Free Flight: Scale/Sport
LET ME BEGIN this installment by saying thanks to the many who responded to my first article with comments, photos and tips. How often have you seen a great looking, very flyable outdoor rubber scale model that just wouldn't hack it in the air? Close inspection will many times reveal the culprit to be the prop. I'm not about to describe again how to carve a prop; five minutes of flipping through the pages of past issues of any model magazine will uncover an article on this subject, most of which show you how to layout a prop blank and carve a prop of any given diameter and pitch. However, I believe it is important to know what prop to carve for your particular scale model. For instance, is your model a biplane with struts and wires? Lots of drag? Or does it have a big radial engine blanking out the prop as it creates drag? Is your model a bit overweight with detail? Or is it a sleek fighter type or racer flown without landing gear or with the gear in the up position? With more drag, your scale model will fly slower and require a lower pitch prop to deliver thrust without excessive torque that your slower flying model can't handle.
Free Flight: Scale/Sport
HAVE TO START this out with a first things first format, so here it is. Errata-three items from my last article need to be corrected: 1) The unusual Vought V-173 pictured was built by former Vought engineer Dick Johnson, 2) Pres Bruning's W-I-G-H-T quadraplane got its name significantly changed, 3) The average weight rubber scale ship weighs 1/2 oz per ft. The airplane looks great except for the "WOW" in the fuselage. It's moon shaped. It leans a little to the left-comments you've all heard when the fuselage is not too well aligned. The simple square or box fuselage needs two identical sides as a basis for accuracy. In sketch #1 Pres Bruning illustrates a method used by Don Lang to insure both sides are the same. The side view is cut out of a piece of cardboard and the structure is built inside the cutout.
Free Flight: Scale/Sport
THIS IS THE TIME of year to relax, building something light and easy (or light and difficult), while thinking about next year's fantastic outdoor scale ship. It is most important to pick a ship you really like. Choose something you're almost capable of. Stretch a little. You have to round up documentation, get the kit or plans, and maybe alter them some to agree with your proof of scale. You might want some advice on certain "grey" areas of construction. You should know exactly how you are going to build before you start. Allow yourself the time to select the proper materials and tools. Maybe this means saving money for an airbrush so that when you're ready to start painting you can instead start spraying and save a lot of weight. Allow time, and then do it right.
Free Flight: Scale/Sport
EVER WONDER how many hundred square feet of type have been used up in the controversy over Peanut Scale rules? The issue ranges from the avid scale type that wants another full-scale event for smaller models to the strictly fun flier that wants a mild form of relaxing competition. Standing off to the side are others, one, the four-gram model builder surrounded by trophies. Is he a culprit? Can you build a four-gram "scale" ship? It's really quite an accomplishment in the eyes of an indoor builder. Another guy found on the sidelines in the seven-year-old. He doesn't understand the complex rules fashioned by the warring eagles that build and fly these tiny models. Let's not crowd him out of the arena. I want to see him in the middle of the field or gym floor beaming with pride, flying his model.
Free Flight: Scale-Sport
I JUST FINISHED very carefully packing a Cleveland kit of the Curtiss P-40 for mailing to the winner of the "name calling" contest. The difficult part was writing out the name and address label on the box, deciding who to name as winner. Some entries came with a description of the character's life history, family lineage, the works. Tough decision. Our character is Stewart Piddley, Stu for short, so named by Leland Staven of Decatur, GA. Lee submitted 13 names in his successful effort to obtain the P-40. Congratulations Lee. I'd like also to say thanks for all the letters and comments sent in with those submitting names.
