SMALL-FIELD FLYING
A trip back in time via digitized magazines
In the June 2014 edition of this column, I mentioned the availability of a digital version of the Air Trails/American Aircraft Modeler magazine library for the years 1937 through March 1975. This digital library is being offered by Roland Friestad.
In 1966, American Aircraft Modeler (AAM) magazine included what was then the newsletter of the AMA, Model Aviation. AAM ceased publication with the March 1975 issue. Three months later, Model Aviation was born as a full magazine.
I have had the opportunity to look through all of the old Air Trails (AT) and AAM issues that are being offered by Roland. What a great trip through the history of the model airplane hobby.
When we consider the ready availability of RC models that you can simply remove from a box, charge, and fly, it is interesting to read the article by Chet Lanzo in the December 1937 issue of AT. He covers building one of the first RC models. That article also presents the information necessary to build the radio.
Float Solution
For me, there are some airplanes that need a set of floats hanging below the model. It’s hard to put into words, but a set of floats can really be attractive. What if you want to build a model with floats, but you don’t have any place to fly off water? Jack Pignolo, from the Houston area, has a nice solution.
Make the floats from vertical laminations of foam sheet and include a pocket for a wheel. The wheels then allow for ground operations. If you find that you are able to fly the model off water, remove the wheels and put foam plugs in their place. Bingo! You have a simple and quick way to switch between hard surface and water runways. Take a look at Jack’s photos.
Split Wing Panels
It is common for larger models to have the wing split in the middle to help reduce the space needed for transporting the model to the flying site. Model volume can also be an issue when packing and transporting smaller models. Contributor John Krouse has come up with a neat trick for mounting split wing panels to a small model. John provided several photos of his 18-inch-wingspan model as an example.
The heart of John’s wing mounting system is a modeling T-pin. Piano wire arms are soldered to each side of the T-pin head. The dihedral angle can be created by bending the T-pin head. Two T-pin assemblies are made for each model. The model has carbon-fiber tubes glued vertically to the side of the fuselage. A T-pin assembly is then slid into each carbon tube. The height of the fore and aft T-pins is adjusted to create the desired wing incidence. Carbon-fiber tubes are glued to the bottom face of each wing panel root to accept the T-pin tips. Small strips of cloth are glued to the bottom face of each wing panel to protect the surface and to allow a snug fit over the T-pin assemblies. The wings are easily removed for transport.
This is a clean and simple way to mount split wing panels on small models. Thanks for sharing this with us, John.
That's all for this installment. Please let me know what you are up to in the world of small-field flying. My contact information is listed in "Sources."
SOURCES
- Roland Friestad
[email protected] www.fullsizeplans.com
- Paul Bradley
10201 Scaletook Dr. Independence, KY 41051 [email protected] www.parmodels.com
- MA Digital Library
https://library.modelaviation.com
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
