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.
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
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
TO SET THE TONE for this year's Newcomer Giant Scale column, I'd like to quote the elder statesman of "Big Is Beautiful," Dick Phillips, magazine columnist and past president of the International Miniature Aircraft Association (IMAA). I had expressed my doubts to him about modelers building Giant Scale models for their first RC projects. "I don't agree with your hypothesis that nobody should begin with a large airplane," he said. "However, there are some caveats. They should absolutely stick with a trainer and they should have a lot of good, experienced help available. Without those two details, they should, most assuredly, stay away from the big stuff."
Radio Control: Giants
EVERY ONCE in a while you come up smelling like a rose! That's how it was, about a month ago. Readers of this column will recall that I've had the "hots" for the Bell Airacuda-particularly the tricycle-gear version of the pre-WW II twin-engined pusher "fighter." Lots of you kind folks provided a wealth of documentation on the airplane. The local file was busting its seams, but I was totally unprepared for the contribution by Bob Winchell! It seems that Bob was so far ahead of me in the design department that I was left in the dust! Not only had he drawn construction plans for the Airacuda, but he did it in Giant Scale.
