INDOOR FF is about programming your
creation’s flight profile and then letting it do
its thing. Rate of climb, maximum altitude,
circle diameter, stability versus drag, reaction
to varying torque, dynamic propeller
geometry changes, and extensible-motor
energy storage are a few of the parameters
that are within your control. A stopwatch
measures your success. This is aviation
purity.
But some types of models can fly for more
than a half hour (the Unlimited record
surpasses one hour), and that’s plenty of time
for even the slightest amount of drift to slide
your airplane into a wall or another
obstruction, ruining the flight and possibly the
aircraft.
Fortunately, there is a solution. Although
it sounds like an oxymoron, steering an
Indoor FF model is allowed. Long poles or
lines tethered to helium balloons are used to
relocate an airplane’s circle when it is in
danger of hitting another aircraft or the
structure of the building.
Any amount of time that the propeller is
stopped is deducted, and rules prohibit
changing the model’s altitude or rate of climb
or descent. Ideally, the steer doesn’t boost the
final flight time. Unless someone deliberately
cheats by letting line out, it usually takes skill
to keep from losing time.
Once in awhile, there’s some controversy
related to steering. People debate about what
you can and can’t steer away from, when you
are allowed to steer, or even if we should have
steering at all, but it is a good thing overall. It
eliminates standing by helplessly as your
model runs down a wall or gets tangled in an
obstruction, and it makes many sites flyable
that wouldn’t be otherwise.
At last year’s F1D World Championships,
most flights needed a steer or two to keep
them out of danger. Even at this elite level,
the task proved troublesome for some
countries’ competitors who don’t have much
steering practice. There’s nothing like the
pressure of an important competition with
your teammates and the rest of the world
looking on, to make a challenging task even
more difficult.
The Junior competitors from the Czech
Republic and US proved that steering can be
mastered. They each got on and off the
models cleanly, moving them gently and
safely to the intended destination, with
minimal impact to the airplanes around them.
They did a great job and you can learn how
too.
How do you make a good steer? To start,
choose where to catch the model. Many
newbies “guard” an obstruction with the
balloon and then try to catch the aircraft at the
point on the circle that is closest to what they
want to avoid. Inevitably, they mess up on the
first attempt and turn the circle around closer
to the obstacle, causing the airplane to hit it
the next time around.
Try catching the model on the opposite
side of the circle. That way, if you don’t get
on it cleanly, it at least moves the circle
farther away from the hazard rather than
closer.
The next step is to get the balloon on the
model. An old method is to walk the balloon
in from the side, but that frequently leads to
misses or crunched wingtips. I recommend
planting the line in the airplane’s path and
letting the model fly into it. Aim to catch the
inside of the motorstick next to the
propeller.
Don’t worry about hitting the propeller.
Even if it bumps, it will turn right past the line
unless it is near the end of the flight and out
of power. This is much safer and the only real
option in tall sites.
Facing the direction of the model’s flight
and looking over your head helps you
visualize the flight path and position the line.
It also orients you in the correct direction to
begin moving. (The Czech Juniors like to start
walking backward, but I’d be too worried
about falling!)
Start walking forward and slightly to the
right to keep the line on the model. You want
to move fast enough to catch the propeller
from behind. Take the model to the desired
release point, or at least turn it around 180° to
the right, to move its circle farther away from
the hazard and—this is one of the biggest
points—keep walking!
Many fliers want to stop moving when
they try to release the model, and that leads to
trouble. The airplane hangs down on the line,
locking the propeller in place and threatening
to flip over and wrap the line around the
propeller shaft. If that happens, the only thing
you can do is terminate the flight and reel it in.
Keep walking. When you get to your
release point, keep walking. Gently jiggle the
line, pull down, and move to the left. And
keep walking. If you do it right, the model
should come off the line and resume flight.
Don’t stop walking. Make sure you are
clear from your model and walk the balloon
away. Watch out for other airplanes in the air;
it is bad form to create a huge wake and stall
someone out. Move off to the side before
reeling in your balloon. Now you can stop
walking.
