Profile Smoothie
TO THOSE of us who started out in this hobby in the mid-Fifties, the name Bob Palmer carries with it the same magic and fond remembrances we now reserve for 1955 Chevies, duck-tail haircuts, and black leather jackets. What Bob Palmer did for Control Line flying then is roughly equivalent to what Burt Rutan is doing for full-scale flying now. And Palmer did it with style. In contrast to the small, fast, and high-powered ships dominating Stunt at the time, Palmer's planes were relatively large, designed with aesthetics in mind, and exceptionally manueverable, thanks to the coupled flaps and elevator he helped pioneer. The flight of a Palmer plane was more like an aerial ballet than the sky-rending rip-snort we had come to accept as Stunt.
1986 Nats: FF Outdoor Glider
A-1 GLIDER (F1H) flying was on Monday, the first day of Free Flight competition. The wind was light, and thermals were spotty. The breeze dwindled to nil later in the afternoon as the temperature and humidity soared to uncomfortable levels. Competition also warmed up in the afternoon in all the age classes. Although there was no flyoff, all Junior, Senior, and Open times could have been thrown into a hat and drawn out with little or no difference being evident. As an example, little Rod Ioerger's winning 483 sec. in Junior would have placed third in Open. In fact, Rod's dad, Tom, who won Open A-1 with 496 sec., would have felt intense pressure from his 10-year-old son, who is proving to be a very accomplished flier. Similarly, David Brown, who was second in Junior at 391, and Aaron Markos, who won Senior at 392, would have been in the thick of the Open-class chase, placing sixth and fifth, respectively.
1986 Nats: FF Outdoor Rubber
TUESDAY, FF Outdoor Scale day, promised to be a carbon copy of the opening day of outdoor flying, with some wind early in the morning tapering off as the late afternoon heat increased. Such was not the case. Those who waited until late in the day to fly were met with the same sporadic westerly breezes evident during the morning hours-but now occasionally punctuated by short periods of calm. For some fliers, the heated breezes proved propitious. For others, much gnashing of teeth was heard. The most significant event in AMA Rubber Scale flying at this year's Nats was the arrival on the scene of a new name-albeit not a new name to Scale modeling.
1986 Nats: FF Power
THE HIGH-TECH ADVANCES which have permeated FAI flying for a number of years have begun to filter down in a serious fashion into AMA events as evidenced by numerous ships present at this year's Nats. They are not only appearing in competition but are ultimately landing in the winner's circle. Carbon fiber, boron, Kevlar, VITs (variable-incidence tails), autorudders, propeller brakes, Mylar covering, and multi-function timers have all crept into the vocabulary of the average FFer and, in practice, are showing up in the work of top fliers like Charlie Caton, Bill Dunlop, and Bob Hatschek, among others. The "buzz/click/whirr/thunk" previously reserved for FAI Power rounds was particularly noticeable in the outstanding airplanes of Charlie Caton.
Rx for Hangar Rash
TRANSPORTING MODELS to and from contests is probably the biggest cause of hangar rash a model may encounter. More cuss words are spit out, more rudders are broken off, and more wing panels get shortened in the process of hauling model planes around than by any other cause. Faced with the problem of carrying three Scale models some 4,500 miles for our 1983 National Contest trek, I decided that simply laying them on top of the luggage in the trunk and hoping for the best probably wouldn't cut it. I began looking around for appropriate-sized cardboard boxes, but either my planes would have to be shortened 2 in. to fit some of them, or the boxes I found were so cavernous that there was room to pack the family dog and a case of Alpo, in addition to the planes.
