Just for the Fun of It
ON MONDAY MORNINGS, Garfield (the cartoon cat) pulls the blanket over his head. I talk about fun. The rain is coming down in buckets, a dank wind is howling, and it is 9:07. At least I'm not stuck in rush-hour traffic! As the briefing guy on Hill Street Blues says, "Be careful out there!" Before A.C. (air-conditioning) tamed August in D.C. (District of Columbia), smart old Pols survived by spending their time at Atlantic beaches. My August flying sessions were few and far between, mostly early morn or late afternoon at Shangri-la where our lazy Vagabond RC-Assist caught thermals on every flight but one on five consecutive low-key sessions. September slipped through our fingers-the dreary wind-up of a book. After all, there would be October and, with a bit of luck, a golden haze and but little wind into November.
Just for the Fun of It
NOISE IS A DOWNER. The flying sites lost if put together could outstretch the Great Chinese Wall. Our dismay over "unreasonable" neighbors is more acute than ever. We've had study after study. We persist in thinking we've done our part. Horsefeathers! We have never really faced up to the problem. While we may have some relatively good mufflers, it is pure luck if we happen to purchase an engine which is reasonably quiet. One wonders about this because pipes are not noisy (which proves an engine can be run quietly). We think of the "noisy" old lady who lives 41/2 miles away from one lost site (true). Or of the bomber-raid cacaphony of lawn mowers, of the fact that decibel readings show local traffic louder than models in the distance. That's irrelevant. Our engines have distinctive tones-and citizens at large don't share our love of that heavenly sound.
Just for the Fun of It
IT IS DECEMBER 2 and 75 degrees as I write this. (Editor: This particular column was submitted much earlier than normal to leave Bill a good slug of time for the holidays and his book work.) But this is northern Virginia, not Los Angeles. The weatherman predicts that spring will continue through the coming weekend. I am up to my ears in airplanes. Only one, the Vagabond RC-Assist, is in flyable condition. Everything was stretched to the limit to get through a flying season that should have succumbed to cold winds weeks ago. Everything needs seasonal maintenance. At this rate, I will never build those new crates for next year. I need a shrink.
Just for the Fun of It
Close association of models and real planes really turns me on. Every likely photo of a real plane is scrutinized avidly as a model project that I never build. Stories behind real planes unearthed by Rubber-Scale builders are my Arabian Nights. People are turned on by pictures in the column. I don't expect ever to hear the last of the Piper Vagabond, especially after Jim Jenkins, an EAA champion and sharp modeler to boot, was featured in a recent issue. You would never guess the second-most talked about aircraft - the Martin 130 four-engined China Clipper of the Thirties. We were able to show one chap's Clipper with four 02 electric motors and another nifty biggie using four O.S. .10s. Stories beget stories, so let's meet Dave Gridges - who wants to build Bud Chappell's gassie 130. (Editor: This model will be a construction feature in an upcoming issue.)
Just for the Fun of It
"AS YOU WELL KNOW, modelers have fun in many different ways," Bruce A. Tharpe reminds us. "My father (Bruce R.) and I enjoy Control Line pulse jets, and the photo is of a Dyna-Jet-powered F-86F Sabre. It is a modified Airforms kit (fiberglass fuselage, foam wings), the unmodified Dyna-Jet running on white gas. It is simply spectacular. I'm sure you remember your first experience with a jet, but just in case, I have an article by Art Schroeder (Author: That was really Walt Schroder, Bruce.) which describes the event. I can just see it." Thirteen years later, Walt recalled the scene in the April 1969 MAN.
