Scale Matters

This plaque dedicates the control-line Scale site at the Academy of Model Aeronautics flying site in Muncie, Ind. Cmdr. McCool and the rest of the crew died in the re-entry breakup of the Shuttle Columbia. All photos by Orin Humphries.

Doing the Nats

By Orin Humphries
November 2022

I had never been to the Academy of Model Aeronautics' Muncie, Ind, headquarters, which is 2,440 miles from my home in Lynnwood, Wash. A mistake is to think about the large distance and worse yet, the round trip. I accomplished this trip by breaking it up into a day at a time.

“I am here this morning and I want to be off the road before dinner time, so that’s right there, 400 miles.” (I am not 35 and stupid enough to try to drive 12-13 hours a day!) The next morning I repeated the process. I noticed the first two segments, but after those I was very used to it; I just got into the car and drove, no biggy. In time, I found myself there. I also got to see a lot of new territory along the way to keep from getting bored. So how did I get myself and my models there? My pocketbook settled upon driving two models in my Mustang. But which models?

I lost my main mount, my F-84, a year ago and had only one year to get something together. I needed to replace my first Stearman, built from a Sterling kit, as it was just too small for the modern world. I’d bought a plan for a larger one so it got the nod. At that time I had not yet decided to go for the World Team Trials. Thus, I did not check the accuracy of the plan with a fine-toothed comb. (I later found it to have four deviations, but I had no alternative but to finish it.) Reading the F4B rules (for CL World Scale) I found that they favored complex models with operating systems. My Stearman could account for two functions by being able to do maneuvers. In my eight previous trips to contests at this level I can’t remember ever seeing a Scale model do stunts.

Here you see my 45” span N2S-painted Stearman vying for a spot on the World Team.
One difference between AMA Scale and FAI Scale is that in AMA the cruise altitude is 5 to 10 feet. In FAI That minimum altitude is 5 meters, around 20 feet. That would be a major threat to a model if the wind was above eight to 10 miles per hour. They would try to wait for better conditions before flying the relay. (Two years ago I was appointed to AMA’s newly forming USA F4B Board for District 11 so this is “really getting my fingernails dirty” in the event.)

But the engine I’d chosen for its higher power, was a new-in-box vintage SuperTigre .45. Those had carbs that had internal anti-backlash springs. J-Roberts bellcranks can’t use those carbs at all. I switched to an OS 4BK carb as it had the best fit-up in the case. It is a two-needle design with which I had no experience in adjusting. Practices with the model revealed the need for a tweak to the idle stop setting. That ruined its low end operation as I didn’t understand the mechanics of this design. Of course, this happened just before having to get on the road. My pitman, Jeral, and I were unable to get a usable idle before I had to leave. (Adjusting the idle stop setting causes the throttle barrel to move sideways in the 4BK carb. This causes the idle needle, which is threaded into the barrel, to move deeper or shallower into the idle metering slot in the spraybar. If you adjust the stop setting you must make a major change to the idle needle setting. The barrel and the needle move in opposite directions.)

Let me say that a while back I had decided that all I need from the Nats was simple. (1) I just needed to get there. (2) I just needed to fly and get on the boards, and (3) I wanted to try for a spot on the World Team; how many people can say that they’ve done that? Just where on the board I might get wasn’t important for this experience. So I left with a bad carb setting anyway. Maybe I’d get lucky fooling with it.
Three days before leaving, in a practice with my Staggerwing for Profile Scale my right gear struck the corner of our plastic deck sheeting and was ripped out. I had to switch to my Fun Scale Monocoupe. The OS .25FP on the Monocoupe has a tiny 2A carb and it is just too small to give a fine idling performance. It is dicey at the low end meaning it will shut the engine off when you don’t want that to happen. This was another reason I didn’t have to try to be King of the World and Texas at this year’s Nats.

On Friday, July 7, we had done the static judging and pull tests which took much longer than planned due to the large entry. We didn’t get the first relay airborne until around 4 p.m. The rules say that once you start a round they have to finish everything in it or that round doesn’t count. Pull test, etc., took a lot of time for 35 models.

