Control Line: Aerobatics

CONTROL LINE AEROBATICS

Frank McMillan 12106 Gunter Grove, San Antonio, TX 78231

Introduction / History

The 1993 Nationals was the 24th time I participated in the world's largest and best model airplane contest. My first year was 1957—and what an experience that was. In those days the Navy hosted the contest at their facilities, and the acres of work tables in the main hangar, with hundreds of modelers working at all hours, still evokes many fond memories. The Navy provided flying officers as judges, and there was no set flying order. Gamesmanship for the best perceived flying order was a normal part of the competition. Flying stopped promptly at 5 p.m., and the trick was to get the last flight. A good call could balloon a score and win the event.

In Open that year there was a two-circle format with different judges and a good-sized score differential. With the high score determining the winner, a good flight on the high circle was mandatory. George Aldrich was high in both circles with the famous black Nobler, so the format wasn't a factor then. In those days many fliers had their whole competitive year reduced to one flight!

A lot has changed over the years, starting with the advent of the Precision Aerobatics Model Pilots Association (PAMPA). Qualifying rounds, top-20, final five, and Walker Cup competition formats have succeeded in producing a flying contest rather than letting strategy play a big part. The addition of an Advanced class to the Nationals format, with parallel qualifying rounds and a top-20 day, has produced intense competition and an increasing number of participants.

Old Time and Nostalgia (now Classic) Stunt on Mondays are also major events; many fliers come to the Nationals just to compete in them. Other informally organized events look like they will catch on and attract sufficient participation to become a continuing part of the Nationals format. 1/2A Stunt has been flown occasionally over the years and may see a renaissance now that more suitable engines and technology are available. Beginner Stunt fills out the skill-level spectrum. Looked at over the entire week, the aerobatic events provide a competition opportunity for everyone. As the old ad used to say, "You've come a long way, baby!"

Event Organization & Volunteers

The entire week went smoothly, and as anyone who has participated in running a major event knows, this only happens after a great deal of preparation and thought. Event Director Bruce Gifford ran his fourth consecutive Nationals and handled many difficult situations, including an electrical storm on Thursday that forced a four-hour delay in qualifying and negotiations with AMA officials for the final flying site. Bruce will serve as Event Director next year in Lubbock, Texas—sincere, well done, Bruce.

Assisting Bruce with administrative chores were:

• Head Tabulator Shareen Fancher, with assistants Kathy Fitzgerald and Lila Lee. These ladies spent many late hours preparing score sheets and score display sheets for the judges.

Appearance judging—when all the models are together, shiny and looking their best—was performed by:

• Greg Doe
• Jim Katz
• Peter Rourk

Appearance points are added to each flight score and can be significant.

Flight judging is a tough job—instantaneous, subjective judgments on each maneuver, maintained consistently flight to flight, day to day, in sun, rain, heat, and humidity. Head Judge Dave Cook prepared the judges and the judging documents; this was his fourth and final year as Head Judge. Assisting Dave were:

• Gary McClellan (next year's Head Judge)
• Jim Toot
• Doug Cook
• Mary Gebhart
• Craig Gunder
• John D'Ottavio
• Warren Tiahrt
• Doug Taffinder
• Libby Martin
• Gene Mills
• Jon Ramsden
• Jim Pascoeur

Many other volunteers helped throughout the week; without them the event would not be as successful.

Weather, Site, and Setup Considerations

Anyone who arrives at the Nationals with everything optimized without making adjustments is in a small minority. Temperature, density altitude, and wind conditions are major factors. How do they differ from your home field? Heavy models have smaller performance envelopes and are more critical to changes. Props that worked in one set of conditions may be under-pitched or have too little blade in another.

Examples from this year:

• Windy Urtnowski arrived with a good setup but had to change engines, props, and make four different sets of lines (stable, solids, shorter, etc.).
• Paul Walker expected to use last year's setup but wound up with the "old" numbers.
• Bill Werwage had trouble with leaking pipe headers and used a reconfigured one from Bob McDonald.
• Bill Rich went up one increment in prop pitch and found that sufficient.

The point is: fly when you arrive on site, evaluate, and be willing to make changes. Bring options—different props, nitro-content fuels, spare lines, engines, etc. Superior late-week flights are usually the result of hard work at the actual Nationals site.

Stunt Events: Old Time and Classic

Monday is the first day of Stunt activity, with Old Time and Classic flown on adjoining circles. Many Old Time fliers had placed high in Vintage Stunt Championships and previous Nationals, so the standard of flying was very high and margins were tight. Classic (formerly Nostalgia) is the official name for the pre-1969 designs. Many competitors fly designs they first saw years ago, and the event is about both flying and the joy of the designs.

Old Time is run as an independent event. Officials for Old Time included:

• Event Director: John Ramsden
• Tabulators: Paula Barickman and Lila Lee
• Runners: Ami Adamisin and Jamie Pratt
• Pit Boss: Paul Walker
• Judges: Doug Cook and Gene Mills

Classic (Nostalgia) results and notes:

• Many models flew extremely well. Lew McFarland flew an original Shark and led most of the first round. Greg Zajack flew his mid-'60s Patriot with his old placings on the wing.
• Todd Lee flew a Lew McFarland-designed Dolphin to second place.
• Tom Dixon flew his familiar Thunderbird with a Fox .40 ABC to third place.
• Don McClave flew a Bob Palmer Pow Wow and placed just behind Tom.
• Mike Pratt had a nice second flight in the wind for fifth place with a Veco Chief.
• I finally got everything working on the well-traveled Tucker Special and captured a solid first place. Thanks to Bob Hunt for tips on prop and tank venting—the flight would have made designer Bob Tucker proud.

