Flying for Fun
D.B. Mathews
909 N. Maize Rd., Townhouse 734, Wichita KS 67212
Fiberglass Specialties
For many years I have referred readers searching for fiberglass cowls for kits and published designs to Fiberglass Specialties. The company has sold its molds and business to Craig Schmidt, 15715 Ashmore Dr., Garfield AR 72732. His web site is www.fiberglassspecialtiesinc.com/.
Craig's catalog lists cowls for most, if not all, of the kits that were originally supplied with ABS cowls and wheel pants, replacement units for those with fiberglass parts, and units for designs published in all of the magazines for many years. I've examined his products and they are superb, with virtually no pinholes and nice, thick gel coats. Also included are various sizes of generic round cowls for use with original designs or kit bashes.
One of the magazine designs I still receive inquiries about is the September 1993 Radio Control Modeler plans that were published to convert a 4-120 biplane into a sort of Ultimate. I can't give any leads on obtaining a kit, but the cowl, pants, and canopy are in the Fiberglass Specialties catalog.
Engine Crud
For as long as modelers have been running internal-combustion engines, they have been searching for a quick and easy way to clean them after extensive use. We once used compounds that are no longer available because of environmental concerns, such as gun cleaners, carburetor cleaners, oven cleaners, etc. Several products have been developed specifically for cleaning the grit and grime off of our engines. Unfortunately none of the currently available products are fully effective and they often suffer problems with shelf life.
One of the dubious benefits of retirement is time to hang out in true hobby shops and visit with others who have similar interests. That's something I've never had the opportunity to do. Most of what little I know about model airplanes has been learned throughout many years from experience, reading specialized publications, and listening carefully at flying fields.
It is amazing how much useful information can be picked up at a good hobby shop from the staff and the customers. With few exceptions, modelers are more than willing to share techniques, hints, tips, etc., with each other.
I recently heard an experienced modeler respond to a novice's question that the neatest way to clean the crud off of a well-used engine is to use a Crock-Pot full of antifreeze. Several of the others present agreed. I'm told that the idea was once published in a magazine, but it was certainly news to me.
A Crock-Pot from the Goodwill store or a garage sale can be filled with enough automobile antifreeze to cover the engine. Left on high overnight, it will remove all sorts of nasty crud. Modern antifreeze contains substances to clean scale, rust, carbon, acid, and corrosion from the metal as it passes through the automobile's engine and radiator. Therefore, it's completely logical that antifreeze would do the same to a model engine when warmed. Any remaining stubborn spots will clean off easily with a metal brush. Any rubber parts, such as O-rings, should be removed from the engine before immersing it. Wash the engine thoroughly with warm water in the sink after treating it, and then thoroughly oil all of the parts.
Antifreeze is caustic if ingested, and the fumes are harmful. So use the technique in a Crock-Pot that is strictly dedicated to this use, and leave the lid on when heating in a well-ventilated room. This may sound a bit far out, but it really does work well.
Learning from Other Modelers
On the topic of learning from other modelers, a poor listener is a poor learner. If you want to learn from the other person, be a listener — not a talker. If you do all the talking, all you will learn is what you already know!
Our little flying group has used some old front-porch benches and picnic tables at our flying sites for many years. They have little, if any, use for flying but are wonderful for conversations. Several of our older guys fly a bit and then gravitate toward the sit-down position to discuss all sorts of wide-ranging problems. We seem to be good at identifying what's wrong in the world but bad at finding solutions.
We are also adept at starting conversations with "Now back when ..." — words that seem to cause young people's eyes to glaze over almost instantly. You young readers need to understand that the past is more comfortable to us old folks than the future because we managed to live through the past and have doubts about our role in the future. We can learn a lot by listening to younger modelers.
When it comes to our favorite hobby, the past was not "the good old days" — at least when you compare the hardware, equipment, and products that were available to contemporary modeling. However, the past attracts us because we managed to survive and conquer all of the modeling challenges, disappointments, and annoyances of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.
I've mentioned this era's lumps and bumps before and have received several letters challenging my memories with accounts of all sorts of good results with the primitive radio equipment of that time. Most modelers of that era remember exactly what I remember: an occasional rare success surrounded by hours of failures.
