, and many others.
The full list of his kits can be found under the Vendors Corner tab on the Stunthangar Control Line Forum website. Stunthangar is also a great place to find information about all types of CL
models. There is a Scale section where you can ask questions and view the latest contest results.
You can contact Pat at the email or telephone number listed in “Sources” for a full list of available kits.
Midwest Regional Championships
During Labor Day weekend 2017, the Midwest Regional Championships was hosted by the Tree Town Modelaires at the Aurora Municipal Airport in Sugar Grove, Illinois. The contest included CL Carrier, Stunt, Racing, and Scale events. With ½A, Profile, Fun, and Sport Scale, there should have been an event that everyone could fly in. Pat King was the contest director.
Using an abandoned concrete pad that was built for, but never used, as an airplane hangar, the club has a great place to host a CL contest. The Carrier and Stunt events are flown in the grass areas, while Scale and Stunt fly on the pad. If you look at a satellite picture of the airport, you will see the large, square pad on the northeast corner of the facility.
One of the models flown was a scratch-built airplane of the original prototype of an Andreasson BA-4B. Roman Lamacz built the 50-inch wingspan biplane that has a fiberglass fuselage and uses 2.4 GHz throttle control and a four-stroke engine. He even had scale wheel chocks for it.
Throttle Control Module and Receivers
If you fly with 2.4 GHz for the throttle control, you need to allow space for the receiver, battery, servo, and the on/off switch. If you only fly with throttle control, you do not need a battery with a lot of capacity. The receivers are smaller now because of the popularity of RC park flyers.
Several years ago, I picked up a spare transmitter at a swap meet. It included a park flyer that I really didn’t need, but the price was right.
I salvaged the tiny four-channel receiver that was buried inside the park flyer and now I use it in a CL sport model. I got the smallest NiCd battery that I could find and made a throttle control module for my model, which I use for practice and other club events. I then put a micro servo in the module, as shown in the photograph. The servo and the receiver take less space than the battery and pushrod combined.
The Tactic TR424 four-channel micro receiver only weighs 1.8 grams
Tactic also has a three-channel TR325 receiver that is only slightly bigger. The largest one, the TR625, is thicker and weighs 9.5 grams. The actual weight of the receiver is not really the issue; the amount of space the receiver takes up is the real reason to use the micro park flyer-size TR424 receiver.
In the photographs, you can see the throttle module that I use on my sport model. With a 250 mAh NiCd, a micro servo, and the TR424 receiver, the throttle control module takes little room and is mounted to the side of the profile fuselage. If I had found a smaller battery, I could have made this module even smaller. The receiver uses double-stick foam tape to hold it in place. You can also use Velcro to hold the receiver.
CL Contests in 2018
The following are contests that are typically hosted during the year that include CL Scale. Verify the events and dates on the AMA Sanctioned Event Calendar or on the AMA website before making any travel plans.
The CL Scale Nats have been confirmed for July 6-8, so it’s time to make reservations. The Lafayette Esquadrille will have the Broken Arrow CL Stunt and Scale contest on September 15-16. The Northwest CL Regionals are held Memorial Day weekend.
May: Northwest CL Regionals, Roseburg OR
June: Wisconsin CL Championships, Mukwonago WI
June: Brodak Fly-In, Carmichaels PA
July: AMA Nats, Muncie IN
September: Tree Town Modelaires Midwest Regional Championships 2018, Aurora IL
September: Broken Arrow CL Stunt and Scale, Valley Park MO
Land softly!
SOURCES:
National Association of Scale Aer modelers (NASA)
www.nasascale.org
Tree Town Modelaires
www.clflyer.com
Lafayette Esquadrille CL Club
www.lafayetteesquadrillecl.wordpress.com
Stunthangar CL Forum
www.stunthangar.com
Brodak Manufacturing
(724) 966-2726
www.brodak.com
PDK LLC Laser Cut Kits
(708) 921-6322
www.pdkllc.com
RC-Connectors
www.rc-connectors.com
Tactic
(217) 398-8970
www.tacticrc.com
AMA Nats
nats.modelaircraft.org
