Control Line: Aerobatics
DURING THE 1993 LABOR DAY weekend, the F2B Control Line Precision Aerobatics Team was selected. Eight of the sixteen competitors who flew on Saturday were eliminated. The remaining eight flew a best-two-out-of-three-flight competition Sunday, with the top three earning the privilege of representing the United States at the international competition in Shanghai, China, in October 1994. As many of our readers already know, the U.S. is defending the team championship and the individual World Champion, Paul Walker, will compete as defending champion.
Control Line: Aerobatics
OVER THE YEARS, I have mentioned Tom Deville as a name from the past. In the early 1950s, Tom was an exceptionally competitive modeler in the New York/New Jersey area, flying Stunt at times-even a Dynajet Stunt, which was a real achievement in those days. (One of our biggest achievements is that we both survived growing up on the streets of New York.) Tom called recently to chat about old times, and to pass on some information about his current work with youth groups in New Orleans. Tom and his wife use modeling to hold these kids' interest, keeping the children away from the epidemic that is plaguing America's youth: drugs. Tom says they have been very successful, but they need supplies from model-associated sources to keep going.
Control Line: Aerobatics
BY THE TIME this reaches print, we'll all be into the finishing stages of our latest creation, so I thought I'd mention one of my latest "adventures" with the wonderful/frustrating world of applying a first-class, Nationals-quality finish. Attention to detail: The seemingly insignificant details that you forget will come back and bite you every time. The model I was working on last spring was proceeding well up through the silver base coats. The filler worked fine, and I was satisfied with the silver after the second coat. I was pushing to get on to the color, because the weather here in Texas has "windows" of low humidity, and you have to be ready to go when the weather permits. I was getting the white paint ready with the addition of fish eye preventative, Dave Brown's Flex-All, thinner, and some extra pigment; this is where I built-in a disaster.
Control Line: Aerobatics
SOME YEARS AGO, I had the rare opportunity to spend several days with Dr. R.V. Jones, Winston Churchill's Senior Technical Advisor during World War II. In the early 1950s, he chaired a committee that examined technology and projected what weapons systems should be developed for England to maintain a proper defense posture. When I talked to him, it had been more than 30 years since that panel, and the Faulklands war was over. One of the points I really wanted to probe was the methodology his group used to explore the technologies and options to make their conclusions.
Control Line: Aerobatics
IN THE LAST COLUMN, I discussed some state-of-the-art advances in Precision Aerobatics models, looking at the later construction techniques of built-up structures, such as the Lost Foam method. The object, of course, is to build precise, true structures. As the concept matured, however, options other than merely duplicating the standard construction patterns became available. Now it is possible to correctly assemble accurate geodetic wings the first time, every time. This gives such added benefits as the stiffness inherent in the geodetic approach, but it also allows a reduction in the structure's parts count, and therefore the weight, which is what we are really after.
