Flying for Fun
Comes The Revolution: That phrase comes from Al Capp's Lil' Abner comic strip; the citizens of Lower Slovobia thought that somehow a revolution would improve their icy weather. There have been some revolutions in model airplane building and finishing throughout the years; while they have not improved the weather, they have had greatly simplified building tasks. I'm thinking of three improvements in particular: the introduction of die-cut sheet parts in kits; cyanoacrylate (CyA) adhesives; and iron-on covering materials. The impact of these building aids can best be measured by the shift in modeling from builders to fliers. The majority of the newcomers to the hobby throughout the last 25 years might not be around if it wasn't for this revolution.
Flying for Fun
SAMENESS: Throughout the long history of model airplane building and flying, there has been a tendency for modelers to construct look-alikes. This used to be the result of a design doing well in competition and everyone jumping on its bandwagon. Lately it seems that what you see at the flying fields are cookie-cutter examples of what is available in kit form. Plan-built models are becoming more and more rare, while self-designs are almost unheard of. Some modelers avoid this "sameness" trend by changing the appearance of kit designs, and my hat goes off to them. This "kit-bashing" was illustrated in an article called "Just Imagine" in the June 1993 Model Aviation.
Flying for Fun
This month's column was inspired by the nostalgic joy that I experienced in developing the Rudder Bug construction article for the April 1998 issue, and hopefully will increase the readers' appreciation of contemporary Radio Control (RC) equipment. Measuring Success: Perhaps the most reliable index of a model's impact on the hobby is how often it is plagiarized. Consider how many reincarnations of Joe Bridi's Kaos have been kitted and/or published; the same can be said about Phil Kraft's Ugly Stik, Carl Goldberg's Zipper and Sailplane, Sal Taibi's Starduster, Bob Palmer's Chief, George Aldrich's Nobler, and a handful of other "benchmark" designs.
Flying for Fun
In my July column I talked about the terms "original designs," "plan-built," "kit-built," and "factory-built" as they relate to model aircraft. Hopefully my militant objection to the badly misused, and therefore incomprehensible, term "scratch-built" hasn't upset anyone. I'll further confuse the issue this month with a look at partial kits (a.k.a. short kits) - essentially, kits that contain all parts of a model design that require cutting with a jigsaw or band saw. The builder then provides required sheet and strip wood to complete the project. This approach allows the creation of models that are not so "cookie-cutter" common, without the more-challenging aspects of building from plans.
Flying for Fun
The following fundamental material might lead the reader to say "I already know that," and skip this column. Yet, a brief refresher is in order considering a "failure to remember" in several instances. It's a Gas: The Earth's atmosphere is composed of molecules of several gases, ranging from oxygen to the rare ones such as helium. The atmosphere is held around the Earth's surface by gravity, and thins to nothing about 100 miles up. The closer to the earth's surface that atmosphere lies, the more dense it is. One law of physics states that heating a gas causes its molecules to disperse in proportion to the temperature; conversely, cooling the gas causes its molecules to move closer to each other, and it becomes more dense.
