Control Line: Aerobatics
By Frank McMillan, 12106 Gunter Grove, San Antonio, TX 78231
The Nationals always leaves one with a lot of impressions, so I thought I would pass on a few before launching off on the winter building season. One of the first that comes to mind was triggered by a conversation with visiting Australian Brian Bather.
After looking at some of the scores as we were watching one of the early qualifying rounds, Brian asked if the general quality of flying had improved. For those who aren't aware, Brian periodically competes in our Nationals—the previous time being in 1988 at Virginia Beach. To further put things in context, that was the last Nationals where there wasn't at least one tuned-pipe system. So the SuperTigre .60 still reigned supreme.
After thinking about Brian's question a minute, I had to respond that there was no doubt about the quality improving. I've heard comments about the champions from the past being better fliers than today's best, so I'd like to qualify that statement. Let me address that point in several ways, including both the individuals and the equipment.
When I went to my first Nationals, George Aldrich and the Nobler/Fox .35 combination were winners, with most other fliers also using Fox .35 engines. What stood out in my mind was the quality of flying by George, Rollie McDonald, Thornton Hoffman, Ron Pawlowski, and others. As a green 18-year-old, I was simply awed by the fliers whom I knew only by name from the magazines.
Engine runs are something that many now take for granted—but in those days, not so! Very few fliers obtained really solid runs from their .35-size engines. As an aside, my experience with the nostalgia ships and engines supports this conclusion.
Let's talk about the planes. Personally, after working with the likes of the Tucker Special, I believe that the smaller planes fly extremely well, but do have limits in anything beyond moderate conditions. They tend to go like rockets in the wind. These characteristics were a function of low horsepower and a search for good maneuverability.
Back in the '50s, fliers were—in the pure sense—just as capable as they are today; however, there are many other factors. We'll talk about those other factors a little later, but to keep this discussion short, let's say that given the right conditions, the first-rank fliers could compete well in wildly varying conditions with extremes of temperature and wind—and even rain, like this year's Nationals—but the equipment would be a severe limitation.
One germane point here is the absence of hard how-to information in the '50s. Couple this with the lack of many items available today (adhesives, for one), and you have an era that was golden but really can't be compared with the present. Unless you were close to good fliers, it was extremely difficult to progress. The information just wasn't available. What PAMPA (read: Wynn Paul, Keith Trostle, and a few others) did was to focus the expansion of the event and fuel it with information and a voice—an undeniable contribution. Thanks, guys!
The early '80s saw changes in engines toward larger sizes and more reliable runs; power was good. That in itself helped get the models into a more efficient envelope. A new crop of contenders emerged: Ted Fancher, Jim Casale, and—yes—Paul Walker. But the number of challenging fliers was also starting to swell. Much information was available, engines were running better, and planes were generally much better. Were the fliers better?
Let me sidestep that a little and say that many more fliers were getting coaching, and coaching has made a lot of people significantly better. In fact, when we had many individuals only a few were able to reach the upper levels. Now, many have good coaching and have elevated the overall standard higher than it's ever been. At this year's Nationals many top fliers had support staff that included coaching—for example, Paul Walker with Don McClave; Ted Fancher with Bill Fitzgerald; and, of course, Bob and Jim Gieseke.
To anyone who really wants to get to the national level of excellence:
- Get a coach who knows what the pattern looks like—and believe him.
- It would also help to have him judge to gain experience.
So to bring things full circle and back to Brian Bather's question: Has the flying really gotten better? I'd have to say a resounding yes. The first rank has raised its level, but the gap has also closed with other fliers. What impresses me perhaps more than anything else is the ability of top fliers to work in the wind.
Well, that's my opinion. Anyone want to comment?
Congratulations to the U.S. F2B team! A super performance under very trying conditions—good guys really do win!
- Paul Walker — World Champion
- Bob Hunt — 5th place
- Billy Werwage — 6th place
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
