Meet new MA author, Thayer Syme
It is with great excitement and pleasure that I begin this new column in Model Aviation. I have the utmost respect for the writers who have graced these pages throughout the years and the offer to join that contributor list is a great honor.
What's With the Name?
Two obvious details to consider with a new column are its content and title. I have strong interest in aviation's Golden Age and a preference for a "traditional" modeling style. As I started jotting down ideas for content, I started thinking about the term "grassroots."
For me, nothing in aviation seems more grassroots than making lazy circuits around the field on a beautiful summer's day with a first trainer, that favorite Sport model, Sport Scale Cub, Pietenpol, or Waco. Even better yet, how about flying that same airplane with floats from a lake? No question, those are great days.
Not to stir the pot too much, but we don't even really need RC! Grab a Jimmie Allen or basic Dime-Scale Rubber model, and you can have just as much fun watching the sun stream through the tissue while it circles up into the blue.
Yeah, "Around the Patch" just seemed to fit.
I've been an active air modeler and AMA member since my mid-teens and fondly remember many of the designs published by Model Aviation since then. One of the great hooks of our hobby is the tremendous diversity it offers.
I've built and flown models throughout the years that spanned only a few inches on up to four meters, and models that weighed less than 1 gram to nearly 20 pounds. Each was different and compelling in its own right, whether powered by gravity, glow fuel, gasoline, electricity, rubber, CO2, or even compressed air.
Although most of my models are RC, I also enjoy building, trimming, and flying FF models and I have set foot in a few CL circles along the way.
Big or small, my preference is for a lightweight, efficient structure. It doesn't much matter whether I am working from an original drawing or someone else's plans or kit. Give me a few uninterrupted hours at the workbench with a stack of balsa, a sharp razor blade, a fresh sanding block, and a tube of glue, and I am as happy as can be.
Inspiration
Our path through this hobby is inevitably guided by the people we meet and friends we make. I will be forever indebted to Gary Price for fronting me $25 to buy my first Scale model. I found a rough-framed 1/6-scale Sig J-3 Cub in our hometown newspaper during my first few years in the hobby and had to have it!
Although Gary is not a modeler, he is "air-minded" and shares my primal need for flight. We remain in touch all these years later and I still have that same model, now powered with an Astro Flight electric motor after using two-stroke and four-stroke glow engines in the past.
I poured over plans in magazines each month to see how models were designed and I quickly became enamored by the simple, practical Sport and Sport Scale models from icons such as Gordon Whitehead, Fred Reese, and Ken Willard. My FF inspiration came from the drawing boards of Walt Mooney, Bill Warner, Don Buttman, and many others, often as the free plans in Model Builder.
Let me not forget Bill Hannan’s column and his seemingly endless series of books chock-full of jewel-like stick-and-tissue models. Month after month, I was captivated as Hannan showcased featherweight gems by the incomparable Dave Rees, Jiro Sugimoto, and innumerable others from around the world.
I would occasionally notice a familiar name, and found it intriguing that a well-known musician was also a modeler. I discovered later that this was actually a different George Benson, with whom I would share many a delightful flying session while living in San Francisco.
It was also during those same years that I was privileged to meet Jiro Sugimoto and see a few examples of his exquisite stick-and-tissue art.
More recently, Keith Shaw and I met at the Toledo R/C Expo in Toledo, Ohio, for what seems to be our annual tradition. Mindless of the crowd flowing around us, we stood mid-aisle gabbing endlessly about the models we have built and the ones yet to come.
Keith’s big project this year is a traditional Pattern-type aerobatic aircraft—traditional that is, until you realize it is powered by a ducted fan. I look forward to his flight report. With limited torque effects and clean airflow over the entire airframe, it should prove to be interesting in flight.
Yes, Toledo is a great opportunity to meet the big names of the hobby that we read about and get up close to their latest contest entries. Dennis Crooks, Nick Ziroli, Carl Bachhuber, Dave Platt, Roy Vaillancourt, Dave Wigley, and the rest are there, giving back to the hobby in their own way.
To all of these modelers and the countless other names not mentioned,
Around the Patch
Thayer Syme
I want to extend my most sincere thanks for their contributions to our great pastime. Every time I see their craftsmanship I feel challenged to spice up my next model and make it better than the last, and hopefully inspire some new modelers.
Looking Forward
My goal for this space is to pass along the fun that model aviation has to offer—from the simplest stick-and-sheet FF models on up to wherever your dreams soar. Along the way, I hope to entertain you a little, as well as share some of my building, finishing, and flying techniques.
There are as many ways to enjoy modeling as there are modelers, so don't be afraid to jump in and try something new. You never know what you might find around the next corner.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
