Semi-Pro
ONCE A HAND-LAUNCH glider enthusiast gets the hang (or as Larry Conover would say the "flang") of chunking pieces of balsa and spruce into the air and seeing them stay there longer than two and one-half seconds, and maybe even circle once or twice before whumping into the ground, it isn't too long 'til he wants more of the same-for a longer period of time. The Semi-Pro was designed for just such an individual, who perhaps cut his eye-teeth on a more basic HLG design and now wants a better bird with good contest capabilities. A revision of the original "Pro" glider featured in the 1959-61 Zaic Yearbook, the Semi-Pro has been refined to offer a reliable launch pattern, a good transition and a more-than-acceptable glide.
Improving by Degrees
ALMOST EVERY construction article urges the builder to align all parts carefully, install each bulkhead and former at a 90º angle, and epoxy the firewall in place with a certain amount of downthrust and possibly right or left thrust. For years I've always read those instructions carefully, slyly disregarded them, and just eyeballed everything. While most of this carelessness was due to being inherently lazy, part of it was because I didn't have just the right size square or triangle to set in place between ribs or against the fuselage sides to check the things as I should have.
AMA Nats 1983: FF Indoor Duration
IT WOULD BE difficult to imagine a better site for Indoor competition this year than we had at Westover Air Force Base. The Base Hangar that we used was situated at the apex of a triangular hangar area adjacent to the main taxiway and easily accessible by paved roads from two directions. Memory doesn't have to go very far back to recall having to drive from Dayton to Cincinnati to fly Indoor models, or from Lake Charles to a blimp hangar near Houston. Having the Indoor site this year within walking distance from all other Nats FF events was great. Most everyone had a question about how workable a hangar might be. Would drafts be created as spectators came and went? Would doors be opened and closed at crucial times, etc.? Because of the basic construction of this
AMA Nats 1983: FF Indoor Scale
CANADIANS SWEEP Indoor Scale. That should have been the headline coming from the Nats this year, as Jack McGillivray and Ken Groves came down from Canada to give everyone some flying lessons. Fresh from a win at West Baden, McGillivray flew a realistically-detailed, eight-gram SE-5 to second place in Open AMA Scale. Fellow countryman Groves edged out McGillivray by three points for first with what he called his "True Fike." Unlike the garden variety Fike found entered in most contests, Groves' ship had a Cublike cowl and stabilizer that gave it a unique appearance. Groves' Fike prop was also unusual. It was molded from a layer of 1/32 balsa, a layer of gauze, and another layer of 1/32 balsa, all held together with Titebond. The resulting prop was both tough and flexible. Groves was observed, on several occasions, twisting more pitch into the blades, a difficult thing to do with a carved prop, to optimize the plane's flight characteristics.
AMA Nats 1983: FF Outdoor Scale
BEAUTIFUL WEATHER, crowds of spectators, applause, Leon Bennett's huge Moth, airplanes circling slowly in lift, more applause, the sheer magic of unfettered flight-all of these things drift through memory's kaleidoscope when one thinks about Outdoor Scale at this year's Nats. Unlike what's normally expected on Scale day, the weather was absolutely perfect. A light morning haze burned away by 10 o'clock, and the air warmed to create light thermal activity. The most common question from all the fliers was unusual: "Which way is the wind from?" In truth, it was difficult to tell. The almost non-existent breeze shifted to all points of the compass within the space of a few minutes. On several occasions, fliers found themselves trying to ROG downwind after having carefully chosen their launch locations to take advantage of the oncoming wind runway area, and adjacent grass.
