Radio Control: Sport Aerobatics
IT'S not often that a model airplane club can make a contribution to a major museum, but the Eglin Aero Modellers recently had an opportunity to present an airplane to the U.S. Air Force Armament Museum at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The airplane was one of the first remotely piloted vehicles which was designed to carry both a television camera and a LASER designator. A remote pilot flew the airplane by looking at the television picture which was transmitted from an onboard television camera. A crosshairs in the field view enabled the pilot to point the LASER at a target and "paint" it with a spot of light. An Air Force fighter airplane then dropped a bomb containing a special LASER spot-seeking guidance system that directed the bomb to the spot on the target. The system proved that it was possible for a remotely piloted system to perform target designation in a tactical scenario and paved the way for many of the current remotely piloted vehicle systems.
Radio Control: Sport Aerobatics
THE TREK to Orlando, Florida for the Tangerine International RC Contest has become a ritual for refugees from the frozen north. The 1978 event was no exception. I would hate to calculate the average distance that contestants drove, but it must have approached 1000 miles. That's a heck of a way to go to fly toy airplanes! Nevertheless, the Tangerine Contest has become the thing to do late in the year. This year I returned after missing the previous two years due to Christmas trips to and by relatives, respectively. The contest still had the same comfortable flavor to it. A couple of nice touches were the bags of tangerines and special flight caps for contestants that were passed out at the welcoming party/registration at the host motel during the evening prior to pattern competition.
Radio Control: Sport Aerobatics
THIS may seem like just another issue to you, but it marks the beginning of my fifth year as a columnist for Model Aviation. It was little more than four years ago that the publisher, Carl Wheeley, startled the devil out of me by calling to ask if I would consider writing this column. Little did I expect that I'd still be doing it now. One of the reasons that it has been possible for me to continue for so long are the bulky packages AMA Headquarters sends containing club newsletters from all over the country. The ideas, excerpts and inspiration I draw from them are a big help. Another major assistance I get is from letters sent by readers. The comments, reports, suggestions and photographs make my job easier and provide the column with a lot more than it would be possible for me to come up with on my own.
Radio Control: Sport Aerobatics
BACK in the spring of 1954 I was in the Purdue University Engineering School learning about aeronautical engineering. However, not all my time was spent thinking about college; I was looking forward to flying my first radio-controlled airplane. The deBolt Kitten I had purchased late the previous summer was on my mind a lot during the winter and spring semesters. It was finally flown successfully that summer with an Atwood 049 for power. The radio system included an ECE hard tube receiver and a homebuilt groundbased transmitter. With batteries, escapement, Sigma 4F relay and the receiver, the airborne system weighed more than a current four-channel system, and it was only single channel! Regardless, I had many an enjoyable flying session with that old Kitten. In subsequent years I was to fly the deBolt Sonic Cruiser and Viscount designs.
Radio Control: Sport Aerobatics
YOU'LL be reading this column just as the 1979 Nats begins and I hope it is successful for everyone, especially the AMA. Recent Nats have lost money, partly because of reductions in attendance, particularly in RC pattern events. The 1979 gas crunch isn't going to help the situation either, so let's keep our fingers crossed. Good luck to all of you competitors. Even though you'll be reading this at Nats time, the contest season has just begun as it is written. I just returned from two delightful contests here in the deep South: Lafayette and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The gas shortage scare didn't seem to affect attendance in Lafayette for their Coon-Ass Nationals. This contest is famous for the extracurricular activities. Besides putting on an administratively excellent contest, the Acadian RC Club featured a pig roast on Friday night and their Saturday night specialty, 700 pounds of crawfish for contestants and their families. How's that for Southern hospitality?
