Radio Control
Scale
Bud Atkinson
NOW THAT WE are into mid-winter and building time, a new year and the bicentennial year. I'm sure most scale enthusiasts are planning on an exciting year contest-wise. Interest is really building in scale or more scale-like RC models. All indications are that 1976 will be a bumper year for contests. There are many bicentennial events being planned where RC models will play a part and, of course, scale-type models in particular. It's rather hard to relate scale RC models to the American Revolution; who knows, maybe old George crossed the Delaware in a C-47 at Xmas! But the exposure our hobby can get at the many events is a great opportunity to sell the general public our sport and hobby—the building of models as a hobby and flying them as a sport. So let us know early if you and your club are planning an event this year for Scale and I will certainly mention it in the column.
The final decisions have been made on Scale and Stand-off Scale rules and will go into effect this year. Basically, AMA scale rules are about the same as they have been in the past, which I believe is unfortunate, since it's apparent we need a complete overhaul of these rules to stimulate more interest in AMA Scale. As the contests having AMA Scale are almost nil throughout the country and with only six entries at the Nats last year, well! You can see where AMA Scale is heading, down the drain!
Stand-off Scale has been voted in as an official AMA event. The engine size has been established the same as in AMA Scale; up to 1.25-size engine may be used for single- or multi-engine models. The rule has been needed as some of the larger scale models need all the reasonable power they can get, especially some of the larger biplanes.
Mainly, the larger engine allows the use of a larger diameter prop to overcome the drag of, say, a biplane or a large fuselage and cowling.
Another rule change that is of some controversy is the 10-point bonus for scratch design. The 10 points have been dropped, which can be argued pro and con, but nevertheless this is the way it was voted. Another controversy concerns the retraction of landing gears. The vote was to award 0 to 10 points, to be counted as an option and to be judged on opinion of the judges on how scale-like the gear retracts. There has been much discussion on the gear retraction rule, so we will try it this way and see how it works out.
Touch-and-go and multi engines are still considered two options and receive 0-20 points; in the case of the multi engines, they must run throughout the entire flight, and, in the opinion of the judges, contribute to the flight of the aircraft. Basically, this is the way the voting went and will be the Stand-off rules for two years. I think we have a good set of basic rules to start the new official event and with necessary changes will surface as time goes by, so even if the rules are here for two years, if you think there needs to be reasonable changes or additions, let the scale board know about them. I also will be glad to hear from you on any constructive rule changes or additions and will air them in this column.
I attended the multi-wing contest at Omaha and several other biplane contests this past year and was very pleased to see so many scale-like biplanes. The biplane association, the NSPA, also is in a rule hassle. One rule that I'm sure scale people are interested in is a 10-point bonus for biplanes that are modeled after a full size biplane. The original intent of the biplane events, as Jerry Nelson conceived it, was to create an event where biplanes that resembled their full-size counterpart were to fly and accomplish maneuvers of which full-size biplanes were capable. The bonus points were to keep a reasonable resemblance to full-size ships and not evolve into just a two-winged thing as some other events have, such as FAI speed, and where a midget is heading. To keep our RC models out of the toy class in the eyes of the public (and we do need their support for obvious reasons) I think we need to maintain a more scale-like appearance in all our classes, especially in competition. U-control pattern has done this years ago, so why not in RC Pattern?
Some of our pattern ships no more resemble full-size airplanes than FAI speed does. They are supposed still to be model airplanes! So it's refreshing to see the biplane association take a stand along those lines. Nothing seems to attract attention at the old flying patch contest much like a pretty scale-like biplane. A pretty biplane is sure to draw interest and there are plenty of biplane subjects.
I'm sure by now you have heard the 1976 Nats will be held at Dayton, Ohio. This sounds like a superb choice as the Air Force museum is located there and offers one of the finest military aircraft displays in the world, so we scale types take plenty of film with you as there are some really rare birds and a lot of WW II aircraft. Don't miss it!
I have received several requests for plans since the picture of the Stits Playboy was in one of my articles several months back. I don't have any myself, but understand Hobby Helpers, 1543 Stillwell Ave., Bronx, N.Y. 10461, is still in business and have them and many more plans available. So write them for listing.
(My address is: 734 North 6th St. Terrace, Blue Springs, Mo. 64015.)
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
