Free Flight Scale - 2004/04

HE IS CALLED “the great organizer” of
the Flying Aces Club (FAC), and Lin
Reichel is at the center of today’s FAC. He
has helped make the FAC one of the most
successful Free Flight organizations in the
world. At 76, Lin graciously volunteers
roughly four hours a day to the business (and
pleasures) of the FAC’s growing
membership. He is helped by his wonderful
wife Juanita and his good friends Vic
Didelot, Ross Mayo, and other Erie Model
Aircraft Association members.
Lin is no stranger to large organizational
activity. Since 1962 he has been involved
with the Erie Little League Baseball
Organization in Pennsylvania. He served as
commissioner from 1984 to 1987 and is still
on the board of trustees. Juanita was also
there to share the burden of making that
organization a success. In similar fashion,
she has been, and remains, a pillar of FACGHQ
(general headquarters). The FAC is
built on enthusiasm and voluntarism. Many
are helping to make it an enduring success
story.
The FAC originally arose from the same
fertile ground that gave rise to AMA. It was in
the mid-1930s. The country was still
recovering from the Great Depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
was president, and some bad guys in smartly tailored uniforms were
planning to impose a “new order” on the world using their people
and the newest forms of military hardware to reach their goal.
Aviation was barely three decades old, and it was among the
most glamorous and newsworthy topics of the age. Exciting new
airplanes were emerging. Records for speed and distance were
Dennis O. Norman, 11216 Lake Ave., Cleveland OH 44102
FREE FLIGHT SCALE
Juanita and Lin Reichel work at a recent FAC contest. This outstanding team provides
outstanding leadership. Photo by Stephen Kanyusik.
Don Lang holds his Mr. Smoothie, which was a classic 1930s
racer. Photo by Fred Wunsche.
This Jimmie Allen Skokie by Jack Moses is a real nonscale FAC
competitor. Photo by Jack Moses.
constantly being made and broken. Youths dreamed of soaring
adventure in powerful, glittering new machines.
Pulp magazines told tales of World War I aerial combat,
barnstormers, mail carriers, and air racers. Hollywood films added
to the glamour. The popular media told of the adventures of aviators
such as Lindbergh, Byrd, Doolittle, Turner, and others.
Airplanes were sensory realities. They could be seen, heard,
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148 MODEL AVIATION
scale counterparts. Garage businesses were born as kits were
produced for eager modelers. Some of these small businesses went
on to become quite large and made millions of kits (and dollars) for
their owners.
The newsworthiness of aviation also gave rise to a healthy
number of books and magazines devoted to model airplanes.
Among the most prominent of the magazines was Flying Aces,
which was first published in 1928 in the afterglow of Charles
Lindbergh’s electrifying New York-to-Paris flight.
Flying Aces presented a blend of fiction, material about modelairplane
building, and fact for its readers. It was published monthly
and cost only 15¢ per issue by the 10th year of its circulation. It
thrilled and inspired millions.
One of Flying Aces’ delightful features was the Flying Aces
Club, which was created “to advance the cause of aviation.” By
1938 the original FAC boasted a membership of more than 50,000
and claimed that honorary members included the president and
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt and a veritable “who’s who” of
prominent names in contemporary aviation, entertainment, and
industry.
There was no membership fee; a person joined by simply
completing a brief membership coupon, which he or she mailed to
FAC-GHQ with a stamped, self-addressed envelope. GHQ returned
an “official card” declaring the holder to be a member in good
standing.
As a member of the FAC, one became a cadet and might quickly
have risen in rank by adding new members. There were pilot’s
wings, an official FAC club ring, an aviator’s identification
bracelet, an Ace’s Star (for enrolling five members), a
Distinguished Service Medal, and even a Medal of Honor.
Although Flying Aces magazine was distributed abroad, only
American and Canadian citizens who
reached the rank of Ace were eligible for
membership in the Flying Aces Escadrille,
which was presented as a “definite program
contributing to the forward movement of
aviation.”
With cynicism, and the perspective of
history, it might be argued that the original
Flying Aces Club was formed to organize
American and Canadian youth for military
service in what was fast becoming an
increasingly dangerous world as the 1930s
drew to a close. The original FAC was a
patriotic effort and its impact has been farreaching.
By the mid-1960s the youth of the 1930s
were in middle age. The tumult of the 1940s
had given way to the growth and prosperity
smelled, and touched. If a kid lived close enough to an airport, he
might get a job there doing simple tasks and could become a part of
the excitement.
With aviation’s popularity, it is not surprising that modelairplane
building became the rage. If you could not be around
aircraft, you could build models of them. Best of all, you might
even get your models to fly just like (if not as well as) their full-
This Wright Flyer by John Blair is an elegant and timely subject.
Photo by John Blair.
Bob Bojanowski’s Hughes Racer has retracting gear in flight.
Photo by Chris Starleaf.
This is Nate Sturman’s Nakajima Nate. Photo by Nate Sturman.