From my current vantage point, I wonder how sane we might have been to suffer so, yet keep on trying. On the other hand, remembering back to those days certainly emphasizes the incredible simplicity, reliability, and relatively low cost of today's radio equipment.
Removable R/C Unit and Early Radio Gear
Armin Lindow and I have been flying models together for at least 20 years, yet every once in awhile we learn something from each other. Not long ago, he arrived at the flying field with something that started a flood of memories for me: a Hal deBolt "Removable R/C Unit" from a project that Armin and two Medford, Wisconsin, buddies (Bill Heimerl and Bill Pezizsch) constructed in 1953 or 1954.
It was a DE Aerotrol receiver suspended from the corners with rubber bands. Also still in the box were batteries, a switch, and an adjustable potentiometer. The concept with this early radio set was simple: the gear could be removed from the model with everything but the rubber drive for the escapement to bench-check, tune, and change the dry-cell batteries (rechargeable Ni-Cads came along many years later) without fishing around inside the fuselage.
An added advantage, and one we would never consider today, was the ability to transfer the radio setup from model to model. This is a reflection of the cost of the RC gear.
This Removable R/C Unit was a design feature in many of Hal deBolt's RC kits, such as:
- Live Wire Trainer
- Live Wire Senior
- Champ
- Cub
My memory buttons were pushed when I saw Armin's "box" since I built a Live Wire Trainer in 1952 and equipped it with a British ED radio, transmitter, and escapement, and a Cub .09. For whatever reason, I was never able to get the receiver tuned to the transmitter well enough to fly the model.
Armin and one friend assembled, silked, and orange-doped the Live Wire Senior and powered it with an Ohlsson & Rice .23 on glow, while the third partner assembled a DE Aerotrol kit. These radios were available in kit form for roughly $40 and assembled for $49.95. That is not at all inexpensive in 1953 dollars, particularly considering their marginal effectiveness.
These radio units were available on 53 mc for those who had HAMS licenses, but also on the new exam-free 27 mc band. Previously only hams could legally operate radio-control equipment, but thanks to AMA's efforts, an exam-free (no Morse code) license was available.
At that particular moment these were not truly license free, as is so often erroneously reported. It was required that a form be completed and sent to the Federal Communications Commission with some monetary amount. In return, one received a license in card form that was to be prominently displayed on the transmitter.
The Live Wire's design features, besides the removable radio box, were a deep-bellied and wide sheet-balsa fuselage, a flat airfoil, an airfoil stabilizer on the fuselage bottom to keep the nose down as the model accelerated (they were rudder only), a high thrustline, and deBolt's novel "egg crate" wing construction. This consisted of a full-depth spar notched halfway at the top for deeply slotted ribs. All of this was way before cyanoacrylate adhesives, iron-on coverings, and epoxies.
Armin and his friends managed several successful flights with their model, interspersed with a few treetop and "arrival"-type landings. For reasons long forgotten, the Live Wire Senior ended up in the front window of one of the partner's five-and-dime in Medford, Wisconsin, for several years and then faded away. Somehow the radio box survived 50 years of storage.
Plans and Parts
An excellent source of plans for all of the wondrous FF, CL, and RC kits produced by Hal deBolt throughout the years is Fran Praszkiewicz, 23 Marlee Dr., Tonawanda NY 14150.
Fran worked in the kit factory for many years and has exclusive rights to the drawings. Send him a large SASE for a list of what he has for sale.
Trivia: Tombstone Pizza
Mixed in with Armin's recollections of his early RC days in Medford, Wisconsin, was a neat story. "Pep" and Fran Simek ran a "beer garden" across from the cemetery in Medford in the 1950s. Fran began making pizza to sell to their customers to go along with the beer, and the idea blossomed. Pizza sales reached the point where the Simeks began to pack their pizza to be sold in grocery stores in the area.
Sales continued to grow to the point where they began to freeze and distribute pizzas throughout a wide area for take-home use. The frozen-pizza business finally became so successful and profitable that Kraft Foods bought the product and name. The Simeks' beer garden across from the cemetery is where Tombstone Pizza was born.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
