French Wench
A NEW MODEL design must have a reason for being; better performance, better construction, or a myriad of other reasons. Another truism is that sooner or later most free flighters get the itch to "roll their own," to advance the Free-Flight state of the art by designing their own flying machine. Thus, the birth of the "French Wench." A systematic approach was taken with this new design. Rather than drawing a nice, sporty-looking airplane followed by countless modifications and redesigns to make it perform adequately, a form-follows-function approach was adopted. That is, a set of design objectives was established and the features that satisfied these objectives would determine what the final design would look like.
NATS '78: FF Power
AS THERE are so many gas events it might be good to start with a brief overview. Several thoughts come to mind: Power. All of the top fliers had engines that really honked. Most all of the fliers had an overabundance of power. Many models were on the small side for the size of engine. The sense of power in these events was impressive. In general, the lift was tricky. The thermals were very small and difficult in which to center-and if the model did not center in the thermal, it probably would not max. What would appear to be good lift many times would inexplicably dissipate before three minutes. Thermal picking, done mostly by soap bubbles and piggybacking, was tricky, frustrating, and truly challenging.
NATS '78: FF Rubber
IN THESE days of modern technology, of high-powered Rossi's and K&B's, some people might look upon the rubber events as somewhat antiquated. But where, one may ask, can such character and tradition be found? Even the names evoke character-not piddling numbers or letters, but names like Wakefield, Mulvihill, even Coupe d'Hiver. This, friends and neighbors, is what free flight rubber is all about. Seven rounds of Wakefield started off rubber with 18 Open entrants and one Senior. Round one started calm; what lift that was available was very light. The result was some very beautiful flights, five of which were maxes. Slack tissue caused by the very high humidity plagued many of the near maxers. (Fred Pearce had test data which showed slack tissue could cost the model about 30 seconds.)
NATS '78: FF Glider
THE free flight glider events-A-2 Nordic, A-1 Nordic, and Hand-Launched Glider-could be described in two words: Jim Lewis, Jim won all three glider events. A-1 was flown the first day in accordance with the "old" 5.08-oz. weight requirements. Conditions were not very helpful. A Louisiana summer shower (the kind with four-ounce raindrops) made a short appearance around 9 a.m. With everything nicely drenched, not much lift was generated. The wind caused a site change to downwind of a large bunch of trees. The thermals, such as they were, at this new site were very small and probably more of a hinderance than help. No one maxed out in A-1. In general, many of the A-1 fliers still suffer tow problems. Not everyone, however, as Jim Lewis circle towed (one of the few who did) or kited the model every flight. Jim's model, a Phil Hartman design which may become a Blue Ridge Models kit, featured a two-piece wing and an ultra-simple twanger-type circle tow hook mounted on the outside of the fuselage.
NATS '78: FF Scale (Outdoor)
THE 1978 National Model Airplane Championships was a good contest. The folks who seemed to have the most fun were the free flight scale group. You should've been there. First off was Rubber Scale. As usual, the morning was spent trimming models. Trimming was itself an enjoyable time, seeing the models gradually flying better and better, longer and longer. Some folks had more trimming/retrimming to do than others. Allan Schanzle rebuilt the entire nose section, wing, and associated odds and ends on his Chambermaid. Allan, who also flew the Chambermaid in Indoor Scale, finally got everything stuck back together with Hot Stuff and microballoons and then proceeded to change entirely the original trim arrangement. All of this worked well enough for Allan to earn second place, barely squeezing out Tom Stark's Wittman Tailwind by just 0.07 points.
