Remembering Walt Brownell plus the 2024 CL Scale Nats

Control Line Scale By Fred Cronenwett | [email protected] As seen in the May 2024 issue of Model Aviation. WALT BROWNELL passed away in November 2023. He was born in 1932 and was active in Control Line (CL) Scale and CL Aerobatics. He was a member of the Lafayette Esquadrille CL Club in St. Louis, and even had his own CL circle in his backyard. He built semiscale CL Aerobatics models, along with models intended for CL Scale competition.

Walt is shown with his semiscale Hawker Typhoon CL Aerobatics model and the Profile Scale A-26 Invader at Buder Park in Valley Park MO. In 2020, he asked the Lafayette Esquadrille club to help him clean out his shop because of his health issues. He knew he couldn’t fly anymore, so he decided to donate all of his models to the club. He wanted them to be flown again. The models were distributed among the club members, and it’s not uncommon to see one or more of his models being flown while we are at Buder Park in Valley Park, Missouri. I was fortunate enough to get Walt’s Douglas A-26 Invader with air spray markings. He flew that A-26 at the Nats to a first-place finish. The model was flown using the Bill Young down-the-line electronic control system for the throttle, bomb bay doors, and flaps.

(R-L): Walt Brownell and Lafayette Esquadrille President John Garrett with one of the CL Aerobatics models that was donated to the club. The down-the-line electronic CL handle had the trigger for the throttle and toggle switches for the other channels. Bill made his own receivers, and you could plug the typical Airtronics or Futaba servo into a receiver and have it work. At the time, this was one of the popular systems available. If you fly with 2.4 GHz controls today, you can fly with normal braided lines, but with the down-the-line electronic controls, you had to fly with nyloncoated insulated lines. We used nylon-coated fishing leader that was intended for saltwater fishing for the insulated lines. After I installed new servos for the throttle and a 2.4 GHz receiver, I got the model flying again. In 2023, I flew it in Fun Scale to a second-place finish during the CL Scale Nats.

2024 CL Scale Nats

Because the 2024 F2 World Championships for CL Model Aircraft will be held in Muncie, Indiana, at the International Aeromodeling Center, the CL Scale Nats will take place in July, while the balance of the CL events will be held in August the week before the World Championships. The other reason why the CL Scale Nats are being held in July is that our event directors, Peter Bauer and Allen Goff, will be traveling to Romania in August 2024 to compete in the F4B World Championships for Scale Model Aircraft as part of the US team. Registration is now open for the 2024 Nats, and I would encourage you to get your entry in before June 1 so that they can count the number of entries in each category to order the trophies. They are counted at least a month before the Nats happens. If there is only one entry at the time of the count, only the first-place trophy will be ordered. If you have a Scale model that someone else built, or you have a Scale ARF that you can document, consider flying in Fun Scale. Fun Scale is the only event that does not have the Builder of the Model rule. All of the other events require that the pilot who has entered the model be the builder of it. Another thing to remember is the proxy pilot rule. If you have a 1/2A Scale model, but you are not capable of flying it, you can get a proxy pilot to fly in your place. I flew as a proxy a few years ago for a pilot who was having trouble keeping his balance during the first flight. That model was flown in Authentic Scale. The World Championships are held on a two-year rotation. In 2024, the F4B World Championships will be held in Romania, and the 2026 World Championships will be held in the U.K. if the FAI committee approves of that flying site bid for the host country. That means that 2025 will be the team trials for the 2026 World Championship team. The F4B rules have changed in that models are no longer judged up close. They are now judged from 5 meters, so the smaller details, such as rivets and other surface details, are not as important as with the old rules. F4B has different requirements for the documentation and the flight options compared with AMA rules, so you do want to read and understand them before showing up at the team trials. Some of the items that are options under AMA rules are not flight options with FAI rules. Also be aware that, with F4B, you have to declare everything that is premade for the model that you bought. If you purchased a dummy engine for the model or other items, you have to declare those. Color chips are required for F4B, and, more importantly, the color chips need to be authentic color chips. The three-views also need to be a certain size. For any Scale project, remember to always start the documentation first then build the model to match the documentation. The documentation package will contain photographs, three-views, and color information. Pick the three-views carefully; not all of them are correct. I have three-views in my collection that are labeled as a P-51D Mustang, but the outline of the three-views clearly shows a P-51K Mustang.

Dave Shrum

If you have ever attended the Northwest Regionals in Eugene or Roseburg, Oregon, during Memorial Day weekend, you have probably met or flown with Dave Shrum. He passed away on February 1, 2024, and was responsible for moving the Northwest Regionals to the Roseburg Regional Airport when the use of the Eugene flying site was lost. Dave flew all types of models, including Free Flight, RC, and all disciplines of CL. He was also responsible for getting the float pond set up at the Roseburg Airport grounds, where we flew CL Scale models from the water with floats. Flying a CL Scale model from that float pond was interesting, to say the least.

2024 Contest Calendar

The Northwest Regionals will be the first contest of the season, with CL Scale and other events. On June 1, you can check out your models on a fully paved circle to get ready for the Nats at the Spirit of St. Louis CL Fun Fly. The National Association of Scale Aeromodelers (NASA) Scale Classic CL contest won’t be held this year, but there is a contest in Mukwonago, Wisconsin, and then the Midwest Regional C/L Championships in Aurora, Illinois. The Broken Arrow CL Stunt & Scale Contest at Buder Park in Valley Park, Missouri, will close out the CL Scale season.

Northwest Regionals: May 24-26—Roseburg, Oregon
Spirit of St. Louis Fun Fly: June 1—Buder Park, Valley Park, Missouri
Bob Gialdini Memorial CL Championships: June 23—Mukwonago, Wisconsin
AMA CL Scale Nats: July 11-14—Muncie, Indiana
Midwest Regional C/L Championships: August 31-September 1—Aurora, Illinois
Broken Arrow CL Stunt & Scale Contest: September 21-22—Buder Park, Valley Park, Missouri

Don Adraino, from the Circle Masters Flying Club, presented the first-place trophy to Jeff Jensen for Profile Scale during the 2023 Bob Gialdini Memorial CL Championships in Mukwonago WI.