RADIO CONTROL GIANTS - 2001/05
i was asleep that late-summer evening.
The upstairs hall light came on and I heard
people talking. Someone opened my
bedroom door and my mother came in.
“Jack! Jack! wake up!” she said.
“What’s all the noise about?” I asked
sleepily.
“Jack, Allan Paine is here and he’s on
his way to the National Air Races. He wants
to know if you’d like to go along.”
I’d picked strawberries at the Paine’s
farm earlier that summer. Allan was the
grown family son.
“Yes,” I said heartily, and soon we were
in Allan’s convertible on our way to
Cleveland OH. I slept most of the way.
The 1938 National Air Races was
pure heaven for a 13-year-old modelairplane
builder.
RADIO CONTROL GIANTS - 2001/04
When you decide to “import” a new kit, radio, or engine into
the home, you might expect to be berated by your husband or wife.
“You spent that much—on a model airplane?” might be the
usual reaction.
However, things will (usually) be all hearts and flowers if you
bring a new tool into the mansion. And there are many tools
required to build your new Giant Scale model. Let’s take a look at
which tools will help create the new airplane.
The first purchase should be a pair of safety glasses or a plastic
safety hood. The former will fit over your reading glasses (if you
have to wear them), and the latter protects your whole face from
errant bits of wood or metal.
You probably already own a set of X-Acto™ knives, so you
don’t have to purchase them. But it’s nice to have a small box of
new #11 blades, so you can keep things sharp.
The next item in relative importance is a Dremel™ rotary hand
grinder—particularly if you also purchase a sanding mandrel.
There are actually three versions of the rotary grinder, and
each has multiple uses. There’s the standard multispeed hand tool,
the miniature battery-powered twirler, and the hand piece with a
flexible drive shaft. The last one works great when you have to
work on something inside your model. A 90° attachment will help
if you have to grind around a corner.
RADIO CONTROL GIANTS - 2001/03
ThiS haS To be the month of the videotape. Dick Hansen and
ModelSPORT Video Magazine sent their latest efforts—and
they’re great!
Dick’s tape is devoted to the August 2000 Scale World
Championships, held at Interlaken, Switzerland. The venue was
beautiful; it was an old Swiss Army airfield, nestled in the
mountains on the land between two lakes.
Dick started out by showing practically every Scale model from
every country that participated in the contest. The aircraft were shot
in the hangar area, where the static part of the Fédération
Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) contest was held.
Except for the misidentification of a couple models, the host
was most complete.
Many of the aircraft could have been called Giant Scale, although
they were limited to a 12-kilogram weight limit. There were many
Tiger Moths (the most popular prototype) and only a couple Mustangs.
The contest had a special classification and competition for
FAI F4CX models, which were also on the Giant side.
RADIO CONTROL GIANTS - 2001/02
eRRol WINSoN (League City TX) must
have sprinkled a multigallon supply of
shrinking potion over Bill Hill’s full-scale
Grumman TBM-3E Avenger!
How else could Errol have come up with
a true Scale model of the big Navy torpedo
bomber of World War II? A 124-inch-span
Avenger that has all 79,800 rivets?
The wings fold, and the retractable
landing gear was made for Errol by
Unitracts in England. The model’s
construction took 3,700 hours, and all that
skilled labor really shows.
The model’s power is provided by a
Quadra 200, and the propeller is a threebladed
28 x 10.
Scale features of Errol’s model include
an onboard starter, a functional rear turret,
the pilot’s canopy, tailhook, and bomb bay
doors. The Avenger is capable of dropping
bombs or scale torpedoes.
The model has 19 servos, which are
controlled by Errol’s Futaba radio that has
been modified with the Vantec “Piggy
Back”; it provides 15 additional channels
for operations.
There are five air systems, which
operate 15 air cylinders ranging in size
from two to 14 inches long.
Errol had the advantage of basing his
model on a restored Avenger, owned by
Bill Hill of Spring, Texas. The full-scale
model was flown from the carrier USS
Yorktown in the closing days of the war.
It was credited with sinking nine
Japanese ships!
RADIO CONTROL GIANTS - 2001/01
arF! arF! arF! No, it isn’t my German
shepherd Wolfgang barking to be let in. It’s my
reaction to the latest issue of modelSPORT
video magazine, which includes an extensive
demonstration of the “completion” of an ARF
(Almost Ready-to-Fly) Midget Mustang.
As with other models of its ilk, the
dogsbody work has been completed by the
manufacturer, and the “fiddly bits” are left
to the “model builder.” The ads read, “just
install your radio and engine—and you’re
ready to fly.”
No criticism is intended, but there’s a
great deal of labor to be exercised—even
with the most sophisticated ARF.
Part of the problem is that most ARFs are
precovered. Therefore, stuffing your servos
into the covered wing (before you’ve joined
the wing halves) requires rather complex
measuring. You have to dig into the already
prepared place to find the aileron servo wells.
