April 2011 7
Aero Mail
Mitsubishi Masterpiece
Tom Hallman’s photography is just irresistible, isn’t it?
Great cover!
Don DeLoach
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Simple, yet perfect.
TJ Rohyans
Mobile, Alabama
Simla Design
Check this out. Here’s the “miracle” image that
helped us find the original measurements to come up
with the fuselage (and wing) for the Simla. In the
article “Ed Kazmirski’s Simla” in the March 2011
issue] I wrote that it was the “key to the puzzle.”
To me the actual
“construction” and
building is not as
important as the story
behind the
construction—how it came to be. To that end, I’ve included a
photo of the desk where much of the Simla research was
conducted. Bringing this project to life and working and
getting to know so many great people is what made the
project truly rewarding.
Thanks for giving me the challenge back in the fall of
2007, and the chance to have the project published.
Duane Wilson
via e-mail
Bring Back RC Combat!
I’m attaching a photo of
Air Combat America Show
Team seen here posing at Top
Gun 2010 with Dave
Mathewson [wearing yellow
shirt] and Frank Tiano
[wearing black shirt] ...
Other than the occasional
combat column by good
friend Don Grissom, RC
Combat isn’t getting much
publicity these days in print.
I’d be happy to provide you with more history and detail on the team if you like.
As seems to be the case with every area of our beloved hobby, except maybe park
fliers, there seems to be a pervasive lack of enthusiasm and new growth in RC Combat. I,
and my sponsored team, have been trying to promote combat (real combat at sanctioned
contests), by flying demonstrations at events in S. Fl. for 4 years now.
They’re a great bunch of guys and could use any additional exposure you might have
for them to further our cause. Numbers of competitors at this year’s [2010] Nats were
appalling to say the least.
Adding insult to injury comes when a club that has hosted an annual combat contest
for 5 years decides by way of formal vote (at a carefully chosen meeting I could not
attend), not to have any more combat events due to low turnout at one contest.
Surrendering use of the field to a handful of pilots for the weekend is a surefire way to
draw the wrath of those who chafe at the very notion of an activity other than the usual:
fly around in a circle, crash, rinse, repeat.
Sadly those complaining the loudest are also those who fly the least and in some cases
not at all! A club priding itself on being the “largest” in the USA with 400+ members no
less. I have a feeling you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Fighting an uphill battle in both directions with declining numbers of competition
pilots and club opposition to sanctioned events that “close” the field. Sorry but I am old
school and without sanctioned competition I think we’re all just a bunch of park fliers in a
sense.
Continued on page 167
04sig1_00MSTRPG.QXD 2/22/11 12:10 PM Page 7
Edition: Model Aviation - 2011/04
Page Numbers: 7
