Adventures in Modeling
From the spanking-new WE-FLY LAB, our inquisitive in-house modeler, and peerless test pilot, turns in his first of a monthly series of reports. We won't clue you, no sir. It's different. . . . oh, how different!
Adventures in Modeling: Tutor
PUTTING things in perspective, in the beginning there was Jim Walker, creator of "U-Control" flying in the year 1940. "U" (You) Control was derived as the opposite of Free Flight, and was not without the same struggles that Gas-Powered Free Flight had faced from Rubber-Powered Free Flight, not including the controversy that surfaced with compressed-air power and the competition of all with gliders. In spite of the conflict, this state-of-the-art advancement that caused a revolution among the don't-tread-on-me modelers survived and flourished. Even now, there are a possible 14 sanctioned events that can be entered into on a national competition level and four on an international level. Of course, these are now called "Control Line" (CL) events, but names such as "G-Line" and "Controliner" were in the ring for awhile.
Super Esquire: Adventures in Modeling:
SUPER Esquire, another quality kit by Midwest Products Co., comes from a long line of Esquires and/or Squires that have an unblemished pedigree. To those of us who have good memories of the Tri-Squire and Esquire, it is more than blind hope that another Sport Flier could be born to carry on in the same traditions. Staying on memory lane for a moment-it has been about 10 years, without a log, give or take one year. I built a Tri-Squire for a new Kraft radio and Enya 19. I flew it for almost a year, at least twice a week. I can still remember the colors: two-tone blue with white trim. My friends flew it, some trained on it, and I was about ready to try something new. I sold it, less radio, for $35 to a hobby shop owner for a trainer; he learned, sold it, took it back for trade-in at least five times over as many years, and the last I heard about it four years ago, it was still flying. Sure, it went in a few times, was repaired and a new con-rod had been added to the Enya, but the tales that were told and the fun that was had with the Squire are too many to repeat now, but they did set a standard that the future generations of Squires will have a hard time equaling.
Adventures in Modeling: V.K. Corbe
THE CORBEN Super-Ace lightplane, as presented by VK Model Aircraft Company in kit form, is an eyeball scale designed and drawn by Vern Kreibiehl. Vern is a long-time modeler who truly enjoys scale and has offered the builder many outstanding models through the years. After some long conversations on the phone, it was decided that Vern had fallen more in love with the Super-Ace than I, but he had the same problems I did-it is hard to find scale verification and construction detailing. The planned adventure was to be with what we had, and not really get too involved with scale detailing, but curiosity can be a very persuasive nagger.
`From the We-fly Lab:' The Byron Originals Pitts S-1A
EACH month that has gone by since we received the Byron Originals Pitts S-1A and the Byro Drive has required will-power beyond belief. Our desire was to put all else aside and dive into this unique engineering feat that was to either be a tremendous advancement of the state-of-the-art, or just one more poor soul who challenged the flying gods a wee bit too far. The Futaba FP6JN Digital Proportional Radio was to be used for control and the World Engines O.S. Max .60FSR for power.
