Miss America for a Texaco

To modelers born in the first quarter of this century, the name Texaco brings back visions of seven-to-ten-foot wingspan free flight models flown with a fuel-allotment method of engine-run control. The event got its name from its sponsor: the Texas Oil Company. Sponsorship was started in 1935, and continued until most modeling stopped for the duration of WW II. Creation of the Society of Antique Modelers (SAM) in 1966 gave the now-mature modelers the chance to fly the type of models that they enjoyed so much before going into service. They wanted the laid-back type of flying that they enjoyed in the past.

WRAMS '76

Well, the WRAMS did it again. Like the Toledo Show the WRAMS bash keeps growing. Every year people say they will never top this show but, by golly, the next year brings out an ever-increasing crowd of modelers, spectators, and industry-who rate this as one of the musts to attend, a big one. Officially, it's called the Eastern States R/C Jamboree. Ask anyone who should know how many people attended and they go glassy-eyed and say thousands. Hordes might be a better word. Anyway, this year's colossal show was held on three floors of the Westchester County Center, White Plains, New York, over the weekend of February 28 and 29. And before we forget, let's credit the Show's presenter, the energetic Westchester Radio Aero Modelers, Inc. This makes their eighth consecutive yearly show, so they really ought to be good at it-and good they are. They certainly keep hot-footing it after that other massive show, the great Toledo show of national fame-and in a few years, who can tell? Maybe they are in the same ballpark.

Church Midwing

The rigging, which shows well in these views, is scale and functional. The elevators and rudder are moved by cable, just as on the prototype full-size aircraft. Ailerons use pushrods for activation, typical of most models, and the external cable is only to maintain scale appearance. The original Church Midwing was designed and built by Mr. James Church of Chicago utilizing the basic structures of the Heath Parasol. With its considerable streamlining compared with the Parasol, performance was vastly improved - 65 mph cruising speed on the same 27-hp engine used by the Parasol. The RC model presented here is exactly Quarter Scale, but with the prototype's 26 ft. 6 in. span, that makes a handy size of 79 1/2 in. and .60 power.

Israeli Modeling '85

I WAS ON MY WAY at last. I was eagerly looking forward to this trip, as I hadn't seen my daughter, who lives in Jerusalem, in two years. Coupled with this was the hope that I would get a chance to meet, and perhaps fly with, some Israeli modelers. I had the name and address of Amos Hadas, the head of the aeromodeling section of the Aero Club of Israel, from the AMA. I had met him a number of years ago in the States, and he had offered an open invitation: "If you ever get to Israel, please look me up." Israel is an entirely different world than Americans are used to. Antiquity exists side-by-side with the most advanced technology. Ancient and modern, strange and wonderful, truly a paradox.

Pages