Control Line: Aerobatics
Ted Fancher 158 Flying Cloud Isle Foster City, CA 94404
Introduction — 1988 World Championships
GET SET... As you read this month's column your team representing the United States in the 1988 Control Line World Championships is entering the final stages of its preparation. The championships (under the auspices of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, the international rules-making and record keeping body for all aviation) will be held in Kiev, Russia in early August. At last count 32 countries were known to be fielding teams, not only in Stunt but also in the other FAI Control Line classes of Combat, Team Race, Speed, and (for the first time in a common championship milieu) Scale.
U.S. Record in International Stunt
For those of you who are new to the world of international Stunt competition, a brief review of the United States' record should cause your chests to swell with pride. Since the first official championship in 1960, when the U.S. team of Bob (T-Bird) Palmer, Don (Stuka Stunt) Still, and Steve (Cobra) Wooley brought home the first-ever team championship from Budapest, Hungary, the United States won team championships until 1986. In addition, individual championships have been won by Bill Werwage (twice), Bob Gieseke, Bob Hunt, and Les McDonald (a record three times).
Yes, indeed! The World Champs had nearly become a garden party for the U.S. The competition had almost become a question of which U.S. team member would win the individual award, with the team championship nearly taken for granted.
As so often happens, however, success seemed to breed complacency, and at the last two championships the U.S. invincibility was threatened and then shattered. First we lost the individual championship in 1984 to Y. Younan, People's Republic of China, although we retained the team award. Then in 1986 we were overwhelmed by the Russians who swept both the team and individual awards. Although there was some suggestion of judging bias from the predominantly Eastern Bloc judges, it became abundantly clear that the rest of the world has learned to fly Stunt very competitively, and the reestablishment of U.S. dominance will be a very difficult battle.
The 1988 U.S. Stunt Team
Your team in Control Line Stunt (F2B in international parlance) consists of veteran international performers:
- Paul Walker
- Jim (Jimmy) Casale
- Bob Baron
No better fliers in the country attempt to regain the title of World Champions. Paul and Jimmy are both two-time Nats champions and are on the team for the third time; Bob was number-one man on previous teams, serving his third tour as well. Both Bob and Paul have been runners-up to the Individual World Champion: Bob in 1984, and Paul in 1986.
I have been in occasional contact with the team members, and as of this date (late May) things seem to be falling into place pretty well. Earlier this year some concern over a longstanding health problem shadowed Bob Baron's physical ability to attend; at last notice, successfully overcoming problems, he has committed himself to competing — extremely good news since Bob has worked long and hard to earn both a place on the team and a well-deserved reputation as a world-class competitor.
#### Jimmy Casale
Jimmy, top-placing member at the Indianapolis team trials last Labor Day, will be flying yet another clone of the successful Spectrum series, renamed Columbia to reflect its national origins. No surprise in the power plant department; Jimmy will still be riding an ST-60.
#### Paul Walker
Paul will likely continue the same aggressive, flashy style of flying that brought him national prominence — he always lets it hang out; the guy gives no quarter. Paul will be flying a new copy of the twice-National Champion "Bad News," also renamed and now answering to the sobriquet Atlantis.
Both Paul and Jimmy have adopted a common paint scheme reflecting a red, white and blue U.S. motif and have also used some specially produced press-on Russian alphabet letters to present an international cooperative flavor — Control Line glasnost. Good idea.
The Atlantis is powered by an innovative OS .40 power plant, composed of roughly 75% FSR and 25% FP parts. More about that in a bit. Paul is making some subtle changes in his flying style too. He thinks a less aggressive style will pay off with the international judges who seem impressed with tight, precise patterns rather than smoothly flowing presentations.
#### Bob Baron
The team's third man, Bob Baron, will present a very traditional approach using a slightly modified Gene Schaeffer-designed Hallmark. Bob has decided against the uniform paint scheme in favor of his traditional MonoKoted wing and tail surfaces with an epoxy-finished fuselage and minimal trim. He is of the opinion that the weight penalty of a complex paint scheme would be too detrimental to his planned flying strategy. He wants to keep weight to a minimum so as to allow the necessary power for a compact and flowing, yet tight, pattern.
His plans call for 62-ft. distance from center-of-airplane-to-handle and .51-second laps. He plans to use an ST G21/40, but has the nearly identical — but slightly more powerful — .46 in the back of his mind should the .40 prove to be too difficult to attain.
Coaching and Team Strategy
For the first time, the U.S. Stunt Team will have an on-site coach. Don McClave (Portland, OR), a Northwest Stunt flier and consistent Nats qualifier, will take his considerable talents to Russia to act on behalf of the team. Some feel that the recent fall of the U.S. from its unprecedented string of World Championships was the result of too much concentration on achieving individual honors at the expense of the team. Having Don along to channel the energies of these uniquely talented gentlemen can only improve their chances for success. Good luck to all four of them, and to all of the other U.S. CL team members.
