OTS

I entered OTS last weekend for the first time. It was a blast!!!!!!
I had never flown the whole OTS pattern at one time before my first official.
I just used my old Super Clown with the hybrid McCoy 29.
Hardest part was keeping the manuevers in order, and remembering to do so many of each! At least I got them all in the right order the first flight, but forgot my inverted flight the second time. Flew it at the end.
Hey, I even managed to finish 6th! (there were only 6 entered)
More fun than is legal.
Now to build a fairly good plane for OTS!
Bill <><

Hay Bill,Now you're living! OTS is where its at! Or more apporpriately"Where it is"! This is the true event!!!!! I just love it period! Its worth a real "Winky"! I plan to fly my Sterling Mustang at Brodak in PAMPA of course I'll be having flaps but there won't be a penalty in that event! I'll be getting APPEARENCE points for this this time ... something I have never gotten at this meet before! Incidentally I enjoyed your reaction to Steve Fitton's Tomahawk. My plane will have an LA.25 up front. This combination has been truly amazing and such fun for me. As you know I am only 14 but my drivers license says 65+! Phil

Is your Mustang from a Sterling Kit or is it from plans? I used to fly the sterling YAK-9 with an enya 40. My brother flew the sterling mustang.

Bill, for those of us that were around in the late 40's and early 50's OTS is a reminder of what in our youth was on the cutting edge of technology. I have always enjoyed OTS, even though I can't really claim to be much of a "Stunt" flyer.

Keep having fun, and keep us posted.

Joe Just
(who now flys 2 AA Seniors, 1 Scared Kitten, and 1 Super Clown)

The 1951-52 AMA PA rules state, "PRECISION FLIGHT POINTS: These are to be given, as provided below, when the maneuvers are accomplished on the first attempt and in the proper sequence." In other words, in OTS, if you leave out a maneuver and did not tell the judges beforehand, you loose pattern points in any case. If you fly the maneuver out of sequence, i.e. at the end of the pattern, the maneuver should not be judged. But go ahead and fly the maneuver at the end anyway, as we are here for the fun of flying, are we not?

Well, I had a "built in" reason to not have any pressure on me. Regardless of the fact it was my first time at it, Sir Thomas of Luper, and Sir Charles Reeves were in attendance. This rapidly precluded any thoughts I could have ever dreamed of winning! Terry McDowell also flys a mean OTS pattern, so that left Ty and myself to battle it out amongst ourselves. Ty beat me.
I asked Clayton (one of the judges) for any help he might give after it was over. He first said that my first three loops looked real good then the next two went all over h#!!. Of course they did! I remembered that there were FIVE about the time I was ready to do the regular inverted pullout!! LOL!! And I kept wanting to go to the outside loop for the figure eights just like the AMA pattern. I remembered about the time I hit the intersection. The the manuevers were doomed before they had a chance.
I respect the guys like Tommy and Charlie who came right off the Classic circle and promptly burned in an OTS pattern with only a couple minutes between their Classic and OTS flights.
The ultimate FUN event I have ever flown in.
I'll be back......
Bill <><

Finally, someone I can beat in OTS!!!!!!LOL. I too forgot one of the maneuvers and did it at the end. I did not crash this time, that may be why I didn't come in last. I have finnally realized that the leading edge of the Barnstormer is sharp and this plane will stall at the drop of a hat, even as light as mine are. Too many years of combat. I hope Bill doesn't improve before I do.

Ty,
You're dead meat.
Bill <><

Man I used to think I was hot stuff, flying hot dog free style stunt all over the sky---until I started to try and put it all together in a patern. Now I fully apreciate the skill and dedication It takes to make It come out right! Paul

Nea, nea, I can fly OTS better than you. See ya'll at Brodaks.

Glad you're having "tons of fun" with OTS!
Don'y try to "remember" the pattern. Write it on a piece of heavy cardstock or index card. Cover both sides with clear packing tape for protection. Put it in your flight box so you don't leave home without it. At the flight line, put the OTS card in your back hip pocket and refer to it after takeoff while you're counting level laps. This helps a great deal so you won't confuse to two patterns.
ESPECIALLY the wingover and inverted flight!
Good luck & good flying!

Good idea Wes, and I tried it, but the only thing is while reading the next maneuver, I would fly into the ground. Most embarrassing!!!!!! Now I'm at the CRS era of my life, so leaving out a maneuver until old muscles learn the ropes will be de riguer for a while.

Wes,

Good idea. I will be flying my first OTS event at Brodak. There is no Beginner class, so I'm making the Big Jump to Intermediate and it's a real challenge to remember the proper order of maneuvers. I'm going to give it try this weekend and see if I still have a whole plane left at the end of the day.

