Team Scale

Model Airplane News, May 2004 by Leu, George

A great way to get into competition

Toward the end of last year, I teamed up with my good friend and Model Airplane News senior tech editor Gerry Yarrish, and we headed off to the New England Scale Championships and Masters Qualifier in Gardner, MA. I had been out of competition for a while and wanted to become more active. I didn't have a competition-worthy airplane, and Gerry offered his nicely done Piper L-4 Grasshopper, which he built from a modified Balsa USA kit for me to fly in the Team Scale category. Gerry also competed in Fun Scale with a relatively simple Hangar 9 Super Cub. There just isn't a nicer way to spend a weekend than flying scale with a friend.

TEAMWORK!

Team Scale offers a great way to start competing because it allows a model builder to have someone else pilot his plane, and they form a team. First introduced in the early 1980s, Team Scale caused quite an uproar in the scale community. Until then, the builder and flier had to be the same person. Initially, there was little participation, but as scale models became more sophisticated, builders spent more time building and less time flying. Soon, it was obvious that there are many good fliers and many good builders but few good builder/fliers.

Today, team scale is an integral part of scale competition and a great way to bring new faces into events such as the U.S. Scale Masters, the AMA Scale Nationals and the Top Gun Invitational competitions.

Here are more reasons why I like Team Scale competition:

1. The builder and pilot form a partnership.

2. The two work together to show their strongest skills and to show off the model's best attributes.

3. Because it involves two people, it better promotes interest in scale modeling activity.

4. Working as a team eases the pressure of competition.

EVALUATION

Prior to our team effort at the qualifier, Gerry had competed in the Expert Scale category with the L-4, and I had flown his model on numerous occasions but never in competition. When you fly a plane for fun and then decide you want to fly it competitively, the aircraft seems to become a different machine. So that I could get a better feel for how his model flew, we met several weeks before the competition and discussed its finer points. We came up with a list of maneuvers, and then we went to the flying field and test-flew the model to decide on the best flight sequence. We tried to fly each maneuver in exactly the same way every time. You don't want a particular maneuver to be successful 90 percent of the time; you jeopardize your flight scores if that's the case. You want 100-percent success. For example, the L-4 was fine doing stall turns and wingovers, but on occasion, with an unfavorable wind, it wouldn't do what it was supposed to do. For competition, we decided to use a straight-ahead stall instead, as we could fly it consistently time after time.

We continued to critique and perfect our maneuver sequence until we had come up with our final group of maneuvers. We were both comfortable with our flight plan before we went to the event.

PREPARATION

In the days leading up to the event, Gerry thoroughly checked his radio equipment, control movements and settings, the radio's model-memory keys and all his field-support equipment. The checklist included two field chargers, extra glow plugs and glow drivers and extra fuel. We packed the toolbox with spare attachment screws, propellers, nuts, bolts and repair items such as CA glue, kicker and epoxy. When you're four hours from home, spare parts left in the workshop don't help much. Start early, and don't rush when you pack for your trip. What do you pack to prepare for an event like this? Well, we took a pole tent, a foldaway worktable and folding chairs, field equipment, rain gear (just in case) and plastic tarps to protect the models.

EVENT DAY

Always plan to arrive early; set up your tent, and assemble your models as soon as you can. There will be plenty of time to talk to the other competitors after you've finished. At most events, an aircraft safety check is required, so get this out of the way as soon as you can. Don't be surprised if the safety inspector finds common things such as screws and nuts missing. It happens to all of us, and you need to have time to make any necessary fixes.

We were the fourth team to be static judged, and it sure seemed to us that the judges were spending a lot of time comparing the L-4 to the documentation. When the static judging was over, we returned to our tent and exchanged the static propeller for the flying prop. After Gerry's Fun Scale Super Cub had been checked out (a max of 5 static points in Fun Scale), we made sure that our flight orders would allow each of us to be the caller for the other. This is a small detail but one that can mess up your teamwork if you omit it.

Gerry went first in the flight order; this allowed me to gain a little perspective on the flying field and on how to best present the L-4 during Team Scale. I noted the wind conditions and where to position the plane to make turns so we could make the best presentation to the flight judges. This preparation was very helpful and was a team decision.