area, and an evening campfire and cookout
was held in the RC area. Next year’s event,
the 60th running, should be a good one.
Alfredo Herbon is an active OT RC flier
from the Society of Antique Modelers
(SAM) chapter in Argentina. He was
building the beautiful Airone glider last
year, hoping to fly it at the SAM Champs
in Muncie, Indiana.
Unfortunately the event wasn’t offered
last year, but it will be flown at this year’s
championships in Nevada, so let’s hope
Alfredo makes it back to the US, this time
with the completed glider. And I hope he
uses some transparent covering to show off
those fine construction details.
combination of great weather, more fliers
on 2.4 GHz, and slightly fewer participants,
in part because of fuel prices and the
economy. The FF side looked as busy as
ever.
But fewer registered RC pilots didn’t
mean fewer attendees. This has become one
of the gathering places for OT enthusiasts,
and most of them
travel across
several states to
socialize and
perhaps to fly some
as the mood strikes.
An open swap
meet was held one
afternoon in the FF
The Southwest Regionals
June 2009 145
Old-Timers Bob Angel | [email protected]
Also included in this column:
• Alfredo Herbon’s Airone glider
• Fueling syringes
• The famous Reginald Denny
Industries
• Coil-saver circuit
• The safe propeller-stop location
The late Jim Adams’ immaculate Dennyplane at a meet in
Muncie, Indiana. Nevels photo.
Bill Vanderbeek performs a classic FF launch in Pensacola,
Florida. Ned Nevels photo.
Take note of the intricate framework of this
beautiful Airone glider belonging to Alfredo
Herbon of Argentina.
THE WESTERN contest season kicks off
with the Southwest Regionals, held in Eloy,
Arizona, each January. This was the 59th
year for the event.
It’s a three-day meet, with several
contests rolled into one, including AMA,
FAI, Old-Timer (OT) FF, and OT RC.
When it was held at the Buckeye, Arizona,
airport years ago, a full range of CL events
was also flown. I made it to the contest
again this year and enjoyed flying in five
RC events.
On the RC side of the field, you could
fly nearly anytime because of a
06sig5.QXD 4/23/09 2:15 PM Page 145
Fueling syringes are used to officially
measure fuel allotments for SAM Texaco and
other fuel-limit events. The CD usually keeps
one or two 50cc calibrated glass syringes on
hand for that purpose.
Many of us switch to using syringes rather
than squeeze bulbs or fuel pumps for our
models. A clear syringe lets you spot any
gross fuel contamination, is cleaner than a fuel
bulb, and is safer than an electric fuel pump. It
also minimizes air exposure and resulting
water absorption by glow fuel.
Since competition aircraft usually carry a
small fuel supply—less than 2 ounces—a
single syringe load is enough to fill a tank.
That small quantity aboard keeps weight low
and is a safety factor.
Most fuel-restriction events are flown at
wide-open throttle and use shutoff systems
rather than carburetors. Various shutoff
schemes use either an interruption of the
spark-ignition system or a shutoff or flood off
of the fuel supply.
On rare occasions, these systems can fail to
work. When that happens, the airplane is
usually at the edge of visibility, where it could
do a loop under power and fold a wing. That’s
when you don’t want to be carrying much
more fuel than is needed for the allotted run
time.
But there is a safety issue with glass
syringes: they can break. Last year, a fellow
columnist, Joe Wagner, author of “The Engine
Shop,” reported finding blood on his hands
before noticing the broken syringe.
After that incident, Joe started putting his
syringe in its shipping box before placing it
back among the tools in his flight box. I’ve
been doing something similar, by pushing
syringes inside a short length of foam waterpipe
insulation.
Frequent syringe breakage has become a
problem, since glass syringes are now
imported. They are cheaper in price (good) but
of lower quality (bad). They are no longer
tempered glass; they are thinner and brittle.
After reading Joe’s report, I started
wrapping the glass barrels with clear
packaging tape or Du-Bro Hinge Tape, hoping
to protect against breakage and to safely
contain the glass if/when breakage does occur.
Plastic syringes are more readily available,
much cheaper, and safer than glass. They’re
usable for most glow fuels, but the petroleum-
OP
Th
EX
**A
Do
an
PA
(A
Ma
For th
For th
First N
Mailin
City _
Home
E-ma
Card
"I a
end
imm
"I a
Inc
Signat
Please
Note:
For N
AF
Na
Me
Ple
AF
ad
For Ca
AM
wil
YO
YO
Insuran
date a m
it begin
Membe
membe
Mr
E-ma
firms
that w
Ple
Ple
A
C
C
R
MEM
Recru
If you
Me
Clu
Ho
based fuels and lubricants usually swell the
rubber plungers, making them useless in a
short time.
