The Mentor
HERE IS a simple glider that is easy to build and still looks good in the air. With its 40 inches of span it is easy to transport so it does not need a split wing with the structural complications that go with it. Being fairly small it will not fly too far, nor too long, just long enough to whet the appetite to book it on the towline again and have another go. In fact, it was specially designed for small field work and the object was to avoid those long flights with the model ending up in a built-up area or on a highway. Clearly, no spectacular performance is claimed for it, but its merits lie somewhere in its ruggedness, easy building and repair, simple trimming technique and, maybe that is the most important. The design can serve as an immediate follow-up from the first model you ever made. It could even be that first model if you have the knack to work carefully and systematically.
Marissa
WHEN YOU HAVE been designing models for longer than you care to remember, you tend toward ever-greater simplicity. There are plenty of highly sophisticated contest designs, but the simple model which may help young builders to climb the ladder of fame is a rare bird. This writer set himself the task of producing a model that looks attractive and can easily be adjusted and flown by builders who may only have built a chuck glider. It needs more attention to detail, but for many the actual building can be just as much fun as that first tense moment when they see the product of their hands take to the air. Marissa incorporates nothing new. It is based on time-honored basic principles. It might, in fact, have been designed many years ago. Rubber power is as old as aeromodeling, and that great gift from nature, balsa, has been with us a long time.
