Free Flight: Duration
BACK IN THE 1950s and 1960s, flying a rubber model was a two-person job: one to wind, and one to hold on for dear life. You could find out very quickly who your real friends were - the ones who were brave enough (or crazy enough) to hold while you packed in the turns on a three- or four-ounce rubber motor. Now, of course, just about everyone uses a stooge-a non-complaining, always-ready mechanical stand that holds the model. Although there have been a few commercial units produced through the years, most people cobble up their own. If you are new to rubber flying or simply want to update your current ground-support equipment, I've put together some photos of assorted stooges and described the basics of making your own. A stooge consists of a bracket to hold the model, a pole extending down to the ground, guy wires, and pegs to stabilize the stooge and anchor it the ground. Let's look at each part:
Free Flight: Duration
JUNIOR TEAM: The Free Flight Aeromodeling Junior World Championships is an international competition sponsored by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) for competitors less than 19 years of age. The first Junior World Championships was held in 1988. This year, four young modelers will represent the United States at the Sixth World Free Flight Aeromodeling Championships for Juniors, to be held in Sibiu, Romania. The contest will be held August 15-21.
Free Flight: Duration
JUNIOR TEAM UPDATE: Last month's column listed the members of the United States team that will be flying in the Junior World Championships in Sibiu, Romania, August 15-21. Since that column was written, there has been an addition to the team. Justin Aronhalt of Bumpass, Virginia will be flying F1J. Justin is a 17-year-old 11th-grader at Louisa County High School. Justin was introduced to Free Flight by his fifth-grade science teacher, Jim Snider. With additional help from the late Bill Saunders, Justin has turned into a very good power flier. (He currently holds the Junior B-gas record.) In addition to flying Free Flight and doing farm work after school and on the weekends, Justin is restoring a 1965 Ford pickup. He also does some black-powder deer hunting. His latest score was an eight-point buck. Best of all, Justin has been helping his former science teacher work with younger modelers.
Free Flight: Duration
ED DOLBY: It used to be that you could find just about everything needed to build a competitive Free Flight model at your local hobby shop. Balsa, tissue, dope, music wire, engines, and timers were really all that was needed 30 or 40 years ago. Most hobby shops stocked the latest Free Flight kits, which were mass-produced by the hundreds, if not thousands. In the 1960s about the only specialty Free Flight mail-order supplier was Ed Dolby's New England Wakefield Supply. He offered prebent 2 mm Swedish wire prop shaft, brass ball bearing, tension spring, and a turned aluminum fitting that could be inserted into your own balsa-and-plywood nose block. The NEWS front end sold for about $2.50 and was the standard of the day.
Free Flight: Duration
"YOU MEAN there's no radio?" If you have ever tried to explain Free Flight to a nonmodeler, or someone who is only familiar with Radio Control or Control Line, I'm sure you've heard that response. And it's often followed by the question, "How do you keep them from crashing?" A Free Flight model, even the simplest Hand-Launched Glider, is actually performing a delicate balancing act on every flight. Through the years, those of us who fly Free Flight have learned, often by trial and error, to make the very small adjustments to a model that not only make it fly without crashing, but also climb the highest and glide the best. We have even learned to adjust our models to seek out thermals and avoid downdrafts.
