In the Air

INtheAIR
January 2008 9
AMA HEADQUARTERS AND MEMBER NEWS
Art Schroeder, 81, passed away Thursday,
October 11, 2007. Beginning in the hobby at
age 8, he had been an AMA Leader Member
since 1962 and spent his life involved in
various phases of model aviation.
He had several model designs published,
including the Eyeball, the Snapper, and the
Migiball. Span Aero kitted Art’s 1983
Eyelash.
He had vast experience as a writer, having
edited the NJRCC’s newsletter from 1959 to
1961, Model Airplane News on three
occasions, Giant Steps (a book for Air Age
Publications), and the Vintage Radio/Control
Society (VR/CS) newsletter from 1989
through 2001. In addition, he wrote several
columns for such publications as Model
Airplane News, R/C Report, and American
Modeler.
Art founded and edited the CIAM Flyer:
the newsletter of the FAI Subcommittee for
Information and Education. He was chairman
of the subcommittee and produced the
newsletters at his own cost.
Art acquired many honors during his
aeromodeling career. He was a VR/CS Hall of
Fame inductee, a recipient of the Howard
McEntee Award (which recognizes great
contributors to and innovators in RC), an
AMA Pioneer Award honoree, and was
inducted into the Model Aviation Hall of Fame
in 1998.
Art contributed greatly to making
aeromodeling what it is today. He took part in
founding various aeromodeling organizations
and developed events such as the RV/RC
Novice Contest, which was among the first
specialized RC competitions for beginners.
He played an active role in forming and
promoting the VR/CS, which was initially Bill
Winter’s idea. He quickly involved Art, John
Worth, and Joe Beshar.
Joe had been a close friend of Art’s since
they were both members of the North Jersey
RC Club, and they often practiced together.
According to Joe, Art was genuine and
motivating from the beginning.
“He was just an inspiration to be around,”
said Joe.
When the VR/CS was founded in 1988,
everything was planned except for a way to get
the word out about the organization. Joe
immediately thought of Art and asked him to
be the editor of the club’s quarterly newsletter.
After that the VR/CS really took off.
“I give Art Schroeder the credit for it all,”
said Joe. “It was his inspiration, determination,
and interest that have made it a success.”
Bob Noll is the current president of VR/CS
and knew Art very well. He said:
“I first met Art as a competitor in RC
Pattern in the 1960s. Art and I flew in the same
pattern class and enjoyed exchanging wins
throughout the Northeast.
“I remember Art as a very fierce and fair
competitor. Art recognized the importance of
Pattern competition to our hobby and ensured
that it was included in the original VR/CS Bylaws,
an element that remains an important
ingredient with the organization today.
“As VR/CS president, I have consulted
with Art on many occasions because of his
effort in the formation of the society and his
continuing love for the vintage RC movement.
Art developed the rules and scoring matrix we
currently use for our Concours competition,
the most prestigious category of competition
within VR/CS.”
Art touched several lives in his time as an
aeromodeler. He made friends at the
beginning that he kept throughout his life.
He spent his 69 years in the hobby setting
new standards and motivating modelers to
reach new goals. MA
—Ashley Rauen
Communications Specialist
Art Schroeder:
1928-2007
MA Staff Changes
Effective with the January 2008 issue, Michael Ramsey was
promoted to MA editor and former aeromodeling editor Bob
Hunt stepped into the position of editor emeritus.
Michael has a bachelor of fine arts degree in visual
communications, with an emphasis on graphic design. He has
extensive experience in commercial journalism, graphic design,
and photography.
Michael joined the MA staff in June 2005, following a
successful nine-year stint as the associate editor of Flying
Models: the only other aeromodeling publication that covers all
three facets of the sport.
An active modeler for 27 years, Michael has building and
flying experience in many aspects of the sport. He is the middle
member of three generations of aeromodelers, and building and
flying are regular family activities he shares with his sons,
William and Jacob. Michael’s wife of 15 years, Cindy, also
visits the field frequently.
Michael is a familiar face at many trade shows and
modeling events, including the AMA Nats, which he has
covered for MA for the past three years. Although he has been
an active participant at local Aerobatics and helicopter
competitions, this past summer was Michael’s first experience
as a Nats contestant. He placed respectably in RC Scale, giving
him a new appreciation for the world’s largest aeromodeling
event.
Please join us in welcoming Michael to his new position!
In Bob Hunt’s new role with the magazine he will maintain a
working relationship with the staff and with frequent MA writers.
He will write occasional features for the magazine and act as a
consultant on various magazine-related projects.
MA’s staff and the Academy express their gratitude to Bob
for the seven years he served as aeromodeling editor. During
that time the magazine went through significant changes that
reflected the changing sport and the informational needs of our
readers. Product reviews became an editorial mainstay under
Bob’s leadership, as did ongoing features, such as “From the
Ground Up,” and coverage of popular modeling events across
the US.