It was HOT and humid in grand Indiana style; I drank three quarts of water that afternoon. Some of us put covers over our models for Sun shields.

We squeezed in a second relay as the weather for the next day was to be impossible. On this day I did two relays of F4B with my Stearman, and the one with my Monocoupe, It was 9:15 p.m. at dusk when I headed to the hotel and there were still two flights to be done at the field behind me.

Though the Stearman had no ground game, it really wrote its name in the sky for the high flight and the wingover! No other model did a wingover and those that tried the high flight struggled with it.

The pilots had built for realistic speed and sound, a points getter, which meant they weren’t powered for these maneuvers. The floor of high flight is 45° and the ceiling is 60°. No one other than myself could sustain 45° (until the Nieuport later). They were around 35° and only one or two bumped 45 briefly. My Monocoupe had held 45° and I tested my Stearman at 50° on the first relay. It was solid up there. On my second with the Stearman I held 60°.

The Nieuport had gingerly felt out its line tension in two previous flights, working up toward the 45° floor. On its final flight it maintained 45°. It got second on the World Team.

(Note: there are three hard requirements for doing the High Flight. 1) be above 45°, 2) Don’t fall down, and, 3) DON’T SHOWER THE JUDGES WITH BALSA SPLINTERS!!! This physically is the hardest maneuver CL Scale can attempt! You see, way up there, your effective circle radius is SHORT! Your angular speed is like, oh, Hurricane Category Two. I get myself around that fast by leaving my left toes on the ground always and pivoting my body around that spot. Mucho rapido!

The next morning it rained and blew like you see on TV in the weather reports, so we stayed in our rooms. The storm was over by noonish and we headed for the field. The wind was up, around 7 mph whereas yesterday it was calm.

I went for relay 2 with my Monocoupe. Again, it wouldn’t do a standing start though it taxied, and as the model got around near to wind-on-my-face, disaster stared me in the face. The wind blew the small model in from the periphery, slackening my lines; I had no control. I could not step backwards to get the lines tight as my caller, Lynn Boss, was sitting on the ground right behind me with his back to me. Visions of past similar experiences flashed over my mind.

If a line caught a pebble in the blacktop, the model was going to head for us with the throttle going to high speed. Time slowed down to a crawl. But…

I noticed that the model was tracking along a straight line, a shortcut across the arc. If nothing bad happened, it would get to the edge of the circle in a bit, restoring tight lines. The gods were watching over this vintage little bird. My lines got tight again and I was out of danger! The model moved another couple of feet and now had a slight angle of tail to the wind.

Yep, the wind smartly ground looped it, taking a smidgeon of paint of the tip of the rudder as it slid to a halt! I still was under the time limit for becoming airborne and the judges looked at me for my intentions. No way on this planet! I was intent on bringing my models home again in one flyable piece each. I scratched.

Enter, The Rules, again. You must get in two flights as your score will be the average of the two. With only a single flight, my score was divided by two. That put the Monocoupe at the bottom of the final results. As said, I was on the board that that was enough.

Team results: The team trials worked out as follows. Pete Bauer took first with his B-N Islander and Alan Goff’s Nieuport got second. Mike McHenry’s NE-1 Cub got third and Ed Mason’s B-29 got fourth for the alternate. My N2S Stearman came in fifth.

We all got the same world team T-shirt.

Looking over the top three models, the Islander had flaps and landing lights. I don’t know if the lights were in-flight operable. The B-29 had three extra engines. The Cub and the Stearman had no operating systems. You don’t need a biplane with flying wires. To wit: the full-size referent for Pete Bauer’s Islander has a fuselage that is a long, square cross-section box fuselage with a simple wing and a tail stuck unceremoniously upon it. It doesn’t have retracts. It flew to first position on the World Team.

So, if you have thoughts of trying for a team spot in a future cycle, this is pretty much your competition. Let us say that under the new FAI rules for World, you do not have to have a super-duper ultra-Scale bird. Look at these planes in the photo coverage and have go at it! We were told by Pete and Alan, “Don’t put anything on your model that cannot be seen at 5 meters, 16.4 feet.”

