Aero Mail

February 2011 7
Aero Mail
Top Cub
I caught a mistake that I first made when I wrote the
NatsNews this summer in Muncie. I incorrectly identified the
builder and owner for the Piper Super Cub or “Top Cub” as
Phil Sibil le; that is incorrect. It was repeated in the
November 2010 MA as well.
The owner of the “Top Cub” showing the cockpit on
page 30, top of the page, is Larry Folk of Pickerington, OH
43147. This is a 1/3 scale model and highly detailed. The
model started out as a Balsa USA 1/3-scale kit. Power is provided by a
D&B 3.7 gas engine and it’s covered with Nelson Paint. Sorry for my mistake.
Stan Alexander
[email protected]
The Good Ole Days!
The article on Kaz [in the August 2010 MA] brought back very fine and fond memories
of the early days of Radio Control when I was just entering the venue.
In those days I’d never heard of Kaz, but we in Dallas, Texas were really getting into RC
and the Astro Hog and any low wing plane was really something.
I “ran” with a group containing, as best I can remember, Gordon Gabbert (ex-WW2 navy
pilot), Ben Bacon from Mississippi or somewhere East, who I’d known from early 1950s
RC contests, and 4 others whose names time has erased.
I was the only Single Channel, Rudder-only flier at that time, the other guys were Hams
and flew multi-channel bang-bang or escapements on 5 meters. I started out using an
Aerotrol from Berkley; initial model was a Bootstraps also by Berkley, using a Cub .14.
Shortly I began designing my own planes and single channel RC till the Good Brothers 3
tube systems appeared.
I remember when the Astro Hog appeared. Quite an innovation and we learned how to
design and fly low wing models to boot!
In 1955 I was, with family, transferred from Dallas, Texas to Los Angeles, Ca, just in
time for the Navy sponsored 1955 Nats.
I’d built a special low wing for the event but crashed one week before the meet, so in one
week I scratch-built a simple shoulder wing single channel model with a Cub 14 and a Good
Brothers huge three tube single channel rig. Flew out of the box like a dream.
I entered this simple model in the Nats but on first flight it flew away to a Navy ammo
dump! Later it flew so well that I gave several demos to other engineers including a few
corporate managers; all were amazed by this new venue/hobby.
By the next (1959 I think) Navy Nats at Los Alamitos, CA I had a sport scale negativestagger
wing big bipe using a Citizenship multi channel reed “bang-bang” system (R, E, Th,
AIL). I really learned to “fan the sticks” on that rig! Model was extremely slow flier. So
slow in fact that it could only do 1/4 the pattern before my time would run out!
By 1963 (I think), the Nats had rotated again to California’s Navy base at Los Alamitos.
This time I flew a low wing “rocket,” 45 powered looking rather like an F-80D but with
straight wing.
It was extremely fast and unforgiving with a high wing loading but fully aerobatic for
those days. Not really a joy to fly. It also used my Citizenship reed rig on 27.255 mc, subject
to all types of interferences.
On my first flight in the Nats as I turned to make the required pass up the runway,
interference hit it, control lost and the model at full bore plowed into the dirt amongst the
spectators and cars. Close calls were a norm in those days of random, violent interference
failures of any model using the “Citizenship” RC band.
Trying to help things along, I designed as Bill Winter asked, one of the first if not the
first do it yourself printed circuit receiver for 27.255 mc with an optional sealed relay by
Babcock. Model Aviation published it.
Several modelers responded they couldn’t make it work. My response was: with a gas
tube receiver one never knows whether or not the receiver even when carefully made will
ever work, keep trying.
Somewhere in the late 1958-1960 era Orbit appeared with its first proportional control
multi-channel RC System. It was quite an accomplishment, but for the time of low salaries
and tight jobs, it was affordable only by guys with plenty of advanced hobby finances
available. That event signaled the ending of the escapement type controls and single channel
RC, except perhaps for gliders and sailplanes.
