Author: Dennis Norman
Edition: Model Aviation - 2011/12
Page Numbers: 123,124,126
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Free Flight Scale — 2011/12

Dennis Norman [[email protected]]

A pause for celebration

2011 marks the 65th anniversary of my happy involvement with model aviation. Although I was only four years old, my joy in seeing my first model airplane began a passion for aeromodeling that remains a part of my life to this day.

Model aviation has given me a creative outlet. In times of stress, it has been a refuge that has given me renewal and peace. Best of all, it has put me in touch with some of the most wonderful and gifted people that I have been privileged to know.

Mentoring is a key to many long-term pursuits, including constructing and flying model airplanes. I owe my growth as a builder and designer of model airplanes to the tutelage and good influences of many. Some were famous aeromodeling leaders. Others were gifted artists who generously shared their talents and skills with me.

As I reflect, I want to thank those kind souls who mentored me and taught me countless lessons of craftsmanship, ingenuity, problem-solving, and friendship. Not only did they help me grow as a model builder, but they gave me useful lessons for life.

I was the firstborn in my family. In 1944 my father was called to begin two years of active duty with the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater. Upon his return in 1946, our relationship was renewed when I watched him design and build a small stick-and-tissue free-flight (FF) model similar to those he built and flew as a teenager in the 1930s.

Being an engineer, Dad drew his own plans. He took me to the neighborhood hobby shop to get the materials needed to construct his model. He let me sit with him as he deftly turned balsa sheet and sticks into an airframe, which he covered with yellow Japanese tissue. He built the first model for me in one weekend. (Remember this: when building models for young children, do it quickly to avoid infant boredom.)

On Sunday night, he took me to a nearby football field for test-flying. He wound the strand-rubber motor by back-winding the model’s small propeller. After a few hundred winds, he launched his little aircraft into a gentle evening breeze. Incredibly, the tiny airplane soared high into the sky in a flight that smoothly transcended the entire length of the football field before coming to rest in a chain-link fence.

Both of us were ecstatic at the unexpected maiden flight. We laughed and shouted as we ran to retrieve our treasure. That experience marked a powerful reconnection between us with feelings of joy and accomplishment. Throughout the next two years, Dad built more models for me until the pressures of college, a new job, a new home, and a growing family took precedence. By then model aviation was firmly rooted in my life.

I began “building” models on my own at the age of six, when I put together some of the wonderful solid models offered by Strombecker. Within a year I discovered Monogram’s Speedee-Built series. Although I had learned to read, the beautifully illustrated plans gave me added clarity and confidence as I worked on those little gems.

When I was seven, my dad bought a couple of Cleveland SF Master kits at a sale at the neighborhood hobby store. He probably thought I might build them “someday,” since the SF kits obviously were beyond my budding skills.

I managed to cobble together a 3/4-inch scale Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber at the age of eight! It was crude, but I managed to build the basic airframe and covered it with red tissue paper. Details such as the landing gear and cockpit canopy remained unsolved mysteries. My parents were delighted with my attempt and encouraged me to continue modeling.

At age nine, I “drew” my first construction plan. It was inspired by a control-line Spitfire project in a Mechanix Illustrated magazine. Being a dedicated FF Scale enthusiast, I drew my 36-inch span Spitfire with the thought of powering it by strand rubber. The fuselage did not have enough formers. It still looked okay when stringers were added, but after tissue was applied and water-shrunk, the curvaceous subject took on a decided swayback look as the stringers sagged under the pressure of the tissue.

In a coup de grace, I painted my Spitfire with blue house paint. It did little to improve the project, but again, my efforts were met with parental elation. I “modeled on,” determined to do better.

A series of sensible Comet kit builds led me out of the darkness. Best of all, they flew! Our family home, in the 1950s, was a Cape Cod bungalow on a narrow city lot. It was part of a huge postwar housing development in which Cape Cods were closely planted between driveways. Most of my test flying was done in the backyard. I felt primal elation when a Comet 24-inch span Hellcat flew across our backyard into the next-door neighbor’s backyard (a flight of 50 feet or less).

Making home-built static scale models also captivated me. I came across a picture of three small Nieuport 28 look-alikes finished in olive drab with British markings. I built the three at the age of 13 and “flew” one while leading my six-year-old brother and one of his buddies in simulated missions over the backyard.

