The Inside Loop
"Go outside and play!" is what my mom and dad always told me if I said, "I'm bored." A friend of mine with military experience tells me that "I have nothing to do" is the last thing a drill sergeant should ever be told. That my parents told me to go outside is probably a lot nicer than what a drill sergeant might have made me do.
While I'd play outdoors, airplanes would fly overhead and the wonder of them quickly got me motivated. Becoming a modeler of aircraft, therefore, was a natural and constructive prescription for boredom, but supplies were required.
In exchange for pocket money, the grass got cut, trash was picked up, and my room was straightened. For my family and me, the result of solving my need for activity was a win-win.
Modelers are never bored, because they always have a project—or more than one—going, being researched, or planned/filed/alphabetized. We're methodical and sometimes inundated with ideas.
Kept in the mental storage of our minds is a gulf of ideas born from watching or reading about anything totally cool that could fly. Everything that flies is cool, so that's a lot of ideas.
I would go outside to play, but only because the Titebond glue had finally dried and the winds were calm enough to test-fly the latest treasure.
Through luck and the law of averages, eventually these models flew, and some even flew well (or at least repeatedly). On that same stream of luck were "gentlemen" who further helped my enthusiasm evolve. (Some of these people were women, too.)
Indeed, my neighbors and relatives were an influence on the modeling activity I chose to enjoy, but not until an event was attended did the adrenaline truly flow. It's like when your pattern buddies tell you that the only way to hook up a tail pushrod is with a ball-bearing linkage, but you don't actually listen to them until a person with the same airplane takes first place and has those same smooth (and expensive) linkages. I always get more excited after an event is attended than practicing for it in the first place. Go figure.
The exchange of ideas during an event or competition is what makes the activity a gentleman's sport to me. Some events are informal, but the competitors who dress, act, and believe the part are the mentors who influenced me the most positively. An event that comes to mind that breeds upright qualities is one in which I've never participated: CL racing.
The 2005 Nats is where I saw it for the first time. Three people in the center of a circle were trying to fly their own CL models in essentially the same space. Imagine trying to balance three pencils on the end of your finger while spinning in a circle.
This event amplifies the simple joy of flying a CL model to a point where it seems next to impossible. Mind you, these competitors—"gentlemen," I mean—have been doing this successfully for decades. It looked like a lot of fun.
David Hull came to us a year ago and offered his ShyFox model as a CL racing construction project. Its elegant simplicity is a tribute to the gentlemanlike sincerity with which CL racing competitions are held. You had us at CL racing, David!
About the only thing missing from Dave's article is a flying shot; however, the image with the model surrounded by trophies indicates that it probably flies very well. A lot of love and pride went into creating the ShyFox, and we think it's a marvelous tribute to the CL sport.
Gentlemanly activities are actually bountiful in aeromodeling. Have a look at the feature article by Jay Smith about Fly-for-Tots. Besides the event being a great act that benefits charity, Jay noted the wonderful side effect we should all remember.
Over the course of the weekend, all types of RC models were flown on the same flightline at Fly-for-Tots. No crashes or conflicts were reported. Win-win again.
It's great to know that whether in a small circle with two other racers or on an RC flightline with four other pilots, we can all get along like ladies and gentlemen. Now go outside—or inside—and play!
MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