Jiro Sugimoto built this Peanut Scale Gotha Go.145. Photo by Jiro Sugimoto.
of the 1950s and 1960s. Marriages took
place, families were started, homes and cars
were bought, and busy careers were well
underway. In New England a renewed
interest in Free Flight Scale gave rise to a
wave of nostalgia which, in turn, led to the
birth of today’s Flying Aces Club.
Bob Thompson, Dave Stott, his son
Paul, and his nephew John were the first
members of the new FAC. No AMA
membership was required and there was no
entry fee for the first FAC contest, held
November 7, 1965, at Old Dam Road in
Fairfield, Connecticut.
There was only one event—Scale—and
most of the contestants were members of
the Southern Connecticut Aero Modelers
Association (SCAMA). The legendary
Henry Struck was among them. The flying
site was named “Pinkam Field,” and the
name was applied to subsequent flying sites
as well.
The second FAC contest was held
November 6, 1966, again at Fairfield,
Connecticut. FAC Handicapped
Representative Scale Rules (now known
simply as FAC Scale Rules) were
introduced. Also, a new event was created
for nonscale models with wing areas of
fewer than 100 square inches; this event
became known as “FAC Sport.”
At the time of the second meet, a ritual
began of burning old models as an offering
to “Hung, Great God of Thermals.” It
remains today as a part of the Midwinter
Madness meets of the Glastonbury
Modelers and the Pinkam Field Irregulars.
At the November 6, 1966, meet, copies
of old Dallaire and Megow 10¢ kit plans
were given out and became the foundation
for what is now known as the “FAC Peanut
Scale” event. By 1967 Peanut Scale was a
fixture in FAC contests, and its popularity
continues to this day.
By the third FAC meet on November 5,
1967, the new Flying Aces Club News was
started. Although I did not mention it
before, the original FAC made use of zany
lingo that helped give a sense of humor and
identity to its members. This remains a
characteristic of today’s Flying Aces Club
News.
The new Flying Aces Club News
introduced a column for readers’ letters,
listed FAC members’ out-of-sight flights,
fixed 13 inches as the official wingspan
limit of FAC Peanut Scale, and began “The
Kanone List” and the use of military rank
and promotion as a way of acknowledging
achievement in FAC competition.
To digress for a moment, under FAC
rules there must be at least three
competitors to make an event official, and
the winner is awarded a “Kanone.” The
competitor increases in rank with every
five Kanones. Upon reaching 16 Kanones,
the competitor is awarded a replica of the
famed “Blue Max” medal that was
awarded to World War I German fliers.
Upon reaching 100 Kanones, the
competitor attains the ultimate FAC rank
of “Air Marshal.”
Bill Hannan and the late Walt Mooney
were among the earliest and greatest
promoters of the new FAC (especially its
Peanut Scale). Bill published extensively
and still markets an excellent line of books
and pamphlets devoted to FAC-type events.
Walt contributed greatly with a seemingly
inexhaustible monthly series of Peanut
Scale plans in the now defunct Model
Builder magazine. Their contributions have
inspired numerous FAC members to draw
and publish plans in the FAC news and
other modeling publications.
FAC events continued to multiply.
Soon there was No-Cal from the original
FAC group, WW I Peanut Scale from the
Glastonbury Modelers, the WW II Mass
Launch event from the D.C. Maxecuters,
and Jumbo Scale from the North
American Flight Masters. This trend
continues to the present, with the
possibility of nearly four dozen categories
at FAC contests.
The growth of the FAC movement in the
1970s led to the first FAC Nationals, held at
Johnsville Naval Air Development Center
in Warminster, Pennsylvania, July 15 and
16, 1978. Tom Nallen Sr. suggested the
idea of a national meet, and it happened
through the efforts of Lin Reichel, Bill
Kalb, myself, and the late Bob Leishman. I
also began the FAC merchandising
movement by designing the first FAC
Nationals T-shirt for the 1978 meet.
In the fall of 1980, following the second
FAC Nationals, it was decided to transfer
command, organization, and rules-making,
as well as editing, printing, and distributing
the Flying Aces Club News, to Lin Reichel
in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Ross Mayo articulated the nature and
purposes of the modern FAC as “a society
of unique individuals with a common
interest that at times borders on a passion.”
Its purpose is to “preserve and promote the
traditional building and flying of free-flight
stick and tissue model aircraft. Although
competitive at times, the sharing of
innovations, assistance and camaraderie is
second nature to all who believe in the
spirit of the FAC.”
Today there are 1,445 FAC members in 17
countries. There are 65 FAC Squadrons,
and the Flying Aces Club News is sent to all
members every other month. It typically
consists of 24 pages of text and four pages
(double-sided) of full-sized plans.
Membership is $15 per year in the US,
$20 per year in Canada, and $25 per year
overseas. All preceding prices are in US
dollars. Checks should be made payable to
“Flying Aces” and should be sent to FACGHQ,
3301 Cindy Ln., Erie PA 16506.
The joy and fellowship of the first FAC
Nationals led to the establishment of the
biennial FAC Nationals, or Nats. Shortly
thereafter, an unofficial “non-Nats” filled
the gaps between the FAC Nats years. This
is an FAC Nats year, and the three-day
event will be held in Geneseo, New York,
July 16-18. See you there! MA
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