CONTROL LINE: Scale
Mike Stott
WITH THIS NATS being another year we choose the U.S. Team to compete in the World Championships, I feel it is a good time to review how we pick the team members and what models they use for world competition.
The U.S. Team is picked a year before the World Championships are held. The members are picked on the basis of their airplane and how it performs. The top three positions in the National competition, that have previously paid their program entry fee for the World Championships, are chosen to represent the U.S. Under the present rules a modeler may build a new airplane and take that to the World Championships instead of the model he qualified with. This has been the cause of much discussion over the years.
Bernard Shulman of Manassas, Va., wrote me a letter regarding this very subject. So here is his viewpoint and of others who feel the same way:
Dear Mike:
I have a view on control-line scale that I have not seen in your articles. You talk about the scale models that you and others used to win the Nationals and earn the right to represent the U.S. in the World Championships.
I feel that at the Nationals it is the model and how it is flown that wins, not the builder of the model. Don't get me wrong, I think the model should be built and flown by the builder. But I feel that the same model that was the winner at the Nationals should be the same model that is flown in the World Championships. The judges at the Nationals judge the model.
The builder should not refinish or rebuild the winning model. He should not build a new model. He should not fly his model in another contest after the Nationals.
If the builder is allowed to build a new model, then we do not need a Nationals contest. We could just take a pool and pick the team members and ask them to build a model. What this all says is the model that wins is a member of the World Championships Team—not the builder.
I can offer some examples of personal experience, both pro and con, on this subject. At the 1971 Nationals I qualified third with my Ryan STA; this gave me a position on the 1972 U.S. Scale Team. But I felt I needed a better model to compete overseas, so I built the Meyers 145 for the 1972 World Championships and I took fourth place with it. Mel Meador, who took first at the 1971 Nats with his Spitfire, decided not to build a new model and just put his Spitfire away until the World Championships. Mel placed several positions below me at the 1972 World Championships. In this case it paid off to build a new model.
In contrast the next year was totally different. I qualified at the 1973 Nats for the 1974 world team using my Meyers 145. Thinking I would do the same thing I did last time by building a better model for world competition I started work on the Tigercat. As it turned out the Tigercat was nowhere near the caliber of scale model the Meyers 145 was. Consequently, I was the lowest placing American on the team, after being the highest placing the time before.
A couple of years ago I ran onto a possible solution to this problem. I was talking to Clark MacComber about the question of the modeler building a new airplane. He felt very much the same as Bernard Shulman, that we should choose the model, not the builder. He had a workable alternative to this which to me sounded like a very good idea. His idea was as follows: If the modeler should decide to build a new scale plane to compete in the World Championships he must have the model complete and test flown one month before the World Championships are held. At this time the team manager, or someone well informed on scale matters to be appointed by the team manager, should be asked to judge the two planes, the one he qualified with and the builder's new model. The judge would have to be a very critical and objective person to determine which of the two models was the best, and which one would be flown in the world event. His decision would be final.
This possible alternative would allow the team member to build a new model if he felt his old one was not competitive enough for the World Championships. Yet, at the same time, the team as a whole would still be assured of a good showing.
M. K. Stott, 118 E. Wheeler St., North Mankato, MN 56001.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
