Free Flight: Duration
MINI-MASTER F1H: Five-time Nordic team member Randy Weiler sent along the photos of Stan Buddenbohm's new towline glider kit, along with these words: "This is a great little glider!" Although the rounded wingtips give the Mini-Master a slightly Dragmasterish look, this is not a 1970s kit. The 54 1/2-inch-span wing uses a carbon-fiber tube for the main spar, providing both a stiff structure and a ready-made place for the wing wire. The tip panels and stab use hard aluminum-tubing spars. The bandsawed ribs are predrilled for the tubes. Just slip the ribs on the spar and add leading and trailing edges. While not too well known in this country, tube spars have been popular in Europe for a number of years-especially for stabs. They certainly provide a less-expensive and easier-to-build alternative to a carbon-fiber D-box.
Free Flight: Duration
I HATE TO ADMIT IT, but this was my first Nats in almost 20 years and my first contest at the AMA Muncie site. Compared to the Navy Nats of my youth, this was a much smaller contest, without the three-ring circus atmosphere of Control Line and RC being flown at the same time. As with any Free Flight contest, the best part was the opportunity to see old friends and make new ones. The AMA staff was helpful and the museum provided a delightful break from the day's flying. If you haven't been, you need to go. Rather than do a blow-by-blow, day-by-day account, I've jotted down some observations:
Free Flight: Duration
LIGHTWEIGHT TIMERS: As flying fields shrink, the need increases for accurate, reliable timers to dethermalize (DT) the model after it makes the max, but before it gets to the trees or corn. A fuse DT works every time, but the accuracy can leave something to be desired. The clockwork timers used for power models range in weight from about 12 grams to more than 20-too much for light models such as Coupe and P-30. The lightest alternative is the Badge timer from Wheels & Wings. This is a small, and very light (1.2 grams) device made from black Delrin plastic. It's really quite simple. Instead of an escapement and gears to regulate the speed, it uses a rotor turning in a viscous liquid sealed inside the timer body.
Free Flight: Duration
For almost two decades, aluminum-skinned balsa has been the dominant wing construction method for F1C Power models. The first use I can document was by Soviet flier Eugene Verbitsky at the 1977 World Championships in Denmark. Actually, the models were proxy-flown by Igor Ziljberg for a (literally) snake-bit Eugene. At least one other Soviet modeler, Sergey Sharron, also had aluminum-foil-covered wings. But I don't believe this was the first use for aluminum. Back in the early 1960s I remember seeing a Wakefield by the late Jim Patterson that used thin aluminum covering over a solid balsa wing.
Free Flight: Duration
A few months back, we featured some photographs of Matt Gewain's new "Smart System" electronic timer for F1A towline glider (see Model Aviation, November 1996). Now it is noted Ukrainian glider flier Victor Stamov's turn. After the Team Selection Finals at Lost Hills, Victor was letting several American glider fliers test-fly his new electronic-timer-equipped model. From the outside, it looked much like his familiar mechanical-timer model. The only giveaway was a tiny disc, mounted vertically at the rear of the tailboom. This disc is actually the rear pulley of a pull-pull cable-actuated control system that moves the stab to its various settings for tow, bunt, and glide. (Matt Gewain's system uses a carbon-fiber pushrod to move the stab.)
