Nationals RC Pylon Racing
The Radio Control Pylon Racing
Nationals coverage was mistakenly omitted
from the December Model Aviation. It is
included in its entirety on page 52 of this
issue.
Our apologies for any inconvenience this
may have caused.
—MA staff
Frank Macy
Thanks to D.B. Matthews for an
informative article in the November issue on
Jim Walker’s notable contributions to
modeling and Oregonian Frank Macy’s
wonderful work in reprising two of Jim
Walker’s all-time great fliers: The A.J. Hornet
and the 404 catapult glider.
I have both models and can testify to their
flying excellence. I live on 10 acres; both of
these wonderful models have flown off my
property and onto my neighbors’ land. I was
astounded.
My son and I ROGd the Hornet; it circled
up gracefully, caught its thermal, and headed
at hundreds of feet aloft across five acres of
my property and onto the next. The rubber
catapult 404 achieved the same great flight
but in its own way—having been shot up a
hundred feet, wings folded, then snapped out,
when it started to sail.
I highly recommend these great fliers to
all. Frank Macy is also a generous
correspondent and excellent source of
information about modeling in the Northwest.
Carl R.V. Brown
Nipomo, California
Scratching
The article on scratch building by Bob
Aberle in the November issue of MA is the
best I’ve ever seen! Building, especially
scratch building, is what modeling is all
about. Get rid of the district reports and
contest reports! Let’s have more instructional
pieces like this! My enthusiastic thanks to
Bob Aberle and MA for this wonderful article.
Well done!
Spencer Arrowood
Hartsville, South Carolina
When I read the November “From the
Ground Up” article on the Scratch-One, I
thought here’s an excellent opportunity to get
my grandson involved in modeling. Here’s a
simple model that maybe he and I could work
on. I say “maybe” because of his age and
attention span.
I started modeling back in the ’40s when I
was about his age. I had Navy ID silhouettes
and paper hand-launched gliders (replicas of
P-40s, Zeros, etc. that you cut out and glued
with a penny in the nose); I think they were a
Wheaties bonus. I will never forget the joy
when I built my first really successful model,
a Comet Sparky that really flew.
My son was never really interested in
models, but maybe I can get my grandson to
experience some of the satisfaction of
building and flying models. To me the
building is just as satisfying as flying.
I thought I would copy Bob Aberle’s
articles and put them together in a notebook
so I would have them for easy reference.
When I started I discovered that somehow the
May issue had disappeared.
I was going to E-mail you and ask if you
could E-mail me a copy of that article, but in
reviewing I found that you had already
covered that on the Web site. I copied the one
I needed (it was better than the ones I had
made from the magazine), and now I will
have the complete series next month.
The CD-ROM and the Web site series are
excellent, but I think you and Bob Aberle
would be missing an excellent opportunity if
you didn’t put the series in a booklet. These
articles are the best and most comprehensive
I’ve seen on the subjects. Of course, you may
have already thought of it, but I didn’t see it in
the books category on the Web site.
I have already blown up the plans and
ordered the materials kit from Craig
[Wagner], so the next step is getting my
grandson involved.
Thank you! This is the kind of stuff we
need in Model Aviation.
Jim Moss
via E-mail
Reflections on the Wrights
For many years I have been telling our
new fliers that they should think that the
Wright Flyer flew about the same distance as
our .40-size RC airplanes or larger use for
either takeoff or landings.
I have been an active modeler since about
1935, and my first full-scale ride took place in
1930 when the R-100 was visiting Montreal.
Loved your edition for November!
Ray Gareau
via E-mail
It is obvious that the success of Orville and
Wilbur Wright was due to the many technical
developments that they achieved; all of which
were entirely new and untried at the time.
They are most remarkable since they had no
formal technical training. The following is a
brief list of some important ones.
They were the first to realize that
successful flight required a machine that was
controllable and not merely lifting weight
through the air. The consequently developed
wing warping was a way to bank and thereby
control the aircraft’s flight. (Apparently Glenn
Curtiss later invented ailerons to do the same
thing.)
They built and used the first wind tunnel to
obtain airfoil and other aeronautical data.
They recognized that a propeller is a
rotating wing, and they built an efficient
propeller based on wing airfoil data.
They built, flew, and piloted full-scale
gliders having the same basic design as their
powered contraption which gave them
piloting experience and an accurate
knowledge of wing-area requirements.
All of the above and more helped them to
develop a successful airplane, but there is one
thing which was even more critical to their
success and I have never heard it mentioned.
They didn’t kill themselves flying their
contraption as [Otto] Lilienthal and others had
done.
I believe the reason they were able to
remain alive, despite many stalls and other
crashes, was that their airplane design at the
time was a canard. As we know, when a
canard stalls it mushes to the ground like a
dethermalized model; this they did many
times since they were continuously flying on
the edge of a stall. I wonder if they understood
this when they chose a canard design, or was
it pure luck?
Cal Malinka
Rialto, California
Oops!
I thought I might tell you of my latest oops
that you may want to pass along. Or maybe in
an article I missed you already have.
As do many fellow modelers to preserve
CyA glue, I store it in the freezer when it is
not in use for a long period of time, as I know
that CyA glue uses humidity to cure. (If that
curing comment is not 100% correct, Joe
Scientist, please forgive me.) But I never put
two and two together to think that the
following could happen.
My wife (we’ll blame it on her for now)
knocked over my CyA while in the freezer
and had not noticed she did so. I noticed at
some point when I found my CyA running
down the inside of the freezer. Not wanting to
make a mess by trying to clean it up with a
paper towel, I decided to leave it alone until I
could get some CyA debonder.
One hot evening after mowing the grass I
went to the fridge and poured myself a big
glass of water with a fair amount of ice. After
drinking about 1⁄4 of the glass of water, I
noticed a white plastic-looking substance
floating in my water. The pieces were the
CyA glue that attached to the ice. Not because
the glue spilled on the ice, because it did not,
but the vapors from the glue attached
themselves to the ice cubes to dry! Thus
leaving every ice cube with a thin layer of
CyA glue.
We have no idea how much CyA glue the
three of us ate, but this may be a warning to
all. It makes sense but the hazard never
crossed my mind.
Kyle Huber
McDonald, Pennsylvania
Model Aviation, 5161 E. Memorial Dr., Muncie IN 47302
Letters to the Editor
January 2004 9
01sig1.QXD 10/27/03 1:19 pm Page 9
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/01
Page Numbers: 9