The Inside Loop - 2009/02
Remembering the Golden Era
Friends have sent me fantastic links to websites that depict the 1920s and 1930s with stunning imagery. You know what? It doesn't look like those days were all that golden, since that was when the Great Depression took place. However, that time period is the age in which we proclaim that aviation was in its "Golden Era."
Perhaps that title has something to do with reverse psychology. Many great things came out of that time period as well—perhaps something worth much more than gold. Because it's the people who remember that time, it's perhaps best to recall that, although they endured struggle and hardship, the golden rule they grasped is what made those times golden in a higher sense.
Although we might be looking at tough times ahead, I like to think it's also a time when the "gold" in all of us can shine through. Great minds created great aircraft in that era, and the rewards carried us through.
Today we walk through museums and libraries that are thick with imagery and remember the Golden Era as a time overcome with pride. We will be remembered as those who strived, just as they did.
The Golden Era 60 Bipe
Perhaps that's not the only golden era I want you to be thinking about now. Fred Randall introduced his Golden Era to us in the May 2008 issue as a 60-size sport model. The project came to us after he sent a photo into our "Focal Point" department over a year before, and the editor asked if Fred would be interested in publishing the design. Not having ever done anything of the sort, of course, he agreed.
Ever since, just about every conversation we have with Fred turns into another great article. Someone once asked me, "How do you become a great modeler?" I tell them, "When the chance comes, you just do it."
Fred keeps on doing it, and we're proud to feature his ideas for your benefit. That's part of the golden rule, right?
As Fred will tell you in his article on page 18, he looked at the monoplane and wondered what it would look like as a biplane. By nature he has a knack for finding the simplest solution to a problem, and he found out that a whole new airplane needed only a few new parts; the Golden Era 60 fuselage will work with both wing options.
Fred had the model done when the weather in New England couldn't be worse: the dead of winter. It wouldn't be until late spring, when his club field dried out, that testing could proceed. He also had me nagging him for some decent flight shots. (I can be such a pain that way.) The friendly banter carried on until Fred wrote in an email, "How about I just mail the airplane to you?" [Gulp!]
Long story short, the Golden Era 60 Bipe arrived a few weeks later and another article was born. In a month or two, we will share an article with you about how to ship finished model airplanes across the country—another successful venture.
We not only got some great flying shots of this fabulous sport aircraft, but Shane Scherschel, a good friend of the MA editorial staff, made a dynamite video of the Golden Era Bipe flying that we've posted online for you. I wonder what this model will look like on floats.
NEAT Fair and Technology
Also in this issue, Bob Aberle and I report on the 2008 NEAT Fair held in upstate New York. Like the electric models flown both indoors and outdoors at this event, the valley location is surrounded by the Catskill Forest—very green.
For seven years, Tom Hunt has organized this event with the skills earned as a craftsman and ingenious engineer. It almost broke my heart to see those well-built transmitter impound cabinets go to waste last year. Digital spread-spectrum radio systems are changing the face of the fun-fly and all group RC events for the better. The reliability, simplification, and signal quality has had such a strong impact on the aeromodeling community that I believe it's a major reason why we're seeing event attendance rise so dramatically.
Not only that, the flightline is increasingly filled with pilots landing upright; the era of the "I ain't got it!" pilot seems virtually extinct. Good riddance.
See you at the next fun-fly!
MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
