Frank McMillan

DEDICATING A COLUMN to beginning Precision Aerobatics stirred memories of how I got involved many years ago. In the late 1940s, even the sound of a engine running was exciting to me. I remember a brave soul starting an ignition engine in New York's Central Park in the middle of winter. My dad and I watched him for more than an hour, but he didn't have much success. Then we learned about Pelham Bay Park, which was set up for Control Line model flying. We could reach the park by an hour subway ride and a thirty-minute walk, so up we went the following Saturday. Several modelers working hard at flying were having varying degrees of success. One flier I remember in particular was an older gentleman called Whitey. I never knew his real name, but he was the person who probably got me interested. He was a good craftsman (I believe he was a cabinet maker).

I'VE JUST TAKEN a Warren truss/geodetic built-up wing off the cradle, and I'm really impressed with the construction method. In the technology series, I mentioned a wing construction technique invented by Bob Hunt called the Lost Foam Method. It involved creating a construction set by first using the root and tip templates of a chosen wing type (for example, Impact or Saturn) to cut a normal core set. This is the point where the technology extends. Instead of using the core as the basis of the wing to be sheeted, the core is marked with the desired rib locations and cut at those locations. These sections are then used to make rib templates. Now we shift focus a bit and look at the saddles, which in this application become the center point as the construction jig, plans, etc. The bottom cradles have the wing construction marked on them so that the wing is assembled in the cradles, pinned in place, and adhered with cyanoacrylate (CyA) glue.