Reginald Denny was a well-known movie
actor. His career began in the silent-film era
and lasted well beyond. He personified the
suave, refined English gentleman. Reginald
became a Royal Air Force pilot in World
War I and developed an interest in modeling
and early radio control.
He started Reginald Denny Industries
and opened a hobby shop in downtown
Hollywood, California, in approximately
1934. I was fortunate enough to visit that
shop once before it closed in the 1960s.
Nicely constructed models hung from the
ceiling and even nonmodelers could enjoy
it, much as they would a small museum.
Reginald Denny also manufactured
engines, kits, and even larger radiocontrolled,
drone-type target models for the
military during World War II.
The product best known to modelers was
probably the Dennymite engine. It was
designed for model aircraft but was also a
favorite for model car use before the war.
Several hop-up kits and modifications
for the engines were available and used
mainly by race-car enthusiasts. The
Dennymites were later outpaced in race cars
by more modern, stronger-running engines
such as the Hornets, McCoys, and Doolings.
Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart, Henry
Fonda, Robert Montgomery, and many
other well-known actors were aeromodeling
enthusiasts, along with Reginald Denny.
The late Paul Harvey was a modeler, and he
probably would have presented the
following as “The Rest of the Story.”
During World War II, Hollywood and
the media were patriotic supporters of our
military. Many women went to work,
building machinery in support of the war
effort.
A news reporter showed up at the Radio
Plane Munitions factory in Burbank,
California, to take some publicity photos of
females in the workforce. He selected a
pretty, dark-haired girl named Norma. He
snapped a photo of her, clad in neat shop
coveralls, installing a propeller on one of
the drone aircraft.
The picture was posed, but the job was a
real one at the time. That led to modeling
contracts for the young lady, and later to the
movies. Today we remember Norma Jeane
Baker as Marilyn Monroe.
A construction article by Dee B.
Mathews and Larry Kruse for the
Dennyplane was presented in the January
1977 MA. The late Jim Adams probably
built the Dennyplane that is shown from
those plans.
I mentioned a coil-saver circuit in my
February 2009 column. It’s a transistorized
trigger circuit that shuts itself off shortly
after the points stop moving and are in the
closed position. It’s an old design that was
published in the December 1976 Model
Builder magazine.
This circuit is not used much today,
probably because of its relatively high parts
count and the ready availability of compact
commercial transistorized trigger systems.
But I’ve received a couple requests for the
wiring diagram.
One of the requests came from Don
Hutchinson, an OT CL Precision Aerobatics
flier, who said that he and other sparkignition
fliers were occasionally burning out
coils. That surprised me, because I thought
the short time between when a CL engine
shuts down and being able to switch the
ignition system off would not cause a coil to
be cooked.
If anyone is interested in the coil-saver
circuit, you can look it up in your stacks of
old Model Builder magazines, e-mail me a
request for an electronic copy, or send an
SASE for a copy. My copy was scanned and
is readable, but possibly not as clean as you
can get from Gene Wallock, the SAM
librarian, for a small fee.
Perhaps some electronic genius among us
might be able to update and simplify that
circuit and share it. The SAM Library Service
is useful for getting reprints of old magazine
articles. Please have the magazine name and
issue date for any request, because it would
be unreasonable to ask Gene to do that kind
of research.
Where does the propeller stop? We usually
put the propeller on so that it’s in the
horizontal position as the piston comes up
against compression. For those few of us who
still sometimes hand crank to start, that’s the
useful position. We also suppose it to be the
position in which the propeller will come to
rest when the engine is shut down.
But Mr. Murphy and his law have a way
of seeing to it that the propeller stops in what
we call the $5 position, or vertical. An easily
broken wooden propeller will do this more
often than a plastic one.
You can look at where the propeller has
stopped and then reposition it, hoping it will
stop horizontally the next time. But Murphy
is looking over your shoulder, so don’t count
on it.
The preceding could account for the
reason why Larry Davidson doesn’t burn out
coils in his FF airplanes, although he has no
way to shut off the ignition when his engine
quits. Those screaming, hot power plants of
his are probably loose enough to allow the
piston to come to rest high enough so that the
points have opened. If an engine stops at the
beginning of the compression stroke, the
points are usually closed. MA
Sources:
Bob Angel
1001 Patterson Rd.
Santa Maria CA 93455
Gene Wallock
13 NW Sandy Trail Ln.
Lawton OK 73505
(580) 536-0303
[email protected]
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/06
Page Numbers: 145,146
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/06
Page Numbers: 145,146
area, and an evening campfire and cookout
was held in the RC area. Next year’s event,
the 60th running, should be a good one.
