Free Flight: Old-Timers
Bill Baker 1902 Peter Pan Norman, OK 73072
Events & Contacts
- Manager for the 1988 SAM Champs is "Bud" Brown. He will send an entry blank and other information for the July 18–22 contest to be held at Lawrenceville, IL. Send a large SASE with two 22¢ stamps to:
Bud Brown, RR #4, Box 51, Lawrenceville, IL 62439.
- The NFFS (National Free Flight Society)-sponsored Nostalgia Gas Champs will be held at the SAM Champs site on July 19–20. All glow classes will be flown, including .020, 1/2A, A, B, C, and — new this year — an ignition class. For information, rules, and an entry blank, send a two-stamp SASE to:
Moe Whittemore, RR #1, Box 296, New Palestine, IN 46163.
Reader mail and submissions
I am writing this in mid-January. My first column has been published — but not the second — so the only reader response I have so far is from the first one, which I wrote in September. I am pleased with the cards, letters, plans, and photos. Please keep it up.
Some of you sent material to the magazine's address. Please don't do that. They forward it to me (my address appears at the top of my column every issue), but that takes time and extra postage. If you expect a reply, you must send a SASE. If you have sent photos or other items and would like them returned, include return postage.
I am still a little puzzled over the reader who wrote about my photo, saying that I should grow a beard! I would do it if I thought it would help pick good air.
Gollywock: what it is and which versions exist
Most people know the Gollywock as a small Rubber Stick model designed by Wally Simmers and kitted by Midwest for many years, along with his Jabberwock and Dyna-Moe (the latter two being Cabin models). It's not that simple, though — I have plans for three versions of the Gollywock and two for the Jabberwock.
Limiting this discussion to the Gollywock, there are two basic versions I am aware of:
- The kit-plan version.
- A version based on a small plan in the 1944 Air Trails Annual — the variation that won the 1941 Nationals. This latter model has a sheet-balsa fin rather than the built-up one on the kit plan, and the stabilizer tips are rounded instead of squared off.
I have heard of problems caused by someone scaling or copying the original Air Trails plan from a reproduction that was at a different size than the original. That has produced incorrectly scaled plans in circulation.
The version scaled up from the small Air Trails Annual plan is available in two slightly different renditions:
- John Pond's Old-Time Plan Service, Box 90310, San Jose, CA 95109-3310; catalogs $1 each for Rubber and Gas models.
- Ken Sykora's Oldtimer Model Supply, P.O. Box 7334, Van Nuys, CA 91409; $1 for a catalog of plans and many hard-to-find building supplies.
Many clubs enjoy Gollywock-only or Gollywock mass-launch events, and both versions — kit and Air Trails — are being allowed. The variations are minor and both will build and fly nicely. Looking closely, the only significant difference I can see is in the wing mount; the Oldtimer Model Supply version carries a bit more information on the plan and gives more than one propeller choice.
One of the plan reproductions contains a statement to the effect that "Any airfoil can be used on an Old-Timer model," which I must disagree with — at least as I read the rules. Please use the original airfoil.
I have three Gollywocks ready to fly, all built from the Pond version of the Air Trails plan, so I'm not anti-Gollywock — I just want to see some variety.
Memories and first flights
I flew the Gollywock as a mere lad. It was the first model I managed to make a folding propeller for. The first model I made that would climb was a Jabberwock. I couldn't make the folder work, and Dad saved the day by carving a prop for me to replace the one I had ruined trying to make it into a folder. It was the first model that ever climbed. Really, I had never even seen a Rubber model fly, except my own; the few that flew at all usually went the length of the yard about head high. So, on its first flight I wound the thing up and let it go in the backyard. To my astonishment, it went up and out into the power line that ran diagonally across the yard.
Enough of that — back to the present.
What to build: Old-Timer project suggestions
If you want to build something other than a Gollywock, pick a model that appeals to your sense of reason — something you can relate to.
- Ray Beaumont's C Stick is very pretty, streamlined, and slick.
- The Stratomite will appeal to many because of the sheet-box fuselage.
- Noonan's Homesick Angel, Korda's C Stick, Joe Otis's Sun Spot, and many others are classic choices.
If you want an edge to win, my opinion for the best ship for the event is Al Cassano's Championship Stick from the May 1940 Air Trails. Joe Macey won the SAM Champs with this ship back in 1939, and he was flying against the big Rubber Stick models (Mac was tied for first, to be honest). Sandy Chapin was also flying the same design as I recall. If you want to build a small Stick model, my suggestion is the Stratomite.
For small Cabin models — if you don't want to build Jabberwocks and Dyna-Moes — I vote for the C version of Otto Kurth's Cabin model, which he called Super Stuff. John Pond has the plans, and Otto tells me he is drawing up a C version.
The plan that John Pond sells has a five-panel wing, which could be built without the center panel (i.e., as a four-panel version) to keep area under 150 sq. in. — this is the version Otto Kurth used to fly the Cabin event in 1940. You could even build both wings and fly the same model in two events.
The C version of the Super Stuff will be tough competition because of the light fuselage, large lifting stab, and good prop — Old Otto knew what he was doing in 1940!
Anecdotes, kits, and supplies
Which reminds me of a story (that may be true): someone recently told Chet Lanz that he had no hope of flying a Nostalgia model considering that he had no idea what he was doing at the time. Chet looked at him and said, in a very matter-of-fact way, "I knew."
Lee Campbell of Campbell's Custom Kits told me he may kit Leo Vartanian's Hand-Launched Glider for the September 1941 Model Airplane News. He says this is the first Old-Timer HLG he has seen that is not prone to spinning out of thermals. Campbell's also has kits of several modern designs, as well as Nostalgia and Old-Timer designs, and a catalog of hard-to-find items. Contact: Campbell's Custom Kits, P.O. Box 5996, Lake Worth, FL 33461-0181.
Photos
I welcome photos, and the magazine will pay the maker $5 for each one used. Keep in mind most photos will be printed small and in black-and-white, so a color slide of a dark red fuselage flying over dark green grass may print poorly — you may get nothing visible of the wing and stab!
I very much want a photo of a Theo-Radical designed by Maurice Schoenburg. If you are looking for a superior design for C Gas, this may be the one — ply, fine spruce, etc.
Thermals.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