During these years, I took my inspiration from the latest kits at the hobby shops and from magazines such as Model Airplane News and Flying Models. At age 13, I received a copy of Flying Scale Models by the English master modeler Ron Moulton. The 128-page tome covered the subject of flying scale models with precision and included numerous drawings and photos. Moulton’s delightfully dry sense of humor helped keep it all in perspective. Flying Scale Models still serves as a reference for me. Its pages are yellowed and the binding is frayed after years of use, but it still inspires me.

I had the pleasure of meeting Moulton at the 1982 Weak Signals Show in Toledo, Ohio. Bill Northup made the introduction by asking Moulton what he thought of modelers who built and flew multi-engine rubber-powered subjects. Northup did not say my name, but Moulton looked at me and exclaimed, “Are you Norman?”

I was flabbergasted to realize that one of my greatest heroes knew of my work, although we lived thousands of miles apart. Moulton even autographed my book copy.

Moulton’s book also inspired me to explore other types of scale aircraft modeling. In my teens, I dabbled with Jetex, control-line, ducted-fan, and gas-powered free-flight scale types, but my passion for rubber-powered scale remained supreme.

In my early 20s, I had the good fortune to meet Joseph A. Bridlik. Twenty or so years my senior, Joe was an immigrant from Prague. His father held an important cabinet position in the post–World War I Czech government.

As his father’s only son, Joe had been raised in luxury and had vivid memories of traveling with his father to promote the sales of Czech arms to other Central European nations. On one occasion he saw the formidable Italian fleet on parade. The sight of it inspired him to a lifelong interest in model ship building. He was also an avid builder of model airplanes from the WW I era. In Joe’s view, “aviation ended in 1918.”

With Joe, I had a modeler who was a skilled craftsman, an avid historian, and a patient and masterful teacher. Thanks to him, I went to places like Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome and the Toledo Show in the 1960s.

Although Joe never built free-flight models, he inspired me with his scratch-built control-line models. One of those models was a 1 1/4-inch scale version of the Italian Caproni Ca.3 bomber from WW I.

That grand project inspired me to design and build a 1/2-inch scale version of the somewhat-sleeker Caproni Ca.5 trimotor biplane, which flew as a free-flight scale model in the 1976 AMA Nats at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. I subsequently donated the model to the AMA National Model Aviation Museum. In a completely unexpected tribute, Model Aviation (MA) featured the Ca.5 in the September 2011 issue in the “In the Air” department.

While in law school in the late 1960s, I began publishing articles in the model aviation press. My first effort was a scratch-built, rubber-powered FF scale model of the de Havilland Mosquito IV, powered by a single motor in the fuselage, which drove the twin propellers by a pulley system. The construction article was published in the December 1966 issue of Model Airplane News (MAN).

One of the delightful benefits of publishing with MAN was the opportunity to work with legends such as Editor Walter L. Schroder and other staff writers including the dynamic William Northup Jr., who later went on to found the much-revered Model Builder magazine.

Throughout the years, I wrote numerous articles for Model Builder, Flying Models, Model Airplane News, and other publications. I also served as editor of Crosswinds, the newsletter of the Cleveland Free Flight Society, and contributed to the Flying Aces Newsletter.

By designing the first Flying Aces Club (FAC) T-shirt for the 1978 Flying Aces Nationals, I started the FAC's merchandising program. In FAC competition, I was awarded the Blue Max Medal, was among the first to reach 100 Kanones (first-place wins), attained the rank of Air Marshal, and was inducted into the FAC Hall of Fame.

In 2002, Editor Bob Hunt tapped me to succeed Fernando Ramos as the FF Scale columnist for Model Airplane News. Reporting on FF Scale activities, I am enjoying the emerging new leadership of the Flying Aces Club.

Today's FAC is filled with gifted designers, builders, and fliers whose creations far surpass my own. Their comfort with modern technology is opening a way to sustain the interest of seniors, while at the same time attract younger generations to the joys of FF Scale and free-flight modeling. A growing interaction between the FAC and the National Free Flight Society (NFFS) is benefiting both and promises a bright future for our part of the hobby.

Sixty-five years is a substantial period of time. For me, it has been enriched by the golden thread of model aviation, which I have been privileged to know continuously from late infancy to early retirement.

Mark Twain once said, "If you can't reach 70 by a comfortable road, don't go!" I am happy to report that model aviation has not only provided me with a comfortable road, but also with a satisfying journey which still continues.

Sources

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.