Letters to the Editor - 2003/05

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 it to send this letter. I really enjoyed
the 2/2003 issue’s “The Engine Shop”
article by Joe Wagner. Especially the CO2
segment.
However, I would like to note a
correction that needs to be made 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 of 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 a 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 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 the
products actually marketed for use as a
water bottle is that they generally don’t have
a stopper and O-Ring/gasket assembly that
is suitable with 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 the painting like
effect, with a little modern flavor ala the dirt
bike. It reminded me of the model
magazines of the 50’s when building and
flying model airplanes was 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 50’s and
60’s, 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 is that Mr. Matuska’s
letter in the March issue is incorrect 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
I had a chance to read through a lot of back
issues of Model Aviation during this time,
and it really impressed me how lucky we are
to have such a dedicated and professional
staff working for and representing model
aviation in the US. Way to go and thank
you!
By the way, I do think that the new
changes in philosophy described in the
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 find that I have
recently been attracted to Model Airplane
News and Quiet Flyer magazines—there is an
energy and enthusiasm behind these two
publications with their color, emphasis on
fun, practical “how-tos,” and product reviews
which make my 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!
Finally, please keep us posted on Mr.
[Ed] Henry’s health—he certainly has given
me a lot of laughs during my convalescence
and my thoughts and prayers are with him as
he battles his own health issues.
Warren Drew
Puyallup, Washington
Common Misconception
I was reading the [March 2003]
Electronics department by Eloy Marez on
common misconceptions and noted a
common 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 which passes most of the current while
a small portion of the current 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, WW II, and I
have some good memories related to that
hobby shop.
For those who may not know who
Reginald Denny was, some of us older guys
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 8 (1934) when the shop was located on
the south side of Hollywood Boulevard
about a block or so east of Vine. My first
time 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 WW I to 1935 and had
wingspans of about 2 or 3 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 through
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.
Model Aviation, 5161 E. Memorial Dr., Muncie IN 47302
Letters to the Editor
Continued on page 175
May 2003 9
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 and it
had moved to the north side of Hollywood
Boulevard about five 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
to 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
Dennyplane 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 465mc RC rig and the other was
a meticulously finished 5 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 c.i. 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. MA
Ted Strader
Scotia, New York