Just for the Fun of It: Plane Talk
Left: You like? Parasol romance is displayed in John Boyd's .25 O.S. Max IIDFIAS II, an enlarged version of his Enya .09 model featured in Winter's September 1983 column. Span is 66 1/4 in. for 615 sq. in. of area. Thermals nicely with average glides of about 10 min., and occasional forays around 20 min. Also inverts (glide too) from half outside loop entry. Right: Structural design and framing of Boyd's parasol are picture perfect. The more one studies it, the more impressive it becomes. Winter thinks it would be profane to change a single piece. Left: This Gentle Lady belongs to Craig Thompson and belies his age of 15. It flies like a dream on two channels with or without the pod. It's covered with blue, trans. red, and trans. yellow MonoKote. Without pod he thinks he gets 50 ft. hand-launched, gets 5 min. consistently with pod. Right: Craig's friend, Matt Bishup (age 13), is shown with his HOB Two Tee right after launch. Such gliders are an easy way to learn to fly.
Just for the Fun of It: Plane Talk
OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD. The PA system blasted the Light Horse Cavalry Overture as Continental's 727 leaned into its California leg out of the Denver hub. Do they do this in the West these days? A Continental gimmick? It was an iron bird in human terms. Cross that goal line, leap that hurdle, lift that bale. Rotation! The music stopped. Clapping of hands, cheers. Seat belts prevented a standing ovation. Touch-down at Ontario. On came the overture to reach its wild climax as the magic carpet turned onto the taxiway. Encore! Super. Is there a ghostly 727 making music as it endlessly crisscrosses the snowy peaks?
Just for the Fun of It: Plane Talk
PICTURE A WORLD without magazines. Would the "hobby" exist? You'd have to say no, but the answer is yes. It would thrive. There would be clubs, contests, and many companies-most of them tiny, it's true, but some would be giants. And out of that would come magazines and spiraling growth. It has happened before, beginning with pre-1910 clubs and things in passing Aero magazines, long gone. Suppose you acquire your first model plane in 1986. No one in your town has one, and except for a tiny ad in some general magazine and a catalog you order, there is no evidence that yours is not the only model in the world. It will be two years before you see anyone else with a model. If in 1986 you are 16, and you made your model only two years ago, it will be 59 years before you will see a photo of "your" model built by another.
Heron
Realistic cabin and landing gear typify this model's sport features, but it provides near-competition performance. A slim, clean fuselage and airfoil of 10% thickness (with an elongated Phillips entry allowing 4 incidence for high L/D) provide low drag to make possible a good climb-out rate and minimum glide sink at a wing loading of 12 ounces per square foot. Handling is positive and smooth both under power and in the glide. This is the kind of flight the author enjoys. Take offs and touch-and-goes are exceptionally easy to execute. Winter says.
Simitar Slow Motion
Evans. I've spent most of the past 14 years specializing in high-performance, fully aerobatic flying wings. I've also been a faithful follower of Bill Winter's "Just For the Fun of It" column, so I was more than a little shocked when, during a chance phone call to Winter, I heard him say he'd like to build a Simitar. It didn't sound like Winter's type. Was he joking? Some of the Simitar variations have hit 160-plus mph. He wasn't joking at all. What he wanted was a wing that had a range of from 15/20 to 60/80 mph; one that would fly on either two, three, or four channels and on rudder or ailerons. He wanted a Free Flighter capable of 360s, hands off, without losing altitude or spiraling down. He wanted a wing that would soar!
