Custom Mods
If you're one of those people who can never just leave things alone, you can appreciate our author's approach to modeling. If you're not accustomed to modifying kits to better suit your needs, then read on. The modifying bug might just bite you.
Spirit of Fentress
WHAT A SUPER flying site! Fentress NALF (Naval Auxiliary Landing Field) boasts 10,000 ft. of paved runway and hardsurfaced taxiway, with a 300-ft.-wide strip of mowed grass strip in between. It was a great location for the 1988 Nationals. Oh, it was hot alright. July in Tidewater, VA was like July in Anywhere, U.S.A. this year; with the rest of the country, we were staggering under an unusually prolonged heat wave. On Saturday night, temperatures rose even higher when we had a false-alarm fire scare at the Holiday Inn where many Nats activities were staged.
Toledo: A Different Slant
THE WEAK SIGNALS Toledo RC Expo #33 was splitting at the seams-as expected. Even with the long trek from the parking lot, the people loved it. With wall-to-wall people and wall-to-wall exhibits this is one expo that has to be experienced! As one enthusiastic modeler put it to us, "Toledo is model heaven!" To those more down-to-earth, Toledo is like a candy store for the grown-up kids. And there's one enormous spinoff: Toledo brings 40,000 or so modelers together at one show, and there they find out very quickly that the old adage that strangers are just friends who've never met is true after all. That's where we'd missed out in previous years.
I Premiered the Lincoln Nats
IF WHAT I WANTED was challenges, hurdles, and vivid memories I couldn't have picked a better year for my first Nats experience. Much to my own surprise, I flew the full five-round RC Pattern schedule on the Lincoln tarmac this summer, and damage to the plane was minimal and superficial. But it wasn't easy! Never before had I experienced concrete runways; and those Maria-a-la-Nebraska winds would have been considered unfit even for practice back home.
