November 2010 163
HI, FOLKS! As you may have noticed, my
wife, Ruth, and I moved to the beautiful
state of Arkansas. We had been planning
this move when she retired, which came
about earlier this year. We were so fortunate
to sell our home in Shawnee, Kansas, and
bought a three-year-old home in a retirement
community in Hot Springs Village.
We left some great friends back in
Kansas, but will be visiting often and now we
are making new friends here in “The
Village.”
There is plenty of golf, boating, fishing,
and yes, flying! The first check I wrote on
my Arkansas bank was to the Hot Springs
RC Club. We meet every Tuesday morning
for breakfast and then head to the flying
field.
I included a shot of my new club members
at the field for your enjoyment because we all
know the best part of this hobby is the
friendship among modelers. These guys have
really made me feel at home!
Breakfast with my new flying buds.
I have been enjoying this wonderful
hobby for almost four decades and always
said, “you can never have too many
airplanes.” Sprint moved us around the
country and I never had any problems with
broken planes, but this time, the move was
totally my responsibility.
The gallows in our garage.
Well, it took me as long to pack my
planes and workshop stuff as it did for
Ruth to pack the entire house! I was really
questioning my saying about too many
airplanes!
Good flying bud, Mark Dennis, came to
the rescue because he has experience
shipping planes around the US with his
eBay sales and taught me how to go about
packing. Wings are really no problem since
they will usually fit in the closet packing
boxes after you pad them, but the problem is
those darn fuselages!
The trick is to keep things lightweight,
yet structurally strong. For those of you
contemplating a move or shipping an
airplane for any reason, I recommend
building “coffins” for your fuselages. I had
30 models arrive with no damage!
The first step is to go to Lowe’s, the
Home Depot, etc. where they sell
refrigerator/freezers. Snag the empty boxes
and haul them home. Next, pull the staples
and tape from the boxes and flatten them.
Measure your fuselage to determine the
dimensions of your “coffin” then use a
heavy piece of metal to make the folds.
Styrofoam is perfect for the job.
Now the trick: use 1-inch-thick blue
Styrofoam that is used to insulate homes.
This stuff cuts easily with a carpenter’s
knife and all you need to do is cut braces
around the fuselage. Hot glue them in place
and zip tie your landing gear to the bottom
on the box.
Depending upon the distance you need to
travel, beef up the coffin with Styrofoam.
Our garage looks like a mortuary full of
coffins.
My little trailer is packed as tightly as
possible.
Ruth and I worked the Red Bull event in
New York City in June. Although we didn’t
see much of the flying, we had a ball helping
the kids build and color airplanes.
We had five flight simulators going and
we were busy all day long. I think this will
be a premier event for our brand.
That’s it for this month. Keep in touch and
don’t forget to slather up!
Flying ace Trent Young (R) is our designated
test pilot helping Wayne Mercer with his
new airplane.
Executive Vice President
Mark Smith: [email protected]
Mark Smith
Executive Vice
President
75 Largo Dr.
Hot Springs Village AR
71909
Tel.: (913) 568-4347
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Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/11
Page Numbers: 163
