I find it amusing that some contestants complain about others using Inverted Flight on the basis that it's unrealistic for the type of aircraft. But in reality many planes that were not "certified inverted" were illegally flown upside down.
Were I judging or ED-ing a scale event I'd allow a "not certified" to fly inverted to do negative-g maneuvers
if the contestant were modeling a plane that had specifically been modified for such, or if the contestant were willing to do the trick where you go inverted until the engine cuts out for lack of fuel, then do a half-loop to level flight.
I wasn't suggesting avoiding inverted flight because it's unrealistic -- rather, I was suggesting avoiding it because I'll be at that contest and it's sad to see smashed-up scale planes that someone tried to stunt.
If you
are going to stunt at a scale event you should build a plane specifically for that purpose, making sure to make the plane light enough to do the job, and making sure that you're a good enough pilot. Then build another one to be sure you can fly, before you risk the nice one.
At the same time I have never seen the the taxi lap challenged for WWI biplanes that had no throttles, but simply killed the engine and let the plane roll to a stop. Likewise, the use of "throttle control" as a option of a plane that had no throttle.
On the same note, you need to dead-stop the model with the engine running before takeoff to get full points. But WWI movies show that these planes had no wheel brakes and they were held back by crewmen (like CL stunter) and released headed into the wind.
I were judging flight points (which is unlikely) I would give full credit for anything the pilot & model can achieve and not quibble about if the real plane did it or not. In a fading event we don't need to roadblock the few who still participate.
Yes, I'm nit-picking. Feel free to ignore this.
Not all WWI planes lacked throttles -- it was just the ones with rotary engines that fed rich fuel-air through the crankcase, and pulled inlet air backwards through the exhaust stack that couldn't throttle well. Even those had buttons on stick that you could use to cut out the ignition system; so you at least had crappy speed control on the engine.
I've seen videos of that style of plane being taxied (in a modern context, by Kermit Weeks) by (a) flying on grass where the tail skid acts like a brake, and (b) careful engine speed control by using the ignition cutout just enough to slow down, without stalling the engine.
So taxiing even a Camel or similar isn't totally unrealistic -- and taxiing a Spad with a Hispano or an Albatross with a Mercedes would have been as easy as using the perfectly ordinary throttle.
Topic: Profile scale or Fun Scale (Read 578 times)