SOME EDITORIALS ARE easier than
others to write. This one will be a snap. It is
my distinct pleasure to announce that with
this issue, Mr. Robert (Bob) Aberle is coming
on board officially as Model Aviation’s
technical editor.
My history with Bob goes back
approximately 24 years. When I came on
staff at Flying Models (FM) magazine as the
associate editor in 1979, Bob was already
well established there as a technical writer.
His reviews of radio-control systems were
(and remain to this day) the standard of our
industry.
Bob’s secret is that although he’s
technically schooled, he writes in a down-toearth
manner and presents the facts and
figures about technical items in a way that
those of us who are not so technically minded
can understand and use. This is a gift.
When I took over as the editor of FM in
1980, Bob and I really began to get to know
each other, and the working bond formed
then resulted in our publishing hundreds of
pages of Bob’s material on a wide range of
technical subjects during the next 16 years.
Without him I would have been lost in my
position there.
In preparing to write this piece, I did a bit
of studying to see just where this Aberle
fellow came from and what his modeling
accomplishments are. I wrote a similar piece
for FM many years ago, but Bob’s
achievements since then have been many, and
I really wanted you all to get to know and
appreciate him as I have.
Bob started modeling at age 12 in 1950. At
that time his family lived in Rosedale,
Queens in New York City. Living there
qualified Bob to attend the Brooklyn
Technical High School, from which he
graduated in 1955.
His home was only a short walk from the
old, abandoned Curtiss Airport in Valley
Stream, New York. It was there that Bob first
saw model airplanes in action. These were
mostly Free Flight and Control Line models,
but the hook was set by watching them fly.
He spent lots of his free time as a youth at
that field.
His first model was a Joe Wagner (Yes,
MA’s famous engine columnist!)-designed
Dakota from the Henry Engineering Veco kit.
This design is a great-flying 1⁄2A biplane, and
Bob flew his for a full summer before losing
it in some tall swamp grass along the edge of
the Curtiss Airport site.
In roughly 1952, Bob discovered that
there was another budding modeling
discipline, and that was Radio Control. A
group of pioneer RC fliers began flying at the
airport, and Bob met the leader of that group,
Norm Rosenstock (the current AMA
historian). The RC models of that era were
primitive, single-channel, escapement
operated types.
In 1953, Don Logue, a Long Island Gas
Monkeys club member, befriended Bob. At
that time Don was constructing his first RC
system. Soon after that, Bob constructed one
with Don from surplus military radio parts
that were purchased on what was then called
“Radio Row” on Canal Street in New York
City. You could buy almost anything on
Canal Street in those days!
Don instructed Bob on how to read an
electrical schematic diagram, cut and bend
metal chassis parts, wind coils, and perform
other procedures that would allow him to
build his own radio equipment. Together they
constructed a pair of 27.255 MHz singlechannel
transmitters from plans by Howard
McEntee in the old Air Trails magazine. The
receivers were the Miller hard tube circuit
type, and they incorporated surplus heating
blanket relays!
Bob’s first RC model was a Guillow’s
Trixter Beam that was designed by the late,
great Lou Andrews. By 1957, Bob was
seriously into RC modeling and was using the
Lorenz two-tube receiver that was published
in Model Airplane News. It was a much more
reliable system! Around that time Bob also
passed the required test and received his
amateur radio (HAM) license. He has
maintained his assigned call sign, W2QPP, to
this day.
Bob did lots of competition flying all
along the Eastern Seaboard and attended his
first Nats in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, in
1957. He didn’t win anything that year, but he
has always enjoyed the competition aspect of
modeling, and in recent years he has won
many awards at major meets.
Bob Hunt Aeromodeling Editor
“Welcome aboard, Bob!”
Modeling Spoken Here
Continued on page 197
May 2004 7
In 1996 Bob won his first National
Championships crown, flying in the Class
B Old Timer event during the Electrics
portion of the Nats in Muncie, Indiana. He
also took home a second and a third that
year, making it his best and most
successful year of competition yet. He has
since retired from Nationals competition,
but who knows? He may get the bug again
in the future.
Bob has also been extremely active in
the Society of Antique Modelers (SAM),
and he flew in SAM-sponsored events
from 1989 until 1999. During that period
he traveled to many states and won many
events.
