Free Flight: Duration
Laminar-flow airfoils for FF? A usually reliable source has it that three-times FAI FF World Champ Thomas Koster has been messing with laminar-flow 'foils for FAI Power models. Hmmm! Normally, we'd rather have turbulent flow, on the upper surface at least, to keep the flow from separating (at least for the glide). For the climb, laminar flow would be a blessing; cut down drag. But again, separation could cause large increases in drag, and could occur on both the top and bottom surfaces even though the lift is essentially zero, if the 'foil isn't shaped just right, for anything other than the classical infinitesimally-thin flat plate.
Free Flight: Duration
RIB TEMPLATE FOLLOW-UP. Since I presented the non-skid devices for rib templates in the February 1982 issue, several others have come to my attention. O.C. Stewart, using templates of 1/32-in. plywood or aluminum, puts two dabs of rubber cement on the template. One dabbing will do for several ribs. Any cement that remains on the ribs can be removed simply by rubbing with the finger. Cyrus Stow and Tom Sanders suggest placing the template, which has to be aluminum for this work, on a soft wood surface, then hammering a nail through it at a couple of strategic locations. The resulting burr, then, bites into the balsa rib stock. This doesn't provide neat pinholes for aligning the ribs prior to stacking, as the RomakMeuser scheme does, but that step is probably unnecessary inasmuch as the completed structure will-or should be-sanded before covering, anyhow.
Free Flight: Duration
MORE THAN you ever wanted to know about gussets. Gussets are those teeny-weeny balsa triangles glued into corners between Part A and Part B. Without them, the glue joints of our Free Flight structures are the weakest parts. That isn't necessarily bad; gussets, and the glue required to hold them, weigh a bit, and adding a full complement of gussets can easily double or triple the time required to build a model's framework. Without gussets, there is often crushing of the wood at the joint caused by the shrinkage force exerted by the covering, and that promotes unsightly crows-foot wrinkles in the covering at the joints. Avoiding those wrinkles might not ensure your winning more contests, but it might make you a lot happier about losing!
Free Flight: Duration
THE MONTREAL STOP. It's funny how you go for 10 years without anyone mentioning a particular subject, then you get three letters in the same mail asking about it! So it has been with the Montreal stop. The version of the Montreal stop shown in the drawing is one developed by Roger Gregory for his Wakefield Rubber model. Roger has a similar but much lighter version-it uses a bent sheet-aluminum hub rather than milled-out bar stock-for his Mulvihill models. The blade attachment is one that Roger has been using for years which has proven to be reliable. Roger says that the whole shebang can be made with an electric drill and hand tools! Many of us might have a bit of difficulty doing it that way. The basic Montreal stop features of Roger's, however, can be readily adapted to the bar-stock hub sold by NFFS Supplies.
Free Flight: Duration
IF YOU WERE TO ASK what's the handiest, most often-used, most indispensable tool in my messy, totally disorganized shop, I'd have to say it's my "jug," it gives me instant, one-hand access to a virtually unlimited supply of Meuser's Patent Elixir, Thinner, and Universal Solvent for cleaning or softening dope brushes, or diluting whatever it is I'm using that needs a bit of diluting. "One-hand" is the key-word; no monkeybiz of laying down what I'm holding in my obverse hand in order to use both hands to unscrew the lid from a gallon can. And since the Elixir is an adhoc combination of every solvent and thinner known to modern or ancient man or beast, it will dilute or dissolve 'most anything in town, except perhaps the glass jar that contains it, and I'd swear that sometimes even that gets a mite limp!
