Safety Comes First
Dave Gee | [email protected]
A couple of Dave's pet peeves
Also included in this column:
- Club impound, frequency control, and 2.4 GHz radio systems
- Update on the "royalty" situation
- The case for pinning hinges
PET PEEVES? Yeah, I've got some. Topping the list lately is the spam e-mail I get about various modeling products or web sites. Some unscrupulous promoters apparently use a program that collects e-mail addresses from online aeromodeling sources for the purpose of sending unsolicited junk e-mail.
Some are from overseas companies that need to hire proofreaders. Other spammers are local, and when I contact them they sometimes claim to know nothing about their own underhanded marketing scams. I have several e-mail addresses that have been hit after I used them to post online.
No product is worth spamming people, and I will not patronize or publicize a company with such a low standard of ethics. What if their merchandise is as bad as their manners? Make no mistake; I welcome legitimate contacts about safety-related items, and even mass mailings if they are from a source where I have signed up for bulletins and such. MA readers know that such messages often end up with a free plug for a good product in this column! These companies work aboveboard, and I am happy to write about them since many of us are interested in the latest neato stuff.
Another pet peeve is that my readers are so much wiser and more experienced than I am. This gets rubbed in on a regular basis, most recently in response to Bill Biglow's request for advice about frequency control at his local field, which has 2.4 GHz radios as well as standard, old-fashioned frequencies. I received some thoughtful responses.
Scott Rhoades is the newsletter editor for the Holly Cloud Hoppers (which I think is a great name for a model club!). He wrote:
"We use the take-a-pin method and have a generous impound area at the frequency board. The rule has been that all transmitters at the field must be impounded when not in use.
"To remove a transmitter from impound the corresponding frequency pin must be attached to the transmitter, then a club membership card must be placed in the matching slot. When done flying you put the transmitter back in the impound, remove your membership card and replace the pin in the board.
"Before flying season ever started it was unanimously decided that 2.4 GHz (or any new frequency) would not be exempt from this procedure and 2.4 GHz pins would be added to the frequency board. As for the number of pins we made available, we have four pilot stations so we added four pins.
"Our bylaws have not changed because the wording still applies. We just informed the membership that 2.4 GHz is not exempt from frequency control and impounding.
"This still allows us to see if a member is in good standing by checking that they have the current year's membership card when they pull a pin. We may change as this new technology becomes the rule instead of the exception at our field, but in the meantime we still have continuity in our frequency management system.
"Our system was not always this good. For years we used what could be called the add-a-pin method, where a flyer adds a marker of some sort to indicate what frequency they are using. Under this system we experienced many frequency mishaps.
"About four years ago we switched to the take-a-pin method and those mishaps virtually disappeared. Our members have been very diligent with frequency control. The virtue of this system is the ability for all members to look at a transmitter that's not in the impound and instantly see if it has that bright yellow tag and is conforming with frequency control.
"I've witnessed several instances where a modeler was politely reminded by another; they needed to 'get the pin.' Couldn't even hazard a guess as to how many crashes were averted because another set of eyes recognized a problem and acted.
"By requiring all systems to follow the same guidelines of frequency control, we keep the continuity. We don't want a flyer getting accustomed to not pulling a pin because he's using a 'non-controlled system' then go get his 72 MHz plane and forget he needs to conform to frequency control."
This very scenario just happened to a fellow on one of the Internet message boards. He lost his 30% plane because another flyer that had been flying on 2.4 GHz switched planes!
It sounds like Scott's club has the situation well in hand. The Sky Squires R/C Model Airplane Club (another great name!) decided on a different approach that seems to work well for its members. Club President Darrell W. Honey wrote:
"When the Spektrum systems arrived on the scene our Club Safety Officer Mr. Jim Tucker immediately constructed another pin board and placed it beside our regular board on the wall of our shelter. This new smaller board has letters instead of numbers.
"I have the new Futaba 2.4 GHz FASST system which I consider to be my best RC purchase of all time. When I arrive at the field I simply fasten my AMA card to the new board (any letter), make sure there is room in the sky for me and start flying.
