The Inside Loop
Multitasking and modeling
The other day my youngest son, Jacob, asked me to make him breakfast.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"I don't know; surprise me!" he replied, after which he went upstairs to get dressed and brush his teeth. He returned to the kitchen to find a boiling-hot pot on the stove.
Naturally he thought I was cooking him breakfast, so he stirred the contents of the pot. The look of surprise when he scooped up the frothy, black contents was priceless. At that moment a main gear, control horn, and tail-rotor blade slid off the limply gripped spoon.
"Do you expect me to eat this?" he asked. Obviously the soup of Rit dye and hot water didn't look appetizing. Maybe Dave Gee should comment about this incident in his safety column.
Today's modeler is always multitasking to fit little jobs of a project into the schedule mix. The assortment of tasks most often creates interesting surprises along the way.
That particular morning Jacob happened upon his dad's custom-colored nylon helicopter parts brewing on the kitchen stove, while his steaming-hot apple-cinnamon oatmeal was in the microwave above. I hope there never comes a day when I get those two recipes mixed up.
We are all multitasking these days. While I'm at home doing one thing I'm probably trying to figure out how to get something done on a model at the same time.
My workshop has its own private exit. I have found that if I leave for work, or come home, through the shop door, it helps me find a moment to work on whatever project is on the table. Even if it is something as simple as installing a screw or doing a quick read of instructions, the little tasks add up to get the whole project finished.
Static thrust: a must-read
As you turn the pages of this issue, you will see a good mix of surprises, all of which were very well planned. (No, there is nothing strange in your breakfast.) One article I would really like readers to pay close attention to is Donald Brooks's piece on how to determine static thrust.
Before you decide that sipping a cup of hot Rit dye is a better idea than reading an article filled with math equations, consider the benefits of what Don has put together for us. To make things easier to digest, we broke the feature up into several sidebars. This article will teach you how a specific propeller will perform, no matter what aircraft is used during the test. Who wouldn't want to know that? For any pilot, thrust is everything. After all, you do not want to pull your model into a hover and find out at the wrong moment that you are out of power.
If you travel to a field far from home, there is a good chance that weather and altitude density will change the airplane's performance. This article will prepare you for those occasions also.
The AGS Retro
Have you ever doodled an airplane that looked as though it could be a great model? Members of the Aeroguidance Society have stared at their club logo for nearly 50 years with just that thought. The little blue airplane in that artwork had a timeless look that finally inspired Bob Noll and Ken Maroni to team up and get one together.
They involved the entire club in the design process in the hope that most members would want to build one. The AGS Retro fits the bill for anyone looking to build a 40-size sport model. Its control surfaces are modest compared to those of the contemporary 3-D models, but the benefit is that it will perform great with average stock servos.
RC Aerobatics (Pattern) flyers designed it; if they put their seal of approval on the model, rest assured it has precision potential.
We labeled the model a "beginner's" build project because Ken went to great lengths to detail the plans and include many of the templates on separate sheets. The stick-building part of the fuselage and tail surfaces is a lot of fun to do, although it's more time-consuming than straight sheet surfaces. Again, the Pattern designer has shown a talent for light building. Along with careful wood selection, if the builder can get the model's weight near the specified 4 pounds, he or she will have an incredible flier that should do well at the next club building contest.
Doug Crumley's Storch
I saw Doug Crumley's Storch for the first time two years ago—about the time when I started with Model Aviation (MA). The model was just in its bare-bones stage, but the level of detail was impressive.
I was inspired and poked my nose around the sticks and wiring as much as I could. The nice thing about Doug's Ed Andrews model was that it maintained the giant greenhouse cockpit because it had a prototypical steel-tube frame.
Doug was well on his way to a Scale Masters–winning aircraft and had already documented a lot of the building sequence. His project reminded me of those hours spent in my father's workshop, just hanging out and watching him work on something. Even though I was not doing any of the work, it was as though I was absorbing his talent.
"The Storch and Me" is Doug's short account of the project, along with a number of juicy photos. There's a great deal to tell about an undertaking such as this, so we've shown off his work in the magazine.
Online extras
For an even more detailed account, more photos, and a video, click your way to the MA website: www.modelaircraft.org/mag/index.htm for this new exclusive online feature. Let's hope that some of Doug's talent in these pages spills over into your modeling project. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
