Letters to the Editor
Model Aviation, 5161 E. Memorial Dr., Muncie, IN 47302
Corrections
In the November issue, the MiG-3 construction article contained an incorrect street address for Fiberglass Specialties Inc. The company is located at 15715 Ashmore Dr., Garfield, AR 72732.
In the same issue, the "Lithium Battery Info" letter to the editor on page 177 referenced "powered graphite." That should have been powdered graphite.
We apologize for the errors and any inconvenience they may have caused.
—MA staff
Strike Two
The editor's note, in response to Richard Lewis's comment in the November 2004 MA on "Shunning Safety," missed what I consider to be a very important point. I understand that you had to work closer in order to get a clear picture, but it still sends an unsafe picture to the general modeling public.
One thing that was not mentioned, or apparently even thought of (except, perhaps, in Mr. Lewis's comment), is that the only safe place to teach an engine from is behind the propeller—readings are the same and you are not in front of that snarling prop.
LeRoy Cordes Chicago, Illinois
Useful Discovery
When I received my November issue today and saw the pictures and helps, I decided to write to send a useful discovery I have made that I have not seen in print or on the web.
I am an intermittent RC flier and builder, enjoying the building perhaps more than the flying. I have never had excess funds to spend on model aviation, so I have looked for ways to build as inexpensively as possible.
When helping a friend put up Coroplast election signs, I thought the lightweight, strong panels would be good for building models. When I tried gluing some Coroplast with cyanoacrylate, it would not hold.
At 4:00 in the morning I awoke thinking about cleaning my saw blades with oven cleaner. I wondered what that would do to Coroplast. I tried spraying a Coroplast sign with oven cleaner, wiped off the foam, and washed the panel. I put small pieces together and applied a little cyanoacrylate medium. When it set they would not come apart. The result was my "Election Special."
To build, I put the pieces together and pin as with balsa, apply a bead of cyanoacrylate, and let it set up. It takes longer than with balsa.
The Election Special was a bit heavy for my .049 engine so I replaced the wing with a foam wing I had on hand, saving enough weight that it would fly. The foam wing was cut from insulating foam with a hot wire. I ordered a .062 engine which handled the airplane with the Coroplast wing. The straight wing is very easy to build using Coroplast and three ribs per panel.
If anyone would like instructions, send me an e-mail. The Coroplast is very rugged; it has withstood several very rough landings that only broke the prop.
Paul R. Cook WB2LOE@bright.net
Concerned CL Flier
I'm a little concerned that you may be considering reducing the amount of CL articles because of a survey (which can be found in the "Members Only" section of the AMA web site: www.modelaircraft.org). I have recently gone back to flying CL models after spending 20 years flying RC. In fact, none of my RC airplanes have been out of the house in over a year.
However, I have increased my CL activities, including competing for the first time in CL Sport Scale at the Nats.
What I would like to point out is that Model Aviation and Flying Models are the only two magazines that I know of that still have CL articles in almost every issue. The same goes for Free Flight, and I like to read about that too.
The strictly RC modelers have many other magazines where they can get their information. I know this because I used to subscribe to about a half dozen of them. I only get Flying Models and Model Aviation. I like the RC articles, and I really like the combined CL and FF coverage.
I do believe there are a lot more CL fliers out there that are not being counted. Since moving back to the Kalamazoo area I have found over a dozen people who fly CL — about half do not belong to the AMA. I am working on that though.
Thanks for taking the time to read my opinion!
Leroy K. Heikes Plainville, Michigan
Mentor Search
When I get my latest issue of Model Aviation I always read every column regardless of whether or not I fly that particular discipline.
When I first started flying back in the '60s in Long Island, NY, my neighbor's older son was kind of my mentor. For a while he was heavy into [CL] Speed, and since I followed him everywhere, so was I.
Matter of fact, I can still remember the intoxicating fragrance of "This is IT," which at the time was the fuel of choice. So while reading Mr. Dave Mark's F2A coverage in the November issue, I was surprised to see the picture of Arnold Nelson.
I was working at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard from the '60s to the '80s, and for a while Arnold was one of the supervisors in the department I was in. I had heard that he had been a record holder in CL Speed, but not from him, as he never talked much about his hobbies.
So I am asking if you could print this along with my e-mail address, so if Arnold or my childhood mentor Jerry King are around they can drop me a line.
Nick Berger califdrming@juno.com
Grateful Member
Since I was 7 years old I have had a love affair with airplanes. In 1939 a young fellow who lived up the street, Daniel Burkett by name, showed me how to build an Aeronca K on floats. He was a beautiful builder. That model I never forgot.
Since that time I have built an uncountable number of models. Sometime in the early 1940s I sent in a quarter to join the AMA or whatever that organization was. There weren't any other modelers around me as far as I knew, and when my friend went into the Army I was on my own.
I went into the Navy and worked on the real thing—Avengers, Corsairs, Skyraiders, and R6Ds—for five years. After getting married and raising a family, I got back into modeling. In 1970 I joined the AMA and have been a member since.
The AMA has allowed me to meet and participate in the hobby that I love with a wonderful group of people. In all the contests and all the fun-flights that I have attended, I have never had a bad experience. It was always a great time, and still is for that matter.
I don't compete so much anymore, but I still build for others and for myself. I can't imagine not ever being a member of AMA when it has given me so much.
Harry E. Cummings Winthrop, New York
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
