Modeling Spoken Here
Many years back I had what I thought was a great idea. I reasoned that a contest between an R/C club, a C/L club, and an F/F club might be a great way to achieve a closer bond between modelers with differing interests. I figured that we have more in common than not, and a contest in which each contestant had to fly not only his/her normal type of model but also one each from the other two disciplines might be fun and educational.
Well, I’m lazy and never did get that idea off the ground. But the members of the Screaming Eagles R/C Club of Plainfield, Indiana, had a similar thought and brought it to fruition. In this issue there is an article by Scott Black about the group’s “Triathlon of Modeling.”
The club’s idea differed from mine in that all Screaming Eagles members had to fly models from all three major disciplines in fun-fly-type events; the overall winner was decided by total combined score. There were also individual category winners.
The event was a big success, and the club’s plan, according to Scott, is to hold it again in 2006 and perhaps try the interclub idea a year after that. Scott was the Triathlon of Modeling CD, and I chatted with him a bit about the meet and what could be done to increase the scope of the idea.
Proposal: Regional and National Scale
Since that discussion I have given the idea a great deal of thought and have come up with a proposal/challenge. Let’s work to bring this idea to a regional or even a national scale.
Clubs representing each of the three modeling disciplines in a region could get together for contests in which basic flight events could be used to determine the best overall modeler and the best overall club. This idea could be implemented on a challenge basis or a round-robin type of ongoing series within a state or AMA district. State or district champions (one club from each discipline) could then gather for a national event at Muncie to pick the best overall model flier—or group of fliers—in the nation.
Crosstraining
For modelers who have never tried another discipline of modeling, crosstraining days could be arranged. An R/C club could offer flight instruction to C/L or F/F club groups, and vice versa. Or perhaps all groups could meet on a suitable field and all three disciplines could be taught on one day.
Naturally the actual events to be flown need some serious thought, and there may be many other good ideas that will make this concept more viable. I’m receptive to all thoughts on this matter. I do believe that the basic idea has great merit, however, and I think this type of fun contest will bring us closer together as a group.
Misconceptions and Learning
There seems to be a common line of thought among those who have never flown R/C that it is just a matter of “button pushing,” and there seems to be a common line of thought among those who have never flown C/L models that they are just “rocks on a string.” Many who have never launched an F/F model think they just fly by themselves, with no input of any type from the flier. Each of these misconceptions truly limits the learning process from one discipline to the other.
Watch a knowledgeable F/Fer trim a new model for a few minutes sometime and you will come away with a new respect for what he/she can do with just a few fine adjustments. If you’ve never experienced flight at the end of lines, you’d be surprised by the amount of pull that is developed by the engine/motor and the feel of the model as it responds to control inputs. You actually feel flight through the lines!
And if you think R/C is just pushing buttons, try precisely controlling a model in three-dimensional flight with just eye-hand coordination. None of these things is as simple as it may seem from cursory appraisal, but each can yield valuable knowledge about model flight.
I’ll be awaiting input from those who would like to take this idea to the next level.
Contact
There are three ways to get in touch with me:
- E-mail: [email protected]
- Telephone: (610) 614-1747
- Regular mail: Box 68, Stockertown PA 18083
Those who contact me via all three methods will get additional points.
MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
