Just for the Fun of It
FIVE MINUTES AGO I was bellyaching about the superheated summer of 1983. Now, as I write, it is shortly after New Year's Day-the low sky lead gray, the temperature bone-chilling, and snow is falling. The one resolution I made was involuntary: stay away from epoxy! (For the past five years I've had increasing sensitivity to it. A whiff produces angry welts and itching that lasts for months.) I did resolve to fly more this year.
Just For the Fun of It
I AM AN AIRPLANE WATCHER. I never fail to look up at any passing aircraft. On passing freight trains, I also count cars. The colorful place names that adorn them aren't what they used to be. Nor are the passing airplanes very romantic. A sausage machine grinds out Cessnas. Watching models fly never grows boring. I enjoy the beauty of the model, itself, more than what a gifted stick pusher does with it. When I fly my own, I like them to sail high and wide, and disturb them as little as possible-but, alas, one does have to bring them closer, or down, or turn them around.
Just For the Fun of It
SEVERAL YEARS AGO I received this note from Ward Maitre of Hollywood, MD. "I've enclosed a Xeroxed picture of a three-channel airplane that was shown on the index page of a 1975 Sport Modeler which listed you as editor. Can you recall anything about the airplane, its size, engine, and availability of the plans?" He added what seemed to be an irrelevant remark, quickly forgotten. "I used Dave Robelen's Pronto plan, areas, and moments, and tried to duplicate the fuselage shape. It made a fine three-channel flier," Ward said, "but working from such a small picture, I wonder how close I came to the original." Indeed, the thumbnail picture in Sport Modeler did reveal a very attractive low-wing sport model.
LeCrate
If fun flying is your cup of tea, you'll certainly enjoy Mr. Fun's design for his relaxed style of RC Electrics with 10-min.-plus soaring flights in mind. His has been flown mostly with a Leisure LT-50 with gear reduction, but it also flies quite satisfactory with other 05-size electric motors - either direct drive or reduction. It's your choice whether to build it with parasol wing mount or a cabin - though the conversion from parasol to cabin can be quickly done. I am well pleased with this, my first, Electric airplane design. It has been thoroughly tested in parasol and cabin versions, and with a variety of power systems. It is a good aircraft. One must think twice before inflicting his first of anything on a public which includes a large number of experienced modelers in any design category. I can do so because I have had so much help from many good people - the manufacturers, columnists like Mitch Poling, and through my own column, perceptive inputs from pioneers like Heinz Koemer, Bob Kopski, Gus Munich, and (firsthand in many flying sessions) Don Srull. With such a treasure trove of information, an old FF Rubber and Gas flier (with 36 years of RC sport flying) has no excuse for failing to attain a specific performance envelope.
Just For the Fun of It
MOONLESS MADNESS. When I fly these days, I expect to be transported to the flying site in a curtained sedan chair. I don't want the weather to be too cold or too hot. It must not be windy. The grass must be neatly mowed. The pin I need is labeled "Reserved." Kindly guys must assemble my plane, do a range check, and set the idle. Pour me another coffee, light my pipe. Play it again, Sam! It was not always thus. In the days of Charlemagne, neither wind, nor cold, nor snow or sleet stayed our appointed rounds. The natives of far off Cathay, beyond the Sierras, and the Sun Belt, know nothing of the lives of snowbirds and polar bears. Or Vikings. The gentleman with the horns in the picture is Lloyd "Pete" Peterson. No, the snow really is not that deep. The caption says, "Don't fall in the creek, Pete!" Pete: "What creek?" The occasion was the First Annual February 29 Spur of the Moment Fun Fly.
