Gary Dowler with his Sport Scale PT-26.
By Fred Cronenwett
When you fly in Round #4 to improve your overall score that is a decision each pilot has to make. You might be far enough behind that even a perfect flight score would not help. Or, you might be less than one point behind. Then it is worth the effort to see if you can improve your overall score. If you need just a few more points to move up one spot in the overall placing, then you fly round four.
We all knew that fun scale would be a tight competition due to the number of entries, but also due to the skill of the pilots that had entered. The delta between first and fourth place was only 4.13 points. If you consider that each flight option is 10 points, then the smallest error could mean the difference between first and fourth place.
Lynn Boss flew an electric-powered Flightline B-25 with flaps, retractable landing gear, and bomb bay doors in Fun Scale. The model is well built and, even though it is designed to be an RC model, it is an easy conversion to CL. The bellcrank is located in the bomb bay and Lynn still has enough room to drop the provided bombs.
In Fun Scale, we had 10 entries, but only eight pilots put in flights. Lynn Boss logged a fantastic flight with the B-25 and even dropped a crew member with a parachute out of the bomb bay.
I flew my Phoenix models SBD Dauntless to a second-place finish. Five of the eight models that flew had retractable landing gear. Retracts count as two options so it makes it easy to fill out the option list when flying in competition.
1/2A Scale had a tight scoring for first and second place. There was a wide variety of models flown, including a Brodak Wildcat flown by Junior Christopher DeGroff and a full-bodied scratch-built model built by Keith Trostle. The challenge with 1/2A scale is getting the motors to run and keep them running. Because these models are weight-critical, to get a good flight performance, the model has to be light to allow for smooth takeoff and landings.
With three models flown in Sport Scale this year, Lynn Boss held a commanding lead with his Top Flite Gold Edition kit-built P-47 with an OS .90 four-stroke for power. The model has flaps, retractable main gear and a retractable tailwheel. It also includes a bomb drop.
1/2A, Sport Scale, and Fun Scale remain the most popular events. Authentic Scale requires surface detail, so this event always has limited entries. Regardless of your building or flying skill, there is an event that will suit you.
The Nats is an endurance event in that you have to be prepared for three full days to get the static and flight judging done. Then you also need to practice the flight options at home and know that the model is all set for four rounds of flying.
Special thanks to Tara DeGroff for doing the tabulation and Lori Boss for taking care of the pull test duties. We did have two models fail the pull test. This is unfortunate, but that means they did not fail in flight and that everyone’s safety was maintained. Our flight judges were Grant Hiestand, Mike Eber, and John Moll.
Stay tuned to my CL Scale column in ‘Model Aviation’ magazine for more details on the F4B team trials that will be held in 2027 for the 2028 F4B world championship team.
Land Softly and see you next year!
