AMA Nats: RC Scale
NEAR PERFECT! That's the best way to describe the main runway at Fentress Naval Auxiliary Landing Field, which was the flying site for the RC Scale events at the 1988 Nats. However, since Fentress is an auxiliary landing field, it had no hangars in which to perform the static judging that precedes flying in all AMA Scale competition events. In fact, the flying site was devoid of any buildings at all-except for one which housed the crash/rescue squad's trucks and equipment. So static judging took place in the gymnasium of the Great Bridge Elementary School, about a 15-min. drive from the flying site.
Safety Comes First
WARNING! It has recently come to my attention that some brands of cyanoacrylate glue debonders contain acetonitrile which, if ingested in sufficient quantity, can cause cyanide poisoning. Acetonitrile, also known as methyl cyanide, is also sold for the removal of the glue used to attach false fingernails. I am aware of two incidents in which young children ingested acetonitrile, sold for this application under the brand name of Supernail Liquid Nail Off. In one of these incidents a 16-month-old boy is reported to have ingested one to two tablespoons of the liquid, a dose which proved to be fatal. The autopsy report listed the cause of death as "cyanide intoxication."
Safety Comes First
"SAFETY COMES FIRST" appeared for the first time in the January 1980 issue of Model Aviation. So this column completes my ninth year as a contributing editor, and I've decided to reveal myself by including a photograph. My first column was typed on an old manual Olivetti portable machine. I still have that typewriter, but it's been retired to the attic. Since then I've used a Smith Corona electric followed by an IBM Selectric which, because it had a self-correct capability, I considered to be the ultimate typing machine until I gained access to a word processor. Although this latter electronic marvel does not use the same language as the computers employed by the magazine's editorial staff, with the help of a friend I recently figured out how to perform a translation that can be put onto a floppy disk and mailed to Model Aviation. The next step, if I can figure out how to do it, will be to send the column to MA via a modem. Today I wonder how I got by for so long with that old Olivetti that's now in the attic.
Safety Comes First
SOME of you missed reading "Safety Comes First" in the last two issues, and you have my apology. After 11 years of trying to make this an interesting column, I reached burnout and needed a break. However, your letters continue to arrive in my mailbox, so here is another attempt to save you from your own worst enemy-yourselves! If you think you may have read some of the following accounts in my previous Safety columns, you're probably correct. The accidents are similar, but the people who were the victims are different. I hate to say it, but if we could eliminate propellers from model airplanes my mail from readers would probably cease.
Safety Comes First
FATAL ACCIDENT: In the June 1988 Safety column I mentioned a safety campaign that had been launched by the Society of Model Aeronautical Engineers (SMAE), the British counterpart of AMA. This was, in part, the result of two deaths during 1987 that were caused by RC model flying activities. The first death I described in detail (collision between a Slope Soarer and a fullscale hang glider) in the February 1988 column, but, until last week, all I knew about the second incident was that it was caused by a three-pound model. Henry Farrar, editor of the Long Island Drone Society newsletter, sent me a copy of the July issue. In it was a description of the circumstances that led to this second 1987 fatality in the U.K. Henry was not sure of the source of his information, but it appears to me to have come from the British model magazine Radio Control Models & Electronics (RCM&E).
