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?
Free Flight: Duration
TRANQUILIZER for up-tight coverings. Paul McIlrath presents this tip: Lightweight wing and tail frames covered with undoped tissue or condenser paper often start to warp uncontrollably weeks or months after they are built. The warps are caused by the gradual shrinkage of the paper, which seems to go on forever. The next time that your usual straightening methods don't work, and you're faced with a tedious recovering job, try this trick first. Mix one part glycerine with about eight or 10 parts of water. Spray the tight tissue lightly with the mixture and allow to dry. As the water evaporates, the small amount of glycerine will remain in the tissue and relax it a little. If the covering is still too tight, spray it again. You may have to do it several times. Eventually the paper will slacken, and the frame will go back to its natural shape.
Free Flight: Duration
MEUSINGS: A lot has been said in both the visible and the underground model aviation press concerning the new 1980-81 Easy B rules, affectionately called Botched B, Bungled B, etc., the event that "nobody" wanted. True, it would have been nice if the AMA rules for Easy B reflected what everyone wanted the rules to be (wishful thinking at best, as there has been nothing but controversy over the rules for Easy B since it was invented). And it would be helpful if modelers would pay more attention to rules proposals and to inform their FF Contest Boards of their opinions. But a key point seems to have been missed.
Free Flight: Duration
THIS month I'll start off with one of my favorite subjects-variable-configuration aircraft (VCA). Whenever I ride a modern Jumbo jet. I am awed at the sight of all that junk that they crank out of the leading and trailing edges of the wing prior to landing. What is even more impressive, however, is that the driver somehow manages to get it all back into the box before the aircraft gets to the terminal. It's a matter of manners, I understand. They do that in order not to frighten the other aircraft. The flaps-down configuration is considered a threatening gesture, and a well-mannered aircraft simply doesn't do that sort of thing in polite company. Anyhow . . .