And there you have it. It’s easy. Practice
on your slowest model at a reasonable height.
Once you have that perfected, try steering 235
feet up in a 50° salt mine at the World
Championships, with your teammates and
people from around the world watching!
To see a video of 2008 F1D World
Champion Ivan Treger steering, see the Web
address in the “Sources” listing.
Retrieving: The other side of steering is
retrieving. Maybe you missed your steer or
overcooked the flight, but now your model is
stuck on a girder, lodged in a scoreboard, or
wedged in some other part of the building.
If the site is short enough, you can try
using a steering pole to work the airplane free.
However, tall sites usually require some
creative balloon work.
Many fliers’ first reaction is to grab their
steering balloons and start whacking at the
stuck models. Sometimes this works, but they
usually crush their airplanes or burst the
balloons, sending down a rain of model
confetti.
Retrieval expert Ray Harlan has recovered
his fair share of models from particularly
difficult situations, and the first thing he does
is survey the situation with a strong pair of
binoculars. All stuck models look pretty much
the same from the ground, but details about
how they are hung up can make all the
difference in your retrieval strategy.
Often the airplane simply comes to rest on
a girder and needs nothing more than a little
nudge to fall off. My favorite tool for this
situation is a large foil balloon from a local
party store. A balloon shaped like the number
seven or a star offers additional edges with
which to poke.
Foil balloons don’t burst when punctured,
so they are safer to employ when bumping
against the potentially sharp edges around
your model. They also have much less pull
than a typical steering balloon, which allows
for a more delicate touch when contacting the
airplane.
I have a separate reel for the retrieval
balloon, loaded with light monofilament. I put
the balloon on the ceiling next to the model
and take long walks to position the line or
wrap it around an exposed part. Gently
jiggling the line usually coaxes the model free
as softly as if by hand.
Other times, a propeller blade latches over
a beam or the model settles in the “V”
between two girders. These situations usually
require lifting the model up out of its
predicament.
The tool of choice here is a long balsa arm
taped to the top or bottom of a steering rig. A
second line connected to the opposite end of
the arm is used to keep it pointing in the right
direction. This is a two-person task. One
operates the second line and uses the
binoculars to give positioning directions to the
other person controlling the steering balloon.
This activity should be used at corporate
team-building camps, much like catching a
co-worker falling backward, because it tests a
friendship.
“Move left.”
“This way?”
“No, left!”
“Fine!”
“That’s too far; go right.”
“But you just said move left!”
“Careful! You are on the wing.
Oohhhhh!”
It can be difficult, but many models have
been recovered from seemingly impossible
situations using this method.
These two techniques will probably cover
95% of the hang-ups you might encounter, but
there are other variations and alternatives.
Some people position their large steering
balloon next to the stuck model and then
quickly pull it away. The resulting vacuum
can pull the model free.
Others put sticky tape on the end of the
balsa arm, to fish for a model hidden on top of
a girder. This can work, but it usually results
in some damage.
Occasionally a model will wrap a longdiscarded,
hanging balloon string in its
propeller shaft. No amount of bumping or
tugging is likely to get it free. In this situation,
two razor blades glued together in a “V” (be
careful!) and attached to the end of the balsa
arm can be used to cut the string.
The Romanians are known for making
small newspaper fires to lift models off the
walls in the salt mines. The walls slope away
from the floor, placing them out of reach of
balloons, but the heat from the fire will run
along the wall up to the model. This procedure
is surprisingly effective, even for airplanes
stuck more than 100 feet up.
Whichever method you choose, make sure
you start by carefully assessing the situation.
Proceed with delicate care, and your model
stands a good chance of flying again with little
or no repairs required.
Coconut Correction: In my last column, I
erroneously implied that the late Doc Martin,
of the Miami Indoor Aircraft Model
Association (MIAMA), originated the
Coconut Scale event. Although Doc Martin
enjoyed big models and made many
significant model aviation contributions (see a
Web site address to his biography in the
“Sources” listing), Coconut Scale is actually
the product of Bud Carson of the DC
Maxecuters.
