Radio Control: Giant Scale
MAIL call. I've been getting a lot of mail, and I'm going to catch up with some of it this month. If you're still waiting on an answer and don't see it here, hang in there. I will respond. One of the first to write to me was Johnny Burnett of Portland, OR. We've had a couple back and forth now, and here's a part of his second letter. "Dear Bob-Thanks for answering my letter. Lost some negs years ago in mail so I don't send anymore in the mail. Anyhow, am enclosing three prints of my models of back in '59 and '60.-Looking forward to seeing more pics of your fine Sparrowhawk. It's one of my all-time favorites. too.
Radio Control: Giant Scale
KAWASAKI engines. Last August at the Mammoth Scale Fly-in at Morgan Hill, Bob Seigelkoff of C B Associates showed me a new engine with which he was working. It was made by Kawasaki for use, I believe, in a weed whip. The engine was about 1.3 cu. in. displacement and looked very well made. Bob had fitted it with a prop adapter and a spinner and was planning to try it in a plane. I twisted his arm (all of ten degrees) until he promised to let me know how it worked out. Unfortunately, that first engine wasn't really useable, but in the process Bob found not one, but two other engines that are quite useable. One is 36cc (2.22 cu. in.) and the other is 51cc (3.15 cu. in.). The photos are of the smaller of the two, the Kawasaki TA-36. The TA-51 is identical except for size. C B Associates' modifications include the prop adapter, radial motor mount, and replacement of the original carburetor with a Walbro or Tillotson pump type carb.
RC Giant Scale at Toledo
THE BIG BIRDS aren't just coming, they have arrived. I think it was 1975 when Andy Sheber first had his big Pitts at the Weak Signals show in Toledo. I first saw it in 1976 when there were two of the beautiful monsters sticking out like basketball players at a midget's convention. This year you couldn't move 10 feet in any direction without seeing another 1/5th to 1/2 scale giant. Of course, on Saturday and Sunday you couldn't move 10 feet in any direction. This first and biggest of the RC trade shows continues to grow, and it has definitely outgrown the Sports Arena. Let's hope that larger facilities will be available in the future.
Radio Control: Giant Scale
TENNIS anyone? There is an enormous loss we all suffer, growing up-we stop playing. The things adults call play very seldom are. With hardly an exception they're competitions, even hunting or fishing, even golf, all alone. Rarely ever again do most of us experience pure play, doing something for its own sake completely, utterly absorbed and lost in it, nothing else mattering. Not that there is anything wrong with competition, per se. It's just that most of us get so much competition in our everyday lives that some real play can be very valuable. Could this be the real reason why the majority of RC modelers are "Fun Fliers?"
It's a Hold-Up
WHETHER you call them Quarter Scale, Mammoth Scale, or Monster Scale, the popular new breed of big models is just that: BIG. And big has to mean heavy. Not necessarily heavy in relation to their size, but heavy in terms of actual pounds. Fifteen to 30 pounds is roughly the range for the big birds, as compared to three to 10 pounds for current sport and pattern models. The quarter-scalers often have lower wing and power loadings which help their performance in the air, but when the wings stop supporting that weight the landing gear has to pull off the hold-up job. Just sitting on the ground, that gear has three to five times the load we've been used to, and in a rough landing the forces really climb. The model industry is already starting to react to the situation by offering beefed-up retract units and larger sizes of music wire. However,
