Letters to the Editor
Send your Letters to the Editor to: Model Aviation, 5151 East Memorial Drive, Muncie IN 47302
Update: Really Super Sander
Several readers have inquired about where to buy the sanding cartridges used in my "Really Super Sander" article in the May 1999 issue.
I got mine at my hobby shop, but Tower Hobbies also carries these items. Their catalog numbers for the coarse, medium, and final cartridges are TE2041, TE2042, and TE2043 respectively. The companion cleaning brush is TE2045. Tower's toll-free order number is (800) 637-4989.
Bob Kopski Lansdale, Pennsylvania
Passion for the Hobby
I am writing this letter for all the fantastic people in this magnificent hobby of ours. It is about a man, who like many of you, has this inner love for aviation.
This was my father.
He started telling me tales about airplanes when I was a small child, and at the age of eight I built my first model with him at my side.
There was one aircraft that he used to talk about constantly; I guess you could call it an obsession. It was and still is the magnificent and majestic Beechcraft Staggerwing. But he loved all things that flew.
I remember him telling me about the models he built of that aircraft. When he was a boy he scratch-built a Staggerwing. He made it with interior and functional doors—it had the works. Unfortunately they had to move to a new home, and he was told that he wasn't able to bring the airplane. Many of his fellow modelers admired the airplane, and all were asking for it.
He could not bear to part with it, much less to give it away—he loved it that much—so instead of giving it away, he burned it. It broke his heart.
Who says modeling is just a hobby?
Through the years, as I grew up, we had many countless hours together building and flying model airplanes. As time passed he got ill, but that didn't relinquish his passion for the hobby. I think in some ways it increased it.
We spent many hours just talking about airplanes, and I could see his face light up every time we spoke.
It is said that we have a tendency to follow in our parents' footsteps. Though I will never fill his shoes, I will enjoy this wondrous hobby. I have now been able to introduce my son to our glorious hobby. The next generation lives on.
That's my story about a simple man and his passion.
Nevin M. Levy Arlington, Texas
Who are We?
Who are we modelers?
If we made a conscious effort to understand who we really are, perhaps we could be better modelers, better parents, better marriage partners, or even better human beings.
If we, with our present psychological makeup, lived in the Stone Age, wouldn't we be the weaponsmakers? We would probably be those who would work with our hands and want to make spears, knives, hatchets. We would chip rocks, select, shape, and smooth wooden handles or stabbing sticks.
Perhaps we would be the ones to discover that flat rocks can be sailed farther than round ones. We might be the discoverer of the boomerang, or the one who figures out how to stabilize an arrow so it flies point-first every time.
But who would use these weapons? As weaponmakers, would we be good warriors? Probably not. Most of us would be more content and better at the making of weapons, leaving the actual battling to those more aggressive; unless it really came down to a back-to-the-wall situation we might surprise ourselves and excel.
Would the Pylon racers and Speed fliers be the warriors? Can all of this warmaking philosophy explain why there are so few women involved in our hobby? Apart from our Cro-Magnon DNA inheritances, there are very small but inconceivably powerful forces shaping our modeling lives.
Think of the person who goes to a certain school and wants that school's football team to win every game. They want to be able to be proud of the school choice that they made.
This force even extends to locality. Most of us in the Washington area want the Redskins, Wizards, Orioles, Caps, DC United, and Mystics to win every game so we can feel good about ourselves or even brag about our choice of a locality in which to live, or the area in which we were born.
Is this not the same gene that produces the person who thinks that because he bought a Brand X engine that Brand X is the only engine to have? Or that Pattern flying is the only way to fly? Very often it seems that the deeper we get into model aviation (and at first it seems that we must really go in deep and spend a lot of money to be really good), the less balance we have in our personal lives.
Is being really good worth it? Or can model aviation itself help to provide a balance?
So many of us experience model aviation early in life, give it up (except for the dreams) while raising family, then get back into it later. A healthy use of the modeling hobby would be to fill the creative voids left in the day between making money and bonding with the family. Somehow it seems like many of the really successful modelers, like Bill Winter, do achieve this balance, and some of them on a very tight budget.
