March 2003 83
D.B. Mathews
F l y i n g f o r F u n
909 N. Maize Rd., Townhouse 734, Wichita KS 67212
CONTRARY TO MY promise, this month’s
column will not center on Lithium-Polymer
cells. Logistic problems have not allowed me
enough time to thoroughly flight-test these
units, and you deserve better than a rehash of
the factory press releases.
Memories: Learning about the passing of one
of my boyhood heroes—J.C. “Madman”
Yates—set off some reminiscences of what
has remained one of my most indelible
model-airplane memories after more than 55
years. I know I’ve related it in the pages of
this column and in the text of the “Super
Duper Zilch” construction article I had
published in the February 1979 Model
Airplane News, but it deserves repetition for
longtime readers and telling for you newer
ones.
I’ll set the scene in the summer of 1948.
Control Line (CL) flying was in the midst of a
monstrous surge in activity around the world.
New designs, new manufacturers, and new
hobby shops were popping up seemingly
overnight. Virtually every city and hamlet had
one or more CL circle. Nearly every weekend
had a modeling event of some sort scheduled
within driving distance.
Radio Control (RC) was not even in its
infancy, really; only a handful (likely less
than a hundred nationwide) of modelers who
were also licensed Hams were making
successful RC flights. Their equipment was
all self-designed, and it was built huge in size
and marginal in reliability.
Free Flight (FF), while still popular, was
beginning a slow decades-long decline in
Photos on this page show J.C. Yates’ Control Line Scale winner at the 1947 Nationals in
Olathe KS. It had an Orwick .64 engine swinging a 14 x 7 Y&O propeller.
popularity. Urbanization was removing many
usable farm fields and grass-strip airports
from availability to FFers.
In contrast, a look at the modeling
magazines of the day will reveal literally
hundreds of kits, engines, and accessories
advertised for the CL fliers. The modeling
world was on fire for CL. The kits and
supplies available ranged in quality from
splendid to pure junk. I know this since I
bought my share of the junk.
We were so psycho about inverted flight
that someone sold a control handle that was
spring-loaded and center-pivoted so that it
could be made to flip the up line to the bottom
and vice versa. Someone else sold a
“tachometer” that used a vibrating strip of
metal which slid in and out of a handle. One
slid it in and out until the strip started
vibrating when placed on a model with the
engine running. This was only slightly more
accurate than guessing the rpm.
Back in that summer, the “stunts” most
fliers were capable of were Inside Loops and
Wingovers; only a few had mastered inverted
flight. Bill Skipper had been advertising his
Akro-bat as “capable of inverted flight,” using
his special tanks, for less than a year. We were
terrified of the concept of lowering our wrists
to add down-elevator to the flying model. We
had gone through an early learning period in
which one never pointed the handle
downward. Doing so was contrary to all our
acquired instincts.
Most of the models we were flying were
not pretty. The Rick’s Box Car, Over Easy,
deBolt Bipes, and a few other Stunt-capable
models were not designed with appearance as
a first consideration.
Ray Arden had just introduced the glow
plug, so most models were still flying with
coil, points, and batteries, which not only
weighed a bunch but physically required
extra room. No product has ever again totally
and almost instantly revolutionized modeling
the way the glow plug did.
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84 MODEL AVIATION
Models were covered with silk or silkspan
(a grainy paper made from vegetable fiber)
finished in nitrate dope. The pretty, shiny
models were often the result of 20 or 30
successive coats of dope, hand rubbed
between coats. Few bothered since chances
were extremely high that the model was going
to meet an ugly end as we tried to learn to fly
Stunt.
CL Stunt models were ugly, overweight,
overpowered things that flew at speeds
resembling those in contemporary CL
Combat and were totally lacking in grace or
aesthetic appeal. Most of our models had
flying characteristics resembling a rock on a
string, but we knew no better.
Terms “Stunt pattern” and “precision
flying” came along several years later; back
then it was called “Stunt,” and it could
include a balloon bust, banner towing, touchand-
gos, etc. for points.
Most of us were delighted to be able to do
three consecutive Inside Loops and a couple
of Wingovers; that is, if we could get the
confounded ignition engine to run, avoid
kinking our single-strand lines, and keep the
lines tight in flight.
For those who didn’t have the opportunity
to be modelers in those days, don’t take my
comments as indicative of some horrible
disappointments in flying CL back then. We
were having a wonderful time; the sheer joy
of getting something we had built to fly a
successful flight left us with lifelong, pleasant
memories. Those were marvelous times for
us.
