HAZEL SIG-HESTER passed away at the age of 103 on October 10, 2025. Sig Manufacturing did so much for the hobby that it is difficult to put into words the impact that she had.
Sig Manufacturing was in Montezuma, Iowa, when I attended the 2007 Sig Control Line (CL) contest. While I was walking around, I saw Hazel in her golf cart that was painted in the scheme of her full-scale Spacewalker airplane. I talked with her, and then she gave me one of her 2007 birthday mugs. Thank you, Hazel!
Tree Town Midwest Regionals C/L Championships
The Tree Town Modelaires CL club in the Chicago area hosted the Midwest Regional C/L Championships on August 30-31, 2025, for CL Scale (and other events). The event had some of the best weather conditions that I have seen. If you have ever traveled to another city to fly in a contest or in a fun-fly, you know that you have to work with the weather when it comes to flying.
The Tree Town club uses a paved area at the Aurora Municipal Airport in Illinois. You can watch full-scale aircraft take off and land while you are there. On the weekend that they held this contest, the wind speed was maybe 5 mph, and it was not hot like it can get in the Midwest during that time of year.
When everyone got their models out for static judging, we noticed a common theme among some of them. You never know what people are going to fly at a contest, but there were multiple U.S. Navy models that were represented, including a North American SNJ, a Douglas SBD Dauntless, a Grumman F8F Bearcat, a Douglas TBD Devastator, a Vought F4U Corsair, and a Grumman F6F Hellcat.
For the Sport Scale, Profile Scale, Fun Scale, and 1/2A Scale events, you can fly with the pilots who call that area home. Peter Bauer took first place in Sport, and Madeline Rideout was first in Profile Scale. In Fun Scale, Peter also took first place. Fred Kruger placed first in 1/2A Scale with his Heinkel He 219.
The club had lunch delivered to the flying site, but you had to order it when you registered in the morning. There was also a raffle where you could possibly win a CL kit. I had a great time this year at the contest, flying in Fun Scale and Sport Scale. David Lamacz flew in 1/2A Scale as a Junior competitor.
Broken Arrow CL Stunt & Scale Contest
The Broken Arrow CL Stunt & Scale contest has been going on for 38 years and is flown at Buder Park in the Saint Louis area. The Lafayette Esquadrille CL Club uses this as its home base for CL Scale, Stunt, and Speed contests.
Because of a scheduling conflict with the CL portion of the National Association of Scale Aeromodelers (NASA) Scale Classic, it was decided to combine the CL NASA Scale Classic and the Broken Arrow contest into one event so that pilots would be more likely to attend because of travel costs. NASA provided the awards for the CL Scale events.
For the CL Scale judging, there were two static judges and two separate flight judges. This meant that once you were done with the static portion, you could prepare the model for flight and move directly to the flying competition instead of having to wait for a judge.
There were seven total pilots who registered and entered. Of the seven, five flew in Fun Scale, three in Sport Scale, two in Profile, and one in 1/2A. The final scores in Fun Scale came out really close; in fact, a tie had to be broken for second and third places. There was also a one-point difference between first and second places. Peter Bauer and Pete Mazur both had a final flight score of 102.5 and the same static score, so the second best flight score that Peter flew broke the tie. He received second place, while Pete received third. I flew my Phoenix Model Douglas SBD Dauntless ARF to a first-place finish.
In Sport Scale, the static score typically plays a bigger role in the final outcome of how you place. In this particular contest, I was able to fly my Van’s Aircraft RV-4 to first place because of the difference in the static score. Peter won second place with his Britten-Norman Islander. He had the highest scoring flight in Sport Scale. Jeff Jensen took third place with his Douglas TBD Devastator.
Profile Scale had two entries, with Kathy Bauer flying her glow-powered Shoestring racer to a first-place finish. Jeff flew his P-51 to a second-place finish, and David flew as a Junior in 1/2A Scale to a first-place finish with his PZL-104 Wilga.
2026 Contest Calendar
The Northwest Regionals will get the 2026 contest season started Memorial Day weekend in Roseburg, Oregon. Check out the online AMA Event Calendar, as well as the "Sanctioned Event Calendar" in Model Aviation, to find the dates for the Brodak Fly-In.
The AMA Nats will be flown in July. Check out the NASA website to determine when and where the CL NASA Scale Classic will be held in 2026.
- Northwest Regionals: May 22-24; Roseburg, Oregon
- Brodak Fly-In: TBD; Carmicheals, Pennsylvania
- AMA CL Scale Nats: July 9-12; Muncie, Indiana
- Midwest Regional C/L Championships: September 5-6; Aurora, Illinois
- NASA Scale Classic (CL portion): TBD
- Broken Arrow CL Stunt & Scale Contest: September 19-20; Buder Park, Valley Park, Missouri
Land softly!
SOURCES:
NASA
Lafayette Esquadrille CL Club
Flying Lines
News of Northwest Control-Line Model Aviation flyinglines.org
AMA Event Calendar
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