Interviews

Totally unexpected, four different people from around the country recognized me from my picture in this column head. They walked up to me and said, ”Thank you for all the tips you’ve given us and the help (in your column).” Hmm. I guess it’s worth the time, then. Later it occurred that they had all began with the word, “tips.” That must be what I put in Model Airplane News’ “building tips” page now and then.
The bulk, of course, is here in Flying Lines.

Fred Cronenwett said to me on our first day that he would like to make two video interviews with me before we all left. We got together after flying on the afternoon of the second day. The first video was, “Who is Orin Humphries, what is Flying Lines, and what does he write for it”? I am afraid I was unrehearsed and a bit rough at it, then.

The second video was about vacuum forming your own canopies. Fred wanted to try that for a current project of his and had brought along the canopy plug he had made for my inspection and advice. It was a “good” example as it was still too rough, so I could emphasize that the plug has to be glass smooth or imperfections will be magnified by the plastic film. This is the second person to miss that level of smoothness that I know about. (“Glass smooth” means as if a glass blower had fashioned it. It does not mean, “Glassy wood grain rippling out.”) Perhaps my saying that the plug still has to be micro-rough or the hot plastic will stick to the plug and not slide over it is being overshot. There is no way in print to communicate the level of that. “Send your plug to Ziroli Plans for vacuum forming your first effort and let them adjust the surface for a reasonable fee.” Study the plug as to how the surface is when it comes back to you.
(Back to the timeline.)

The dinner

Then later in the evening we gathered in a hall adjoining the model museum for the contest dinner. There were 99 attendees, which included some wives and family. This is the 100th year of the Nats, which first occurred in Moscow, Idaho. This milestone was commemorated. An auction was held to raise funds, and our end of our table shared a bottle of fine wine that one had bought. Then Grant Heistand was installed into the AMA Hall of Fame! Grant and I, being from the NW Regionals over the decades, met up at the Scale sight on the first day.

Sunday

On the third day at the site a man from AMA found me and said he would like to interview me. He had heard about how far I had driven to be there and wanted to do a piece for Model Aviation on the farthest-traveled pilot.

The great city of Muncie

Muncie is not a city, but a very large town. Google Maps and GPS struggle! Your route does not usually show you that one of your streets to be taken on your route is a Wrong Way. Changes have been made to streets that have not been updated in the maps. Inconveniently, Muncie sees no need to have street signs on about 30-35% of its intersections. One major intersection does have a big sign. But it is facing the oncoming traffic, not you.

All of the states along the southern edges of the Great Lakes sit upon an ancient Ice Age lake bed. That is, the ground is at least moist, clay, which does not bear load. Where the railroad runs through Muncie streets, that blacktop pavement looks like a scale model of the Appalachian Mountains. I slowed way down when crossing the tracks as my Mustang has sport suspension vs. family car suspension and would shake my models in the back quite hard. Local residents following me were not happy. Also, the pavement on the rest of the streets within the town look like someone is practicing to repave the Moon someday.

Let me be very careful to say that this is not a criticism of the Good People of Muncie. The ground is clay. They are stuck with it.

Personal note: My wife of 56 years, Jan, is very ill now. She sent me on this trip as her going-away present. Hmm. The afterglow of the whole thing sits like a cape. All the people you meet in this hobby, all the sharing you do of personal and hobby things. Friendships that last for a lifetime. Lifelong dreams fulfilled…There is no worldly measure.

Wow.

The Models

This shows all of the CL and RC Scale pilots together. We were told at the time there were 35 CL Scale pilots entered. Not all of them were here for the photo. I am in the middle wearing a brown sun hoody. I wanted to go to the Nats once again as it’s been since 1989 in Richland, Wash. Also, a life’s dream has been to try for the USA World Team. There hasn’t been a CL Scale contingent to those games since 2010 because the level of authenticity, the detail building, had gotten way out of hand. No one wanted to put that kind of time into a model. To fix the problem, the FAI changed the judging of Scale models from at-hand to 5 meters away a la Sport Scale philosophy. The games are scheduled for Romania next year. I am 81 so it might be now or never.

