Radio Control: Scale
CHICAGO EXPO The Tenth Annual Greater Chicago Radio Controlled Model Show, popularly called Chicago Expo, has moved to a new, larger site at the Odeum in Villa Park. The building has a vastly greater space, with no crowding of exhibitors, in comparison with earlier locations. There was space indoors for a large pool to accommodate boat operations and a track for model cars, with ample space for spectators around both areas. The building is sufficiently large to contain twice the previous number of commercial exhibitors. One-half of the structure is normally used for soccer games by the Chicago Sting team. There was also a flying site of limited dimensions, just outside the doors, suitable for Helicopters or small planes.
Radio Control: Scale
FAIRULES PROPOSALS: The agenda for this year's (1982) FAI plenary session in Paris contains no surprises except for the absence, from any nation, of a proposal to increase model weight above the present 6kg (13.2 lb.) without fuel. There has been considerable agitation in the U.S. for an increase-and yet no one has made an official proposal. We must assume, from the absence of action, that everyone is satisfied with the 13.2 lb. limit. (Yet, one magazine columnist recently-December 1982-deplored the limit as being only 11 lb.!) We have now flown two World Championships at 13 lb. It's true that a couple of 1982 Reno entries were slightly overweight and needed to have some superfluous internal parts removed to reach the limit, but this weight restriction seems to have imposed no real hardship.
Radio Control: Scale
REPORT FROM PARIS. A drastic change has been made in the FAI RC and CL Scale rules, as the result of a vote at last December's CIAM meeting, to scuttle Precision Scale, which had become a victim of a worldwide decline in participation. Stand-off Scale becomes the only international RC and CL event after January 1984. The change will reduce static judging time considerably, as there will be no measurements taken (the scale ruler has been eliminated). Our current AMA rule book stipulates that RC Precision Scale is to use the FAI rules, except for higher weight limit and greater engine displacement. This means that we will now have two kinds of Stand-off Scale rules in our book. Actually, the only reason to perpetuate AMA Precision Scale is to have a basis for team selection, since there are so few contests that include the event. Selecting a team now becomes a problem, particularly if there is to be a series of eliminations leading to a final event. FAI rules would need to be used throughout the process to assure sending qualified airplanes and pilots to the next World Championship (in France for 1984, and to Norway of South Africa for 1986).
Radio Control: Scale
Metalworking. Anyone having a complete metalworking shop may find the following descriptions boring. However, those of us with minimum equipment are always looking for methods of producing quality models without great expense. Never having built a complete model from aluminum raw material, we aren't qualified to describe that type of work. We are, however, seeing an increase in the number of metal components on quality Scale models, and the degree of realism that is possible with metal can't be ignored.
Pober Pixie
IN THE EARLY 1930 era, the Heath Parasol was a popular home-built airplane, designed by Ed Heath. Construction drawings could be purchased, and parts and assemblies were marketed in kit form in the original Heathkits. The Pober Pixie traces its ancestry to the Heath LNB-4 Parasol of 1931. Paul Poberezny, president of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), designed the Pixie using the Heath as the basis for most dimensions. The Pixie uses a Piper Cub-type landing gear and a Volkswagen-derived Limbach engine of 64 hp. Its wing has a wrapped aluminum leading edge in place of nose ribs. Except for these modifications it is very similar to a Heath Parasol, having identical surface areas, Clark Y airfoil and tail moment.
