Free Flight: Sport and Scale
UFO SEEN Over the Kitty Litter Factory! The Burbank-based Blacksheep have an Annual over the Memorial Day weekend at Taft, California, that must be seen to be believed. They run more than 70 free-flight events, Scale, non-Scale, Indoor, outdoor, including one for the "most unusual." All sorts of flying machines from Ken Johnson's flying saucer to Skip Ruff's spaceships were seen it the air over the three days and nights (night fliers used Lunker Lights-a type of cyalume fishing lure). Among the more memorable sights at the 1994 bash (besides Sal Taibi's great 1/2A Texaco flight on his Corben Ace to the only tree within 20 miles of the flying site, and Mik Mikkelson's new giant 3x enlarged-from-a-Stahl-plan Fairey Barracuda) was my candidate for the "most unusual" category:
Free Flight: Sport and Scale
"TRY IT, YOU'LL LIKE IT!" says the one and only Dave Stott, when referring to putting panel lines, control surface outlines, etc. on models. You may remember Tom Arnold's theory, summarized in my March visit with you, where he stated that you couldn't see panel lines on a lot of aircraft, and that modelers overdid the lines on their models. Dave went about studying the 18 retired Scale models in his hangar, and came to the conclusion that five variables affect what you see on a model: distance, viewing angle, amount of light, glare, and contrast. Dave's models used .040 to .050 black tissue strips, ink lines, and separate pieces to show separations.
Free Flight: Sport and Scale
FLYING FLOATS INDOORS is a challenge, especially in a small site such as that used by the Norwich, Connecticut FAC (Flying Aces Club) Squadron. Al "Grayhawk" Lawton allows that the middle school cafeteria has a volume roughly equivalent to three phone booths. The club runs a low-key floatplane event once a year, and Al's solution to the inevitable exchange of fisticuffs between model and wall was a detachable float arrangement. Installed on his "ten cent" Cessna A-W, the two front attachment tubes first slide over the axles where the wheels used to be, with a 90º bend rearward, into which the front wire stubs fixed to the floats fit, allowing it to knock off backwards on impact.
Free Flight Sport and Scale
TRY 35mm projection: Anyone can draw scale model plans with a minimum of trouble using the following easy method. Proportional dividers, opaque projectors, and drafting expertise are nice-but not essential-to get you from a three-view drawing or small plan reproduction in a magazine into a plan you can build from.
Free Flight: Sport and Scale
A FACEFUL OF Instant Glue: An expert modeler in Florida, who for some strange reason wished to remain anonymous, recently used his teeth as a "third hand" to grip the cap of a cyanoacrylate (CyA) glue bottle to remove it; he got a faceful of the stuff when he yanked the bottle down. Finger pressure on the bottle was enough to do him in. Luckily his glasses saved his eyes, but the thought of a mouthful of CyA is enough to make most of us shiver more than just a little bit! You can bet that he is supercautious when using the miracle adhesive now, as are a number of other guys I know who had trips to the emergency room with it in their eyes. I sincerely hope that you are treating CyA with all the respect that it so richly deserves, and you are not neglecting eye protection!
