Safety Comes First 2003/05

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, really, 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.
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 I designed and built a rubber-powered
model with skis! It was a kick to watch the model ROG (rise-offground)
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
Towline 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!
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 still serves
me, the first model contest, held in early November 1953, in
Pusan, Korea. Both models were powered with twin-exhauststack
O.S. .29s. 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 which 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 pure 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 twostroke/
four-stroke engine run back then! Still, it took awhile to
do a Wingover!
When I came back to the United States I did some modeling
and rode racing motorbikes, then I read somewhere that the
airlines were contemplating raising the maximum height limit.
So I got my private license, was building time, then I contacted a
couple of airlines and learned that 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
May 2003 81
John Elliot
S a f e t y C o m e s F i r s t
802 Knoxville Ave., Huntington Beach CA 92648; E-mail: [email protected]
Author (L) at World Engines company picnic (Cincinnati OH) in
1967 with Andrews Aeromaster and good friend Howard Rogers.
Author (L) and pilot Chuck Maitre entered Pica WACO in Team
Scale at 1999 Sepulveda Basin CA Scale Masters qualifier.
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 took the opportunity
to go for a VIP ride in a McDonnell RF-101 Voodoo. I
accumulated approximately 45 minutes of stick time piloting this
fighter all over the panhandle of Florida 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 needled some of my friends Down
East and in other parts of the country that
here in Southern California we can fly, on
average, almost 350 days out of the 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 exactscale,
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!
Enough history for now; let’s discuss the
learning curve of thinking safety. I
applied for and received my contestdirector
(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 US
82 MODEL AVIATION
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 models, 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 pass
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 maybe because they did not
completely understand it and any possible
repercussions it may 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/regulations and deep-pocket
renderings have been known to go hand in
hand and can cost a club a flying site. It
happens all too frequently in today’s
world.
Several columnists in the various
model magazines comment now and then
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 the new modelers, and even
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 will 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, as in now! Yet quite a few
are looking for more information about
certain techniques of finishing, 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
number or 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. MA