Scale Matters
The United States team marches in the
parade to open the 2026 Scale World Championships. Team
USA photo.
World championships, the intro
By Orin Humphries
September 2026
The U.S. Control-Line Scale team. Team USA photo.
I found myself hunched over several times at the emotional impact of being a representative of America before the world at age 84. In the above photo you can see me on the far left coming back upright after such a moment.
There were numerous high-level dignitaries from Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), the host model organization, British Model Flyers Association (BMFA), and Others of Considerable Note. They all were sweltering in their formal clothes in the 91-degree heat. But, let me back up to beginning of this journey.
Getting There
There were two facets to our transportation efforts. We had to get our models there (the overhead bins were a non-starter), and we had to fly ourselves to Chicago to board a British Airways 777 bound for Heathrow Airport, London, to go across the Atlantic.
Orin's custom-made airplane shipping crate. Orin Humphries photo.
For the models we had to have or obtain crates for shipping our models via FedEx Express, the international wing of the company. Many of us ordered custom crates made by Smokin’ Ace, Inc., which specializes in making crates for rock band equipment. The crates are made to our specs, which we determined by laying the parts and equipment out on our garage floors. These then, were custom, one-offs and very expensive. Buying my case and getting it to my house ran over $1,900. Others, particularly for the huge RC models, were multiples of that. Two team members had previously built their own out of wood. But you can’t use just any wood (long story).
We paid extra to have FedEx come pick them up in our driveways, as the cases were over 100 pounds. FedEx delivered them to the model hangar at Buckminster, and afterward picked them up at the hangar and brought them back, delivering them to our driveways again. That ran $1,850, averaged over the team if I have my figures straight.
We outfitted the insides of our crates with padding and tiedowns. We knew from the Championships held in 2024 in Romania that the crates flex during handling by forklift operators, so the models could not be lashed hard-down to the floors.
As for getting ourselves together at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, we flew in from all around the country. That didn’t go well for the pilots on the East Coast where storms canceled their connecting flights.
We took off from ORD around 7 p.m. heading east for an overnight flight to London, Heathrow (LHR), arriving there mid-morning their time. I had made a big blunder on that flight, though, and it bit me big-time. I forgot to get a sleeping pill out of my carry-on and put it in my pocket. That night I got no meaningful sleep, and sleep didn’t come until that night in our group hotel. I was up more than 28 hours and sleep-depped for two days. It was a great experience for me in one way, though. I worked 18 years on Boeing’s 777, leaving fingerprints literally everywhere in it and on it, and this was my first, ever, ride in one that I had worked on.
Fellow C/L pilot Mike McHenry and I had been paired up by the team leader early on for a car to get us around. The hotel is 129 miles north of Heathrow, and the flying site was a half hour south of the hotel. Mike courageously drove him, me, and his really nice wife, Marsha, yes, on the left side of the road for two weeks. (You go around the roundabouts clockwise, not our way.) He did fine, and I rode navigator for a few days until he had the roads memorized.
Our group hotel was not a travelers’ hotel; it was a golf resort. The hotel had a great restaurant and bar, but did not sell amenities like toothpaste if you ran out. Do I have to tell you that it had no air conditioning, no washcloths, and only two USB-C plug-ins for double occupancy? Most everyone else had brought their wives, but I was solo, so I had the room to mysel
The Field
The field, actually everything around there, is out in the boonies. Jan and I had watched English murder mysteries for decades, and here I was on those one-lane English countryside roads.“You haven’t been in England until you’ve been on their one-lane roads, foliage close on both sides, and there is a farm produce hauler coming the other way.” – OLH.
No matter how a car in England was built, every one of them is an off-road vehicle! Trucks with “Road Maintenance” signs on them didn’t impress me: I wanted to see, “Margin Maintenance”!
The field is managed by the BMFA, but is privately owned by a very generous man. It is huge, with an RC runway running north and south, and at the lower, southern end there is the CL site. There were one paved and two grass circles. The overall slope to the land required that the CL circles be at the lower, nearly level end. This had the least amount of earth movement to get the paved circle in, for the sake of the generous land owner. Thus, the circles were one quarter mile from the model hangar, and it was a bear getting our big models and our flight gear back and forth between the circle and the hangar.
It was a hike from the hangar to the flying circle, n the right side, if you expand this, between the white tent and the wind sock. The fence around the circle, used also for Speed, is barely visible in this shot from the hangar. Orin Humphries photo.
Pilot is our new CL Scale World Champion and one of my mentors, Mike McHenry, with Kathy Bauer, acting as his caller, as she did for all of us. He is kneeling to hold his plane level during landings. Note this — but the focus here is the topography. The ground rises 4 feet back up to grade, and there is a baby jungle past the fence. This was the upwind side of our circle. Not seen is that on the upwind side of the foliage is a 20-foot-tall hedge! The wind had to tumble over that to get down onto us! Orin Humphries photo.
Kathy Bauer calling for Mike McHenry. Orin Humphries photo.
The hangar was L-shaped, and this was
the long end. Orin Humphries photo.
The U.S. team's models on display in the hangar. Orin Humphries photo.
The U.S. team's models on display in the hangar. Orin Humphries photo.
The picture shows the short end of the hangar, where team USA was ensconced. Note the huge size of the RC birds. It takes a day and a half to set up these magnificent RC airplanes. All of the turnbuckles have to be tweaked for the weather, etc., to get flat, parallel wings. My Stinson is dwarfed and hidden in the far corner.
There were three Piper L-4s entered in CL. Here is just a taste of what else was there on the circle.
The Condor was electric. Orin Humphries photo.
There were several biplanes, including this Rumpler, and entries ranged over all eras, countries and types. Orin Humphries photo.
Kathy Bauer, Silver Medal Woman pilot, shows off her DHC Twin Otter. Orin Humphries photo.
Twin engines are a real plus in F4B. Those 10 extra points really help. But a single-engined one took Gold Individual through pilotage.
Next column: Getting Into It.
Flying Lines home page
Back to Scale Matters column main page
Back to Scale main page
This page
was updated Sept. 13, 2026