Bob has an unwavering passion for the craftsmanship involved
in building model airplanes and a commitment to embracing new
technology. Most recently, his foray into electric-powered CL
aircraft has received much attention from other modelers and the
modeling press.
The magazine staff looks forward to working with Bob in
his new capacity. MA
—MA staff
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INtheAIR
10 MODEL AVIATION
AMA Announces New
Membership Category
The Academy has developed an exciting
new membership category that is a great
match for those who have joined the park
flyer segment of aeromodeling: the Park Pilot
Program.
For annual dues of only $29.95, parkflying
modelers get an appropriate level of
liability coverage and a quarterly magazine.
Go to www.parkflyer.org to get all the
details! MA
—AMA Headquarters
• On the cover Kelly Mathwick holds Bill
Warner’s FF Scale, electric-powered Lee-
Richards No. 3. This doughnut-shaped
model—the subject of one of this month’s
FF construction articles—may look weird
but is surprisingly stable in the air. The other
FF article is about the Rain Crow II, which
is Reid A. Hull’s Hand Launched Glider
design. It is easy to build, yet it displays a
smooth transition to the glide when thrown
to altitude.
• One of two RC construction articles this
month is for Dee B. Mathews’ scaled-down
version of the 1938 Kloud King. It can be
built sturdily as a great RC aircraft or lighter
for 1/2A Texaco Old-Timer competition. The
other RC design is the Orange Box by Clive
Smalley. It is a lightweight yet rugged Slope
Soarer that may be just right for the
beginner and even performs well as a
thermal soarer.
• CL Racing is fun, so get into 1/2A Scale or
Mouse Racing with the Sky Baby by Frank
H. Scott, which is a midwing 1/2A model
with an unusual V-tail. This competitive
design is reliable, tough, simple, and as fast
as anything you are likely to compete
against.
• Christopher—the RC parachutist—is
another of Luther Hux’s unique
innovations. This comprehensive article
explains how to build a complete
parachutist, sew his chute, and even
construct the drop mechanism needed for
RC aircraft.
• The League of Silent Flight (LSF) held its
1982 Tournament in Bakersfield,
California. Dan Pruss reports on this event
and the LSF’s history. Ray Harlan provides
full-color coverage of the Indoor World
Championships, which was held in a salt
mine in Slanic, Romania.
• Frank Ehling, who served as AMA
technical director for more than 22 years,
retired October 13, 1982, so he could get
back to designing and flying model aircraft.
AMA staff members wish him the best as
25 Years Ago in MA: January 1983
he enters
another
phase of a
long and
distinguished
career.
• AMA’s
Executive
Director,
John Worth,
announces
that the Federal Communications
Commission has finally approved new RC
frequencies.
• New products this month include kits for
two large models: an 84-inch Big E from
E&L Manufacturing for $199.95 and a 1/4-
scale Cub from Royal Products for $179.95.
Granite State RC Products announces a
new iron-on gapless hinge, and Satellite
City is now offering Hot Shot accelerator
for use with any brand of instant glue. MA
—Rich LaGrange
AMA Librarian
Participate in AMA’s
Club Recognition and
Reward Program!
If you haven’t already heard about
this exciting new program, you can
download all the details and an
application at www.modelaircraft.org/
programs/clbrecog.aspx.
If your club is recognized publicly
in a newspaper, on the radio, or on
television for contributing or
AMA has partnered with Harris
Connect—one of the oldest and most
respected directory publishers in the
industry—to produce a register of
Academy members. This can be a
great way to catch up with longtime
flying buddies, contact someone, or
see who is “top dog” at flying events.
Thanks to our members, there
have already been thousands of
requests from those who want to be
listed in the directory. Inclusion in
the publication is free of charge, and
volunteering for a community event, it
could receive a monetary prize for its
efforts. Keep in mind that the club
must follow the detailed rules and
instructions on the application to be
rewarded.
For more information, please
download the application or contact
Erin Dobbs at [email protected]
or (765) 287-1256, extension 272.
We look forward to hearing about
your successful club endeavors! MA
—Programs Department
members can even include as many
as two photos.
We don’t want you to miss the
opportunity to be listed in this
registry! If you haven’t responded to
the mailing or didn’t receive a letter,
please watch for an upcoming postcard
mailing that will give you
another chance, E-mail inquiry@
harrisconnect.com, or call (800) 546-
7524. MA
—AMA Headquarters
AMA Membership Directory Has Strong Start!
