Flying for Fun
D.B. Mathews 909 North Maize Road, Townhouse 734, Wichita, KS 67212
And Now, a Commercial Message
It is inappropriate for the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) to endorse particular products or to publish product reviews. (Those functions are well covered by other publications anyhow.) However, column writers can report on what we perceive to be useful items (and sources). I'm on the lookout for anything that will add to the fun of flying, such as the following.
More "Back Then" Stuff
I'd like to share personal recollections, featured in my April 1991 column, from the 1948 National Aeromodeling Championships (Nats):
"I cherish an encounter with a smallish man with thick glasses and a serious 'up East' accent. I saw him at the 1948 Nats in Olathe, Kansas. He was dressed in a coat and tie. One afternoon he set up a display case in the hangar. In it were engines; not just your common garden variety of sparkers, but incredibly tiny little things. Remember, in 1948, the smallest of the small was .09. An astonished flood of excitement swept through the hangar as news of the tiny engines spread. They absolutely stunned everyone who saw them. The largest of the small were perhaps .05, and from there they ran to a thing so diminutive he had it soldered onto his tie bar: incredible, running engines one-tenth the size of anything any of us had ever seen!
"As some of you have no doubt already discovered, I was in the presence of Ray Arden, the designer of the smallest production engine of the pre-WW II era: the Atom. He introduced the Arden .09 and .19 after the war. There was something else about Ray Arden: he was the man responsible for the most revolutionary piece of model technology of all time — the glow plug."
I have treasured Ray's response to a 15-year-old's (my) question, "Mr. Arden, do you have any plans to market engines this small?" His answer: "I doubt if a market for them would ever exist."
The Advent of the Infant
Within four months of the 1948 Nats, Lud Kading and John Brodbeck Sr. introduced the .020 K&B Infant, and Ray Arden's marketing prediction was proven to be in error. The Infant, and other engines that soon followed, revolutionized sport Free Flight — and, to a lesser extent, Control Line. Modelers fancied the compact, inexpensive kit designs, which proliferated like insects; the models could be flown safely from athletic fields and vacant lots with little fear of flyaways. Magazines published construction articles almost monthly; numerous kits were introduced; and the Infant sold well around the world.
Many of the kit designs were all-balsa, with precurved wing panels and simple profile fuselages. The airplanes were usually stable, easy to build, durable, and huge amounts of fun. The tiny models usually employed engine torque and small increments of left rudder for a tight "skidding" left-hand climb under power, with right "aileron" washout used to keep the right wing down and to avoid spiraling tendencies. With power off, the washout, and sometimes stabilizer tilt, would send the model into a rapid right-hand descent; the climb and glide would fit on a fairly small field. As I've said: just like at the Indianapolis 500, never turn right.
Plans for most 15- to 20-inch designs kitted or published 45 or more years ago are available from John Pond Old Time Plan Service, Box 90310, San Jose, CA 95109-3310 (catalogs are $5). Plans from old magazine drawings can also be easily scaled at a copy center.
With sub-micro radio gear becoming more common, a single-channel radio-control (RC) design using the Infant could be developed.
Encore
Some perceive a void in the model-airplane realm for youngsters who have been successful with AMA Racer programs. A satisfactory next step is not a four-channel RC trainer; I liken that to moving a child from a tricycle to a motorcycle! A simple Free Flight or Control Line model might be more logical. Youngsters can learn to run and care for an engine; adjust the model for adequate flight; repair damage; and have a marvelous time doing it.
Infant P.A.L.
This surge of nostalgia and philosophy was inspired by a new Infant. Longtime modeler Bob Langelius has arranged for a Russian factory to make a replica Infant, CNC machined with American tooling, and with parts interchangeable with those manufactured 45+ years ago. The quality, finish, and fits are exceptional.
New Infants are prerun, cleaned, then "bedded" in after-run oil. They run very well on 5–25% nitro; they perform best at about 25% nitro with castor oil (conservative). '50s porting and timing provide easy starts and smooth, noncritical, well-mannered running — unlike many similar-sized, hot-ported, high-rpm, cranky modern competitors.
- Peak power is a relatively mild ~10,000 rpm.
- Effective props: Graupner 5 x 2s or similar.
- Unlike the 1949 original P.A.L.-supplied stamped metal prop, which tended to tangle, some modelers have hurriedly carved props from hardwood.
Replica Infant P.A.L. .020 — Price and Contact
- Price: $75 plus shipping, handling, and applicable tax.
- Contact: P.A.L. Model Products, 32 Clinton St., White Plains, NY 10603; Tel.: (914) 949-6083.