Bud initiated the event for the 1987
Patuxent River contest series. He had flown a
36-inch-span Spirit of St. Louis at the previous
year’s November meet that wowed the crowd,
but it survived only through the luck of
missing the walls and rafters in flight after
flight.
“Something was needed that would fill up
the room, but do it in a survivable way,” Bud
wrote.
He built a new Spirit of St. Louis,
specifically designed for indoor flying. It
wasn’t strong enough to handle outdoor
missions, but, in the Indoor paradox, its
lightness allowed it to survive building
structure collisions that would have destroyed
heavier models. He dubbed it the “Coconut,”
as a play on the smaller “Peanut” and
“Pistachio” classes, and a new event was born.
You can read more about Bud Carson and
his models on a Web page the DC Maxecuters
has created in his honor. The address is in the
“Sources” list. Bud passed away in February
of this year. MA
Sources:
Ivan Treger’s steering video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P5pzATooHY
Doc Martin’s biography:
www.modelaircraft.org/files/museum/bio/Mar
tin.pdf
Bud Carson’s dedication:
http://dcmaxecuter.org/007MAR09PHOTOP
AGE/007MAR09PHOTOPAGE.html
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/07
Page Numbers: 123,124,125
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/07
Page Numbers: 123,124,125
INDOOR FF is about programming your
creation’s flight profile and then letting it do
its thing. Rate of climb, maximum altitude,
circle diameter, stability versus drag, reaction
to varying torque, dynamic propeller
geometry changes, and extensible-motor
energy storage are a few of the parameters
that are within your control. A stopwatch
measures your success. This is aviation
purity.
But some types of models can fly for more
than a half hour (the Unlimited record
surpasses one hour), and that’s plenty of time
for even the slightest amount of drift to slide
your airplane into a wall or another
obstruction, ruining the flight and possibly the
aircraft.
Fortunately, there is a solution. Although
it sounds like an oxymoron, steering an
Indoor FF model is allowed. Long poles or
lines tethered to helium balloons are used to
relocate an airplane’s circle when it is in
danger of hitting another aircraft or the
structure of the building.
Any amount of time that the propeller is
stopped is deducted, and rules prohibit
changing the model’s altitude or rate of climb
or descent. Ideally, the steer doesn’t boost the
final flight time. Unless someone deliberately
cheats by letting line out, it usually takes skill
to keep from losing time.
Once in awhile, there’s some controversy
related to steering. People debate about what
you can and can’t steer away from, when you
are allowed to steer, or even if we should have
steering at all, but it is a good thing overall. It
eliminates standing by helplessly as your
model runs down a wall or gets tangled in an
obstruction, and it makes many sites flyable
that wouldn’t be otherwise.
At last year’s F1D World Championships,
most flights needed a steer or two to keep
them out of danger. Even at this elite level,
the task proved troublesome for some
countries’ competitors who don’t have much
steering practice. There’s nothing like the
pressure of an important competition with
your teammates and the rest of the world
looking on, to make a challenging task even
more difficult.
The Junior competitors from the Czech
Republic and US proved that steering can be
mastered. They each got on and off the
models cleanly, moving them gently and
safely to the intended destination, with
minimal impact to the airplanes around them.
They did a great job and you can learn how
too.
How do you make a good steer? To start,
choose where to catch the model. Many
newbies “guard” an obstruction with the
balloon and then try to catch the aircraft at the
point on the circle that is closest to what they
want to avoid. Inevitably, they mess up on the
first attempt and turn the circle around closer
to the obstacle, causing the airplane to hit it
the next time around.
Try catching the model on the opposite
side of the circle. That way, if you don’t get
on it cleanly, it at least moves the circle
farther away from the hazard rather than
closer.
The next step is to get the balloon on the
model. An old method is to walk the balloon
in from the side, but that frequently leads to
misses or crunched wingtips. I recommend
planting the line in the airplane’s path and
letting the model fly into it. Aim to catch the
inside of the motorstick next to the
propeller.
