Radio Control: Giants
A WHILE BACK I complained that the beginning Giant Scale modeler had little choice when it came to suitable "first" modeling subjects. The field of easily built models was pretty well limited to the ubiquitous J-3 Cub. There are, of course, a lot of other high-winged full-scale model subjects with gentle flight characteristics-but construction drawings of them are conspicuous by their absence. The net result of this exercise is that there are one heck of a lot of yellow airplanes on Giant Scale flightlines around the world. Jerry Bates to the rescue! The Mobile, Alabama master draftsman has come up with an entire series of eminently suitable Giant Scale plans based on the 1939 Interstate Cadet. They're the answer to yellowing flightlines.
Radio Control: Giants
IN THE APRIL ISSUE of Model Aviation I noted that I had given up on designing a quarter-scale model of Der Cricket, an all-metal home-built biplane. The reason I gave was that I was apprehensive about a model with all-flying tail surfaces-vertical and horizontal tail feathers without a hinged rudder or elevators. Thanks to Gun Gustafson, of Littleton, Colorado, I was thoroughly disabused of the idea. Gus sent a photo of his scratch-built 1/5-scale Mercury Chic model. The two-place parasol monoplane was manufactured by the Mercury Aircraft Corporation of Hammondsport, New York in 1934 and had no fixed tail surfaces. The best part of the exercise-Gus says that his airplane flies "hands off."
Radio Control: Giants
SEPTEMBER IS THE TRADITIONAL MONTH for big air races. The prewar Cleveland and postwar Reno extravaganzas were/are scheduled for the early fall. It isn't hot news that Giant RC Scale modelers have taken to miniature versions of Reno pylon-polishing competitions, with California and Texas leading the way with their spectacular model air races. Seaplane enthusiasts were even included in the model airplane racing fever at the late, lamented, Lake Havasu, Arizona miniature Schneider Cup races. However, racing-aircraft models have been conspicuous by their absence in reviews of the many Giant Scale fly-ins reported in the magazines. This is rather surprising, as there are plenty of construction drawings for Golden Age racing airplanes available. For example:
Radio Control: Giants
WITH YOUR KIND INDULGENCE, I'm going to begin this month's column with a "fairy story." Like all good fairy stories, this one begins with "Once upon a time. . ." Once upon a time there was a poor-but-honest Radio Control builder and flier. He had been building small-but-flyable Scale models in his basement workshop. Every evening after supper he would descend the stairs to his shop and begin to tinker with balsa, plywood, and the other magical materials there. From time to time, his skillful efforts would be realized in a beautiful, multicolored model airplane, complete with a glow-plug engine and a complex array of electronic equipment. Saturday afternoons, when the weather was fair and the wind was only hinting at a zephyr, he'd take his beautiful airplane out to his club field. After checking the radio and filling the gas tank with glow fuel, he'd entrust his current masterpiece to the mercy of the air. Most of the time, his model would fly and give him much pleasure as he bent it through a routine of aerobatics.
Radio Control: Giants
THE ALLISON ENGINE purred, hurtling the P-40N through the cloud canyons. The practice stall series, the purpose of the training flight, had been completed, and there was plenty of gas left in the wing tanks. There wasn't any sense in returning to base just yet. Not when the billowing Alabama cumulus clouds were begging to be buzzed. Air Force regulations prohibited "real" buzzing-low flight over the ground. It was deemed to be a dangerous practice. But there wasn't anything in the rule book about bending an airplane around isolated cloud build-ups at a safe altitude.