Perhaps the most significant part of
Bob’s life in modeling came when he
joined the AMA RC Frequency
Committee in 1975. This committee had
successfully fought off attempts to take
our 27 MHz RC channels away from us,
and then it gained seven new RC channels
on 72 and 75 MHz. By the time Bob
joined the committee, it was determined
that the hobby/sport was expanding at a
rate that dictated the need for many more
channels. By the late 1970s AMA was
communicating actively with the FCC in
an effort to obtain these needed channels.
By that time, Bob was working at his
full-time job as an engineering manager at
the Grumman Corporation on Long Island.
At that time John Worth was the executive
director of AMA, and he asked Bob to
become the Frequency Committee
Continued from page 7
Aeromodeling Editor
Continued from page 200
View From HQ chairman. The list of members on that
committee reads like a who’s who of
modeling history. Working with Bob were
Walt Good, Dave Brown (AMA’s current
president), George Steiner, George Myers,
Fred Marks, Butch Lanterman, Lee
Renaud, and many others.
During Bob’s watch as chairman, the
committee put forth an astounding amount
of effort on our behalf and finally obtained
the 50 new channels in January 1983. The
fact that we have enjoyed the use of these
channels for the past 21 years is testament
to the committee’s hard work.
Along the way, Bob has garnered many
well-deserved awards for his involvement
in advancing the art and sport of modeling.
In 1982 he was presented the AMA
Distinguished Service Award, received the
coveted Howard McEntee Memorial
Award, and was inducted as an AMA
Fellow. In 1983 he was the last recipient
of the legendary Walt Billett Memorial
Award (also known as the Walt Billett
Loving Cup), presented by the Hobby
Industry Association.
In 1990 he was inducted into the
Vintage R/C Society Hall of Fame. In
2002 he received the Charlie Spears
Memorial Award for Advancing Electric
Powered Flight. And in 1998 he was
inducted into the prestigious Model
Aviation Hall of Fame. That, my friends,
is recognition by many for much.
Bob has accomplished so much in this
hobby/sport that a complete listing would
take way more space than we have
available. Just his record of published
work is astounding. In addition to his
myriad radio-control-system and ancillaryequipment
reviews, he has had 39 original
designs published (and there is one
awaiting its turn in our files!). He has
authored many how-to articles and has
written several contest/event-coverage
pieces. Bob is truly a modeling
renaissance man!
In light of the preceding, it’s easy to
understand why I’m so excited about
having Bob on staff here. He’s going to
make life much easier for me—just like he
did when we worked together at FM! I’m
sure I speak for most, if not all, of this
magazine’s readers when I say, “Welcome
aboard, Bob!”
Perhaps it is a good idea to end this
piece with Bob’s summary statement from
his AMA biography.
“At age 63 I still love model aviation in
any form. On occasion I still will fly a
Free Flight model or throw a handlaunched
glider. I continue to fly in
competitions, but have cut back a lot
simply to have fun with the hobby. My
writing continues. It is my way of
extending the hobby for future
generations. I hope I will be remembered
the most for my writing.”
FYI—Abbreviations R (Are) Us: We
receive many comments about our
editorial style in respect to our policy of
including modeling terms followed by
their abbreviations in parentheses. We do
this the first time a given term is used in
an article or column. For instance, when
the term center of gravity is used, we
follow it up with “(CG).”
Many from whom we hear don’t like
this policy; they feel that all modelers
should know these common term
abbreviations and that this is a waste of
space, ink, and time. The fact is that many
new members read MA each month, and
unless we clue them in and educate them
about our unique lexicon, they might miss
an important aspect of an article or
column just because they don’t know the
meaning of a particular abbreviation,
acronym, or term.
Starting in this issue we are going to
include a glossary of the most often used
terms so that new members/readers can
quickly learn and understand the
shorthand of the modeling vocabulary.
Now we can begin to leave some of the
parenthetical explanations of terms out of
our articles and columns.
We will add to this list as often as is
required and include its location on our
table of contents page so that it can be
found quickly. If you think we are missing
an important term on this list, please do
not hesitate to inform us.
The only caveat to the preceding is the
specialized terminology of a specific
special-interest group. Our columnists will
cover explanations of terms that relate to
their particular interest areas when they
feel the need to do so.
It is our desire to ensure that any and
all who want to know all there is to know
about our hobby/sport have the means to
satisfy their curiosity and catch up with the
rest of us as quickly as possible. That makes
all of this more fun for all of us.
