Control Line: Racing
Bill Lee
The last couple of months have been very busy for me, and while the "busy" has been associated with model airplanes, it hasn't been just racing—my real first choice. As most of you know, every two years the Control Line World Championships are held somewhere in the world. This year, 1980, they will be held in Czestochowa, Poland, in July. The World Champs has four events:
- Speed
- Aerobatics
- Team Race
- Combat
Many countries send teams, including the United States. On the odd years, team trials are held somewhere in the U.S. to select the team for the following year.
Last year, 1979, the team trials were held in Dayton, OH, for Aerobatics and Team Race and in St. Louis, MO for Combat. The Speed team trials were a split affair with one session in the east (Dayton, I believe) and the other on the west coast on the same day. The teams selected in each event appear to be about as good as could have been asked for if one had merely sat back and guessed who the top fliers are.
Team management and my role
Now, you may be wondering why I'm going on about this topic in a racing column. Well, the team just doesn't run itself; a team manager is needed to see to it that all the paperwork and preparation required to get the team to the World Champs gets done. The team members elect the team manager who, this time, is Don Jeblik from Hawthorne, NV. Don is a long-time Team Race competitor and, with teammate Herb Stockton, was a member of our World Champs teams many times in the '60s. In fact, Don and Herb were more than competitive at the World Champs level in those days—I think the word is "dominant"—winning the event on several occasions.
In addition to the team manager, there is an assistant team manager selected by the team manager. This is where I come into the picture. Don called me on Christmas Day and asked if I would be willing to take on those responsibilities for him. I had to think a long time about that (maybe two seconds) before I told him I would like to help. So that is how I got mixed up with this year's U.S. World Champs control-line team.
Travel arrangements
One of the problems we face this year is travel to a World Champs site behind the Iron Curtain. It was felt by the team and by AMA Headquarters that travel arrangements for the entire team should be kept as common as possible to minimize problems. So, early in January, I started investigating travel arrangements that would get the entire team to Poland and back, using as much of the AMA-budgeted money as allowed by the rules and yet as little individual money as possible. This past month all of the travel plans for the team have come together, and the communications necessary to get everyone's approval have been quite time-consuming.
For those interested, the majority of the team will:
- Leave from various cities around the U.S. on Sunday, July 6.
- Arrive in Frankfurt, Germany, on Monday morning, July 7.
- Travel by land from Frankfurt to Czestochowa, Poland (about 600 miles).
- Arrive in Poland early enough to spend two days practicing before the official schedule starts on Saturday, July 12.
- Compete during the following week, culminating in a banquet on Thursday evening, July 17, with departure on Friday.
- Travel back to Frankfurt in time to leave on Sunday, July 20, with the entire team able to return home that Sunday evening (at least as far as the clock and calendar are concerned).
Our chances at the World Champs
I believe we have an excellent chance this time around to win all four events!
- Aerobatics: The U.S. has been strong in aerobatics for quite some time. The stunt team of Werwage, Paul, and McDonald will do it for us. Not to mention that Bob Hunt, the defending champion, will be there for the U.S., too.
- Speed: Current rumors (late March) are that the U.S. team has conquered the idiosyncrasies of the long-wing, asymmetrical model and that speeds will be governed by the pilot's ability to get around the pylon. Will we see 200 mph? Maybe!
- Team Race: Walt Perkins from Ocala, FL, called the other day to say that he and J. E. Albritton had their stuff going real well. He felt that heat times around 4:30 would be available and that he expects the finals to be run at close to 7:00 flat. He also indicated that their equipment was capable of this—two separate planes of different design, yet both running well.
- Combat: I believe the "establishment" in FAI Combat is going to get their comeuppance this time around. The U.S. team of Granderson, Cleveland, and Buckstaff is the best in the world, and we have a very good chance of being 1‑2‑3 when it's all over.
Looks like a good World Champs coming up!
Local fun fly and Houston racing
We had a little "fun fly" a couple of weeks ago here in Houston at which we flew two events, Slow Rat and Slow Combat. Although attendance was a bit off from what I expected, the performances seen in Slow Rat were definitely mid-season level. I took a picture of the results board; if you ignore the qualifying times and look at the finals, fourth place was a 5:38! The preliminary races were run to give everyone a chance to get some flying. With six entrants, we weren't in any hurry, so we said everyone would fly back-to-back qualifying flights and then we'd take all six to the finals. We all used the qualifying heats to get things sorted out. The finals were strong.
One of the six entrants in that contest had two K&B .5s (mine and Mike Grebb's) and the remainder were HP .36s (actually .40s with short-stroke cranks to make a legal-size engine).
One of the local guys cornered me at that contest and wouldn't let me go until he had given me a piece of his mind. It seems that, in his opinion, I don't mention the local Houston racing people enough. He intimated that maybe my heritage might be suspect unless I said something about the Houston racing people in my column. Well, he just wouldn't understand that I feel uncomfortable blowing my own horn or the one I'm part of. But in order to make peace among the natives, here goes one giant, colossal "how great we are" statement (please understand I'm only doing this to soothe the ego of at least one local flier).
"If you want to race, you got to be in Houston!" And why not? The best there is is here. Just look at the results from our last fun fly—those are Nationals-winning times. Houston has won Rat at the Nationals so many times that the trophies for it are almost automatically made up with Ron Esman's name on them. Goodyear? The current Nationals champ is a Houstonian. And Slow Rat will be ours this year! So, how do you spell 'race?' H-O-U-S-T-O-N, of course!
Good grief—I just re-read that, and I think I'm going to be sick. I sure hope that helps, John! And don't anybody out there get down on me for doing that. I had to.
W. R. Lee 3522 Tamarisk Ln. Missouri City, TX 77459
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
