Mini-Voyager
BURT RUTAN, designer of the renowned around-the-world, unrefueled aircraft Voyager, has a long-standing fascination with canard designs. At the same time, Burt is aware that canards react unfavorably to scaling down. It was he who reminded me, as he was inspecting my 9-ft. Radio Control canard model, that in a small, exact scale version it probably would not fly. In fact, even as a nine-footer, extra-large changes in aspect proportions were required to obtain good performance. And in the 4-ft. Control Line Voyager, featured a few issues ago, the canard wing was next-to-useless once the engine quit and the speed dropped. It became necessary to reduce the wing loading on the canard considerably to get a glide that wouldn't cause the model to self-destruct.
Para Craft
Modelers often seek out unusual projects from ideas first employed for fullscale aircraft. A photo of a powered parachute set the author to thinking about a down-sized verion for RC flying, and he has successfully flown several varieties. Now that the parachute wings can be purchased almost ready to use, you can share in this different type of flying without having to learn how to sew.
Time for the Hobby
AS A KID, I spent a lot of time hanging around the small airport in my hometown. My earlier fascination with model airplanes led to an interest in full-size aircraft, and I have many fond memories of getting airplane rides with the pilots. Much of my time at the airport was spent flying Control Line planes with my modeling buddies. I still remember the propeller-clock over the airport office door that was donated by a student pilot who couldn't keep the tail down. I wanted a prop-clock for my room, but the money to buy one always went to the next model airplane.
Improve Your Work Area
THERE ARE as many different techniques for organizing your work area as there are building projects to clutter it up. I have envied others whose shops were neat and usable. My shop was often cluttered with too many projects and a poor storage system for tools and parts. The aggravation of lost production time searching for missing parts and buying duplicates gave me a strong desire to improve my situation. The first step for anyone in a similar predicament is to decide that no case is hopeless, or you will never get started. Try to avoid drastic ideas like moving away; unless you succeed in organizing the clutter, you will only move the problem to a new location. Consider the following ideas along with other techniques to decide what will work best for you.
A Day with Project Snapshot
MY PLAN for the weekend of June 12, 1983 was for a restful camping retreat. That changed when the newspaper announced the arrival of Space Shuttle Enterprise at Dulles International Airport. Taking aerials of a space shuttle was at the top of my wish list, but the long drive to Florida and the slim chance of convincing NASA to let me fly at its facility made the photos seem impossible. My chance was coming to me; the shuttle was going to be a mere 20 miles away at an airport where I had previously flown Snapshot. The NASA 747 and shuttle had just completed a European tour and was making a few stops in the U.S.A. as it returned to home base.
