Modeling Spoken Here - 2003/05

AT THE SHIP date for last month’s issue,
we received notification from Ed Henry that
he would no longer be able to produce his
long-running and immensely popular cartoon
series, “The Microhenrys.” This decision was
no doubt difficult for Ed, as he has been
producing the series, and it has been
published in these pages, since March 1988.
That’s 15 years and three months by my
count, and those endearing, saucer-headed
figures have become a cherished element in
the fabric of our sport.
Ed listed health considerations and the fact
that he’s finally run out of ideas for the series
as his reasons to not continue.
It’s interesting to note that the
Microhenrys was among the most popular
aspects of the magazine, according to reader
surveys, during its long run. Interesting
because the subjects of the majority of the
individual cartoons were mistakes made by,
and misfortunes of, the depicted characters
while flying or building model airplanes and
how they were perceived by wives and fellow
modelers. Always the optimists, the little guys
put a positive spin on their miscues while the
wives had a more realistic, but understanding,
comment to make. Hey, just like real life!
I think Ed hit upon more than just our
need for some humor; he pointed out that
none of us are perfect, and that there is a
constant need for us to be able to laugh at
ourselves when things go wrong. He also
pointed out that it is wise to not come down
too hard on a fellow modeler when he/she
makes a mistake because we are likely to be
in a similar situation at some point, and
turnabout is fair play.
For those of you who are Ed
Henry/Microhenrys fans, might I suggest that
you go to the AMA Web site
(www.modelaircraft.org), then go to the
“Members Only” section where you will find
instructions for accessing the Model Aviation
Digital Archives. There you can find all of the
cartoons published from 1988 through 2000.
Remember that most of these were full pages;
it was only recently that Ed asked to go to a
half-page format to ease his workload.
I think it is important to note that besides
being a gifted artist/cartoonist and humorist,
Ed is also an accomplished modeler who has
been involved in the hobby/sport for 65 of his
83 years! His passions in modeling are mainly
for teaching and organizing. He has trained
well more than 100 new Radio Control (RC)
pilots as an instructor in the McDonnell
Douglas RC Club, of which he was the
founder and first president. Ed was the
contest director of that club’s first RC
contest, and then for the next 17 years he
assisted others in organizing and running the
meet.
For 40 years in “real” life, Ed illustrated
and wrote military instruction manuals with
Cessna, Boeing, and McDonnell Douglas
Corporation, for which he later became
manager of the publications department. In
the late 1960s AMA’s then-executive
director, John Worth, asked Ed to draft a
safety code, and many of Ed’s original words
are still in the code today.
Ed is also an innovator. Those of you who
have made the trip to Muncie, Indiana, to
visit the AMA museum will surely have
marveled at the Fly Seat: a device that allows
a model’s pilot to sit in a seat with full-scale
type controls that are remotely attached to an
RC transmitter and fly a model. It’s
ingenious, and the work of Ed Henry. Ed is
also responsible for designing the extremely
popular (more than 70,000 units sold) ACE
R/C Add-A-Trickle charging device.
For all of the preceding, and much more
than I have room to tell you about here, Ed
was inducted into the prestigious Model
Aviation Hall of Fame in 2000. A more
deserving recipient of that honor would be
hard to find, in my humble opinion.
We will all miss our monthly dose of Ed’s
unique brand of humor, but we are all much
richer for having had the opportunity to laugh
at ourselves and the situations we all get into
from time to time. Thanks and Godspeed, Ed.
Plans Update: No doubt all of you scratch
builders out there have heard that AMA has
acquired the rights to the John Pond plans
service and now owns the approximately
Bob Hunt Aeromodeling Editor
… we are all much
richer for having had
the opportunity to
laugh at ourselves …
Photo by Paul Vliet
PostScript Picture
11TIGa.eps
Modeling Spoken Here
Continued on page 136
May 2003 7
136 MODEL AVIATION
13,000 sets of plans that were a part of that
service. Add to this number another
approximately 7,000 plans that are in our
museum/library archives and the 890 or so
Model Aviation plans that we offer, and the
total comes out in the 20,000-plus
neighborhood! That’s a lot of model
airplane history to be sure.
As soon as the news broke that we had
the John Pond plans, we began receiving
calls and E-mails asking when they would
be available to the membership. A
committee was formed to look at the
myriad ways in which AMA could and
should handle the archiving, production,
and sales of this extensive list of plans.
The committee is chaired by National
Model Aviation Museum Curator Michael
Smith. I was asked to be a member, and
Michael and I decided that it would be a
good idea to give you all an update on the
committee’s progress to this point.
As I’m writing this it is February 10, so
much of what follows may be out of date by
the time it gets to you. Still, we wanted to
keep all of you who have expressed so
much ardent interest abreast of our actions
to date.
Essentially we have two ways in which
to consider producing these plans. Up until
now, with only 890 sets of plans to deal
with, we have outsourced their production
Continued from page 7
Aeromodeling Editor and fulfillment. This was convenient because
it meant we did not have to establish a plans
department, staff it, and purchase equipment.
Now, with a much larger selection of plans
to consider, the thinking is strongly leaning
toward an in-house plans department that
would handle all aspects of plans acquisition,
archiving, production, order fulfillment, and
shipping.
Establishing such a department,
researching and purchasing the correct
equipment (scanner, printer, computer, etc.),
and staffing will take some time, so you will
have to be patient for a while. We intend to
do this one time and get it right, so we are
not rushing.
Many of the plans that we acquired need
repair work, and that will be a priority.
Beyond the fact that modelers want to build
from these plans right now is the long-term
historical significance they represent.
Archiving will be the first order of business,
and repair is a large part of that.
It is our intent to scan the plans in a
format that will allow us to use small images
of them in the online catalog that will be
available. This will allow the modeler to see
to some degree what the model looks like. It
is impossible to track down and scan actual
photos of so many models. We will, of
course, try to get as many photos of the
models built from these plans as possible.
We must also be able to offer the plans in
scaled-up or scaled-down versions. Many
modelers want to make a smaller or larger
rendition of a given model, and we want to
be able to accommodate these desires.
Of course, all of the preceding is subject
to change as we continue to research every
aspect of this considerable undertaking. I
will continue to keep you informed, and
when we finalize the plans situation, you
will read about it here.
On a personal note, I’m extremely
pleased that AMA has decided to purchase
and offer these plans. It is no secret that I’m
pro-model building, and these plans will
help ensure that examples of many great
designs continue to be built for many years
to come.
If you would like to get in touch with me, I
can be reached via mail at Box 68,
Stockertown PA 18083. My telephone
number is (610) 614-1747. My E-mail
address is [email protected]. MA