Does it sound as though we lacked good
sense in messing with equipment so
primitive? The term “primitive” only applies
to mechanical devices when they have been
superseded by something more advanced.
Compared to everyone else’s models of the
time, we were not at all primitive. Primitive
compared to what?
J.C.’s model, published in April 1950 Air Trails, was covered with silk painted with white
and orange dope to duplicate Sammy Mason full-scale air-show Stearman.
Bill Skipper’s Precision Models’ ad for his Akro-bat, published in the July 1947 Model
Airplane News. It used his wedge tank invention to accomplish inverted flight.
I’ve often reflected on that
primitive/modern judgment when observing
full-scale aircraft of the World War I era.
Their flimsy “wires everywhere” construction,
wrinkled covering, and obvious fragility
would lead one to wonder what sort of crazy
person would fly such an airplane in a combat
setting. If everyone else’s airplane looked like
theirs, how would they know it was primitive?
So we didn’t know any better? We were
having all sorts of fun and were perhaps in
blissful ignorance? Yes, but nonetheless we
were virtually addicted to flying model
airplanes.
We were happy as larks with what we had
until August 1948 when we gravitated to the
first Navy-sponsored and -staffed Nationals at
Olathe, Kansas, Naval Air Station. Suddenly
our models and flying skills became primitive
indeed! Bob Palmer, Jim Saftig, Davey
Slagle, J.C. Yates, and a few others were
flying much larger, lighter models in a much
slower and more precise manner than we had
ever considered.
We were startled to see how large their
models were and how well they held the
outside of the circle in spite of flying so
slowly, and how round their loops and precise
their maneuvers were. We had been made
aware of these developments through
magazine articles and advertisements, but we
didn’t comprehend the difference until we
saw them fly firsthand.
Perhaps nothing illustrates this shocking
change in CL flying better than the evening
the CL Scale models were flown. We had all
done the usual “oooh and aaah” tours of the
entrants spread out in the middle of a hangar
floor, if memory serves, as they awaited static
judging. There had been the usual spectator
judgments, such as “That’s beautiful but it
will never fly,” or the reverse: “It doesn’t look
too scale or pretty, but I’ll bet it will fly.”
The Scale CL models were flown
inside a big Navy hangar with its huge
doors opened on the downwind side during
the evening hours. I distinctly recall a
large crowd gathered around a roped-off
area and models being carried into the
enclosure and started with considerable
difficulty, if at all. Equally etched in my
memory were twin-engine models that
were not flown because of engine failures
or undercarriage failures because of their
weight. I recall other single-engine
subjects crashing from the dreaded tail-
03sig3.QXD 12.20.02 8:18 am Page 84
heavy or loose-line gremlins, and, of
course, some decent flights.
Nothing sticks in my memory more
strongly than J.C. Yates and his pit crew
carrying out an attractive Stearman PT-17
resplendent in an orange-and-white trim
scheme to match Sammy Mason’s full-scale
air-show aircraft. They hooked up, flipped
the Orwick engine a few times, it roared to
life (Orwicks are very loud), and the model
took to the air effortlessly to a round of
applause. The Stearman flew as if it were on
rails, then J.C. began to do Loops and
Wingovers, then totally stunned us all by
flying the model inverted!
I remember a stunned hush falling over
the spectators for a few seconds, then a loud
roar and buzz as it dawned on us what we
were witnessing: at that moment CL matured
from a rock on a string to a precision flying
event. It was a memorable moment indeed!
I’d forgotten that the construction article
for the PT-17 wasn’t published in Air Trails
until April 1950 (roughly 20 months after I
saw it fly inverted). I’d suspect that editor
Albert Lewis did some heavy-duty pushing
to get it published; the pent-up desire for
working drawings must have been growing
to a crescendo.
I’ve looked at the article many times
throughout the years, and I have a set of the
full-size plans, but apparently I had not read
the text in years because I am startled to
learn that the PT-17 was built by Bob
Palmer and designed and flown by J.C.
Yates to win Scale at the 1948 Nationals.
Drawings were done by Joe Wagner (“The
Engine Shop” column author in this
magazine).
The text of that article, particularly the
opening which describes in considerable
detail the Sammy Mason air shows of the
era, shows a great deal of Bill Winter’s
touch, and the final inked drawings certainly
resemble Cal Smith’s. All of those items, if
factual, indicate the touch of an unusually
high number of qualified people on what
was a highly anticipated construction article.
Next month I’ll take a look at what an
impact J.C. Yates and the others had on me
and what I did as a result. MA