Don’t worry about hitting the propeller.
Even if it bumps, it will turn right past the line
unless it is near the end of the flight and out
of power. This is much safer and the only real
option in tall sites.
Facing the direction of the model’s flight
and looking over your head helps you
visualize the flight path and position the line.
It also orients you in the correct direction to
begin moving. (The Czech Juniors like to start
walking backward, but I’d be too worried
about falling!)
Start walking forward and slightly to the
right to keep the line on the model. You want
to move fast enough to catch the propeller
from behind. Take the model to the desired
release point, or at least turn it around 180° to
the right, to move its circle farther away from
the hazard and—this is one of the biggest
points—keep walking!
Many fliers want to stop moving when
they try to release the model, and that leads to
trouble. The airplane hangs down on the line,
locking the propeller in place and threatening
to flip over and wrap the line around the
propeller shaft. If that happens, the only thing
you can do is terminate the flight and reel it in.
Keep walking. When you get to your
release point, keep walking. Gently jiggle the
line, pull down, and move to the left. And
keep walking. If you do it right, the model
should come off the line and resume flight.
Don’t stop walking. Make sure you are
clear from your model and walk the balloon
away. Watch out for other airplanes in the air;
it is bad form to create a huge wake and stall
someone out. Move off to the side before
reeling in your balloon. Now you can stop
walking.
And there you have it. It’s easy. Practice
on your slowest model at a reasonable height.
Once you have that perfected, try steering 235
feet up in a 50° salt mine at the World
Championships, with your teammates and
people from around the world watching!
To see a video of 2008 F1D World
Champion Ivan Treger steering, see the Web
address in the “Sources” listing.
Retrieving: The other side of steering is
retrieving. Maybe you missed your steer or
overcooked the flight, but now your model is
stuck on a girder, lodged in a scoreboard, or
wedged in some other part of the building.
If the site is short enough, you can try
using a steering pole to work the airplane free.
However, tall sites usually require some
creative balloon work.
Many fliers’ first reaction is to grab their
steering balloons and start whacking at the
stuck models. Sometimes this works, but they
usually crush their airplanes or burst the
balloons, sending down a rain of model
confetti.
Retrieval expert Ray Harlan has recovered
his fair share of models from particularly
difficult situations, and the first thing he does
is survey the situation with a strong pair of
binoculars. All stuck models look pretty much
the same from the ground, but details about
how they are hung up can make all the
difference in your retrieval strategy.
Often the airplane simply comes to rest on
a girder and needs nothing more than a little
nudge to fall off. My favorite tool for this
situation is a large foil balloon from a local
party store. A balloon shaped like the number
seven or a star offers additional edges with
which to poke.
Foil balloons don’t burst when punctured,
so they are safer to employ when bumping
against the potentially sharp edges around
your model. They also have much less pull
than a typical steering balloon, which allows
for a more delicate touch when contacting the
airplane.
I have a separate reel for the retrieval
balloon, loaded with light monofilament. I put
the balloon on the ceiling next to the model
and take long walks to position the line or
wrap it around an exposed part. Gently
jiggling the line usually coaxes the model free
as softly as if by hand.
Other times, a propeller blade latches over
a beam or the model settles in the “V”
between two girders. These situations usually
require lifting the model up out of its
predicament.
The tool of choice here is a long balsa arm
taped to the top or bottom of a steering rig. A
second line connected to the opposite end of
the arm is used to keep it pointing in the right
direction. This is a two-person task. One
operates the second line and uses the
binoculars to give positioning directions to the
other person controlling the steering balloon.
This activity should be used at corporate
team-building camps, much like catching a
co-worker falling backward, because it tests a
friendship.
“Move left.”
“This way?”
“No, left!”
“Fine!”
“That’s too far; go right.”
“But you just said move left!”
“Careful! You are on the wing.
Oohhhhh!”
It can be difficult, but many models have
been recovered from seemingly impossible
situations using this method.