2008 AMA General
Membership Meeting
At the October 27, 2007, Executive
Council meeting it was determined that the
official 2008 AMA membership meeting
will be held Thursday May 15, 2008, at the
Joe Nall Giant Scale Fly-In. This event will
be held at the Triple Tree Aerodrome in
Woodruff, South Carolina, May 14-17. MA
—AMA Headquarters
01sig1.QXD 11/19/07 12:46 PM Page 10
INtheAIR
January 2008 11
The National Model Aviation Museum at
AMA Headquarters in Muncie, Indiana, has
updated its guidelines for submitting
acquisitions. The new stipulations are similar
to previous versions; however, slight changes
The US Air Force’s loss is plastic surgery’s gain. Eyesight
that didn’t pass muster for fighter-pilot training was good
enough (with corrective lenses) to allow James Tang, MD, of
Houston, Texas, to excel in plastic surgery. As for jetting off
into the wild, blue yonder, he takes flights of fancy with RC
airplanes and helicopters he builds and flies.
“ ... I’m quite nearsighted,” he said. “I function quite well
with my contact lenses, but the Air Force had other ideas. In
another life, I would have loved to have been a fighter pilot,
perhaps a ‘Flying Tiger’ of World War II.”
James says his childhood dream was to emulate his
heroes—the fighter pilots of World War I and II—and
become one of the celebrated flying aces who patrolled the
skies and kept the world safe from tyranny.
Welcome,
AMA Life Members!
The Academy recently
welcomed new Life Members
Randolph Lambe (Durham NC),
Lloyd Fisher (Littleton CO),
John Kurkjian (Austin TX),
George Banes (Frankfort IN),
and John Welsh (San Antonio
TX).
For information about
becoming a Life Member,
contact AMA Headquarters at
(800) 435-9262. MA
—AMA Membership Department
Changes Are Made in the Museum Donation Process
The Spirit of Butts Farm—which Maynard
Hill flew nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean
in 2003—is a benchmark example of what
the museum looks for in an acquisition.
were made to better address the wide variety
of objects that can be donated. The new
guidelines also answer common questions
people have when they begin the donation
process.
The biggest change in procedure is that
you are required to contact the museum staff
before sending any donation to the museum.
Previous practices necessitated approval only
before sending large groups of artifacts,
prepared displays, or models. This change is
important because it helps the staff control
the collection and ensures that it accurately
reflects all aeromodeling history.
If you are interested in reviewing the
guidelines or obtaining an Artifact
Submission Form, visit www.modelair
craft.org/museum/donations.aspx. If you
have questions, contact the museum registrar
at [email protected]. MA
—Maria VanVreede
Museum Registrar
Plastic Surgeon Flies the Tiny Skies
James Tang, MD, has invested thousands of hours in building
and flying his RC aircraft.
He spent a good part of his childhood building model
airplanes and flying rubber-band-propelled airplanes. But, as
often happens, James set aside the hobbies of his youth for
more adult pursuits.
That is, until he discovered the fun of flying RC models
and joined the NASA Radio Control Club in Houston—not
far from the University of Texas Medical Branch at
Galveston, where he did his plastic-surgery residency. James
is currently a member of the Northwest Radio Control Club.
He said:
“I’ve built about 40 RC airplanes since I started my
practice in Houston in 1983. “Most were built from kits and
some were ARF planes—almost ready to fly. They take
relatively little work to complete. But today I have only three
airplanes and three or four helicopters.”
James says he would have more in his fleet, but that
would mean time spent with his hobby and less with his wife,
Elizabeth.
“She’d like me to spend more time with her,” he said.
He adds that plastic surgery and his hobby have several
elements in common: “the precision and patience required for
excellence and satisfaction gained in a job well done.”
“The two fields have a strong correlation,” he said.
James has never lost a patient, but he can’t say the same
about his aircraft.
“I was flying a propelled glider, which uses power to
climb and then glides back after the fuel runs out. I sent one
quite high, where it was just a speck in the sky. I gave it a
downward command and expected to track it in, but I lost it
early on and never saw it again. I drove around for quite a
while but couldn’t find it; it simply disappeared. That was a
strange experience.” MA
—Reprinted with permission from the August 2007 Plastic
Surgery News
01sig1.QXD 11/19/07 1:24 PM Page 11
INtheAIR
12 MODEL AVIATION
I have been asked roughly once a month for approximately 12 years
why our shop is called “2nd Chance Hobbies.” That’s an odd question
to me since most people associate “second chance” with used or
secondhand, but they still ask. Actually there are three reasons why the
store has its name.
I bought the shop from Mike Rampley in February 1996, and he
had named it 2nd Chance RC because most of the stock was used. The
store was one year old and had approximately $1,100 worth of new
inventory plus the used stuff.
I left the name as it was until June 1996. During that time I received
telephone calls for 2nd Chance Furniture, 2nd Chance Finance, 2nd
Chance Clothing, and even 2nd Chance Counseling.
