OLD-TIMERS - 2003/11

126 MODEL AVIATION
AS THE LEAVES change color and the
temperature drops (in some parts of the
country, anyway), we prepare for that timehonored
tradition known as The Building
Season. It’s time once again to wash and
bag those rubber motors, drain those fuel
tanks, and clear off those workbenches.
There’s nothing like a fresh supply of light
balsa and #11 blades to get the juices
flowing.
Or perhaps you’d prefer to toss another
log on the fire, grab a beverage of choice,
and browse through this issue for an hour or
so. I hope you enjoy reading this column,
but don’t overlook the others, including
those outside your area of current interest.
We often discover some interesting
information in those.
With any luck, my building season may
finally get underway. It seems like it took
forever to unpack and begin to re-establish
the hobby room after our move. Other
chores took priority, and still do.
Somewhere there’s a tube of Ambroid with
my name on it, although I’ve yet to find it.
In the previous column I mentioned a
follow-up tale regarding Berkeley’s little
24-inch-span Profile Powerhouse. Several
readers have written to take issue with the
statement that the design was a dud. Among
them was Frank Garon of Iselin, New
Jersey, who wrote:
“It was a sweet spring Saturday. The
errands were done and I was on my way to
Mullican’s hobby shop. Purchasing a quart
of Francisco Labs fuel and a 6 x 3 Tornado
prop, I parted with my dollar, said goodbye
to Willie, and left.
“Back at the house I admired my latest
gem, a Profile Powerhouse. Comet cement
at 10 cents a tube; Comet or Testors dope at
10 cents a bottle. Life was good. The big
problem had been getting the K&B Infant at
$5.95, but running errands for Joe the
butcher finally earned me one. Running it
until my mother yelled at me to quit the
noise, I savored the cologne of burnt fuel.
“Down at the ball field no one was
playing, so it was all mine. People didn’t
yell at you in those days if you flew a model
airplane. I cranked up the Infant, gave the
needle one final turn, and launched my pride
and joy. My heart skipped a beat as it went
down and right, but then it lifted into the
blue, trailing a thin plume of exhaust. Then
silence.
“But what’s this? Instead of gliding back
to earth, it began to go up. It kept going up,
and drifting away too. I ran after it, dodging
some cars, but finally lost sight of it.
Brokenhearted as only a kid can be, yet
somehow elated, I knew I would never see it
again. As far as I know, that Profile
Powerhouse is still in a thermal time warp.
Who says they don’t fly?”
Notwithstanding the loss of his model
and hard-earned engine, Frank summed up
that entire era with the statement “Life was
good.” They were simpler times, although
we were minus many of the conveniences
we enjoy today. Old-Time (OT) modeling
allows us to keep one foot in the past while
enjoying things such as modern medicine,
instant communication, and cyanoacrylate
adhesives.
A similar letter arrived from Ross
Summers of Fort Washington, Maryland,
who recalled the time he lost his Profile
Powerhouse out of sight (OOS) from a
Kansas field. This occurred sometime in
1952 or 1953 while he was attending Fort
Hays State University. He wrote:
“After a near-empty-tank test flight, I
launched it for a second flight with a full
tank. This was inexcusable because I had
lost an Arden .099 that way on a Berkeley
Skyrocket A. The Profile Powerhouse flew
too well; it went OOS over the city. We
didn’t even attempt to chase it.
Mike Keville, 31 Franklin Pkwy., Brunswick ME 04011; E-mail: [email protected]
OLD-TIMERS
The late Lyman Armstrong launches C-D
Phoenix several years ago at Northern CA
FF Council meet. Photo courtesy John
Brownlee.
Jerry Silver’s (Beverly Hills CA) OT Stunt Zilch-X (Jim Saftig design) has yellow silk,
orange-and-black trim, hand-painted checkers and AMA numbers, Fox .35.
November 2003 129
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“Sometime later a youngster came into
our hobby shop with a K&B .020 that he
wanted to buy a kit for. I showed him my
initials scratched into the aluminum
backplate, so I got my engine back. I gave
him a reward.