As always, if you feel the need to
communicate, I can be reached several
different ways. My address is Box 68,
Stockertown PA 18083; my phone number is
(610) 614-1747; and my E-mail address is
[email protected]. MA
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/05
Page Numbers: 7,197,199
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/05
Page Numbers: 7,197,199
SOME EDITORIALS ARE easier than
others to write. This one will be a snap. It is
my distinct pleasure to announce that with
this issue, Mr. Robert (Bob) Aberle is coming
on board officially as Model Aviation’s
technical editor.
My history with Bob goes back
approximately 24 years. When I came on
staff at Flying Models (FM) magazine as the
associate editor in 1979, Bob was already
well established there as a technical writer.
His reviews of radio-control systems were
(and remain to this day) the standard of our
industry.
Bob’s secret is that although he’s
technically schooled, he writes in a down-toearth
manner and presents the facts and
figures about technical items in a way that
those of us who are not so technically minded
can understand and use. This is a gift.
When I took over as the editor of FM in
1980, Bob and I really began to get to know
each other, and the working bond formed
then resulted in our publishing hundreds of
pages of Bob’s material on a wide range of
technical subjects during the next 16 years.
Without him I would have been lost in my
position there.
In preparing to write this piece, I did a bit
of studying to see just where this Aberle
fellow came from and what his modeling
accomplishments are. I wrote a similar piece
for FM many years ago, but Bob’s
achievements since then have been many, and
I really wanted you all to get to know and
appreciate him as I have.
Bob started modeling at age 12 in 1950. At
that time his family lived in Rosedale,
Queens in New York City. Living there
qualified Bob to attend the Brooklyn
Technical High School, from which he
graduated in 1955.
His home was only a short walk from the
old, abandoned Curtiss Airport in Valley
Stream, New York. It was there that Bob first
saw model airplanes in action. These were
mostly Free Flight and Control Line models,
but the hook was set by watching them fly.
He spent lots of his free time as a youth at
that field.
His first model was a Joe Wagner (Yes,
MA’s famous engine columnist!)-designed
Dakota from the Henry Engineering Veco kit.
This design is a great-flying 1⁄2A biplane, and
Bob flew his for a full summer before losing
it in some tall swamp grass along the edge of
the Curtiss Airport site.
In roughly 1952, Bob discovered that
there was another budding modeling
discipline, and that was Radio Control. A
group of pioneer RC fliers began flying at the
airport, and Bob met the leader of that group,
Norm Rosenstock (the current AMA
historian). The RC models of that era were
primitive, single-channel, escapement
operated types.
In 1953, Don Logue, a Long Island Gas
Monkeys club member, befriended Bob. At
that time Don was constructing his first RC
system. Soon after that, Bob constructed one
with Don from surplus military radio parts
that were purchased on what was then called
“Radio Row” on Canal Street in New York
City. You could buy almost anything on
Canal Street in those days!
Don instructed Bob on how to read an
electrical schematic diagram, cut and bend
metal chassis parts, wind coils, and perform
other procedures that would allow him to
build his own radio equipment. Together they
constructed a pair of 27.255 MHz singlechannel
transmitters from plans by Howard
McEntee in the old Air Trails magazine. The
receivers were the Miller hard tube circuit
type, and they incorporated surplus heating
blanket relays!
Bob’s first RC model was a Guillow’s
Trixter Beam that was designed by the late,
great Lou Andrews. By 1957, Bob was
seriously into RC modeling and was using the
Lorenz two-tube receiver that was published
in Model Airplane News. It was a much more
reliable system! Around that time Bob also
passed the required test and received his
amateur radio (HAM) license. He has
maintained his assigned call sign, W2QPP, to
this day.
Bob did lots of competition flying all
along the Eastern Seaboard and attended his
first Nats in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, in
1957. He didn’t win anything that year, but he
has always enjoyed the competition aspect of
modeling, and in recent years he has won
many awards at major meets.
Bob Hunt Aeromodeling Editor
“Welcome aboard, Bob!”
Modeling Spoken Here
Continued on page 197
May 2004 7
In 1996 Bob won his first National
Championships crown, flying in the Class
B Old Timer event during the Electrics
portion of the Nats in Muncie, Indiana. He
also took home a second and a third that
year, making it his best and most
successful year of competition yet. He has
since retired from Nationals competition,
but who knows? He may get the bug again
in the future.
Bob has also been extremely active in
the Society of Antique Modelers (SAM),
and he flew in SAM-sponsored events
from 1989 until 1999. During that period
he traveled to many states and won many
events.
