Letters to the Editor
Model Aviation, 5161 E. Memorial Dr., Muncie, IN 47302
February Issue
Thanks for another great issue! The new format is much more inviting, and I'm very pleased with the new interface I found on the AMA website when I logged on to send this letter. I really enjoyed the February 2003 issue's "The Engine Shop" article by Joe Wagner, especially the CO2 segment.
However, I would like to note a correction to the statement: "He learned that aluminum water bottles (sold by camping-supply dealers) make excellent model-fuel containers. Their screw-in stoppers have O-ring seals that eliminate ether evaporation." This statement is not entirely correct.
As a former backpacker on the Appalachian Trail, I immediately recognized the aluminum bottle in the picture. It's not a water bottle but rather one specifically made for camping-stove fuel. The fuel is generally white gas—Coleman camping-stove fuel is an example.
In fact, the logo that was still partially visible on the side of the bottle is MSR, which stands for Mountain Safety Research (often referred to as Mountain Stove Research), a company well known among backpackers for quality lightweight camping stoves.
I point this out as a service rather than a criticism, because my familiarity with products actually marketed for use as water bottles is that they generally don't have a stopper and O-ring/gasket assembly suitable for use with model-aircraft fuels.
Keep up the great work!
Kent Eagle Via E-mail
Finally a great cover shot. It blends a little nostalgic flavor with a painting-like effect and a little modern flavor à la the dirt bike. It reminded me of the model magazines of the 1950s when building and flying model airplanes felt special. I'm not saying that it's not special now, but it does not feel the same. I don't know how to explain it, but if you have been involved in modeling since the '50s and '60s, then I don't have to explain it—and I don't have to explain why that cover shot was so special in a day when everything seems so high-tech, complicated, and expensive. Keep it up; it don't get any better.
Jim Bocckinfuso Moneta, Virginia
Two Comments
Two comments. The stunning painting on the February cover is one of the best model-airplane magazine covers I have ever seen—and I've seen hundreds. It works both as a depiction of modeling and as art. Many thanks.
The other comment concerns Mr. Matuska's letter in the March issue, where he says that a model will weathervane into the wind when its airspeed is lower than the velocity of the air mass in which it is flying. Consider first a model that is pointing due north, flying with an airspeed of 4 m/s in an air mass moving uniformly from west to east at a slower 3 m/s. Mr. Matuska agrees with Mr. Grose's article [in the January MA] that the model continues to point north. It does not weathervane into the wind.
Now consider a model that is pointing due north with an airspeed of 3 m/s in an air mass moving uniformly from west to east at 4 m/s. This model's airspeed is lower than the velocity of the air mass in which it is flying. Mr. Matuska says it will now weathervane. This is incorrect. Aside from the physics (which I will not review here), it does not make sense that a gentler wind would have an effect on the model that a stronger wind does not. (We are not discussing its path over the ground, just whether it will turn into the wind.) Mr. Grose's article is correct: the flight of a model in a uniformly moving air mass is unaffected by the motion of the air, whether slower or faster than the model's airspeed.
Jef Raskin Pacifica, California
Right on Target
Just a note to thank you all for such a great job that you have been doing all this time. I have had some "convalescent leave" from the Air Force due to a broken foot and had a chance to read through many back issues of Model Aviation during this time. It really impressed me how lucky we are to have such a dedicated and professional staff working for and representing model aviation in the U.S. Way to go and thank you!
By the way, I do think that the new changes in philosophy described in recent MA issues are right on target—nice to see you did your research and clearly saw who your audience/members really are. Good work!
As another aside, I have recently been attracted to Model Airplane News and Quiet Flyer magazines—there is an energy and enthusiasm behind these publications with their color, emphasis on "fun, practical" how-to's, and product reviews that make reading enjoyable and helpful for planning future projects. It seems to me that MA is also going in this direction and I think it is a good development!
Warren Drew Puyallup, Washington
Common Misconception
I was reading the March 2003 Electronics department by Eloy Marez on common misconceptions and noted a misconception about analog current measurements. It was stated: "To read current, most such instruments insert a resistance in series in the circuit and actually read the voltage drop across it as current flows."
This is not strictly correct for an analog meter movement, which is a current-measuring device. The resistance inserted in series with the circuit is actually a current shunt that passes most of the current while a small portion is diverted through the analog meter movement.
Tom Faragher Camarillo, California
Denny's Hobby Shop
The letter from Carl Gotch in the March 2003 issue of Model Aviation really caught my attention. In the article he asked if anyone else remembers Reginald Denny's Hobby Shop. I'm certainly one who does, because like him, I too lived in Hollywood prior to, and for a while after, WWII, and I have some good memories related to that hobby shop.
For those who may not know who Reginald Denny was, some of our older members remember that he was a motion-picture actor during the 1930s. He started the hobby shop as an avocation.
My first experience with a hobby shop was with Reginald Denny's at the tender age of eight (1934) when the shop was located on the south side of Hollywood Boulevard about a block or so east of Vine. I made my first model there. I was awestruck by a display of tiny solid-wood models in the front window. The models were of planes from the Wright Flyer up through World War I to 1935 and had wingspans of about two or three inches.
After spending quite a while admiring these works of art, a gentleman came out of the store and asked me if I would like to come inside before I stuck my nose to the plate glass. The place was loaded with every kind of model available in those days and it was a very exciting experience for me. The gentleman asked if I had any questions and answered the many I had with patience.
When I was leaving he gave me one of those little balsa gliders and showed me how to adjust the glide by sliding the wing back and forth in a slot in the profile fuselage. From then on I went back every time I could and the encouragement I was given may have a lot to do with the fact that I'm still building and flying model (RC) airplanes.
Then came the war and the Navy, and I didn't get back to the shop until 1948. By then it had moved to the north side of Hollywood Boulevard about six blocks east of Western. It was being run by two fellows, possibly brothers. That's where I got started with control-line models. I left Hollywood again in 1950 and moved to New Mexico. In 1966, while on vacation, I checked the place out again and it was at Sunset and Western. I haven't been back since then and wonder if it still exists.
From my first visit to Reginald Denny's Hobby Shop I can remember visiting 52 hobby shops, some many times, and it's always Reginald Denny's that comes to mind first when thinking about my initiation into the model airplane hobby.
Jerry Odell Sedro-Woolley, Washington
I read with interest Carl Gotch's note on Reginald Denny's Hobby Shop and the Dennymite picture he referred to.
I visited the hobby shop in 1951 when my wife and I moved—ever so briefly—to California. I was enthralled by the gigantic scale model of a China Clipper hanging there, which had been used in the movie.
I was also captivated by two for-sale items on display. One was a brand-new Citizenship 465 mc RC rig and the other was a meticulously finished five-cylinder Morton (it could have been a Burgess by then) radial engine. Each had a $75.00 price tag. I had $75.00 to spare and had to decide which treasure I would buy.
I have a history of occasionally spending too much time pushing on a door marked "pull." Three or four years later I gave the rig away, never having hooked a battery to either part!
To answer Carl's question about the displacement of the Dennymite: according to Raymond F. Yates' book on Model Gasoline Engines, the Dennymite had a displacement of .572 cu. in. I had an engine I always suspected was made from rejected Dennymite parts—a Skychief—but it ran!
It may also be of passing interest to note that movie actor Reginald Denny manufactured miniature drones for gunnery practice for our armed forces in World War II and was the forerunner of the suave English supersleuth James Bond. He starred in an early series as Bulldog Drummond.
Ted Strader Scotia, New York
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
