Free Flight: Duration
RUBBER-POWER SPEED: What's any talk of such an event doing in the FF Duration column? So RPS is about minimum duration over the course, OK? This event was quite popular in many quarters in the late thirties, and was revived by the National Free Flight Society (NFFS) some eight years ago. It has been flown as an unofficial event at the Nationals, and at four or five major contests per year, ever since. It seems high time for it to get into the AMA rule book in some form, either as an Official, Supplemental, or Provisional event, with or without official AMA National Records. I have sent to a number of rubber-speed fliers a tentative proposal for such an event, and have solicited their comments. From those comments, I have drafted up a questionnaire covering about every question I could think of, or any that were brought up by those answering my initial missive.
Free Flight: Duration
CORRECTION, sort of. In the caption to the photo of the AD-15 engine in the April issue, I said "production is not planned." At the FF World Champs I was told that only 20 or 30 engines per year were being manufactured, which scarcely qualifies as "production." Whether that remains true, or whether the production rate has been increased as a result of Mario Rocca's winning the World Champs with the engine is not clear, but nevertheless the engine is available, and in two versions, according to Rocca. The "Normal AD-15" is available from the manufacturer, Alberto Dall'Oglio, Via Gagliardotti 13, 36100 Vicenza, Italy, for $130 plus $5 postage. The "Free-Flight Tuned AD-15" is available from Mario Rocca, 44040 Rovereto Ferrarese, Italy, for $170 plus $5 postage. International Postal Money Order is the simplest method of payment. The FF-tuned version includes testing, spinner, pressure fitting, large-section flood-off fitting, and an enlarged venturi. Delivery: 30 days.
Free Flight: Duration
THE venerable S-hook, re-re-visited: In days of yore, an S-hook was an S-hook: simply a piece of music wire bent to the shape of an S. It served adequately as a link between the rubber motor and either the propshaft or the rear hook. But it had its problems. Invariably, the thing would crawl around and end up where it wasn't supposed to be. Hundreds of solutions have been developed over the past half century, but new ones keep popping up. There is no "best" solution, for what might be best for one person might not be best for a person with another set of skills, or tools, or goals.
Free Flight: Duration
HERE'S a new Cat. I HL Glider Record. In the early sixties, Ron Wittman and Lee Hines swapped the record back and forth a few times. In those days, the best single flight was scored, and the record stood at 37 sec. at the time Hines and Wittman quit flying the event. There has been no further Cat. I record-quality flying west of the Continental Divide during the 18 years which have elapsed since then. The scoring has since been changed so that the total of the best two flights counted as the score. In 1969, Dan Belieff of Washington, D.C. set a record of 78.8 sec. that stood for nearly nine years. Then the Stoy boys, Mike and Stan, developed the flexible flapped trailing edge idea with their series of Coots. Stan set a record of 108.8 sec. with one (see this column, Dec. '75, Dec. '77, Apr. '78, and Aug. '78) in extremely turbulent air, the sort of stuff that most IHLG fliers try to avoid.
Free Flight: Duration
SPORT FREE FLIGHT: With the exception of Larry Kruse' Bandolero and Bill Ruff's Satellite, most of the photos shown are of models that have never won a contest and never will, simply because there are no contests for them. They are strictly for funzies. The motivation? Perhaps a pseudo-scale model of a full-size plane that exists only in the designer's mind. Or perhaps someone's personal idea of something that looks cute or snazzy, or whatever, to him. If it doesn't look cute or snazzy, or whatever, to you-that's your problem, not his. Or perhaps. . .who knows the countless possible reasons for building such contraptions, other than they simply turn someone on?