Perhaps the most significant part of
Bob’s life in modeling came when he
joined the AMA RC Frequency
Committee in 1975. This committee had
successfully fought off attempts to take
our 27 MHz RC channels away from us,
and then it gained seven new RC channels
on 72 and 75 MHz. By the time Bob
joined the committee, it was determined
that the hobby/sport was expanding at a
rate that dictated the need for many more
channels. By the late 1970s AMA was
communicating actively with the FCC in
an effort to obtain these needed channels.
By that time, Bob was working at his
full-time job as an engineering manager at
the Grumman Corporation on Long Island.
At that time John Worth was the executive
director of AMA, and he asked Bob to
become the Frequency Committee
Continued from page 7
Aeromodeling Editor
Continued from page 200
View From HQ chairman. The list of members on that
committee reads like a who’s who of
modeling history. Working with Bob were
Walt Good, Dave Brown (AMA’s current
president), George Steiner, George Myers,
Fred Marks, Butch Lanterman, Lee
Renaud, and many others.
During Bob’s watch as chairman, the
committee put forth an astounding amount
of effort on our behalf and finally obtained
the 50 new channels in January 1983. The
fact that we have enjoyed the use of these
channels for the past 21 years is testament
to the committee’s hard work.
Along the way, Bob has garnered many
well-deserved awards for his involvement
in advancing the art and sport of modeling.
In 1982 he was presented the AMA
Distinguished Service Award, received the
coveted Howard McEntee Memorial
Award, and was inducted as an AMA
Fellow. In 1983 he was the last recipient
of the legendary Walt Billett Memorial
Award (also known as the Walt Billett
Loving Cup), presented by the Hobby
Industry Association.
In 1990 he was inducted into the
Vintage R/C Society Hall of Fame. In
2002 he received the Charlie Spears
Memorial Award for Advancing Electric
Powered Flight. And in 1998 he was
inducted into the prestigious Model
Aviation Hall of Fame. That, my friends,
is recognition by many for much.
Bob has accomplished so much in this
hobby/sport that a complete listing would
take way more space than we have
available. Just his record of published
work is astounding. In addition to his
myriad radio-control-system and ancillaryequipment
reviews, he has had 39 original
designs published (and there is one
awaiting its turn in our files!). He has
authored many how-to articles and has
written several contest/event-coverage
pieces. Bob is truly a modeling
renaissance man!
In light of the preceding, it’s easy to
understand why I’m so excited about
having Bob on staff here. He’s going to
make life much easier for me—just like he
did when we worked together at FM! I’m
sure I speak for most, if not all, of this
magazine’s readers when I say, “Welcome
aboard, Bob!”
Perhaps it is a good idea to end this
piece with Bob’s summary statement from
his AMA biography.
“At age 63 I still love model aviation in
any form. On occasion I still will fly a
Free Flight model or throw a handlaunched
glider. I continue to fly in
competitions, but have cut back a lot
simply to have fun with the hobby. My
writing continues. It is my way of
extending the hobby for future
generations. I hope I will be remembered
the most for my writing.”
FYI—Abbreviations R (Are) Us: We
receive many comments about our
editorial style in respect to our policy of
including modeling terms followed by
their abbreviations in parentheses. We do
this the first time a given term is used in
an article or column. For instance, when
the term center of gravity is used, we
follow it up with “(CG).”
Many from whom we hear don’t like
this policy; they feel that all modelers
should know these common term
abbreviations and that this is a waste of
space, ink, and time. The fact is that many
new members read MA each month, and
unless we clue them in and educate them
about our unique lexicon, they might miss
an important aspect of an article or
column just because they don’t know the
meaning of a particular abbreviation,
acronym, or term.
Starting in this issue we are going to
include a glossary of the most often used
terms so that new members/readers can
quickly learn and understand the
shorthand of the modeling vocabulary.
Now we can begin to leave some of the
parenthetical explanations of terms out of
our articles and columns.
We will add to this list as often as is
required and include its location on our
table of contents page so that it can be
found quickly. If you think we are missing
an important term on this list, please do
not hesitate to inform us.
The only caveat to the preceding is the
specialized terminology of a specific
special-interest group. Our columnists will
cover explanations of terms that relate to
their particular interest areas when they
feel the need to do so.
It is our desire to ensure that any and
all who want to know all there is to know
about our hobby/sport have the means to
satisfy their curiosity and catch up with the
rest of us as quickly as possible. That makes
all of this more fun for all of us.
