Free Flight: Old-Timers
IN MY LAST COLUMN, I said I would show you how to lay out a propeller block for your rubber model. For wing areas of 100-150 square inches, a diameter of 12-15 inches is about right; for 150-200 squares, try 15-17 inches; and for the big ones (200-300 square inches), you want 17- to 20-inch-diameter props, and you want a pitch/diameter ratio of 1.2:1 to 1.3:1. We are talking about Old-Timers here; modern Mulvihills and Wakes likely will use larger diameters. My Conscientious Objector Mulvihill, for example, used a propeller of nearly half the wingspan in diameter. For special purposes, pitch/diameter ratios other than the above may be wanted, but for most sport/duration/scale outdoor models, the data above is good.
Free Flight: Old-Timers
SIMPLE JIGS for fuselage alignment were the subject of some photos in one of my recent columns. These reminded me that Ed Lidgard had sent some photos quite a while ago. Two of Ed's photos I selected for this month show his very ingenious and effective use of cardboard to hold parts in place. In future columns I will show some more of his photographs as space permits. Ed Lidgard is known as the designer of the Hi-Ho, Eugene, and Sparky, to name a few of his more popular designs. He was a member of the U.S. Wakefield team several times. His ability to wind a rubber motor (without breaking) with more turns than anybody else was legendary.
Free Flight: Old-Timers
CHEF'S SURPRISE: Well, it is time to invite the muse again-but no intelligent muse would want to be near a person with a head cold as bad as mine, so what you are going to get this month is what you always get after the holidays: leftovers! I like my columns to have a theme stated, some development, and a conclusion. This ain't going to be one of those. It isn't just the fact that I've got this virus and that I want to get this column off my conscience before the Superbowl next weekend. No, it isn't just that. It is that I have all these little leftovers that need to be used.
Free Flight: Old-Timers
MAIL: I read and appreciate mail from my readers, and lately I have been pleased to notice an increase in letters from younger builders who did not grow up building the models we now call Old-Timers, and who are having some trouble learning how to do some basic things. That will give me stuff to write about for a few years, and I will start with selecting some photos to show how to get things together using a jig. Instructions so often say, "Build two identical sides," and then, "Join with crosspieces." About equally as helpful will be the next step, "Now cover."
Free Flight: Old-Timers
A couple of the photos this month show an interesting 1938/39 Wakefield-with a folding prop-which has never heretofore been published. It is the design of Jim Bohash, who called it the U.S. Standard Wakefield, and it not only got him on the 1938 and 1939 U.S. Wakefield teams, but won many contests in the U. S. and Canada. Jim tells me that the 1938 Wakefield contest, held at Paris, France, was quite an adventure. Frank Zaic was the team manager and guide, "So we were always lost." Zaic was "broke, as usual," Jim says, and the French customs seized 300 of his Yearbooks-which he had brought along to sell in order to have enough money for his return fare!
