Aero Mail - 2007/06
Special Interest Coverage
district report and events that cater to your specialty in the back of every issue.
I personally read everything in an issue (including the rotor-winged stuff) because you never know where you will find valuable information. Who knows, maybe you will pick up an interest in another part of the hobby?
The second challenge would be to join your SIG (Special Interest Group) and read magazines that specialize in helicopters such as Model Helicopter World International or Rotorworld. It is pretty unrealistic to expect a publication that has such a diverse readership as MA to be able to give you all the information that you need or want.
If I were to have one wish for MA it would be that every section of the hobby got a couple of measly pages every month. (If you haven't noticed, some groups only get a column every other month, and those are fixed-wing related.)
I know you are saying to yourself that these are fringe groups that are not as popular (fewer participating members), but to these people it is as important as helicopters are to you. I know this wish is unrealistic due to multiple constraints, but we can dream, can't we?
The last thing I would like to do is to give all the people who make MA possible a pat on the back. You probably don't get the recognition you deserve for putting it together. You do a great job of doing the impossible: trying to please a wide group of people. Keep it up!
Eddie Graves Tacoma, Washington
Satisfaction Guaranteed
As a slope-soaring flier in Southern California, I found the article on Brian Laird in the "RC Slope Soaring" segment of the April issue very well done.
In the article, Brian alludes to a "guy" who hung out at Bluff Cove who made his own airplanes and showed Brian how to cut foam wing cores and make plugs and molds for fiberglass fuselages. The name of this "guy" is Jerry Tucker.
He was a crusty old character and a regular fixture at Bluff Cove. He was constantly trying different things and over the years evolved a lot of the building techniques we still use today. In addition to the ones Brian mentioned, vacuum-bagging wings and the use of carbon fiber are a few. Although he made slopers of P-51s, Reno Racers, and delta jets, his signature airplane was the F-20. I thought credit should be given to Jerry for showing so many of us some really neat model-building techniques and the satisfaction of designing and building an airplane totally from scratch.
Jim Randall Palos Verdes, California
The Challenge Is ...
The negative letters and comments about the lack of special-interest coverage published lately in MA are all missing the point.
The enjoyment of aeromodeling has nothing to do with your choice of power. It's about how well you overcome our common enemy: the forces of gravity and drag. Producing flight with lift and thrust—that's the challenge.
Look at the list of columns. None have a specific relation to power source. I can't think of one that excludes any power source, so all of them are potential sources of education and enjoyment for a reader.
Okay, most of them are specific to RC, but that addresses the third unspoken challenge, which is how well do you emulate our full-scale brethren in flight? Radio control's popularity is a direct result of this emulation. No full-scale aircraft I know of uses taut lines from the ground to maintain control and certainly none use no control at all! This does not diminish the efforts of the CL and FF enthusiasts. As a matter of fact, these segments of the hobby require even more engineering skill and daring than any RC segment ever will.
When's the last time you intentionally sent an airplane into the sky with just elevator or no control from you after launch? In RC you call that a crash. In CL or FF it's a way of life.
The letter from Chris Nenzel in the March issue was heartening in that he did come back to the hobby, but he is very much a minority in that regard. I, too, remember struggling with an RTF from Cox. In fact, lots of people have the same memories.
Most of them never caught "the bug" that I still have today. For me, the enjoyment began that day and has not stopped since.
I have always enjoyed the challenge of building and flying models and overcoming the two forces of evil mentioned earlier. I have always considered the AMA as a partner in lockstep with me in my quest. I read every article in MA with interest because I know there may be something in there that I can use in my next project or the idea for a whole new project.
Thank you, AMA, for being there for me, my son, and for my grandchildren. Keep your focus where it always has been: the enjoyment and advancement of aeromodeling from every possible angle of attack.
Frank Mintz Springfield, Virginia
Hooray for SPA
In mid-March I had the distinct pleasure and honor of flying precision aerobatics with some really great guys from the Senior Pattern Association. After a 15-year absence from RC I rejoined the sport again just two years ago, hoping to pick up and start anew.
So many things in my absence had changed! 3-D, ARF, and Li-Poly were all being spoken of as the new buzz.
Changes to our sport, as far as I could tell, were for the better, but I wasn't hearing about the Pattern flying that I used to admire from afar. I had flown in only two contests "back in the day" before life diverted me from the sport, so as I returned I longed to get back into Pattern.
After a little research I discovered the SPA and what its mission is. That brings me back to my opening sentence.
I spent that day in March trying to figure out if I belonged in the SPA, and my conclusion was "landing perfection." For anyone who loves to fly the old sequences with an airplane that is modest in cost, yet high in value, then this could be the place for you.
Those guys who attended the clinic in Guntersville, Alabama, and shared with me their tricks, humor, and sportsmanship make me proud to be SPA 347.
Mike Robinson Dalton, Georgia
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