As always, if you feel the need to
communicate, I can be reached several
different ways. My address is Box 68,
Stockertown PA 18083; my phone number is
(610) 614-1747; and my E-mail address is
[email protected]. MA
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/05
Page Numbers: 7,197,199
SOME EDITORIALS ARE easier than
others to write. This one will be a snap. It is
my distinct pleasure to announce that with
this issue, Mr. Robert (Bob) Aberle is coming
on board officially as Model Aviation’s
technical editor.
My history with Bob goes back
approximately 24 years. When I came on
staff at Flying Models (FM) magazine as the
associate editor in 1979, Bob was already
well established there as a technical writer.
His reviews of radio-control systems were
(and remain to this day) the standard of our
industry.
Bob’s secret is that although he’s
technically schooled, he writes in a down-toearth
manner and presents the facts and
figures about technical items in a way that
those of us who are not so technically minded
can understand and use. This is a gift.
When I took over as the editor of FM in
1980, Bob and I really began to get to know
each other, and the working bond formed
then resulted in our publishing hundreds of
pages of Bob’s material on a wide range of
technical subjects during the next 16 years.
Without him I would have been lost in my
position there.
In preparing to write this piece, I did a bit
of studying to see just where this Aberle
fellow came from and what his modeling
accomplishments are. I wrote a similar piece
for FM many years ago, but Bob’s
achievements since then have been many, and
I really wanted you all to get to know and
appreciate him as I have.
Bob started modeling at age 12 in 1950. At
that time his family lived in Rosedale,
Queens in New York City. Living there
qualified Bob to attend the Brooklyn
Technical High School, from which he
graduated in 1955.
His home was only a short walk from the
old, abandoned Curtiss Airport in Valley
Stream, New York. It was there that Bob first
saw model airplanes in action. These were
mostly Free Flight and Control Line models,
but the hook was set by watching them fly.
He spent lots of his free time as a youth at
that field.
His first model was a Joe Wagner (Yes,
MA’s famous engine columnist!)-designed
Dakota from the Henry Engineering Veco kit.
This design is a great-flying 1⁄2A biplane, and
Bob flew his for a full summer before losing
it in some tall swamp grass along the edge of
the Curtiss Airport site.
In roughly 1952, Bob discovered that
there was another budding modeling
discipline, and that was Radio Control. A
group of pioneer RC fliers began flying at the
airport, and Bob met the leader of that group,
Norm Rosenstock (the current AMA
historian). The RC models of that era were
primitive, single-channel, escapement
operated types.
In 1953, Don Logue, a Long Island Gas
Monkeys club member, befriended Bob. At
that time Don was constructing his first RC
system. Soon after that, Bob constructed one
with Don from surplus military radio parts
that were purchased on what was then called
“Radio Row” on Canal Street in New York
City. You could buy almost anything on
Canal Street in those days!
Don instructed Bob on how to read an
electrical schematic diagram, cut and bend
metal chassis parts, wind coils, and perform
other procedures that would allow him to
build his own radio equipment. Together they
constructed a pair of 27.255 MHz singlechannel
transmitters from plans by Howard
McEntee in the old Air Trails magazine. The
receivers were the Miller hard tube circuit
type, and they incorporated surplus heating
blanket relays!
Bob’s first RC model was a Guillow’s
Trixter Beam that was designed by the late,
great Lou Andrews. By 1957, Bob was
seriously into RC modeling and was using the
Lorenz two-tube receiver that was published
in Model Airplane News. It was a much more
reliable system! Around that time Bob also
passed the required test and received his
amateur radio (HAM) license. He has
maintained his assigned call sign, W2QPP, to
this day.
Bob did lots of competition flying all
along the Eastern Seaboard and attended his
first Nats in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, in
1957. He didn’t win anything that year, but he
has always enjoyed the competition aspect of
modeling, and in recent years he has won
many awards at major meets.
Bob Hunt Aeromodeling Editor
“Welcome aboard, Bob!”
Modeling Spoken Here
Continued on page 197
May 2004 7
In 1996 Bob won his first National
Championships crown, flying in the Class
B Old Timer event during the Electrics
portion of the Nats in Muncie, Indiana. He
also took home a second and a third that
year, making it his best and most
successful year of competition yet. He has
since retired from Nationals competition,
but who knows? He may get the bug again
in the future.
Bob has also been extremely active in
the Society of Antique Modelers (SAM),
and he flew in SAM-sponsored events
from 1989 until 1999. During that period
he traveled to many states and won many
events.