Bill and Ty will now have someone to beat. This could be too much fun to be legal.

Welcome to the club, Bill. I have a well established tendency to omit the inverted that goes all the way back to the '57 UK Nats. Build a Box Car Chief and enjoy.

Keep up the good work Bill! Now you can use OTS as an excuse to why you leave manuvers out of your Pampa pattern, it works great both ways! See you at Brodak's.

Isn't there some technology where you could have a little tape player on your belt, and an earphone so you could hear the pattern read off to you as you fly it?

Jim,
I record all my flights but I never thought of doing things the other way. If it got out of phase it could be really interesting.

Hey Jim,

Your recorder can be your flying buddy in the center with you telling you the next trick in the pattern. I've seen it done many times.

Regarding Old ime Stunt, here's a short piece I recently wrote for my club newsletter. I hope I can paste it here...

Floyd Carter

\THE GOOD OLD DAYS by Floyd Carter

If you had a Time Machine, and could go back to the 1947 AMA National Model Plane Contest, you would find yourself in Monticello, MN, at an airport operated by Hinck’s Flying Service.

You would notice that most activity was in free flight, with large models powered by spark ignition engines running on gasoline and oil. The Arden glow plug was introduced in late 1947, and demand outstripped the supply at first. It would take another year before modelers converted to glo plug for their engines. Rubber powered models were very popular, probably due to the shortage of good gas engines.

Radio Control activity was sparse. Only the Good brothers and Chet Lanzo actually completed flights. It was only necessary to demonstrate left-right turns to win. Crashes were expected, so judging continued up to the crash.

In control line, there was only the speed event and the stunt event. No team racing, no Formula 40, no Rat racing, no Navy Carrier, no combat.... The speed event meant go as fast as possible. Class A speed was won at 92.3 MPH. Class B was won at 112.8 MPH. Class C was won at 133.8. Jet speed with the Dynajet was won at 110.3 MPH.

The control line stunt pattern flown in 1947 was something like the later OTS pattern, except there were no vertical 8s and no overhead 8s. (Few models at the time could actually do overhead flying). There was a maneuver called “pair of spectacles”, (whatever that was). A second flight was permitted for “novelty”. This could add up to 30 points to the previous stunt flight . “Novelty” could include such tricks as touch-and-go, Saber Dance, flying two planes a once, or lots of consecutive inside or outside loops . All the serious flyers had to fly the Novelty flight in order to win.

While he “good old days” seem inviting, I for one appreciate the advances in technology, which makes our hobby much more interesting.

Bill,

I guess the organizers didn't check to see if everyone knew the pattern? Every meet where I've seen OTS flown someone usually used a "caller" (hunkered down out at the center with the flier)to keep his pattern complete and in the right order. A good caller will even mention key points about the next maneuver for the flier during the spacer laps -- when the judges write down the score.

ANYWAY, welcome!!! You may also notice that the OT pattern is a lot of fun to fly, and is fairly easy with larger figures acceptable. It is also pretty hard to fly it VERY well... So much the better!

What is the difference between OTS and the other types of stunt??

Hi Matt,

Old Time Stunt has a cut off date for eligible planes set at Dec. 31, 1952, and you fly the 1952 stunt pattern. There are two sets of rules for this event. The first set was developed by John Miske of the Garden State Circle Burners, and specifies that an eligible plane must have been published or kitted before that date. PAMPA rules came later and allow any plane that can be documented as flown before 1953 is eligible. Both rules have a bonus for non flapped planes, and there is often a separate Ignition event flown at some of the larger contests.
Different contests go by the two rules. Around the SE, most contests go by PAMPA rules.

Classic Stunt has a cut off date of Dec. 31, 1969.

Of course any OTS or Classic plane is eligible for the PAMPA skill classes of Beginner (abbreviated pttern), Intermediate, Advanced and, Expert.
HTH,

Bill <><

Are OTS and Classic contests related or are they totally seperate as regards pattern. Where would I be able to find the patterns for each if I were interested in flying one of them? Thanks in advance.

Matt(Soh)

Classic uses the AMA modern pattern, while OTS uses the 1952 pattern.
I believe the OTS pattern is on the PAMPA site.
Bill <><

http://www.control-line.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=22

The PAMPA website has the PAMPA scoresheet for OTS. I recall that diagrams of the maneuvers are on a Spanish website. So far as I know the OTS rules are not on any other website. I will be glad to make a hard copy of the 1951-52 rules available to anyone who wants to post them on a website, as I have done in the past for Stuka Stunt and PAMPA, unfortunately without results.

Thanks Bill

Thanks Jim