These two techniques will probably cover
95% of the hang-ups you might encounter, but
there are other variations and alternatives.
Some people position their large steering
balloon next to the stuck model and then
quickly pull it away. The resulting vacuum
can pull the model free.
Others put sticky tape on the end of the
balsa arm, to fish for a model hidden on top of
a girder. This can work, but it usually results
in some damage.
Occasionally a model will wrap a longdiscarded,
hanging balloon string in its
propeller shaft. No amount of bumping or
tugging is likely to get it free. In this situation,
two razor blades glued together in a “V” (be
careful!) and attached to the end of the balsa
arm can be used to cut the string.
The Romanians are known for making
small newspaper fires to lift models off the
walls in the salt mines. The walls slope away
from the floor, placing them out of reach of
balloons, but the heat from the fire will run
along the wall up to the model. This procedure
is surprisingly effective, even for airplanes
stuck more than 100 feet up.
Whichever method you choose, make sure
you start by carefully assessing the situation.
Proceed with delicate care, and your model
stands a good chance of flying again with little
or no repairs required.
Coconut Correction: In my last column, I
erroneously implied that the late Doc Martin,
of the Miami Indoor Aircraft Model
Association (MIAMA), originated the
Coconut Scale event. Although Doc Martin
enjoyed big models and made many
significant model aviation contributions (see a
Web site address to his biography in the
“Sources” listing), Coconut Scale is actually
the product of Bud Carson of the DC
Maxecuters.
Bud initiated the event for the 1987
Patuxent River contest series. He had flown a
36-inch-span Spirit of St. Louis at the previous
year’s November meet that wowed the crowd,
but it survived only through the luck of
missing the walls and rafters in flight after
flight.
“Something was needed that would fill up
the room, but do it in a survivable way,” Bud
wrote.
He built a new Spirit of St. Louis,
specifically designed for indoor flying. It
wasn’t strong enough to handle outdoor
missions, but, in the Indoor paradox, its
lightness allowed it to survive building
structure collisions that would have destroyed
heavier models. He dubbed it the “Coconut,”
as a play on the smaller “Peanut” and
“Pistachio” classes, and a new event was born.
You can read more about Bud Carson and
his models on a Web page the DC Maxecuters
has created in his honor. The address is in the
“Sources” list. Bud passed away in February
of this year. MA
Sources:
Ivan Treger’s steering video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P5pzATooHY
Doc Martin’s biography:
www.modelaircraft.org/files/museum/bio/Mar
tin.pdf
Bud Carson’s dedication:
http://dcmaxecuter.org/007MAR09PHOTOP
AGE/007MAR09PHOTOPAGE.html
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/07
Page Numbers: 123,124,125
INDOOR FF is about programming your
creation’s flight profile and then letting it do
its thing. Rate of climb, maximum altitude,
circle diameter, stability versus drag, reaction
to varying torque, dynamic propeller
geometry changes, and extensible-motor
energy storage are a few of the parameters
that are within your control. A stopwatch
measures your success. This is aviation
purity.
But some types of models can fly for more
than a half hour (the Unlimited record
surpasses one hour), and that’s plenty of time
for even the slightest amount of drift to slide
your airplane into a wall or another
obstruction, ruining the flight and possibly the
aircraft.
Fortunately, there is a solution. Although
it sounds like an oxymoron, steering an
Indoor FF model is allowed. Long poles or
lines tethered to helium balloons are used to
relocate an airplane’s circle when it is in
danger of hitting another aircraft or the
structure of the building.
Any amount of time that the propeller is
stopped is deducted, and rules prohibit
changing the model’s altitude or rate of climb
or descent. Ideally, the steer doesn’t boost the
final flight time. Unless someone deliberately
cheats by letting line out, it usually takes skill
to keep from losing time.
Once in awhile, there’s some controversy
related to steering. People debate about what
you can and can’t steer away from, when you
are allowed to steer, or even if we should have
steering at all, but it is a good thing overall. It
eliminates standing by helplessly as your
model runs down a wall or gets tangled in an
obstruction, and it makes many sites flyable
that wouldn’t be otherwise.
