Modeling Spoken Here - 2004/09
Bob Hunt — Aeromodeling Editor
Technology is a hard thing to live without.
This editorial almost didn't happen. Typically I wait until the last moment in the production cycle to write this piece, just in case anything happens in the modeling world that I might want to comment on as timely as possible in a print-medium periodical.
Just as I sat down to pound this piece out, my computer was infected with a virus and something called "spyware." The combination put me out of commission for almost a week while I tried to get the unit deloused. Obviously it worked, as you are reading this instead of looking at a big white space on page 7.
It got me thinking about the way I used to write an editorial in the "old days." When I first started doing this type of thing, computers were not even being used by publication houses. We typed everything in double-space format and then did our editing with a pen between the lines of type using a symbol code. The manuscript would be sent to a service company where a typist would keystroke it into a machine that, in turn, spit out a sheet of glossy "repro" paper with our words set in specified margins and typestyles. We ran these sheets through a wax machine and then physically cut the type with a scalpel blade to fit the layout, which we had already estimated by length. If we miscalculated the length of the type, we had to crop the photos accordingly to take up the slack. It was a challenge!
Computers have made the publishing process infinitely easier and more accurate. But, as with anything else, when the technology stops working, we are well and truly lost, with no way to go back to the old manual methods to get the job done.
During my week of frustration, I had lots of time to think about how technology affects our lives. I could not answer my email, edit copy for the next magazine, work on the other columns that I'm in charge of, or do anything else that required my computer. I started thinking about what would happen if other technology-driven devices malfunctioned.
Specifically, I thought about how modeling might be affected. Through the years we have all come to rely on technical items that make our modeling life easier and more rewarding. An example is something as simple as a tachometer. Setting our engine's needle valve for just the right type of run is a snap with one of these devices. Newcomers may never have learned to set the needle by ear because the "tach" does the job better and without the need for human judgment. What would happen if the battery in your tach went dead? Could you set your engine accurately by ear if you had to?
The same holds true for the computer radios that allow you to electronically flight-trim an inaccurately built model. If you rely on this kind of radio for trimming and suddenly had to revert to using a noncomputer radio, could you manually trim your model to fly as well as it does with the computer-enhanced radio? I'm not in any way suggesting that you shouldn't use the computer radio. I'm only pointing out that we need to keep our modeling skills sharp so that technology doesn't sneak up and catch us napping. One of these skills is building or assembling more accurate models that do not require as much trimming in the first place.
I'd like to go on with this thought, but because the submission of this piece is so late, I was asked to keep it to a specified length that would fit the allotted space on this page. The computer allowed me to quickly adjust my words to do just that. Technology is a hard thing to live without.
You can contact me via email at [email protected]. Or if you still have one of those old-fashioned telephones, I can be reached at (610) 614-1747. In a pinch, the Pony Express can still deliver a note to Box 68, Stockertown, PA 18083.
Bob Hunt Aeromodeling Editor
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
