Letters To The Editor
All letters will be carefully considered; those of general interest will be used. Send to Model Aviation, 1810 S. Maxwell Morse Dr., Reston, VA 22090.
Cover a Disgrace?
I just finished reading the April 1986 issue letter claiming the February 1986 issue cover was a disgrace.
The picture was just great, but it couldn't show the painstaking hours it took to build that model. It's beautiful. I think the family involvement is even better.
Enclosed are pictures of my GMP Cobra Jet Ranger along with my lovely wife, Sherry—my family involvement. It's powered by an O.S. 50 FSR and controlled by a Cirrus Century VII Kraft gyro. Finish is lacquer, color and clear, thanks to my friend Kevin Brazil. Unfortunately, the pictures don't do justice to the finish.
Cecil A. Bell Watsonville, CA
P-51B Cover Submission
In regard to your Letters to the Editor column in the April issue, a letter titled "A Disgrace?" has prompted me to send you this letter and a color slide.
The slide shows a P-51B that was entered at the 1985 Scale Masters (this was one of his criteria). It has a pretty young lady (adult, my wife) with a young child (shows supervision; the child is my son) (another point covered). The wingspan of my aircraft is 81 in. (a full 3 in. below a 7-ft. buzz saw).
Finally, in regard to the planes on pages 81–84 of the February issue, this airplane was not pictured, though my name was mentioned in the article (a little sneaky, but it counts). I won the last place award due to radio problems; a great excuse for Scale modelers. (This covers all of the requirements stated in Mr. Tegt's letter to you!)
As you can see, I have found a perfect photo for the cover of an upcoming issue. This solves your problem with a fellow AMA member and gives me a second chance to have one photo of my airplane in a major publication.
If none of the above reasons strike you, I'll take pity as one. After all, I did take nine months of my life to build it, took 10 days off work, and drove 4,000 miles without getting to fly it—not to mention the T-shirt.
I've enclosed a return envelope in case all of this verbiage is for naught so you can mail back my slide (it will probably get lost in the mail, anyway!). In case it works, you may keep the slide, as I will probably purchase 100 copies of the magazine and won't need the slide any more.
In case you decide to publish this photo, here is all the info you will need to go with it:
- Aircraft type: P-51B
- Wingspan: 81 in.
- Weight: 19 lb.
- Engine: Supertigre 3000
- Features:
- Tank jettison
- Retracts
- Sequencing gear doors
- Sliding canopy
- Full cockpit
- Flaps
- Kit manufacturer: Dave Platt Models
- Young lady in photo: Joanne Namey (my wife)
- Child in photo: Jamil Namey (my son)
- Builder of entire model: Greg Namey
- AMA member in good standing since 1980
Greg Namey Margate, FL
Response to "A Disgrace?"
This letter to the editor is probably one of many you have received as the result of the article by Mr. J. E. Gilgenbach and the letter by Mr. H. Tegt in the April issue of Model Aviation.
I must agree and also disagree with Mr. Tegt. One of the pleasures and rights given to a designer/builder of model aircraft is the choice to make that model in any shape or form he so desires, if it pleases him. Also, a pretty girl tastefully posed on the cover of your fine magazine can only enhance the appearance of the aircraft itself. Mr. Tegt should certainly agree that anything that could improve the appearance of that so-called "Fokker D-8" should not be ignored. The planes should prove to be the least popular in your fine collection.
Mr. Gilgenbach is obviously a skillful designer and builder of model aircraft, as the professional photos prove. He also must know that the hours spent building that standoff-scale "Fokker" could have produced a true outline-scale "B" whose classic form had not been butchered and desecrated. Again, that is his privilege.
Mr. Gilgenbach's remark about a Scale Spad's tendency to nose over in grass is strange. Any taildragger with a cross-axle gear can do this, but a Spad least of all. The angle of attack is not high in relation to the tail moment, and the gear is well forward of the C.G. Also, the fuselage cross section has nothing to do with nose-over tendencies.
Maybe Mr. Gilgenbach was referring to a very small Spad and very high grass.
Enough is enough. Model Aviation is the premier model magazine in print today. It is a skillful blending of all that a modeler needs in pursuing the finest hobby in the world.
Harry T. Montgomery New Castle, PA
Did It Before
I enjoyed the article on the Spirit of Lorain in its crossing of Lake Erie (April 1986 MA). I know the effort it took to accomplish this feat.
I would like to set the record straight, however, as I accomplished the same feat on July 14, 1979. As with a lot of aviation records, I did not speak too loud or report this to you by an article. I am not a writer.
Thank you for your time. I hope you enjoy the pictures.
John O. Graham North East, PA
RC Trainers
Last year MA published my guest editorial which attempted to aid the raw beginner in RC flying and avoid the pitfalls that so often discourage those who are unaware that some "trainers" are difficult to learn with while others are so docile that flying them is a no-sweat clinic. Unfortunately, I felt limited to generalizations in that article because there were your advertisers to consider, and I did not want their wrath to fall on you.
Because I refrained from naming names (also due to space limitations), I got a flow of letters from failed or would-be pilots begging me to please be more specific and actually tell which available kits are docile ones and which are the witches. I gladly replied in detail to every letter because this crusade is practically my mission in life (since I retired as a school worker a few years ago).
All of those inquiries have inspired me to compose a list of 20+ model airplanes that are well known and readily available with ratings (sort of a one-to-10 scale) as to their ease of flying. This is something that is long overdue in the hobby. Heartbreaks are occurring everywhere at the flying fields across America, and I think MA knows this is true. For only $1.00 I will mail this list to any frustrated or apprehensive beginner; that is a break-even price, as this is a labor of love. The address is 3818 Deerfield Dr., San Antonio, TX 78218. If you can't spare a buck, then at least send a pre-addressed, stamped envelope.
Jim Waterman San Antonio, TX
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
