Old-Timers
Mike Keville | [email protected]
The popularity of Nostalgia events is growing
Nostalgia FF events have become quite popular. When the Old-Timer (OT) movement began in 1960, the cutoff date for eligible designs was merely 18 years prior. That may have seemed ancient at the time, but many of today's nostalgia-eligible designs date back more than 50 years. Thus, to younger fliers, designs from the late 1940s and early 1950s may in fact be considered "old time."
The Spacer, Zeek, Civy Boy, Fubar, etc., evoke warm memories among a considerable portion of the free-flight community. Nostalgia rules also permit the use of such later designs as Ron St. Jean's Ramrod, Toshi Matsuda's Zero, and John Tatone's Frisco Kid.
Having previously mentioned control-line (CL) fliers' widespread interest in designs from the 1940s and 1950s, let's examine what attracts FFers to designs of the same era. For one thing, they're built with traditional materials: balsa and tissue, silkspan, or silk. They have no auto surfaces, nor are they powered by screaming Belchfire engines turning 30,000 revolutions.
Nostalgia rules limit the choice of power to specific "period" engines. No high-zoot racing mills or wiggly surfaces here.
There is just something nostalgic about seeing these old designs floating overhead. As a young spectator I attended the 1953 Nationals in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Civy Boys, Fubars, and Zeeks were everywhere, as were a good number of other kitted and original designs. Literally hundreds of models were entered in all classes of Gas, Rubber, and Glider. Inside the Navy's workshop hangar, the aroma of Ambroid and AeroGloss was ever present as the activity went on day and night. It was paradise.
If this sort of thing lights your fire, you can obtain plans from the NFFS (National Free Flight Society) Plans Service. Contact Whit Russell at 1375 Ridgefield Dr., Roswell, GA 30075; E-mail: [email protected], or visit the NFFS website at www.freeflight.org/store/plans/plans.htm.
Many will build and fly nostalgia designs for pure enjoyment, but for those who plan to enter competition there is a detailed set of rules including a list of eligible engines. Nostalgia events also include rubber power (Wakefield and non-Wakefield) and towline glider (no circle-two and no "bunting" allowed). Are you interested? If so, download a set of rules from the NFFS website: www.freeflight.org.
Here in Arizona (I live in Tucson) we're blessed with some mighty fine flying weather year-round. From June through October we're at the field at dawn's early light and are usually gone by 9 a.m., since it does tend to become a bit, uh, toasty in the summer. "But it's a dry heat." (Yes, I know: so is fire.) Although it's no secret that my primary interest is CL aerobatics, we have a couple of decent FF fields nearby—a test site just up the road and a wide-open, anything-goes site in Eloy, which is approximately halfway between Phoenix and Tucson.
This good fortune is in contrast to the fact that until early 2005 I lived on the coast of Maine. There were roughly two other CL fliers in the state, FF was out of the question, and the weather was—well, let's say "less than hospitable" most of the year. Why do I mention this? Because shortly after this issue arrives, many of you will be looking ahead to the coming Building Season—a euphemism for those dreaded months of cold and dark when you're confined to the workbench.
That being the case, let your creative juices flow. Allow yourself to return to those early days when you took pride in having produced something flyable from raw balsa, tissue, and wire. That's what OT modeling is all about—cutting, fitting, waiting for the glue to dry, and holding it up for all to admire before you turn it loose for that first (hopefully successful) flight.
No, all flights are not successful. No one who's been doing this for any length of time will try to fool you into thinking each of his or her creations flies right off the board. We tinker, we patch, we adjust things, and we hope the next attempt will result in success.
Sure, the RC-assist fliers can twiddle a stick or two, but many of us don't have (or refuse to have) that luxury. Guys such as Sal Taibi and Bill Lovins still fire 'em up and turn 'em loose—more often than not knowing with a certain degree of confidence that their models will fly as intended. The rest of us have to take it a little slower.
Speaking of which, do you remember Outdoor Hand-Launched Glider? Although I'm on the "youthful" side of this OT thing at age 66, there's not a snowball's chance that I'd try to fling one of those models as we did 30 or 40 years ago unless I wanted to spend the rest of the day with an orthopedic surgeon.
In case you haven't heard, we now have Catapult Glider—an event that allows us to launch those airplanes with a loop of rubber tied to a stick. Sounds simple, right? Don't believe it! The velocity attained, although somewhat less than that of a .30-caliber bullet, still exceeds that of the legendary arms of Bill Blanchard and Lee Hines. Rules for the event can be downloaded from the AMA website's competition section.
One nice thing about writing these columns is the fact that I'm on the mailing list for many clubs' newsletters. Thus, as do other columnists, I occasionally get to (ahem) "borrow" useful ideas.
Freely lifted from the pages of the Southern California Ignition Flyers' Flightplug (Mike Myers, editor), following is an unusual suggestion for helping to remove unwanted warps. Mike does such a good job of writing that I'll include most of it here, more or less verbatim:
"Bob Angel of Santa Maria, CA, came up with the most unusual method. He uses a hot air popcorn popper with the top part removed. This shoots the hot air straight up, allowing both hands free to twist things. It's a bigger heat surface than the heat gun and you have to work a little closer to it. Then just move away with the twist held in place and let cool.
"With microwave popcorn, the device may be almost obsolete, but Bob suggests that you might find a hot air popper in a thrift store. Using the hot air popper certainly solves the third-hand problem—the one that occurs when you've got a wing wedged between your knees and are directing the hot air from a heat gun over the surface with one hand and trying to twist with the other."
Let's go to the mailbag. Larry Davidson advised that he can now provide new, smaller, and lighter ignition coils, allowing easier fits into tight spots while reducing the total weight.
- Modelectric coils list for $30.
- The new "Larry's" coil costs $20.
- Add $5.50 for shipping within the U.S.
- Contact: Larry Davidson, 66 Casa Mia Cir., Moneta, VA 24121; Tel.: (540) 721-4563; E-mail: [email protected].
Earlier this year I received a nice letter from Bob Haines (Uncasville, Connecticut) letting me know about the success he has enjoyed with OT models converted to RC assist. Among them is an American Ace powered by a Fox .15 engine and controlled via a three-channel Airtronics rig. Covered with silk and Solartex, Bob said it was a real floater.
"Twice at Westover Air Force Base, it caught thermals so strong it would have gone out of sight if not for the RC system," wrote Bob. "It has been flown in winds so strong that the Free Flight guys wouldn't fly."
Another model is a larger version of the Coronet cabin airplane that was once published in MA as a construction article by D.B. Mathews. Bob enlarged the plans to yield a wingspan of 69 inches versus the original's 46 inches, and he changed the wing from polyhedral to straight dihedral. Powered with a four-stroke Enya .53 engine and covered with Solartex, the new Coronet weighs just under 4 pounds and, as Bob put it, "cruises around on way less than half throttle."
Florida's Don Ogren wrote:
"Recently I ran across an old photo of me and a friend (now deceased) and my Zilch. I remember getting the kit as soon as it was in the hobby shop.
"At the time, I lived in Clarksburg, WV, and was very active in all events, including Jet Speed, Free Flight of all types, and CL Stunt. Now I'm retired and flying RC as well as CL Stunt again. This year will be my fifth straight annual trip to the Nats."
Don e-mailed that photo, which can't be reproduced here. It shows him and his friend, each holding a Super Duper Zilch—a Berkeley kit that first appeared in 1949.
That's it for now. This feature returns in two months. Let us hear from you, and please remember that any photos submitted must be originals measuring 4 x 6 inches or larger. Photocopies and e-mailed images won't work here, so says the boss. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