Alfredo Herbon is an active OT RC flier
from the Society of Antique Modelers
(SAM) chapter in Argentina. He was
building the beautiful Airone glider last
year, hoping to fly it at the SAM Champs
in Muncie, Indiana.
Unfortunately the event wasn’t offered
last year, but it will be flown at this year’s
championships in Nevada, so let’s hope
Alfredo makes it back to the US, this time
with the completed glider. And I hope he
uses some transparent covering to show off
those fine construction details.
combination of great weather, more fliers
on 2.4 GHz, and slightly fewer participants,
in part because of fuel prices and the
economy. The FF side looked as busy as
ever.
But fewer registered RC pilots didn’t
mean fewer attendees. This has become one
of the gathering places for OT enthusiasts,
and most of them
travel across
several states to
socialize and
perhaps to fly some
as the mood strikes.
An open swap
meet was held one
afternoon in the FF
The Southwest Regionals
June 2009 145
Old-Timers Bob Angel | [email protected]
Also included in this column:
• Alfredo Herbon’s Airone glider
• Fueling syringes
• The famous Reginald Denny
Industries
• Coil-saver circuit
• The safe propeller-stop location
The late Jim Adams’ immaculate Dennyplane at a meet in
Muncie, Indiana. Nevels photo.
Bill Vanderbeek performs a classic FF launch in Pensacola,
Florida. Ned Nevels photo.
Take note of the intricate framework of this
beautiful Airone glider belonging to Alfredo
Herbon of Argentina.
THE WESTERN contest season kicks off
with the Southwest Regionals, held in Eloy,
Arizona, each January. This was the 59th
year for the event.
It’s a three-day meet, with several
contests rolled into one, including AMA,
FAI, Old-Timer (OT) FF, and OT RC.
When it was held at the Buckeye, Arizona,
airport years ago, a full range of CL events
was also flown. I made it to the contest
again this year and enjoyed flying in five
RC events.
On the RC side of the field, you could
fly nearly anytime because of a
06sig5.QXD 4/23/09 2:15 PM Page 145
Fueling syringes are used to officially
measure fuel allotments for SAM Texaco and
other fuel-limit events. The CD usually keeps
one or two 50cc calibrated glass syringes on
hand for that purpose.
Many of us switch to using syringes rather
than squeeze bulbs or fuel pumps for our
models. A clear syringe lets you spot any
gross fuel contamination, is cleaner than a fuel
bulb, and is safer than an electric fuel pump. It
also minimizes air exposure and resulting
water absorption by glow fuel.
Since competition aircraft usually carry a
small fuel supply—less than 2 ounces—a
single syringe load is enough to fill a tank.
That small quantity aboard keeps weight low
and is a safety factor.
Most fuel-restriction events are flown at
wide-open throttle and use shutoff systems
rather than carburetors. Various shutoff
schemes use either an interruption of the
spark-ignition system or a shutoff or flood off
of the fuel supply.
On rare occasions, these systems can fail to
work. When that happens, the airplane is
usually at the edge of visibility, where it could
do a loop under power and fold a wing. That’s
when you don’t want to be carrying much
more fuel than is needed for the allotted run
time.
But there is a safety issue with glass
syringes: they can break. Last year, a fellow
columnist, Joe Wagner, author of “The Engine
Shop,” reported finding blood on his hands
before noticing the broken syringe.
After that incident, Joe started putting his
syringe in its shipping box before placing it
back among the tools in his flight box. I’ve
been doing something similar, by pushing
syringes inside a short length of foam waterpipe
insulation.
Frequent syringe breakage has become a
problem, since glass syringes are now
imported. They are cheaper in price (good) but
of lower quality (bad). They are no longer
tempered glass; they are thinner and brittle.
After reading Joe’s report, I started
wrapping the glass barrels with clear
packaging tape or Du-Bro Hinge Tape, hoping
to protect against breakage and to safely
contain the glass if/when breakage does occur.
Plastic syringes are more readily available,
much cheaper, and safer than glass. They’re
usable for most glow fuels, but the petroleum-
OP
Th
EX
**A
Do
an
PA
(A
Ma
For th
For th
First N
Mailin
City _
Home
E-ma
Card
"I a
end
imm
"I a
Inc
Signat
Please
Note:
For N
AF
Na
Me
Ple
AF
ad
For Ca
AM
wil
YO
YO
Insuran
date a m
it begin
Membe
membe
Mr
E-ma
firms
that w
Ple
Ple
A
C
C
R
MEM
Recru
If you
Me
Clu
Ho
based fuels and lubricants usually swell the
rubber plungers, making them useless in a
short time.