Not too many years later the AMA decided to relocate to a “central USA location,” and
so picked Muncie, Indiana. I have never agreed that was a real “central” location but felt
Wichita, Kansas was more central and easier for the “average” modeler to get to at least
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February 2011 139
Robert E. Mattes - MO
Lawrence A. McFarland - OH
Jerry McGlade - WA
Russell A. Micoli - NY
George H. Mikesell - MD
Frank E. Mintz - VA
Robert Misson - CA
Albert E. Moon Jr. - CA
Miriam E. Morris - NJ
Michael Morris - IN
James E. Morris - KS
Robert Morris - NJ
David P. Morstad - OK
Charles K. Morton - SC
Edward A. Mosher - MI
Chuck E. Murphy - CA
Roy D. Nelson - PA
Richard Nuss - MD
Saburo Okazaki - NY
Frank S. Okeefe - NJ
Robert D. Oldach - VA
Robert T. Parker - WA
Robert S. Parker - CA
N. Alexander M. Partansky - CA
Joseph Petrozza - NY
R. B. Powell - AL
Jeff Pruett Sr. - MS
John R. Quinting - CO
Kevin R. Raba - AZ
Richard D. Rake - AZ
Robert F. Reinoehl - TX
Bill Reitz - AZ
Waid Reynolds - UT
Charles G. Rice - OH
Lon S. Robinson Jr. - MO
John E. Rogalski - WA
Michael A. Rutchka - NC
Richard R. Sanford - NC
Daniel C. Schaefer - IL
Keith B. Schevling - NY
Joseph W. Schmid Jr. - NY
Eric J. Schultz - MA
Richard R. Schweiger - MS
Mark E. Sexton - IN
Robert Seymour - LA
Jerryl D. Shankland - CA
John W. Sheppard - NJ
Robert K. Shriner - CO
Walter Siedlecki - OH
Justin G. Siegel - FL
James W. Sieverding - IA
Richard R. Silver - TX
Timothy T. Smith - CA
John J. Smith - AK
Mark D. Speedy - FL
Timothy M. Squires - NC
John G. Stainforth - TX
Robert H. Stewart - PA
Reginald Strout - ME
Jerry A. Stuart - OR
Willis W. Stuckwisch - KS
Steven Taft - GA
Clifford E. Tapp - WA
J. T. Taylor - NM
Rory Tennison - AZ
Eric J. Tilling - MD
Robert E. Tonkin - NY
Leonel Toribio - TX
Eric J. Traeger - CA
Johnny C. Vaught - LA
Al Vawter - OR
Robert C. Velcheck - NH
Jeffrey S. Ward - MA
Wes Weathers - CA
Darell L. West - WA
Rodney L. Whitfield - CA
Pieter F. Wielinga - VA
Edmund J. Wierzbicki - NJ
Garret A. Wikoff - NY
Charles Williams - TN
David Wineland - CO
John A. Yonkers - NE
Nelson J. Zanchetta - TX
once in awhile. But the die was cast and now
Muncie is a huge going modeling center.
Great for Muncie and someone’s AMA
plans but hard on the average modeler who
had a hard enough time financing time off
for a more local trip as when the Nats
rotated about the country. It was at this point
I basically dropped out of any competition
other than local contests, and finally even
them, opting for sport scale.
By retirement age in 1983 I had enough
financial reserves and no bills so I could
afford an up to date multi channel
proportional control rig. And suddenly, as
PCM appeared, I had not one rig but 3!
Amazing! So designing and building really
accelerated.
In about 1987 I decided after an article
noting that biplanes could never compete
with monoplanes in Pattern, I decided to see
if I could with my 40 years in Aerospace and
other engineering venues, design a
successful Pattern bipe. I worked on the
design for about a year, trying to incorporate
all my aerospace experience into the design
as appropriate.
I named my “creation” SLIK (naturally!)
and indeed it was. Using a Saito 0.85 4
stroke with a 14 inch dia. Master Airscrew
prop, with my 6 channel Futaba PCM, over
the next 4 years I flew it regularly and found
that while a bit underpowered with the .85, it
was a superb model and a capable
competitor to any other design of one or two
wings and except these brutally overpowered
“3D” birds (we didn’t do 3D in the
1960s through 1980s!).
After 1994 and a couple of minor heart
attacks and other back and spine problems I
have pretty much resigned form RC except
for limited electric sailplaning which does
not require any significant “chasing” of
models, especially with the advent of the
gigaHertz systems which appear to be the
principal Radio Control avenue of really safe
and solid control from now to the future.
But somehow I miss those early years
when we modelers “fought” for every tiny
advancement, and struggled with far less
than perfect (or even really good) RC
systems.
Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if
somehow RC could have leaped into the
gigaHertz field in the 1960s?
John Deden
via e-mail
Bobby Watts’ MS Society Donation
I read the IRCHA Jamboree story in the
December issue of Model Aviation. I must
say, I was very touched by Bobby Watts’
generosity. As a person who has lived with
MS for 16 years, I am very touched and
moved by such a gesture.
I don’t know Bobby, and have never
been to IRCHA. Some of the members of
my local club, Southern Maine Radio
Controlled Helicopter Association
(SMRCHA) have been, and they have
some great stories.
I hope to make it to next year’s IRCHA
jamboree. If I get the chance to meet
Bobby, I would love to thank him in
person.
Meanwhile, if you could pass on my
heartfelt expression of gratitude, I would
appreciate it. The National MS Society has
raised millions for MS research, and every
penny counts. I believe the researchers
who are working on a cause and cure for
MS are closer now than ever. Donations
like the one Bobby made are moving that
research forward.
Thanks for your time.
Daren Mallory
Gorham, Maine
FPV Regulations
As the Safety Officer at our site, the
issue of FPV [first-person view] flying has
been a concern, and the article in the latest
MA magazine raised the level of that
concern. The article [Greg Gimlick’s
“Electrics” column in the December 2010
issue] stated that the pilot, Alex (inset
photo), sits by his equipment. AMA rules
require a spotter, and that the aircraft
never leaves his or her sight.
The AMA document concerning the
FPV operations is clear and to the point,
that this type of flying be done with a
Buddy-box, with the PIC handling the
master box.
This has really stirred the members of
our club who are borderline on the FPV
topic.
James Parks
via e-mail
You’re right; the AMA does recommend
using a buddy box. Greg’s column has
effectively raised awareness of the proper
use of FPV systems.
Thank you so much for your input. The
safe practice of aeromodeling is a
priority. MA
—Michael Ramsey
MA Editor
Aero Mail
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