Processing at the 2024 CL Navy Carrier Nats.
By Melvin Schuette
While the Control Line (CL) Navy Carrier events start flying on Tuesday morning, the processing for those events was held on Monday afternoon.
The processing of the airplanes consists of taking measurements to ensure that the airplanes meet both the minimum and maximum requirements for the event(s) that they are entered in. If the airplane is to be considered for the Scale bonus points, the contestant must provide three-view documentation of the model being entered. The model is then compared to the three-view documentation before the Scale bonus points are awarded. The contestant may also be required to present proof that the airplane being entered actually made an arrested landing on a carrier ship or was intended to be used as a carrier-based airplane.
There will be six official CL Navy Carrier events, as well as four unofficial events. This year, Pete Mazur entered all six of the official events and one of the unofficial events. In each of the Navy Carrier events, a contestant has three attempts to make two official flights. A flight becomes official when the contestant raises his hand after completing the high-speed portion of the flight and signaling the judges at the start of their low-speed portion of the flight. This would mean that Pete could put up six flights on Tuesday, 12 flights on Wednesday, and three flights on Thursday. When asked, Pete stated that he hopes not to have to take all of his attempts.
This year, the AMA CL Nats dates were moved off of their normal timeline to coincide with the CL World Championships, which will be held the week after the CL Nats.
All of the events flown at the CL World Championships fly by a unified set of rules used all around the world. While Navy Carrier events are flown in different countries around the world, there isn’t a unified set of rules; therefore, the Navy Carrier events are not flown at the CL World Championships.
Tuesday is the start of flying for the Navy Carrier events. Both Profile (powered by internal combustion engines) and Electric Profile Carrier events will be held.
Note from AMA: Do you have photos from the Nats that you’d like to share? If so, email them to Clarissa Poston at clarissap@modelaircraft.org. Please include a brief description in your email, naming any individuals pictured in the photo(s), the name of the event that the photo(s) were taken during, and the name of the individual who took the photo(s). Your submission(s) might be posted on AMA’s Flickr page, which can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/modelaircraft/albums!