24TH ANNUAL U.S. SCALE MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Model Airplane News, Feb 2004 by Yarrish, Gerry

A tradition of excellence continues in Dayton

Every year throughout the country, scale modelers compete at local and regional events for a chance at the "big time"-the U.S. Scale Masters Champion-ships. Always held at a different location, in 2003, it was held on September 24 to 28 in Dayton, Ohio-a most appropriate setting, considering that 2003 marked the 100th anniversary of powered flight! Now in its 24th year, the U.S. Scale Masters Championships was hosted by the Westerville Model Aeronautics Association. The event was held adjacent to the splendid U.S. Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The U.S. Scale Masters Association (USSMA) organizes the championships and coordinates the numerous qualifiers run by various RC clubs. For the Championships, modelers compete and earn their places on the flight roster.

In 2003, 19 qualifiers were held in the U.S., Canada and Brazil. The top 30 percent of finishers at each event in the Team Scale and Expert classes are eligible for the final rounds flown at the Championships. With such a "laddered" approach, the caliber of the competition is quite high. Of the 83 qualifiers in Dayton, only two aircraft were damaged; both succumbed to unexpected mechanical problems. This almost nonexistent attrition rate is a trademark of the Scale Masters competition.

The event began with static judging set up just outside of the museum's impressive Memorial Park area. Each contestant was photographed with his model after it had been judged. These photos were then displayed on the scoreboards at the flying field. This great arrangement made it easy for the 3,000 spectators to identify and keep track of the progress of their favorite pilots.

At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the Championships enjoyed an unlimited length of paved runway. Most models flew off the hard surface, but a few vintage-era tailskid-equipped planes used the grass strip next to the tarmac. Airspace was totally unrestricted with the exception of a maximum-400-foot-altitude limit. Four or five models were always in the air. Each flight station had its own set of judges and a safety lineman who was in constant radio communication with a single air boss! The flightline operation ran very smoothly all weekend. Each pilot had to be cleared before he could take off or land, and everyone benefited from this attention to procedure and safety.

Who says you need a jet to win in scale! The big trophy for Grand Champion went to David Hayes with his impressive Rockwell Thrush cropduster. David also earned the High Static score and the Best Civilian, Best Mission (Expert) and Best Scratch-Built awards.

CLASSES AND RULES

Usually, the two main classes are Expert and Team Scale, but for 2003, a new Designer Scale class was introduced. Drawn from the Expert entrants, all competitors in Designer Scale flew models built from their own plans. Modelers in the Team and Expert classes could fly models that had either been built from kits or from someone else's plans.

The USSMA has its own rules that you can download from its website; scalemasters.org. Scoring is based on the two main categories, Static and Flight judging. In Static, the model is placed on a viewing table, and the contestant gives his documentation package to the static judges, who use it to evaluate the model's fidelity to outline shape, finish color, marking accuracy and level of craftsmanship. Photographs, 3-view line drawings and color samples are all used to judge the overall quality of a participant's model.

During flight judging, scores are awarded for how well the pilot controls and guides his aircraft. Each pilot fills out his flight-judging sheet and gives it to the judges to score. Ten maneuvers are required for each flight round; they consist of four mandatory and five optional maneuvers. The 10th maneuver judged is the model's overall flight realism, and this is judged during the entire flight, including times between actual scored maneuvers. Mandatory maneuvers include takeoff, figure-8, fly past (10- to 20-feet altitude) and landing. Optional flight maneuvers include procedure turns, chandelles, various roll types, slow-speed inspection flights, descending 360-degree turns and so on. Descriptions of each maneuver and reasons for downgrades are listed in the USSMA rulebook.

The contestants start each maneuver with 10 points, and the judges deduct for deviations in precision, placement and realism. Depending on the number of rounds flown, the pilot's flight score is the average of his three best scores. The flight score is then added to the static score to determine the contestant's overall score.

ON THE FLIGHTLINE

The weather for the Championships was a little breezy but bright and sunny, except on Friday afternoon, when rain closed down the flight operations early. Since the museum was just on the other side of the field, most contestants did not complain! What better reason to visit one of the country's best aviation museums?

The weekend was nonstop flying; and thanks to everyone's being on deck and ready to go when they were supposed to be, everybody flew four rounds. As usual, the final scores were very close. All pilots flew at a very high level, and many praised the judging for being very fair and consistent. Jeremy Fursman flew his beautifully painted de Havilland DH82-A Tiger Moth to first place in Expert, moving up from fifth place last year. David Hayes with his Rockwell Thrush agricultural cropduster was awarded first place in Designer. The first-place Team winners were George Maiorana/Dave Pinegar and their impressive Soviet Tupolev Tu-4 AEW. In most cases, less than a half point made a big difference!