Free Flight: Sport & Scale
PART OF THE FUN of building models is in the language often found on plans and in articles about modeling. A couple of years ago at the Flying Aces Nats, Bill Miller and I got to kicking around some of our favorite model cliches. Here are some of the best on our list: "Stringers omitted for clarity" (the draftsman got tired of drawing them in); "use plenty of glue" (no wonder some models are too heavy to fly); "the model is of classic construction" (this will certainly help the rank beginner); "never fly near power lines" (without an explanation, one usually considers trees a greater risk); "the model flew right off the drawing board" (must have been a gust of wind that came through the window?); "make from scrap" (I have plenty of that around from the last time I went flying); "add ballast as required" (the words `as required' are less-than-explanatory to most of us younger than 70); "always test over tall grass" (where I live, I'm lucky to find a 7-11 parking lot); and our all-time favorite: "It flies as good as it looks!"
Free Flight: Sport & Scale
TALL BUT TRUE stories: Whenever modelers get together, stories of the strange and wonderful emerge. One such story is of Fred Griffith's legendary seven-hour flight, launched on an official flight at the Nationals and coming down in a back-yard barbecue at 7 p.m. with ice crystals in the wings. Another is of Walt Mooney's start as a Sleek Streek flew across his nose while flying a sailplane at 7,000 feet. One of the funniest I've heard was related to me at the San Diego Scale Staffel Annual. About four years ago, at one of the club's meets, they were flying at a field that was across the street from a baseball field. It seems that Don Munn's Bostonian rubber ship meandered across the road, glided onto the diamond, over the pitcher's head, and right across the plate at belt height. If you had been the batter, what would you have done? Yup, he did it . . . into a thousand pieces! Witnesses say that it was a memorable moment for Don.
Free Flight: Sport & Scale
JETS are not too popular with the Free Flight Scale crowd. Most of us grew up with the idea that real airplanes have round engines, two wings, and drag their tails when on the ground. Somehow, the hiss of a jet never stirred our blood like the snarl of a Wright Cyclone. And the chances of getting a ride in one at the local airport were about on a par with getting a date with Betty Grable. Jets look funny with propellers on 'em. Still, ducted fan free-flights have been flown before. Some of the more successful ones were the Berkeley Skyray and a number of other ducted prop (rather than multi-bladed fan) models by a fellow named Richter who used to frequent the Sepulveda Basin in Los Angeles in the sixties. Walt Mooney even had a good-flying Tee Dee .010-powered Vigilante that sucked the air in through the top of the fuselage and ducted it out the rear.
Free Flight: Sport & Scale
INFORMATION FOR BEGINNERS: Many of the letters I receive are from guys who have been doing radio control for a long time and are ready to move up to FF scale, or from others who have been out of the hobby for many years and are coming back in and finding little to help them in the magazines. I often get requests to include more "beginner" material in the column. I needn't tell you that my bimonthly 1,000-words (which is worth about one picture) do not go very far in that direction.
Free Flight: Sport & Scale
AT LAST! X-Acto makes knives that have been favorites with modelers for years and years. However, these knives have some characteristics that we occasionally find perplexing. For example they are round-handled knives with cranky prehistoric collets that roll off the table and onto your lap with interesting results. But the company has produced a new knife worth walking down the street to buy!