Classic officials:

• Event Director: Warren Tiahrt
• Tabulators: Paula Barickman and Lila Lee
• Runners: Ami Adamisin and Jamie Pratt
• Pit Boss: Paul Walker
• Judges: Doug Cook and Gene Mills

Notable Models, Crashes, and Repairs

There were many memorable machines and incidents:

• Paul Walker brought a B-17 model powered by four O.S. .15 motors. Two weeks prior to the Nationals three inboard engines stopped in an overhead eight and the model was unrecoverable at the site. The damage is repairable and Paul plans to fly the new version next year. The plane had an impressive wingspan—over six feet.
• When Bob Gieseke hit a runway light during practice Wednesday night, the inboard wing was shattered with four rib bays crushed. Others pitched in—spare ribs from a Cardinal kit, cyanoacrylate glue, sanding, and clear tape covering—so Bob could trim and complete the finals early the next morning. This is typical Nationals teamwork.
• Tom Farmer designed and flew an ST .60-powered Extra 230, an excellent near-scale representation.
• Bob McDonald flew a new plane with a side-mounted HP .40 ABC and Apple Cheek cowls—an elegant model that flew extremely well.
• Jim Young returned with a slick new piped version of his Road Runner design.

Advanced Class

The Advanced class has become very popular as a skill class where fliers compete against their own level. This year there were 35 entries and they flew the same format as the Open fliers: Wednesday/Thursday qualifying rounds with finals on Friday.

Advanced finals highlights:

• After a very close first round—Carlos Serra, Dale Barry, and J. Borrelli were within eight points—Carlos blew everybody away by thirty points in the last round.
• Final top five:

1. Carlos Serra
2. J. Borrelli
3. Dale Barry
4. Carl Raichle
5. J. Damerell

Junior and Senior Competition

Junior:

• Dale Barry was a clear winner, flying the Charisma, a new Tom Dixon design.
• Dondi Garrison was second, using a unique two-handed flying style.

Senior:

• Robbie Hunt edged Carlos Serra (last year's Junior champion) by less than two points for his second Senior title in a row. The older fliers should look out for these two.

Open Competition and Finals

Qualifying rounds were generally routine, though sometimes gusty. Thursday brought an approaching storm causing shocks mid-round; flying was suspended for four hours. After resumption it was decided only one round would be flown that day. This left some flyers with lower-than-desired scores, but it was the most practical decision.

Notable Open entries and finishes:

• The Walker Cup flyoff compares the scores of the Junior, Senior, and Open winners without appearance points. Paul Walker won the Walker Cup for the sixth time, easily outpointing Dale Barry and Robbie Hunt.
• Dominant engines in Open were the O.S. .46 VF, HP .40 ABC, and OPS .40 SPP. Aero Pipes and occasional Eather, T&L, or Midgley systems were used.
• By vote of the fliers, Bob Lampione won the Concours with his United III in a gorgeous yellow scheme.

Open finals top placings:

1. Paul Walker
2. Ted Fancher
3. Bill Werwage
4. Bob Hunt
5. Kaz Minato

Other top-16 placements mentioned:

• 6. Dave Fitzgerald
• 7. Bill Rich
• 8. Windy Urtnowski
• 9. Mike Rogers
• 10. Frank McMillan (author)
• 11. Bob Baron
• 12. Bob Gieseke
• 13. Bob Whitely
• 14. Frank Williams
• 15. Randy Smith
• 16. Steve Buso (Rookie of the Year and sole nominee to replace incumbent Ted Fancher as PAMPA president)

Notes on several competitors:

• Randy Smith (15th) had an excellent year with his OPS .40-powered Vector design.
• Frank Williams (14th) flew a new Lone Star with a front-exhaust drum-rotor O.S. .40.
• Bob Whitely (13th) flew a new VF .46 piped design, Bounty Hunter.
• Bob Gieseke (12th) battled engine/fuel problems and a crash but still produced his best plane in many years.
• Bob Baron (11th) flew a Netzeband-inspired Humbug with an ST .60.
• Mike Rogers (9th) flew the 1991 Pattern Master with a Big Jim ST .60—the highest-placing copied model.
• Windy Urtnowski (8th) flew the Video Plane, Tweener, powered by an O.S. .40VF.
• Bill Rich (7th) used an SV-12 on a piped O.S. .46VF and ran consistently.
• Dave Fitzgerald (6th) flew a new version of Ted Fancher's Excitation on an O.S. .46VF.

Paul Walker's consistent flying never relinquished the lead. Ted Fancher moved to second in the last round by less than two points. Werwage had perhaps the nicest flow of the finals on his second flight despite pipe-header difficulties. Bob Hunt overcame an early first-round draw with two solid flights to overtake Kaz Minato for fourth place.

Final Notes

There are many stories of hard work and competitors helping each other that are typical of this and many other Nationals. The people are the reason Precision Aerobatics continues to grow and remain the premier event in modeling.

It was a great Nationals. We look forward to Lubbock, Texas next year. Y'all come, hear?

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.