'81 AMA Texas Nats: FF Scale
Jerry Barnette
All three scale events — Rubber, Gas, and Peanut — were flown simultaneously on Wednesday, which made things a bit difficult to follow. First, some general comments. There were a lot of Laceys about, in several sizes and in all events. Fikes and Cougars were popular, too. Square-wing airplanes were very common; dihedral seemed to be a dirty word. Flat or square dihedral may be fine indoors, but it produces a great deal of mosquito-like darting in a typical summer zephyr — not an aesthetically pleasing flight. While the square-airplane school draws harsh criticism from many scale modelers, most of the Laceys, Fikes, and Cougars were neatly done.
Gas Scale
While the official results will show only three official fliers in Open, many others tried. That simple qualifying flight of 20 seconds is not always simple.
Duke Horn entered a nice little silver Ryan SC, complete with a scale vertical tail. The Ryan's small rudder made it prone to snap roll; one snap roll resulted in the nose breaking off at the leading edge of the wing upon impact. DNQ.
Curt Sanford entered a Ford Trimotor. The Ford started life as a Sterling kit but was highly modified by the time it was completed. It had a VL electric motor in the nose and CO-2 motors in the outboard positions. While the flying qualities were satisfactory, Curt was a victim of time and temperature. He had spent the day helping the rest of the Sanford Flying Team — daughters Stefanie, Melanie, and Liz — and left the Trimotor for the last event. With only minutes remaining in the contest he set about charging the motors, but everything was hot by then, including the batteries. The CO-2 motors stopped after 16 seconds and the motors were unable to sustain the flight after the electric motor stopped. DNQ.
Walt Rozelle flew a beautiful Taube but encountered icing and short-run problems with his CO-2 motor. DNQ.
Perhaps the most graceful and longest flights were turned in by the blue Rearwin Speedster flown by Donald Tomes, which placed third. The event was won by Jerry Murphy with his Cessna 170. Murphy's Cessna was a well-tested veteran, having competed since the early 70s; this year the old Cessna won for Murphy but unfortunately crashed rather badly on its last flight. Runner-up in Open was Pat Ciambrello flying a CO-2-powered Baby Ace neatly turned out in Mechanix Illustrated markings.
Junior results: Liz Sanford flew a CO-2-powered Baby Ace to second place. Finishing ahead of Liz in first place was her sister Melanie Sanford, flying a CO-2-powered Lacey M-10. Melanie's Lacey had a 15-inch wingspan, a 15% enlargement of the Peanut version.
Senior results: Older sister Stefanie Sanford took first place in Senior with her CO-2-powered Piper Super Cruiser.
Rubber Scale
Rubber Scale is always a pleasure to watch, and this year's crop of models was not disappointing. Mike Midkiff's Open entry was a Curtiss 503C-2 with a realistic weathered and battered finish. Good detail work combined with long, elegant flights put Mike's Curtiss into first place.
Another model with excellent scale detail and flying qualities was the Focke-Wulf FW-56 Stosser built from Model Aviation plans by Clifton Betz. Cliff used aluminum powder in clear dope to obtain a realistic silver finish on the Stosser. The Focke-Wulf's flights, aided by mild thermal help, were very nice.
Duke Horn had a nice-looking Church Midwing built from a Thomas Classic Models kit with some neat Hungerford wire wheels. ROGs in the light afternoon breezes were worrisome, occasionally dragging a wingtip. Following Duke's third-place finish was Curt Sanford with a Lacey M-10. As a matter of fact, the entire Sanford Flying Team flew Laceys in Rubber and Peanut Scale — the same Laceys they used at the Indoor Nats. At West Baden each of the Sanford Laceys flew in excess of 1½ minutes.
Ron Roberti's Bell P-63 was the center of much interest. Highly detailed and finished in an opaque camouflage scheme, the previously unflown model had takeoff problems. Although over-powered and over-propped (it featured a scale-like four-blade prop), after several attempts and repairs it finally made a qualifying 22-second flight.
About square airplanes in Rubber: John Houtenbrink II flew a Lacey to first place in Junior; Melanie and Liz Sanford placed their Laceys second and fourth, while Dan Isaack's Fike was third. In Senior, more Laceys: Stefanie Sanford's was first, and Susan Brown's was second.
Peanut
More Laceys. Curt Sanford topped Open with a two-minute, 15-second out-of-sight flight. The Sanford Laceys were not kits but were based on the 1973 American Modeler plans.
In Junior Peanut, Laceys placed 2–3–4: Bryan Fulmer, Melanie Sanford, and Liz Sanford, beaten out for first by David Tompkins' Druine Turbulent.
In Senior Peanut, Stefanie Sanford was first and Bradley Fulmer was second.
Perhaps the National Free Flight Society will grant a Model of the Year award to the ubiquitous Lacey.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
