Free Flight: Sport and Scale
Bill Warner 1370 Monache Avenue, Porterville CA 93257
Model Builder Is Gone
For 25 years Bill Northrop's great magazine gave modelers a build-on Free Flight Scale plan in each issue and ran articles from and about FFers in far greater proportion than their political (read: financial) clout warranted. Model Builder sponsored an International Peanut Postal meet for several years and originated the huge International Modeler Show in Pasadena. Northrop even had two of my buddies from the Flightmasters, Bill Hannan and Fernando Ramos, doing what often amounted to double FF Scale columns each month.
He didn't neglect Free Flight, Old Timers, Control Line, model boats, or RC. One of his most popular features was a fourteen-part series for beginners that took them from no knowledge of model airplanes to a model capable of winning the Nationals.
In the beginning submissions were on a pro bono basis. Walt Mooney traded centerfold Peanut plans for advertising space. As the enterprise grew healthier, payment was forthcoming, though seldom on time. The magazine was never as financially healthy as its quality deserved.
Northrop left the magazine a few years ago to concentrate on model shows, and it was never quite the same. Rising paper prices forced a cheaper look in recent issues, and when the end came not many were surprised. Ironically, the October 1996 issue (the final printed issue) was a celebration of 25 years of service to the modeling community.
Complete-coverage model magazines are rare today, and the loss of any is a matter of grave concern. The bell which tolls for the loss of Model Builder tolls for us all.
Covering Cloth
Tough coverings for models have been around for a long time. The material of choice for discriminating modelers has always been fine Japanese silk. A strand of silk is supposedly stronger than a similarly sized strand of steel, and its ability to flawlessly cover compound curves is the stuff of legend. Silk looks great and adds incredible strength and integrity to a model. I've crashed silk-covered models that survived where paper- or plastic-film-covered ones would have been demolished.
What could possibly be better? Many expert modelers are touting "Polyspan." This new covering is a non-woven polyester fiber tissue weighing 16 grams/sq. yd., is waterproof (wrinkles can be removed with a little heat even after doping), and is even more durable than silk. It can be attached with dope or thinned white glue, and three coats of thinned nitrate dope will fill it.
Pros and cons:
- Pros:
- Very strong and waterproof.
- Can be heat-smoothed after doping.
- Looks similar to silk on the model.
- Cons:
- Price (around $15/yd.).
- Must have the correct side facing out — the shiny side — or doping will yield a rough surface (Bob Wiebe warns that the dull side will roughen when doped).
I seldom recommend anything I haven't tried, but given the many testimonials I've received, Polyspan seems to be the coming thing.
Thai Silks (inexpensive silk source)
If you prefer silk to plastic, try this source:
Thai Silks 252 State St. Los Altos, CA 94022 Toll-free: (800) 722-SILK
You need only send them $1 and they will send samples of silks useful to aeromodelers. Ask for:
- "Samples of 8mm China Silk in colors"
- "White Habotai China Silk in various weights"
Tell them you want it for model airplane use. They offer about 40 colors, and their 5mm Habotai white silk (their lightest), No. 21F, is only $2.70/yd. If you try some on a model, let me know how it works out — the price is hard to believe.
Cottage Wings (resource guide)
After several years of putting together the annotated, opinionated resource guide known as Cottage Wings — intended to keep FF Scale modelers up to date with obscure sources of plans, materials, supplies, clubs, and other resources — I will be turning it over to a new editor. This will be your last chance to get one from me.
If you haven't received the updated list for a year or two, send $1 to cover printing and a legal-sized SASE to: 1370 Monache Ave., Porterville, CA 93257.
Braiding Single-Loop Rubber Motors
Mike Nassise, editor of Tailspin (a bimonthly newsletter of the Bay State FAC Squadron — available for $10/yr., 22 Greenfield St., S. Easton, MA 02375) passed along a hint he swiped from Tom Sanders of the Scale Old Timers Society via Flying Models.
Everyone knows that braiding a rubber motor keeps it from bunching up in the rear of the fuselage and throwing off glide trim. It's easy with a multi-loop motor; on a single-loop motor it must be done prior to tying the knot.
Procedure:
- Take the straight rubber strip and tie a loop at the midpoint or install an O-ring.
- Clamp that midpoint in a vise or have a helper grasp it.
- Twist in 36 turns for each 12 inches of rubber, then tie the knot and bind with thread or a drop of CyA for insurance.
- Remove the prop-hook end from the vise and swing the motor vigorously around your head like a rodeo cowboy.
When you check it, the motor will have braided itself neatly and be ready for silicone lube and installation. (Tom originally recommended 24 turns per 12 inches; the optimal number probably depends on the width and thickness of the rubber.)
Flightmasters 50th Anniversary
The Flightmasters club, originally the Inglewood Flightmasters, started in the heart of the aircraft industry in Southern California right after WWII. I've belonged for 35 years. Members Ken Hamilton and Gene Salvay helped get us sponsored by North American Aviation, which gave us a meeting place, bought trophies, and printed our newsletter for many years.
Following the cancellation of the B-1 contract the club became independent and simply "Flightmasters." The club's influence on modeling has come from many outstanding members.
Flying Scale was there in the beginning, and much of what exists in Scale today can be traced to Flightmasters like the Williams Brothers and Russ Barrera (whose collection became the beginning of the AMA Museum), plus many members who won national and international competitions, published plans, and wrote hundreds of articles.
They have run contests that attracted modelers from far and near — at the Nats as well as in Southern California — including long-running innovations like:
- ROW (Rise Off Water) meets at Lake Elsinore
- Rubber Speed Meets at San Marcos
- Indoor meets at the El Toro Blimp Hangar and in many local rec halls and school gyms
They were among the pioneers in Peanut Scale and invented Jumbo Scale.
The Flightmasters' 50th Anniversary get-together and Annual near Disneyland proved the club was alive and well at half a century. The event showed that model building does indeed "build model boys" (and girls too), as exemplified by Jane Schlosberg's win in the Golden Age Mass Launch, which qualified her for the coveted Flying Aces Blue Max award — the first woman to do so.
To join Flightmasters and receive the (usually) bimonthly newsletter, send $15 to: Byron Caimoris 3406 Fela Ave. Long Beach, CA 90808
Event & Contest Notes
- Chuck West — Las Vegas: six-foot Rutan Voyager.
- Power: Ken Johnson's Jungmann took second in FAC Rubber Scale — two Tee-Dee .020s (still in glide-testing stage).
- 1996 Flightmasters Annual — Mile Square near L.A., April 1996.
- Jane Schlosberg's Golden Age mass launch win (Lincoln APK-5) made her the first woman to qualify for the FAC Blue Max award.
- Sterling Stinson SR-8: Dick Smith has a movable slotted battery platform with tie-down screw CG adjustments.
Closing Notes
Well, gang — remember to send anything related to military aircraft to my co-columnist Fernando Ramos: Fernando Ramos 19361 S. Mesa Dr. Villa Park, CA 92667
I'll take everything else. Until next time, resolve to start that project you've been putting off, write at least one letter or phone a magazine or newsletter editor thanking them for helping to keep FF Scale alive, and give a kid in your neighborhood a simple glider or ROG model to fly down at the schoolyard.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