At last year’s F1D World Championships,
most flights needed a steer or two to keep
them out of danger. Even at this elite level,
the task proved troublesome for some
countries’ competitors who don’t have much
steering practice. There’s nothing like the
pressure of an important competition with
your teammates and the rest of the world
looking on, to make a challenging task even
more difficult.
The Junior competitors from the Czech
Republic and US proved that steering can be
mastered. They each got on and off the
models cleanly, moving them gently and
safely to the intended destination, with
minimal impact to the airplanes around them.
They did a great job and you can learn how
too.
How do you make a good steer? To start,
choose where to catch the model. Many
newbies “guard” an obstruction with the
balloon and then try to catch the aircraft at the
point on the circle that is closest to what they
want to avoid. Inevitably, they mess up on the
first attempt and turn the circle around closer
to the obstacle, causing the airplane to hit it
the next time around.
Try catching the model on the opposite
side of the circle. That way, if you don’t get
on it cleanly, it at least moves the circle
farther away from the hazard rather than
closer.
The next step is to get the balloon on the
model. An old method is to walk the balloon
in from the side, but that frequently leads to
misses or crunched wingtips. I recommend
planting the line in the airplane’s path and
letting the model fly into it. Aim to catch the
inside of the motorstick next to the
propeller.
Don’t worry about hitting the propeller.
Even if it bumps, it will turn right past the line
unless it is near the end of the flight and out
of power. This is much safer and the only real
option in tall sites.
Facing the direction of the model’s flight
and looking over your head helps you
visualize the flight path and position the line.
It also orients you in the correct direction to
begin moving. (The Czech Juniors like to start
walking backward, but I’d be too worried
about falling!)
Start walking forward and slightly to the
right to keep the line on the model. You want
to move fast enough to catch the propeller
from behind. Take the model to the desired
release point, or at least turn it around 180° to
the right, to move its circle farther away from
the hazard and—this is one of the biggest
points—keep walking!
Many fliers want to stop moving when
they try to release the model, and that leads to
trouble. The airplane hangs down on the line,
locking the propeller in place and threatening
to flip over and wrap the line around the
propeller shaft. If that happens, the only thing
you can do is terminate the flight and reel it in.
Keep walking. When you get to your
release point, keep walking. Gently jiggle the
line, pull down, and move to the left. And
keep walking. If you do it right, the model
should come off the line and resume flight.
Don’t stop walking. Make sure you are
clear from your model and walk the balloon
away. Watch out for other airplanes in the air;
it is bad form to create a huge wake and stall
someone out. Move off to the side before
reeling in your balloon. Now you can stop
walking.
And there you have it. It’s easy. Practice
on your slowest model at a reasonable height.
Once you have that perfected, try steering 235
feet up in a 50° salt mine at the World
Championships, with your teammates and
people from around the world watching!
To see a video of 2008 F1D World
Champion Ivan Treger steering, see the Web
address in the “Sources” listing.
Retrieving: The other side of steering is
retrieving. Maybe you missed your steer or
overcooked the flight, but now your model is
stuck on a girder, lodged in a scoreboard, or
wedged in some other part of the building.
If the site is short enough, you can try
using a steering pole to work the airplane free.
However, tall sites usually require some
creative balloon work.
Many fliers’ first reaction is to grab their
steering balloons and start whacking at the
stuck models. Sometimes this works, but they
usually crush their airplanes or burst the
balloons, sending down a rain of model
confetti.
Retrieval expert Ray Harlan has recovered
his fair share of models from particularly
difficult situations, and the first thing he does
is survey the situation with a strong pair of
binoculars. All stuck models look pretty much
the same from the ground, but details about
how they are hung up can make all the
difference in your retrieval strategy.
Often the airplane simply comes to rest on
a girder and needs nothing more than a little
nudge to fall off. My favorite tool for this
situation is a large foil balloon from a local
party store. A balloon shaped like the number
seven or a star offers additional edges with
which to poke.