Perhaps the most significant part of
Bob’s life in modeling came when he
joined the AMA RC Frequency
Committee in 1975. This committee had
successfully fought off attempts to take
our 27 MHz RC channels away from us,
and then it gained seven new RC channels
on 72 and 75 MHz. By the time Bob
joined the committee, it was determined
that the hobby/sport was expanding at a
rate that dictated the need for many more
channels. By the late 1970s AMA was
communicating actively with the FCC in
an effort to obtain these needed channels.
By that time, Bob was working at his
full-time job as an engineering manager at
the Grumman Corporation on Long Island.
At that time John Worth was the executive
director of AMA, and he asked Bob to
become the Frequency Committee
Continued from page 7
Aeromodeling Editor
Continued from page 200
View From HQ chairman. The list of members on that
committee reads like a who’s who of
modeling history. Working with Bob were
Walt Good, Dave Brown (AMA’s current
president), George Steiner, George Myers,
Fred Marks, Butch Lanterman, Lee
Renaud, and many others.
During Bob’s watch as chairman, the
committee put forth an astounding amount
of effort on our behalf and finally obtained
the 50 new channels in January 1983. The
fact that we have enjoyed the use of these
channels for the past 21 years is testament
to the committee’s hard work.
Along the way, Bob has garnered many
well-deserved awards for his involvement
in advancing the art and sport of modeling.
In 1982 he was presented the AMA
Distinguished Service Award, received the
coveted Howard McEntee Memorial
Award, and was inducted as an AMA
Fellow. In 1983 he was the last recipient
of the legendary Walt Billett Memorial
Award (also known as the Walt Billett
Loving Cup), presented by the Hobby
Industry Association.
In 1990 he was inducted into the
Vintage R/C Society Hall of Fame. In
2002 he received the Charlie Spears
Memorial Award for Advancing Electric
Powered Flight. And in 1998 he was
inducted into the prestigious Model
Aviation Hall of Fame. That, my friends,
is recognition by many for much.
Bob has accomplished so much in this
hobby/sport that a complete listing would
take way more space than we have
available. Just his record of published
work is astounding. In addition to his
myriad radio-control-system and ancillaryequipment
reviews, he has had 39 original
designs published (and there is one
awaiting its turn in our files!). He has
authored many how-to articles and has
written several contest/event-coverage
pieces. Bob is truly a modeling
renaissance man!
In light of the preceding, it’s easy to
understand why I’m so excited about
having Bob on staff here. He’s going to
make life much easier for me—just like he
did when we worked together at FM! I’m
sure I speak for most, if not all, of this
magazine’s readers when I say, “Welcome
aboard, Bob!”
Perhaps it is a good idea to end this
piece with Bob’s summary statement from
his AMA biography.
“At age 63 I still love model aviation in
any form. On occasion I still will fly a
Free Flight model or throw a handlaunched
glider. I continue to fly in
competitions, but have cut back a lot
simply to have fun with the hobby. My
writing continues. It is my way of
extending the hobby for future
generations. I hope I will be remembered
the most for my writing.”
FYI—Abbreviations R (Are) Us: We
receive many comments about our
editorial style in respect to our policy of
including modeling terms followed by
their abbreviations in parentheses. We do
this the first time a given term is used in
an article or column. For instance, when
the term center of gravity is used, we
follow it up with “(CG).”
Many from whom we hear don’t like
this policy; they feel that all modelers
should know these common term
abbreviations and that this is a waste of
space, ink, and time. The fact is that many
new members read MA each month, and
unless we clue them in and educate them
about our unique lexicon, they might miss
an important aspect of an article or
column just because they don’t know the
meaning of a particular abbreviation,
acronym, or term.
Starting in this issue we are going to
include a glossary of the most often used
terms so that new members/readers can
quickly learn and understand the
shorthand of the modeling vocabulary.
Now we can begin to leave some of the
parenthetical explanations of terms out of
our articles and columns.
We will add to this list as often as is
required and include its location on our
table of contents page so that it can be
found quickly. If you think we are missing
an important term on this list, please do
not hesitate to inform us.
The only caveat to the preceding is the
specialized terminology of a specific
special-interest group. Our columnists will
cover explanations of terms that relate to
their particular interest areas when they
feel the need to do so.
It is our desire to ensure that any and
all who want to know all there is to know
about our hobby/sport have the means to
satisfy their curiosity and catch up with the
rest of us as quickly as possible. That makes
all of this more fun for all of us.
As always, if you feel the need to
communicate, I can be reached several
different ways. My address is Box 68,
Stockertown PA 18083; my phone number is
(610) 614-1747; and my E-mail address is
[email protected]. MA