Lynn Boss’s P-47 with the gear up during level flight.
By Fred Cronenwett
When it comes to the Nats, you always want to be prepared for severe weather. The weather on Saturday, July 11, was no exception. We had almost completed round 2 of flying when a large thunderstorm came through the area and dumped a large amount of rain. Everything was soaked.
We decided to come back at 2 p.m. and the weather had cleared. We were able to finish round 2 and then round 3.
The intense competition surrounding Fun Scale became the battle of among the seven pilots who were flying in this event. With ten official entries but only seven pilots flying, this became a very close competition. Five of these models have retractable landing gear. Because Fun Scale allows for ARFs to be flown, this opens up a wide variety of models to be entered. Lynn Boss flew a Flightline B-25 with working bomb bay doors, retractable landing gear (with sequenced gear doors) and flaps. This model is made from foam. The SBD Dauntless that I fly, was made by Phoenix models and has a wood structure and iron-on covering.
Because everyone received the same 10 static points, it will all come down to the flight points to determine who wins Fun Scale. This was a recent rule change.
In Sport Scale there are three models, but Lynn Boss was flying his OS .90-four-stroke-powered Top Flite Gold-Edition P-47 with retracts, flaps, bomb drop and throttle control using 2.4 GHz controls. Lynn makes it look easy to fly this model. With the high static point score and a 97.5 flight score, this model is difficult to beat.
Team scale has two teams competing with Lynn Boss-pilot/Fred Cronenwett-builder and Joe Gilbert-pilot/Ed Mason-builder flying a Constellation. The Constellation has the high static score and the best flight score after Round 3.
Another notable item is that Keith Trostle was inducted into the CL Scale Hall of Fame tonight at the NASA Scale dinner. Mike Stott was also inducted into the CL Scale Hall of Fame. He was the original inventor of the down-the-line electronic controls (see February 2026 article in ‘Model Aviation’ magazine). Mike was unable to attend the Nats this year, but his achievements that he accomplished in 1972 were highlighted during his introduction. He was also a member of the 1972 F4B world championship team.
We will finish up on Sunday with round 4, if the weather permits and the pilots want to fly again.
Land Softly!
Fred Cronenwett flying his SBD Dauntless in Fun Scale.
Gary Dowler’s Fairchild PT-26.
Lynn Boss’s P-47 prior to takeoff.
Lynn Boss ejected a parachute crewman from the bomb bay of the B-25.
Keith Trostle with his CL Scale Hall of Fame award.
CL scale hall of fame for Mike Stott.