Foil balloons don’t burst when punctured,
so they are safer to employ when bumping
against the potentially sharp edges around
your model. They also have much less pull
than a typical steering balloon, which allows
for a more delicate touch when contacting the
airplane.
I have a separate reel for the retrieval
balloon, loaded with light monofilament. I put
the balloon on the ceiling next to the model
and take long walks to position the line or
wrap it around an exposed part. Gently
jiggling the line usually coaxes the model free
as softly as if by hand.
Other times, a propeller blade latches over
a beam or the model settles in the “V”
between two girders. These situations usually
require lifting the model up out of its
predicament.
The tool of choice here is a long balsa arm
taped to the top or bottom of a steering rig. A
second line connected to the opposite end of
the arm is used to keep it pointing in the right
direction. This is a two-person task. One
operates the second line and uses the
binoculars to give positioning directions to the
other person controlling the steering balloon.
This activity should be used at corporate
team-building camps, much like catching a
co-worker falling backward, because it tests a
friendship.
“Move left.”
“This way?”
“No, left!”
“Fine!”
“That’s too far; go right.”
“But you just said move left!”
“Careful! You are on the wing.
Oohhhhh!”
It can be difficult, but many models have
been recovered from seemingly impossible
situations using this method.
These two techniques will probably cover
95% of the hang-ups you might encounter, but
there are other variations and alternatives.
Some people position their large steering
balloon next to the stuck model and then
quickly pull it away. The resulting vacuum
can pull the model free.
Others put sticky tape on the end of the
balsa arm, to fish for a model hidden on top of
a girder. This can work, but it usually results
in some damage.
Occasionally a model will wrap a longdiscarded,
hanging balloon string in its
propeller shaft. No amount of bumping or
tugging is likely to get it free. In this situation,
two razor blades glued together in a “V” (be
careful!) and attached to the end of the balsa
arm can be used to cut the string.
The Romanians are known for making
small newspaper fires to lift models off the
walls in the salt mines. The walls slope away
from the floor, placing them out of reach of
balloons, but the heat from the fire will run
along the wall up to the model. This procedure
is surprisingly effective, even for airplanes
stuck more than 100 feet up.
Whichever method you choose, make sure
you start by carefully assessing the situation.
Proceed with delicate care, and your model
stands a good chance of flying again with little
or no repairs required.
Coconut Correction: In my last column, I
erroneously implied that the late Doc Martin,
of the Miami Indoor Aircraft Model
Association (MIAMA), originated the
Coconut Scale event. Although Doc Martin
enjoyed big models and made many
significant model aviation contributions (see a
Web site address to his biography in the
“Sources” listing), Coconut Scale is actually
the product of Bud Carson of the DC
Maxecuters.
Bud initiated the event for the 1987
Patuxent River contest series. He had flown a
36-inch-span Spirit of St. Louis at the previous
year’s November meet that wowed the crowd,
but it survived only through the luck of
missing the walls and rafters in flight after
flight.
“Something was needed that would fill up
the room, but do it in a survivable way,” Bud
wrote.
He built a new Spirit of St. Louis,
specifically designed for indoor flying. It
wasn’t strong enough to handle outdoor
missions, but, in the Indoor paradox, its
lightness allowed it to survive building
structure collisions that would have destroyed
heavier models. He dubbed it the “Coconut,”
as a play on the smaller “Peanut” and
“Pistachio” classes, and a new event was born.
You can read more about Bud Carson and
his models on a Web page the DC Maxecuters
has created in his honor. The address is in the
“Sources” list. Bud passed away in February
of this year. MA
Sources:
Ivan Treger’s steering video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P5pzATooHY
Doc Martin’s biography:
www.modelaircraft.org/files/museum/bio/Mar
tin.pdf
Bud Carson’s dedication:
http://dcmaxecuter.org/007MAR09PHOTOP
AGE/007MAR09PHOTOPAGE.html