Control Line: NAVY CARRIER
By Dick Perry
I had the distinct pleasure last January of attending the King Orange International (KOI) at Jacksonville, FL. It's a contest I've wanted to fly in for quite some time, but it never seemed to fit into my schedule. I still didn't get to fly, but did have an enjoyable time renewing old friendships and meeting a few Carrier fliers whom I had not known before.
KOI organization and site
The KOI was ably run by John Parmerter, who handled the Carrier judging as well as being overall meet CD. This was the first contest to be run under the revised Carrier rules, and the events went very smoothly. The landing definitions were quite compatible with existing interpretations in the Southeast, and thus did not really represent a change to normal operating procedures.
The KOI is flown at Whitehouse Naval Auxiliary Field, which serves much the same purpose for Cecil Naval Air Station in Jacksonville as the Nats site at Seguin does for Randolph Air Force Base. The runway is seldom used on weekends and is an excellent location for Free Flight and Radio Control events as well as Control Line.
Contest participation
A total of nine contestants participated, with:
- eight entries in Profile
- five in Class I
- seven in Class II
Contestants came from as far away as New York and Louisiana to fly.
Profile event
The Profile event showed a predominance of kit airplanes and sleeve-bearing engines. Common kit types included:
- Hellcat and Mustang (Sterling)
- Skyraider (GS)
- Corsair II (Dumas)
One of the few ball-bearing engines was the K&B .49 (29 cu. in.) used by the winner, Ron Haase. Ron's high speed was 85.68 mph and his low was 33.32 mph, giving him and his GS Skyraider 221.4 points.
Class I and Class II
Class I and II honors both went to Brian Silversmith.
Class I:
- Score: 341.4
- Speeds: top 106.47 mph, low 30.5 mph
- Model: Guardian
- Engine: OS .40 RSR with meter and slide by Higley
- Prop: Top Flite 8.5 x 6.75
- Fuel:
- 72% nitromethane
- 8% propylene oxide
- 15% Klotz synthetic oil
- 5% castor oil
Class II:
- Model: Guardian
- Engine: Rossi
- Prop: swinging 10 x 8.75 prop cut from a Top Flite 11 x 8
- Speed control: Kavan pressure carburetor and George Brown exhaust baffle
- Speeds: top 116.08 mph, low 29.45 mph
- Score: 356.1
Records — Dave Wallick
Dave Wallick was busy last December at the Cleveland Control Line Classic where he set two new records — 297.0 in Profile and 402.5 in Class II. I had hoped to be able to give some details of the record airplanes, but incomplete documentation and the inability of the telephone company to give me a current telephone number for Dave forced me to rely mostly on past experience, rumor, and intuition.
Profile record model:
- Apparently Dave's version of the MAV-published (Cordes/Higley) Fairey Spearfish with a sleeve-bearing conversion of the K&B .58 — the same combination he used to win the Nats at Wilmington.
- Judging from Dave's past performances, the record probably consisted of speeds of about 90 mph down to 9 mph.
Class II record model:
- A Guardian powered by Rossi. Dave's previous records were set with a Rossi .60 rear-intake engine converted to a .65 with left-hand rotation.
- Prior to the record, Dave was working with an enlarged Guardian having a thicker wing to improve low-speed performance.
- Flight speeds probably ranged between combinations of 125 mph/16.5 mph and 120 mph/15 mph.
I'll attempt to get more details for a later issue.
Other notes and upcoming events
The Navy Carrier Society's Top Ten list for 1982 is full after Buckeye (AZ) and the KOI, and probably will have some changes before this reaches print.
As the new season picks up, there is one new Carrier contest I'd like to call to your attention. It will be held on May 15–16 at the Petersburg (Virginia) Airport:
- Saturday: Carrier with A/A Racing (no engine noise to interfere with low speed)
- Sunday: Scale/Stunt/Combat
I hope to see some East Coast Carrier fliers there to help kick off Carrier flying in that area.
Photos and credits
This month's photos of the October contest at Sepulveda Basin in California were sent in by Bill Netzband, long-time Carrier competitor and designer of the 125-sq. in. Guardian which has enjoyed so much popularity in Class I over the years.
Dick Perry 416 Woodhill Dr. Goldsboro, NC 27530
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
