Safety Comes First
Contact
802 Knoxville Ave., Huntington Beach, CA 92648 E-mail: [email protected]
Introduction
I'm the new kid on the block! That's really a misnomer because I'm a senior citizen and have been there and done that—quite a bit of it, anyhow. I'm a longtime modeler (60-plus years), and that includes roughly 35 years in the hobby industry at World Engines, Orbit Electronics, Cox Hobbies (two tours of duty!), Model Builder magazine, Peck-Polymers, and Airtronics. I've had a well-rounded education and experience, to say the least.
The best part was meeting and getting to know so many of the movers and shakers in the hobby industry that I had read about so many years ago and being able to call many of them friends.
Early interest in aviation and modeling
My introduction to aviation was a ride in a Ford Tri-Motor at Albert Whitted Field in Saint Petersburg, Florida, in the late 1930s. That dates me! Then I was exposed to rubber-band models by a neighbor's high-school-aged son. He introduced me to the thrill of learning to cut balsa and to "go easy" with the Duco! Billy became a B-17 pilot and was lost over Europe.
I went through Ace Whitman models to Comet to Peerless, and everything in between. I moved to Maryland during my junior-high days and designed and built a rubber-powered model with skis. It was a kick to watch the model ROG (rise-off-ground) on snow; I couldn't understand why the rubber motor kept breaking! Several years later I discovered rubber lube.
I saved my money and bought an Ercoupe kit by Capitol. Who remembers it? I learned how to plank a fuselage with that model. I moved back to Saint Petersburg during my junior year, built a few more rubber-powered aircraft, got the Ercoupe flying with help, rebuilt a friend's Berkeley Buccaneer, and tried a tow-line glider—lots of fun!
I had started to dream about an aviation career as a pilot, but the airlines and the military said I was too tall. I became interested in high-performance British motorbikes and built a couple of quick ones.
Military service and contesting in Korea
Then I took an imposed time-out, courtesy of Uncle Sam, and an ocean voyage to Korea—the "Land of the Morning Calm"—for 1953 and 1954. I found time (barely) to build a control-line stunt model and a scale P-47 to enter, if my memory serves me, the first model contest held in early November 1953 in Pusan, Korea. Both models were powered with twin-exhaust-stack O.S. .29s and they ran very well.
I earned a second in Stunt and a second in Scale. I was beaten in Scale by a couple of troops who built a B-29 and managed to keep all four engines running long enough to get it into the air; then the engines started to drop off-line. They took the model home in a small box, along with the nice first-place trophy. That was great fun!
I got my hands on a Super Zilch control-line kit, put coupled flaps on it, and hung a brute—an Enya 63 plain-bearing engine—on it for power. With 90-foot lines it became barely manageable. I didn't know about setting the needle for a two-stroke versus four-stroke engine run back then, and it took a while to do a wingover!
Returning to the U.S. and continued flying
When I came back to the United States I did some modeling and rode racing motorbikes. I read somewhere that the airlines were contemplating raising the maximum height limit, so I got my private license and started building time. I contacted a couple of airlines and learned it wasn't going to happen. Durn!
In the early 1960s I moved to Panama City, Florida, hung up my racing leathers, and got my sailplane rating in a TG-3. I managed to squeeze into a Baby Bowlus and earned my soaring "C" badge, as it was called then.
I met a great group of airplane pilots/modelers at Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, and I still keep in touch with two of them. I flew a radio-control (RC) demonstration at an Armed Forces Day event and was granted an hour's time in a T-33; I flew it for 45 minutes! (My helmet was somewhat tight against the top of the canopy—so much for being tall.)
My biggest thrill came a year later when I went for a VIP ride in a McDonnell RF-101 Voodoo. I accumulated approximately 45 minutes of stick time piloting this fighter all over the Florida panhandle and part of the Gulf of Mexico. Many thanks, John Woods! Life can be good. I love all aspects of aviation, model and full-scale, from the past to today and beyond.
After a year in Cincinnati, Ohio, my family and I moved to California in 1968. I have neglected some friends Down East and elsewhere because here in Southern California we can fly, on average, almost 350 days a year.
I have had the pleasure and responsibility of flying several large RC scale aircraft, including the Meyer brothers' 16-foot-span, 87-pound (before the 55-pound weight limit, and they insured it!) "Spruce Goose" and an exact-scale, 14-foot-span, 55-pound Northrop RB-35 flying wing. Many of the local "experts" predicted that it wouldn't fly—and they were wrong!
Contest directing and the learning curve of safety
Enough history for now; let's discuss the learning curve of thinking safety. I applied for and received my contest-director (CD) license in 1970 while I was a member of the Birds club, and I CDed several Goodyear (Formula 1 and Formula 2) events and several Quarter Midget events during their infancy. Wow, what modelers would try to get away with!
In 1974, I think, I CDed the first U.S. helicopter contest in Anaheim, California, in concert with the (then) MACS hobby show. Ernie Huber was the "Ice Man" that day.
My biggest challenge as a CD was at the first giant-scale Reno-style races held in Madera, California. I had a hand-picked crew to "tech" the racers and they were good. If an airplane didn't pass its first time through, the owner had the opportunity to correct the problem and present the model for inspection again. Several models had to make return trips before passing muster. A number of aircraft had to be put on "diets" to meet the 55-pound weight limit. You should have heard the crying! This was the first race, and there was something about the term "55 pounds" that some of the pilots just didn't understand—or felt didn't apply to them.
Many of us talk about all aspects of safety. What types of rules will there be? Who will make them? What will they accomplish depending on how they are administered and enforced? And how about the man or woman in a club who becomes the "safety" person?
I've seen a few safety people made to feel uncomfortable, possibly because of the way they presented a safety concept or rule, or because they did not completely understand it and the possible repercussions it might generate.
When safety issues arise, address them with an open mind after looking at all the variables that can influence final judgment calls. Lack of respect for rules and regulations—and the influence of deep pockets—can go hand in hand and can cost a club its flying site. It happens all too frequently in today's world.
Education, renewal, and the future
Several columnists in the model magazines comment that a refresher course in some of the many disciplines we modelers strive to master needs to be re-presented (repeated and updated) every so many years to help educate new modelers and recharge the memory banks of those of us who have been there and done that.
Hopefully we can answer many of the questions that quite a few of the present generation of almost-ready-to-fly consumers are asking and pique their interest. I agree that a high percentage of today's RCers are in the "buy it today and fly it yesterday" mode; they want instant success and gratification. Yet quite a few are looking for more information about certain finishing techniques, such as what materials are safe.
Model Aviation's aeromodeling editor Bob Hunt really turned on some lights in the January issue when he referred to the percentage of first-year AMA members who don't renew their memberships. Do safety and safety education play any part in that? I will be exploring that topic in the near future.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