Paul Walker's Mix-and-Match Power Plant
As promised, here are a few words about Paul Walker's mix-and-match power plant. I saw Paul at the Northwest Regional Championships in Eugene, OR this last weekend and was very impressed with the consistent and powerful engine run from his OS Max-based engine.
Like a number of top fliers, Paul has become somewhat disenchanted with the hard-charging .60 style of flying and was in search of an engine more suited to his demands. Interestingly, Paul's biggest complaint about the ST .60 (which he used to attain his current position as National Champion) is that it is so powerful that it tends to camouflage a plane's trim deficiencies.
Paul won his first national championship with an OS .45 FSR, and he still had fond memories of the engine and its power. What he didn't like was its appetite for compression rings. The release of the newer OS FP series of engines with their lapped pistons and liners caught Paul's attention, and he experimented with them in the hope that the lack of rings would make them more consistent performers. Unfortunately, they had other characteristics that weren't to his liking, so he shelved the project.
It later occurred to him that the parts of the two different series might be interchangeable. Lo and behold, with only minor handwork he found he was able to install the FP piston and liner in the crankcase of the FSR series. This produced a robust ball-bearing .40 with a lapped piston.
The engine proved to be very powerful and seems to exhibit none of the usual Schenurer-engine-run anomalies. There is no tendency to break lean in the outside parts of Figure Eights, nor to go rich in the insides as is common to so many Schenurer engines. Paul has modified two of these engines and found them to be identical in performance.
If, like so many of you, you have an old FSR lying around that you would like to rejuvenate, the modification is simple:
- Obtain (preferably new) an OS FP .40 piston and liner.
- Install the FP piston and liner in your FSR crankcase (minor handwork may be required).
The modification will result in an engine that has most of the characteristics of an FP, and yet retains the ball-bearing qualities of the FSR.
A Lesson in Using the Old Needle — Northwest Regionals
The Northwest Regionals were great fun and a consistently excellent contest. The only problem was the weather — very marginal for Stunt flying; wind and rain alternated with hot, muggy and calm periods on Sunday. The combination of these conditions and some rusty contest smarts on the part of yours truly provided a graphic illustration of how conservative needle and mixture choices pay off when conditions are marginal, and of the competitor's need to stay alert and aware of the options. Listen and learn.
After flying Old-Time Stunt in the blustery morning weather on Saturday, most of the Expert competitors hung around to try and sort out a combination which would work in the similar conditions predicted for the next day. With the high winds and cool temps, I settled on a depth three-blade Bolly prop and a rich ground needle setting using suction rather than uniflow. This setup allowed a controlled speed at the beginning of the pattern which reduced windup in the consecutive maneuvers below 45° elevation. It also allowed the engine to pick up speed as the tank emptied so more power was available during the verticals and overheads, and in the Clover too.
The setup was working neatly, so I packed it up and went out to dinner.
Unfortunately, when it came time to fly the first round on Sunday not only had the wind died completely, but the temperature was also much warmer. Paul Walker went up first and suffered through a dead-air flight which turned out to be a high score nonetheless.
I flew right after Paul and should have learned something. Unfortunately, all I did was to slightly lean the engine—which only overcame its natural tendency to richen with rising temperature. I didn't tweak it nearly enough to produce the additional airspeed necessary to overcome the calm air. This resulted in one of those situations where judges ran helter-skelter trying to guess where I might choose to fly my next maneuver (as if I had any idea myself). The result was a bunch of extra level laps and a flameout in the clover. The bottom line was 50 points behind the top seed with only one official flight to go.
The key word in that last sentence is "official." Here's where I really screwed up. In the first up in the second round I had done a quick and dirty retrim to suit the still air: a prop with more pitch and a leaner needle setting. It worked great during the lunch break, so I felt confident I could get back into the hunt with a good flight.
You guessed it. Time to fly—and down goes the sun, up goes the wind, and splash comes the rain. I foolishly not only went ahead and took off but, even after shaking my head in disgust (and to clear the rain out of my eyes), signaled for an official and wasted my last flight in conditions for which I had been entirely unprepared—and under which I had no chance of overcoming Paul's lead.
I had two opportunities to avoid blowing my chances:
- I could have called an attempt before starting.
- Even after taking off I could have waved off the flight once it became obvious that conditions were unacceptable.
In either case I would have been moved down two places in the flight order and had time to either regroup or await a return to calmer conditions.
Remember: The AMA rule book allows three attempts for two official flights. If you're in a position where you absolutely, positively have to nail one, don't put the nail in your coffin. Swallow your pride, call an attempt, and come back.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