Of the distant trees, the middle line of them are 60-foot tall hardwoods and are at the north end of the field. The field is a mile and a half north to south and a half mile wide! There are seven competition spots within there and LOTS of practice room. The Model Museum has every single cubic inch of space occupied and a warehouse full of other models that would like to be displayed. Scale at the Nats was to be over three days, starting with combined static judging on the morning of the first day, July 7. The static judging started with the CL planes, arranged in three rows in front of three judges.

There are 11 planes in this row which contained the five that were trying out for the World Team. Of the five, the first in the foreground is Pete Mason’s B-29. Next to that is my N2S Stearman, Mike McHenry’s (J-3) NE-1 in Navy garb. After the Cub is Alan Goff’s Nieuport 17. Not seen is Pete Bauer’s B-N Islander. Beyond are RC Scale birds waiting their turn.

In the middle line you can see Pete Bauer’s yellow Islander. Also find Grant Heistand’s blue and white Grumman Albatross. It has two wheels on the keel and an outrigger under each wingtip. It handled very well on the blacktop.

Lynn Boss’ P-47 got second in Sport Scale; beyond the Jug is Fred’s Corsair. Then we see Mike McHenry’s P-39, Stephen Kretschmer’s FW 190 and Jeff Jenson’s TBD Devastator. This other P-39 was in Team Scale by Kretschmer/Terry, first place.

The day before we got going several of us showed up at the static judging site. This is Fred Cronenwett, who writes the CL Scale column for Model Aviation Magazine. Fred’s B-29 is electric and is seen on his travel trailer. Grant Heistand’s Albatross is lower left. Fred’s A-26 has four-cycle engines and sounds great.

A lot of these models use radio functions. This is a fancier handle among the lot. Other pilots hang their radio from their belt.

This is most of the small birds flown. We also had two junior pilots. The Pawnee is David Betz’, the Wildcat is Chris Degroff’s, and the Hughes XF-11 is Keith Trostle’s. The XF-11 was powered by two TD .020s! Just try and see the .020s! Flew just fine.

This is Keith Trostle’s “Franken plane.” The Me 109 was the piloted, separable guide plane which maneuvered the unmanned JU 88 with a shaped charge bomb in the cockpit to a ship target. A TV guidance system was used. The weapon was successful. This model got third in Profile Scale.

Matt Bauer returned to our modeling hobby with this great Sikorski S-39 Flying Boat. The model was in Profile Scale and consists of everything connected by struts. On his first two flights rough landings broke some of the struts, but they were repaired and the third flight was uneventful. Matt got second.

These two multi-engined offerings are Fred Cronenwett’s. The A-26 has 4-cycle mills and the B-29, seen in several past Nats coverages, is electric. Second from the rear is Steve’s Me 262 which is a foam model with twin ducted fans in Fun Scale. The B-29 got first in Profile and the Invader got second in Fun Scale.

This is one-third of the CL Scale entries. In front is my vintage Berkeley kit Monocoupe. Behind that is my old friend Pete Mazur’s Bearcat, both in Fun Scale. Pete’s F8F won Fun Scale last year at the Nats and was the first in class to my knowledge to be a foam model with radio functions, gear and flaps. I must pause. I first actually met Pete at the ’87 Nats in Lincoln, Neb., out on the Carrier deck. He should be elected to the Hall of Fame for his accomplishments in Carrier. His stature in Navy Carrier cannot be overstated. He and I got back together here in 2023 and it was like yesterday. Pete is a quiet, humble man who, for reasons unknown to me always wears sandals. To keep things down to Earth, emblazoned upon his socks is a … P-O’d in-yer-face Donald Duck!

Super Connie and an Extra 300. Ed Mason’s Super Constellation has been seen several years at the Nats and is beautifully done. Ed got third in Sport Scale. The Extra 300 was in Team Scale by McHenry/Goff and got secnd.