Reginald Denny was a well-known movie
actor. His career began in the silent-film era
and lasted well beyond. He personified the
suave, refined English gentleman. Reginald
became a Royal Air Force pilot in World
War I and developed an interest in modeling
and early radio control.
He started Reginald Denny Industries
and opened a hobby shop in downtown
Hollywood, California, in approximately
1934. I was fortunate enough to visit that
shop once before it closed in the 1960s.
Nicely constructed models hung from the
ceiling and even nonmodelers could enjoy
it, much as they would a small museum.
Reginald Denny also manufactured
engines, kits, and even larger radiocontrolled,
drone-type target models for the
military during World War II.
The product best known to modelers was
probably the Dennymite engine. It was
designed for model aircraft but was also a
favorite for model car use before the war.
Several hop-up kits and modifications
for the engines were available and used
mainly by race-car enthusiasts. The
Dennymites were later outpaced in race cars
by more modern, stronger-running engines
such as the Hornets, McCoys, and Doolings.
Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart, Henry
Fonda, Robert Montgomery, and many
other well-known actors were aeromodeling
enthusiasts, along with Reginald Denny.
The late Paul Harvey was a modeler, and he
probably would have presented the
following as “The Rest of the Story.”
During World War II, Hollywood and
the media were patriotic supporters of our
military. Many women went to work,
building machinery in support of the war
effort.
A news reporter showed up at the Radio
Plane Munitions factory in Burbank,
California, to take some publicity photos of
females in the workforce. He selected a
pretty, dark-haired girl named Norma. He
snapped a photo of her, clad in neat shop
coveralls, installing a propeller on one of
the drone aircraft.
The picture was posed, but the job was a
real one at the time. That led to modeling
contracts for the young lady, and later to the
movies. Today we remember Norma Jeane
Baker as Marilyn Monroe.
A construction article by Dee B.
Mathews and Larry Kruse for the
Dennyplane was presented in the January
1977 MA. The late Jim Adams probably
built the Dennyplane that is shown from
those plans.
I mentioned a coil-saver circuit in my
February 2009 column. It’s a transistorized
trigger circuit that shuts itself off shortly
after the points stop moving and are in the
closed position. It’s an old design that was
published in the December 1976 Model
Builder magazine.
This circuit is not used much today,
probably because of its relatively high parts
count and the ready availability of compact
commercial transistorized trigger systems.
But I’ve received a couple requests for the
wiring diagram.
One of the requests came from Don
Hutchinson, an OT CL Precision Aerobatics
flier, who said that he and other sparkignition
fliers were occasionally burning out
coils. That surprised me, because I thought
the short time between when a CL engine
shuts down and being able to switch the
ignition system off would not cause a coil to
be cooked.
If anyone is interested in the coil-saver
circuit, you can look it up in your stacks of
old Model Builder magazines, e-mail me a
request for an electronic copy, or send an
SASE for a copy. My copy was scanned and
is readable, but possibly not as clean as you
can get from Gene Wallock, the SAM
librarian, for a small fee.
Perhaps some electronic genius among us
might be able to update and simplify that
circuit and share it. The SAM Library Service
is useful for getting reprints of old magazine
articles. Please have the magazine name and
issue date for any request, because it would
be unreasonable to ask Gene to do that kind
of research.
Where does the propeller stop? We usually
put the propeller on so that it’s in the
horizontal position as the piston comes up
against compression. For those few of us who
still sometimes hand crank to start, that’s the
useful position. We also suppose it to be the
position in which the propeller will come to
rest when the engine is shut down.
But Mr. Murphy and his law have a way
of seeing to it that the propeller stops in what
we call the $5 position, or vertical. An easily
broken wooden propeller will do this more
often than a plastic one.
You can look at where the propeller has
stopped and then reposition it, hoping it will
stop horizontally the next time. But Murphy
is looking over your shoulder, so don’t count
on it.
The preceding could account for the
reason why Larry Davidson doesn’t burn out
coils in his FF airplanes, although he has no
way to shut off the ignition when his engine
quits. Those screaming, hot power plants of
his are probably loose enough to allow the
piston to come to rest high enough so that the
points have opened. If an engine stops at the
beginning of the compression stroke, the
points are usually closed. MA
Sources:
Bob Angel
1001 Patterson Rd.
Santa Maria CA 93455
Gene Wallock
13 NW Sandy Trail Ln.
Lawton OK 73505
(580) 536-0303
[email protected]