Warm Fuzzies
If you had a ball flying "little" Scale and sport Free Flight in the 1950s, you may be experiencing the nostalgic call to do it again — I am! If you weren't around then, now is a good chance to enjoy a great deal of fun for a minimum amount of bucks. Grab a kid, help him or her build something, and experience pure joy!
Back to the Future
Moving from the way things used to be to the way things are headed, consider a small, inexpensive, durable, easily-flown helicopter.
My limited observations of helicopter flying lead me (and others) to conclude that the models are hard to fly, complex, and constantly in need of expensive maintenance. Someone once quipped that helicopters are "several thousand fragile and expensive parts moving more or less in the same direction."
I know that some modelers have developed superb RC helicopter flying skills, and I admire them; others have tried to fly and have given up in disgust.
When Mike Hammel arrived at our flying site this spring with a smallish, all-plastic-looking helicopter, I felt strong déjà vu; throughout the years, others had arrived with new helicopters, tried to fly, crashed, and took their aircraft home, never to be seen again. Imagine the amusement at Mike firing up his helicopter and flying it. He was a bit shaky, but all of his tries were successful.
Mike's helicopter is novel:
- Main rotor blades are flexible plastic and resistant to breakage.
- The tail rotor has a built-in gyroscope flybar.
- The model is remarkably small and light.
He has a 100+ kit from Lite Machines. The kit advertises in Model Aviation.
- Controls: a four-channel radio (microservos and a 225 mAh pack) controls the main rotor in yaw, but it does not control blade pitch; the rate of climb is controlled with rpm.
- Rpm is adjusted by choosing among several pitch grips used under the rotor head and the throttle.
- Power plant: Russian-built NorVel .06 (1 cc) V-MAX with an exhaust-restrictor-sleeve speed control.
- Fuel: the engine turns very high revolutions, so ~35% nitro seems best; higher rpm makes the helicopter more stable.
- Starting: standard electric starter.
Mike says the engineering is superb: instructions are complete and drawings are accurate. For example, the music-wire parts were bent over the drawings and came out exact. Mike spent about 10 hours assembling the kit, only two clicks of trim were required, and the 100+ was flying hands-off.
"It's really nice to find a US manufacturer who has spent the time and energy to painstakingly engineer and develop such an outstanding product, and can sell it at a reasonable price," Mike said.
Lite Machines contact (as listed): 1291 Cumberland Ave., West Lafayette, IN 47906; Tel.: (765) 463-0959.
Hey Mister, Wanna Buy Some Glue, Cheap?
Several columns ago I mentioned storing spare bottles of cyanoacrylate (CyA) adhesives in the household freezer to prolong the glue's shelf life. The latest catalog of Morris Hobbies (4200 Leghorn Dr., Louisville, KY 40218) lists cyanoacrylate in 8- and 16-ounce bottles; the attraction is lower per-ounce costs. A 16-ounce bottle costs less than three 2-ounce bottles. Empty one-ounce bottles are available for $1.19, and spare tops are 30¢. You can buy the big container, decant it into a small one, and store the rest in the freezer. The savings are considerable.
Morris also says that when applicator tops become clogged, he tosses them into a pint bottle of acetone.
Down the Tubes
More designs and kits are using servos in each wing for independent and fail-safe aileron control, and some kits even use two elevator servos in the tail area. If so, it is necessary to route the extension cable through some sort of tube for convenience and safety. You can either attempt to "roll your own" tubes or find suitable (and expensive) tubes in a hobby shop's rocket department.
Chuck Gill's The Aeroplane Works (2134 Gilbride Rd., Martinsville, NJ 08836) supplies 30-inch-long paper tubes in 1/2- or 3/4-inch diameters at reasonable prices. Ask your dealer to stock the tubes; they are excellent, particularly when combined with an appropriately sized Forstner bit to predrill holes.
Chuck also kits the S.E.5 and the Fokker D-VII (IMAA-size Rich Urhiztech designs), among several others. He also carries the first safety-wire/steel bolts in modeling sizes that I've seen.
A Lofty View
One area that I did not include in my April column about photography was air-to-ground photos from model aircraft. That's because I have never seen, nor do I know much about, the techniques.
I have seen many aerial photos throughout the years, but none have impressed me as did the one from Randall Huston of Bolckow, MO. I'm hoping that the photo will reproduce well enough in print to illustrate the incredible detail.
The word for this portion of photography is definition: the ability to accurately reproduce lines and angles in a photograph; a measure of lens, film, and printing quality. Look at the clarity of the basketball courts, letters, and shadows!
Randall estimates that the model was about 2,000 feet above his children's school. He used a fixed-focus, auto-wind camera and ASA 200 film, and achieved outstanding results. He has contracted professional photos of homes, farms, and proof of storm damage for insurance agents. There is no sin in making a buck or two with one's hobby!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
