Letters to the Editor
Model Aviation, 5161 E. Memorial Dr., Muncie, IN 47302
Nationals RC Pylon Racing
The Radio Control Pylon Racing Nationals coverage was mistakenly omitted from the December Model Aviation. It is included in its entirety on page 52 of this issue.
Our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused. —MA staff
Frank Macy
Thanks to D.B. Matthews for an informative article in the November issue on Jim Walker’s notable contributions to modeling and Oregonian Frank Macy’s wonderful work in reprising two of Jim Walker’s all-time great fliers: the A.J. Hornet and the 404 catapult glider.
I have both models and can testify to their flying excellence. I live on 10 acres; both of these wonderful models have flown off my property and onto my neighbors’ land. I was astounded.
My son and I ROG’d the Hornet; it circled up gracefully, caught its thermal, and headed at hundreds of feet aloft across five acres of my property and onto the next. The rubber-catapult 404 achieved the same great flight but in its own way—having been shot up a hundred feet with its wings folded, then snapped out, when it started to sail.
I highly recommend these great fliers to all. Frank Macy is also a generous correspondent and an excellent source of information about modeling in the Northwest.
Carl R. V. Brown Nipomo, California
Scratching
The article on scratch building by Bob Aberle in the November issue of Model Aviation is the best I’ve ever seen! Building, especially scratch building, is what modeling is all about. Get rid of the district reports and contest reports! Let’s have more instructional pieces like this! My enthusiastic thanks to Bob Aberle and MA for this wonderful article. Well done!
Spencer Arrowood Hartsville, South Carolina
When I read the November “From the Ground Up” article on the Scratch-One, I thought here’s an excellent opportunity to get my grandson involved in modeling. Here’s a simple model that maybe he and I could work on. I say “maybe” because of his age and attention span. I started modeling back in the ’40s when I was about his age. I had Navy ID silhouettes and paper hand-launched gliders (replicas of P-40s, Zeros, etc.) that you cut out and glued with a penny in the nose; I think they were a Wheaties bonus. I will never forget the joy when I built my first really successful model, a Comet Sparky that really flew. My son was never really interested in models, but maybe I can get my grandson to experience some of the satisfaction of building and flying. To me the building is just as satisfying as flying.
I thought I would copy Bob Aberle’s articles and put them together in a notebook so I would have them for easy reference. When I started I discovered that somehow the May issue had disappeared. I was going to e-mail you and ask if you could e-mail me a copy of that article, but in reviewing I found that you had already covered that on the Web site. I copied the one I needed (it was better than the ones I had made from the magazine), and now I will have the complete series next month.
The CD-ROM and the Web site series are excellent, but I think you and Bob Aberle would be missing an excellent opportunity if you didn’t put the series in a booklet. These articles are the best and most comprehensive I’ve seen on the subject. Of course, you may have already thought of it, but I didn’t see it in the books category on the Web site.
I have already blown up the plans and ordered the materials kit from Craig Wagner, so the next step is getting my grandson involved. Thank you! This is the kind of stuff we need in Model Aviation.
Jim Moss via e-mail
Reflections on the Wrights
For many years I have been telling our new fliers that they should think of the Wright Flyer as having flown about the same distance as our .40-size RC airplanes—or larger—used for either takeoff or landing. I have been an active modeler since about 1935, and my first full-scale ride took place in 1930 when the R-100 was visiting Montreal. I loved your November edition!
Ray Gareau via e-mail
It is obvious that the success of Orville and Wilbur Wright was due to the many technical developments they achieved; all of which were entirely new and untried at the time. They are most remarkable since they had no formal technical training. The following is a brief list of some important ones.
They were the first to realize that successful flight required a machine that was controllable and not merely a device for lifting weight through the air. They consequently developed wing warping as a way to bank and thereby control the aircraft’s flight. (Apparently Glenn Curtiss later used ailerons to do the same thing.)
They built and used the first wind tunnel to obtain airfoil and other aeronautical data. They recognized that a propeller is a rotating wing, and they built an efficient propeller based on wing airfoil data. They built, flew, and piloted full-scale gliders having the same basic design as their powered contraption, which gave them piloting experience and an accurate knowledge of wing-area requirements.
All of the above and more helped them to develop a successful airplane, but there is one thing that was even more critical to their success and I have never heard it mentioned. They didn’t kill themselves flying their contraption as Otto Lilienthal and others had done. I believe the reason they were able to remain alive, despite many stalls and other crashes, was that their airplane design at the time was a canard. As we know, when a canard stalls it mushes to the ground like a stalled model; this they did many times since they were continuously flying on the edge of a stall. I wonder if they understood this when they chose a canard design, or was it pure luck?
Cal Malinka Rialto, California
Oops!
I thought I might tell you of my latest oops that you may want to pass along. Or maybe in an article I missed you already have.
As do many fellow modelers, to preserve CyA (cyanoacrylate) glue I store it in the freezer when it is not in use for a long period of time, as I know that CyA uses humidity to cure. (If that curing comment is not 100% correct, Joe Scientist, please forgive me.) But I never put two and two together to think that the following could happen.
My wife (we’ll blame it on her for now) knocked over my CyA while in the freezer and had not noticed. I noticed at some point when I found my CyA running down the inside of the freezer. Not wanting to make a mess by trying to clean it up with a paper towel, I decided to leave it alone until I could get some CyA debonder.
One hot evening after mowing the grass I went to the fridge and poured myself a big glass of water with a fair amount of ice. After drinking about three-quarters of the glass of water, I noticed a white plastic-looking substance floating in my water. The pieces were CyA that had attached to the ice. Not because the glue spilled on the ice—because it did not—but the vapors from the glue attached themselves to the ice cubes and dried, leaving every ice cube with a thin layer of CyA.
We have no idea how much CyA glue the three of us ate, but this may be a warning to all. It makes sense, but the hazard never crossed my mind.
Kyle Huber McDonald Pennsylvania
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
