Free Flight: Duration
WHERE did everything go? Once upon a time, there was Free Flight-and that was all there was. If you can remember those days, then you are probably one who can now get Senior Citizen discounts in the local eateries about your town and also one who experiences great difficulty in gluing two pieces of balsa wood together without wearing your bifocals. Anyhow, decades have since gone by, and whether you may be one of those who were around near the beginning or just made it in under the wire of the early Fifties when Free Flight was still "flying high" and eventual RC diversions were having initial growing pains, please rest assured that Free Flight still remains in about the form that existed when you may have left it.
Free Flight: Duration
STATIONARY AUTO-STABS. Our favorite contributing technical expert, Gil Morris, returns to the column this month with an interesting approach to installing an effective auto-stab device on competition Gas models which has "no strings attached." Gil reports: "I am forever trying new ways of trimming models because I think there is much to be learned in this area. This is one I have been thinking about for some time. I recently set it up on a 375-sq.in. Toothpicks, and the test worked well. I am referring to a no-moving-parts auto-stab which is nothing more than a pair of 3/8-in.-wide times 3-in.-long strips cut from an aluminum beverage can supported off the stab surface by 1/4-in.-long strips of 1/16-in.-sq. pieces of balsa. The rear 1/8 in. of the strip is crimped down at an approximate 15º angle for a first try (see sketch).
Free Flight: Duration
ANOTHER PENNY (or two). I received lotsa comments and mail on the "Getting My 10¢ Worth" article in my last column. Most of the missives were from those who are apparently old enough to have listened to the Lone Ranger on the radio right along with "Boss Ross" and myself as we meticulously labored in constructing those wondrous "dime scale" beauties of yesteryear. Typical was the nice letter received from Bruce Ihde of Tulsa, OK. Bruce sez: "I enjoyed your article on the 10¢ kits. Dad and I built my first model in 1933. It was an Ideal kit; 12-in.-span Boeing biplane fighter; 25¢ mail order. We built it one Saturday on the basement workbench. Of course we ran out of the glue supplied in the kit and finished it with Duco cement; and it took years to develop the skill to build a complete model with just the glue supplied in that little bottle.
Free Flight: Duration
THE HOTTEST NEWS of this month is obviously the outcome of the Free Flight World Champs held at Chalelion Piage, France on August 13 through 15, 1987. There will surely be more in-depth reports of the happenings by other media sources, so we shall limit the coverage in this column to a quick overlook. The U.S.A.'s single shining star was Bob White, as he beat the world's best to win the Wakefield Cup. The win was even more significant when you are made aware that in some camps the U.S. was considered as no threat because of our apparent lag in the recent "technological explosion" surrounding this historical rubber-powered event. Complicated mechanisms for delayed launches, variable-pitch props, and other exotic gadgetry were considered to be a requirement to make the winners' circle of late. Well, apparently Bob may then have jerked some folks back to practicality with his basically conventional models and superb flying techniques. Anyway, our congrats to Bob White, World FIB Champ for 1987!
Free Flight: Duration
NOSGAS NATS for '88! It was inevitable. With the growing interest in the Nostalgia Gas (Nos-Gas) events, the concept of a Nostalgia Gas National Championships just had to materialize-and now it has. The National Free Flight Society (NFFS) has formally announced that the first Annual NFFS Nostalgia Champs will be held at the Mid America Air Center near Lawrenceville, IL on July 19-20, 1988. If these dates sound a little familiar, they should, because the affair will be staged in conjunction with the 1988 SAM (Society of Antique Modelers) Champs, which is also slated for the week of July 18, 1988 at the same spot.
