Radio Control: Scale
WITH WINTER upon us and flying shut down to a minimum in most of the country, it is time for building. Have you started on that new scale bird? If you are thinking of building a war bird you may be having typical problems. I have received a lot of mail concerning the difficulties of obtaining a suitable color picture for reference in finishing war birds. I covered this subject some months back but evidently this is a very common problem, probably the hardest in authenticating WW-II U.S. Navy aircraft. Hangar flying with several of the local scale builders, one of whom is building a Corsair and another finishing a Hellcat, the question of color arose.
Radio Control: Scale
WITH THE GREAT interest in scale, stand-off scale, and in just fun-fly scale-like airplanes, and with the many categories to choose from-such as 1/2A scale to the large 1/4-scale proposed by Bill Northrop-it should be easy to find something to your liking. I have received many letters from interested modelers who have many and varied ideas on rules and regulations concerning how a scale contest should be conducted. The past year was the first year in which stand-off was an official AMA event. And, of course, there has been some difference of opinions on rules. One of the touchiest is the options rules. Much mail contends there should be no mechanical options because these tend to overload the WW II-type airplane with so-called easier points-getting options, such as bomb-drop, tank-drop, etc.; others only say, allow one or two mechanical options.
Radio Control: Scale
I'M SURE Toledo means a lot of things to a lot of people, especially the people who live there, but to RC modelers, as the saying goes, it's a hog heaven! I'm sure that every product in our field, be it a radio, kit, or gadget, was shown at the recent Toledo Trade Show (as I would call it) at the Municipal Auditorium. I sure didn't count the many people there, but 20,000 would be a good estimate for the three days. From a manufacturing standpoint Stand-Off Scale was quite evident, with more new fiberglass kits and fuselages. Bob Holman Plans, for example, had several new fiberglass fuselages. Probably the hit of the show was a fiberglass 1/4 in.-scale P-51 (in fact two P-51's). In the same giant scale a beautiful Waco and a Pitts Special. All fantastic models. (No date or price available on these airplanes as yet.)
Radio Control: Scale
INTEREST IN 1/2-A Scale and Stand-Off Scale in general is snowballing. I've received much interesting mail on the subject. There are reasons for this. Advantages include small flying space needed, much lower cost, and less noise. Jerry Farr sends the accompanying picture of his 1/2-A Citabria. It is powered by Cox .049, weighs 17 oz. with 198 sq. in. of wing area. It uses a World Expert System for elevator and rudder controls. Jerry also has in the works a B-26 with bomb drop and a C-47 which drops paratroopers. He also had some very interesting comments on proposed rules and 1/2-A scale-type events. Evidently, there are numerous scale 1/2-A fliers in and around Texas where he comes from. As reported last month their all-scale contest has a 1/2-A Scale event.
Radio Control: Scale
ONE OF THE UNIQUE problems most scratch scale builders have is to find a canopy already manufactured that will adapt to his particular scale project and, of course, there are the standard P-51, P-47, etc. usually advertised as WW-II canopies. Sig, for one, has several such canopies. So do other manufacturers. But, of course, there are many WW-II airplanes that don't use the standard bubble-type canopies, such as the Axis air forces along with our own Navy aircraft and, of course, the aircraft of the 30's, and so on. So the next best thing to do is to make your own. I'm sure most of us have tried this without too much luck. Practically all commercially made canopies are vacuum formed. This requires special equipment and considerable work just to make one or two canopies. I hope to explain here an easy method I have found that requires little or no special equipment and a minimum of work.