"The 27 MHz planes are usually smaller models and we either make time for them or they wait for a lull in the action. So far we all get along and have not had any problems."
In contrast to the preceding, I have an update on a matter in which we are not getting along and we are having problems.
Scale-model enthusiasts may be aware of Lockheed's and Cessna's (parent company Textron) legal actions to demand royalties for the use of their aircraft designs by model-airplane kit makers. This has resulted in new kits being canceled or discontinued because the payments would make the products economically unfeasible in a hobby industry in which profits are modest at best.
Apparently a law firm has contracted with Textron to dust off some historically unenforced copyright rules and extend them to aircraft that have been long out of production or that the government originally paid for with tax dollars. Until recently most aviation firms regarded models of their products as desirable free advertising and goodwill builders. They gave various levels of encouragement to anyone who would make or market such models.
Now the situation is different, and lawyers are looking harshly at our miniature flying machines. Their arguments ring hollow to me and many other AMA members, who have begun a campaign of letters and Internet postings against this royalty scam.
I have heard from a bunch of readers who tell of a similar program against model-railroad suppliers that buckled and paid steep fees for using certain logos on their products. Evidently some sort of settlement was eventually made on more sensible terms, thanks to one stubborn business owner who was willing to respond in court. Common sense was on the side of the railfans, and a jury would quite possibly have agreed.
I have made my feelings known to the aircraft companies and I encourage you to do likewise. Their position would make them look bad to their customers and the public if word got out that they were asking for royalties and persecuting model-airplane hobbyists this way after benefiting from aeromodeling for so many years.
I found that the train hobbyists have a powerful propaganda organization, and their literature uses the slogan "World's Greatest Hobby." I urge the AMA leadership to immediately lay claim to the phrase "World's Second Greatest Hobby" before it is too late. Without swift action we could find ourselves somewhere down the list behind ice sculpting and amateur dentistry.
Jim Newman emailed me about "hinge pinning," which he worries may be going out of fashion. He wrote:
"After making properly sized hinge slots, each hinge should be 'pinned' by drilling through the trailing edge spar and through each hinge blade, then gluing and driving in tight-fitting, small-diameter dowels or toothpicks.
"Am I the only one who still carries on this practice? My regular flat hinges have two such dowels pinning each blade. I will not take the risk of hinges separating from control surfaces nor flying surfaces because the glue joint failed while in flight. I want a reliable mechanical fastening in addition to the glue.
"I hide the toothpicks under the iron-on by first covering the trailing edge spar and leading edge of the control surface with a narrow strip of covering film. Then I insert the toothpicks until they are flush, after which the balance of the film can be applied over the fastenings. Of course, if you are painting the model there is no problem with hiding the dowels.
"The wisdom of pinning was really brought home when I retired a molded foam model, then attempted to retrieve useful small parts such as hinges. It was quite a battle to pare away glue and foam from around the toothpicks and pins. It really proved that there was no way that hinges would separate from the wings or tail without first destroying the whole model."
Jim has a point, although my models never seem to live long enough to have parts salvaged peacefully at home. More often the hinges are recovered after a sudden and unplanned event at the field that renders the model permanently unserviceable.
Using dowels or wire to double-secure a plastic hinge is an old CL trick from the days when such models first started getting really wrung out. Then, as now, slipping hinges could turn crisp aerobatics into spring plowing, so it pays to make 'em extra strong.
Certain construction methods and materials do not allow pinning, but if you have the option I advise you to add the extra piece. If this idea is new to you, look at the photograph of a pinned hinge and the simple tools it requires. Sand it flush with the surface and you're finished.
No, I do not usually work on an elegant velvet surface such as the one shown. Would you believe I was wearing my tuxedo at the workbench that evening? Didn't think so.
Don't forget that in addition to e-mail I encourage actual paper letters like those written in days of yore. Send 'em to me at Box 7081, Van Nuys CA 91409, and please include near-miss stories, safety-related photos, and topic suggestions. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