So when I moved the shop to its second residence I changed its
name to “2nd Chance Hobbies,” to try to get away from misrouted
phone calls. I was sure that the average San Antonio, Texas, resident
did not understand RC. Surely “Hobbies” would describe us better. It
did, but only slightly. The first errant phone call was to ask whether or
not I had butterfly nets. Closer, but not quite.
Since then I have had so many calls for 2nd Chance Golf that I
have the number in my card file so I can pass it on to the callers. And I
still get calls for 2nd Chance Financing. A person even called who had
tried for several days to get a hold of me but was told by the operators
that there was no such business name.
When I changed the name to 2nd Chance Hobbies, I did not go
away from the second-chance idea. I liked it because it indicated that I
had secondhand items, but, more than that, it described many of my
customers and a situation in my life.
Many middle-aged customers tell me they flew models when they
were children. They were involved in CL or FF or messed with RC
with relatives and friends, and they never lost the interest or desire.
They just lost the opportunity for a while when they started careers
and/or families and struggled financially.
When those customers’ children are old enough to have their own
interests or leave home, the clients become financially stable enough to
rekindle the interests of earlier years. They get a second chance at
modeling!
Some of those middle-aged patrons have been sports enthusiasts
their entire lives, and they reach an age or have a health condition that
doesn’t allow them to continue their sporting activities. They still want
to stay active and do outdoors things, so they take up flying as a
second-chance avocation.
Jim Rice (L) at the hobby-shop counter with his good friend, Bill
Frye, and his furry companion, Shorty. Bill was also close friends
with Jim’s father and the last person to take him flying.
In 1952 my dad, Jimmy Rice, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s
disease, which is cancer of the lymph glands. His doctor gave him six
months to live but told him they wanted to try an experimental
technology on him, to use him as sort of a human guinea pig. It was
called “X-ray therapy.” Today we know it as radiation therapy.
The idea was to open the skin every day, put the X-ray machine
right on the affected areas, and burn away the cancer. Dad was not a
heroic individual, but he was pragmatic.
“Are you telling me that if the therapy kills me, I only lose 6
months?” he asked.
The answer was yes, so he let them start. Six months later he left
the hospital at 6-foot, 1-inch tall, weighing roughly 90 pounds. The
treatment had left him wasted away and exhausted. He couldn’t walk
to the bathroom by himself, let alone do normal daily activities.
The first day home he asked my mom to take him to the back of the
house to his workshop. He was building his second RC airplane, which
was called Mac’s Robot. It was nearing the covering stage when he
entered the hospital.
By the time she got dad to the workbench, he could barely breathe
and was so tired he couldn’t work. He sat and looked at the airplane for
a few minutes, let his fingers run over the woodwork, and then had her
take him back to bed.
The next day he took the same trip to the workshop, but he sanded
for a few minutes before returning to bed. This continued day after day
as his strength and stamina improved, and the airplane got closer to
completion. Dad also made weekly trips to the doctor and was
encouraged that he was likely to survive the cancer.
After six months he had the airplane ready to fly, and the doctor
told him to come back in six months instead of the next week. Dad
finally took the airplane to fly. Although it didn’t perform as well as
the first one, he was pleased that it flew and started on his third RC
model.
A year later he weighed more than 150 pounds, and when the
doctor saw him he said “I don’t ever want to see you again!” What a
day for our family.
I believe that if my dad had lain in bed and felt sorry for himself
and allowed the disease’s history to take over, he would have died in
1953. Instead he was determined to see that airplane finished before he
died, and it gave him incentive to get up and do something.
We were told that he was terminal twice after that: once in the early
1960s, with a heart attack, and in 1999, when he died. In the 1960s he
was building another airplane, and it, too, got him off his deathbed to
see it finished before he died.
In March 1999 dad suffered a massive heart attack, and he was in
poor condition when they sent him home from the hospital. I urged
him almost daily to go to the workshop and finish the big Dream
Machine he had started. It was a scaled-up version of the one he had
published in R/C Modeler in 1983.
Dad was in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and I was in San Antonio,
so all my urging was via telephone. He kept telling me he was too
tired. One day he told me he had gone to the shop and worked
approximately 15 minutes, but he couldn’t concentrate and was too
exhausted to do much.
I was trying to get him motivated the same as the other times, but
this time it didn’t work. We lost him in June 1999, but he lived 47
years longer than we initially expected.
Modeling gave dad a second and even a third chance at living. He
survived when professionals predicted he wouldn’t. Airplanes weren’t
all that pulled him through, but they kept him exercising his brain and
his muscles.
I still have the Mac’s Robot from 1952-1953. It is in terrible
condition because the silk and dope have deteriorated, leaving it
looking ugly and forlorn, but I can’t bring myself to toss it out.
The 1.20-size Dream Machine parts are still in my garage. One day
I will finish that airplane and it, too, will have a second chance at being
a part of Rice family modeling. MA
—Jim Rice
District VIII vice president
It’s All About Second Chances
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