“He said the airplane had been badly
damaged by apparent impact with a
concrete grain elevator; he did not attempt
to salvage it. I do recall that the wood in
that kit was soft and weak. The engine
went on to power a Testors Baby Trainer
that I used to teach others how to fly
Control Line on the dance floor of the
American Legion hall in my hometown.”
Thus it seems there were exceptions to
the Profile Powerhouse’s “no-fly”
reputation, even though Bill Schmidt—the
originator of this discussion—maintains
that he never saw one. In a follow-up
letter he wrote:
“No one has explained why the Korda
Powerhouse designs (all sizes) are such
bears to trim out in the power portion of
flying. I talked to Bill Baker [former
Model Aviation OT columnist] last night
and he said every one he ever saw crashed
under power, including his Powerhouse
64.”
The inclusion of those old 1⁄2A Free
Flight photos in the May 2003 column
drew a great deal of interest.
“I got to meet a lot of new friends and
get some plans into the hands of closettype
modelers who aren’t members of [the
various OT organizations] and who
consequently didn’t know that their
childhood memories can still be grasped,”
wrote Bill.
If your interest is in the early 1950s
small Free Flight designs, here’s that
address again: Bill Schmidt Jr., 4647
Krueger, Wichita KS 67220.
Those who enjoy sport flying with Radio
Control OT models may want to contact
Billy Maples. He has been experimenting
with an exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR)
system that he says reduces idle speed.
“It functions by picking up exhaust gas
from the muffler and routing it back to the
intake,” he wrote. “The larger the volume
of gas, the slower the idle. It has been
tested on both modern and older engines
and seems to work equally well on both.”
Billy is willing to donate the test
engine (a McCoy .29) and EGR design to
anyone who is willing to flight-test it in
an OT. Bench testing with 15% fuel and a
9 x 5 propeller yielded 11,700 rpm with
an idle speed of 4,000 rpm. If you are
interested, contact Billy G. Maples at 48
Oak Ln., Eatontown NJ 07724; Tel.: (732)
389-2048.
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inclusion of that 1960s-era photo (Craig
Cusick and his Fédération Aéronautique
Internationale model) in the September
column. Some feel that it’s too modern for
an OT column, and others feel that 43
years ago is “old time.” I guess it all
depends on one’s date of birth.
When the OT movement began
sometime near 1960, with a cutoff date of
1942, many “old” designs were then only
18 years old. I’ll be happy to tailor this
column to whatever the readership wants.
What’s your opinion?
Modelers who are returning to the hobby
after a long layoff may be wondering
where to obtain plans, kits, and supplies
for OT. Neighborhood hobby shops are,
with a few notable exceptions, a memory,
thus our items must now be mail-ordered.
Members of the various AMA Special
Interest Groups know the sources, but
they are unknown to the newcomer or
returnee.
If that’s you, send me a legal-size selfaddressed,
stamped envelope to receive a
list of major suppliers. The list has been
updated since it was last offered two years
ago, and it includes addresses of the
various Special Interest Groups and key
sources of supplies for the OT fraternity.
As this was written we were still
unpacking after the 2,800-mile cross-
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country move, and I hadn’t yet located the
box containing my photo “stash”—a
collection that is growing mighty thin. I
appreciate receiving any photos of OT
activity, be it Free Flight, Control Line, or
Radio Control.
I’m also running a bit low on material
for print (which is probably apparent by
now). Therefore, I would appreciate
receiving any news or anecdotes regarding
OT activity. Please note that contest
announcements must be sent well in
advance because of our three-month lead
time and the fact that this column is
published every other month.
One thing we did manage to
accomplish was to get a new E-mail
address, which is included in the column
header. If you sent E-mail to the old
(“extremezone”) address and did not
receive a reply, please resend to the new
one. MA
November 2003 131
Tell them you saw it in
“Modeler’s Mall”