Up and Around
PREPARING material for these pages has sent me searching through more than 40 years of old photos and negatives. While I will continue to use those of my own, it seems likely that many of you have a wealth of history hidden away in a drawer somewhere. If you have photos that you would like to share, please send them. Color is preferred, but black and white is fine. I will return any that you want back. Over the years, we have heard all sorts of cures proposed for the younger set's decided lack of involvement with our continuing pleasure in modeling. In 1989, I observed one of our Junior club members as he became involved with the Junior FAI program.
Up and Around
MY FIRST engine was a Super Atom, found under our Christmas tree in 1941. My fifth grade class had sold magazine subscriptions throughout the school year to earn points toward a multitude of prizes. Alas, I had come up the equivalent of $1.75 short of my choice between the Atom or a Brownie .29. In the waning of those Depression years, $1.75 could just as well have been $1,750. As mothers will, mine had arranged with the principal at my school to make up the difference. I got the little Atom to run and built an American Ace 33 for it, but at 10 years old, and in a small town, I never flew it.
Up and Around
THE LANG TRANSITORIZED ignition system (my version) has drawn quite a response; if that is any indication, there is quite a bit of interest in flying both Free Flight and Control Line with this mode. With the Ni-Cd, lithium, and alkaline batteries we have today, the only weak link left in the system is the old spark plugs. While I have over 100 various makes of spark plugs, fewer than 10% of them will run an engine properly. Let's face it, these old Champion, AC, Autolite, etc., plugs are over 45 years old, and the seals have become dry and brittle.
Up and Around
SINCE MY MENTIONING the very peculiar reaction of Randolph dope on my more recent models, the mail received is saying that about 80% of you have had the same or a similar experience. To date no sure solution or cure has come forth, or been found. Apparently, it is founded in raw materials as they come from major chemical sources. A very interesting conversation with Mike Pratt of Sig Manufacturing reveals that they now make their own blends of dope from these raw materials. Some months ago they also had problems not unlike those described in these pages. Mike said that these problems were immediately caught and corrected within the first batch. Sig does offer totally compatible butyrate, and I intend to try it.
Up and Around
AS THIS IS WRITTEN, in late March, I am still on a pretty nice high after attending the Vintage Stunt Champs III, in Tucson, Arizona on March 23rd and 24th. Should any of you doubt that there is a greater power, let me assure you there is, and he loves Stunt fliers. I arrived late the Thursday before in a driving blizzard but awoke the next three days to beautiful, windless, sunny flying weather.
