50% Super Starduster, powered by a DLE 170 engine, designed, built, and flown by Tom Lowrie.
By Gerry Garing
I arrived for day two of the RC Scale Nats this morning around 7:30 to see a 1/3-scale Stearman doing touch and goes and some gentle scale maneuvers. It doesn’t get any better than this. Static judges had several planes to judge and that phase of the contest is finished. Meanwhile, pilots continued to put in a few practice flights before the 11:00 AM target time to start round 1. John Boyko held this morning’s pilot briefing.
We have four flight lines in place this year. Assigning pilots to a flight line is a task that is never easy. Some of the pilots have entered several airplanes, When assigning the flight order, the CD must ensure that a pilot is not assigned to fly in two different places at the same time. Once a preliminary order is established, it is scrutinized for conflicts, and adjustments made. The final order averages about 12 flights per line during each round.
By 11:30, round 1 was underway. By noon, a somewhat stiff crosswind began to pick up. It was not enough to cause any serious problems, but enough to make things interesting…especially with the lightly loaded models. Round 1 finished up at 2:00 PM.
Let’s take a closer look at a few models. First up is the KY Models P-47D. This 64 pound-112” wingspan model is powered by a UMS 260cc radial engine. The sound and power of this engine is nothing less than spectacular. Sixteen-year-old Kaleb Spencer expertly flies the P-47 with smoothness and scale-like speed. Not to be outdone, the roles are reversed as Bill flies a smaller P-47.
Two airplanes that defied logic flying in the wind were the Curtiss Pusher built and flown by Larry Barr and Keith Number’s Pitcairn Autogiro. Both are relatively small and light by today’s standards. They took off, maneuvered, and landed without incident. There were several nose overs and wing tip encounters because of the crosswind. Nothing major happened and the pilots shall remain nameless.
The second round of flying was wrapped up at 6:00 PM. Tonight includes a pizza party donated by Mike Barbee for pilots and guests. Once the pizza is gone, a general membership meeting will be held at the field. Tomorrow’s weather is predicted to be clear, but with wind forecasts that are stronger than today. Let’s hope they are wrong!
