CL Racing/Ballard
Catching the model
Paul Tune would back up 1/4 or 1/2 of a circle to allow the model to slow down before he grabbed it. Of course, the use of a well-padded glove also helps reduce the impact as the model is caught during a routine stop.
Pilot positioning and photo
I have enclosed a photograph showing three race pilots, all of whom are attempting to share the same 2½‑ft‑radius center circle. The pilots are:
- Karen Foster
- Bill Bischoff (with his shirt out)
- Melvin Schuette
As can be seen, they have pressed extremely close together in order to have the shortest possible distance from the center of the circle to the model.
Effect of circle size on speed
The pilot walks a very wide circle; the aircraft has to fly much farther each lap and is slowed by perhaps 5–10 mph. The tighter the circle the pilot walks and the closer he holds his hand to his chest, the shorter will be the effective length of the control lines. The effect of the size of the circle used by the pilot on shortening the line length has a definite positive influence on the speed of the model.
New Nelson .15 engine
I understand there is a new Nelson .15 in the works. It is purported to have a 15 mm shaft and to be aimed at Scale Racing. Henry Nelson is importing some very expensive ball bearings from Switzerland and is busy producing cranks and cases for it, which is hoped will improve performance in Racing. Nelson competition engines will be testing with the new modification in late February 1989. I hope to be able to receive one immediately, test it, and report the results in my next column.
U.S. and international teams
The remainder of the U.S. team had Henry Reed and Nininger using engines fabricated from Moki S12 engine crankcases with all other parts machined by Jim Nightingale.
The Chinese were using their copies of the Rossi MK 3 engine in all of their Speed models. The highest speed attained by this team was 281.25 km/hr by Ding Yibo.
Interest in FAI Speed
The interest shown for FAI Speed in the U.S. is terrible. There are only five or six competitive FAI Speed fliers in the entire country. Why do we bother to compete in this event when the interest is not there? The question asked by many modelers concerning our continued participation in FAI CL Speed World Championship competition is, "Why waste AMA's dollars to sponsor a team when this money could be used toward reducing our AMA dues?"
What do YOU think?
Notes
Down session. This should be self‑explanatory.
As always, I solicit your comments, ideas, and photographs.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