John Hunton Rixeyville, Virginia
More About Hobby Shops
Having just returned from the NRHSA (National Retail Hobby Store Association), which represents 400 members, convention held in Las Vegas, I found your letter to be in error and offensive and inaccurate. (Letter from Lance Novak, June 1999 issue.)
I am president of NRHSA and have been in the hobby industry for more than 25 years. I do not think that the term "old-time" hobby shop and "real" hobby shop are synonymous. My fellow shop owners and I think that we run "real" hobby shops. Besides offering expertise, advice, and quality products, we have sought to modernize our operations—incorporating standard business practices, computerized ordering, and point-of-purchase systems. Believe it or not, many of us have web sites. No kidding!
While hobby shops must legally collect the sales taxes in accordance with their state laws, we are very aware of discount prices offered on products we sell, especially on high-ticket items. Most of us try to meet the mail-order prices or come as close as we can. I think most would be hard-pressed to find shops that sell at full retail. I am amazed you found them in such number in the LA area.
I would propose that there are many more shops that discount than do not and that your view of hobby shops is not in touch with reality. I hate to have anyone accuse hobby shops, as a group, of "gouging" and "ripping off" the customers. As with all things, I am sure there are exceptions. I find these terms applied to my profession offensive, deceptive, and blatantly false.
We work very hard to create new ways our stores can satisfy the needs of our customers and produce an equitable profit—produce enough money to live on. I don't think that this meets the dictionary definition of "greed."
Your advice to buy only small items at the shops does a service to no one. (Check the prices—they might be more in line, since everyone does anyway. If you think that with the demise of the hobby shops, you're going to get better prices and more selection, you're wrong again! Historically, hobby shops have been the avenues by which new products were introduced and new customers were exposed to hobbies. As the customer base shrinks, the product selection decreases, and the prices increase.
On one point you are correct: The hobby shop owner will probably not close his/her shop to help you fly—not if they are any type of businessperson. Typically they would set up a mutually convenient time, either with him/herself or a competent instructor. They might try to run the local club field.
I wonder if you got this bee in your bonnet because some shop didn't stop everything to help you fly.
Ah, the term "value for your dollars." For many people, this includes having the convenience of a close proximity to where they can get advice, information, and product six or seven days a week. Why, value may even include support for the local clubs: getting new members, supplying maps of the fields, contributions of prizes, or even providing meeting space. It might further include providing information and applications for the Academy of Model Aeronautics.
In a nutshell, Lance, I think you're way off base.
Walt Throne Berkeley, Illinois
Maybe I've missed something, but it sure sounds that Mr. Novak has a negative attitude toward most hobby shops. As per the Ma-and-Pa or family-owned hobby shops, I'm sure they're not out to be greedy, or trying to get someone to pay through the nose. His adjectives describe the car dealer who sells the $30,000 car for $22,000, but he has to realize that this same good old dealer will sell at $30,000 or more if he can get it!
As in any business that sells a product, there is list price, street price, dealer cost, and quantity price. All the hobby shops I go to in northeastern Illinois sell for the street price, and some items below that! (By the way, some 60+ years ago, I loved to go to that little hobby shop on Western Avenue in Chicago. A woman and her son ran that shop: Mrs. Goldberg and her son Carl. They were always helpful and Carl would come across the street to the high school and show me what I was doing wrong. That's gone now, but I still enjoy going to a hobby shop and talking to the guys and airplanes hanging from the ceilings. That's what got me started—had to build one just like that.)
There are the Joe Stantons who always have the right people to answer your questions (Stanton Hobby Shop in Chicago), and the Ralph Warners who worked there when he was a kid. Or how about the Elmer Helferts of Al's Hobby Shop in Elmhurst, Illinois?
When you see the $2 part selling for 75 cents mail-order, be sure it's the same item made by the same company. The discounts he talks about are not what I see. Those numbers just don't add up. At the hobby shop you can open boxes, look at plans, check out the wood—before you buy.
I won't say I've never used mail order, but it does have its place. But I love hobby shops and I feel you can get just as good a bargain there as anywhere.
It's hard to get young people in this hobby, but if we can at least get them into the local hobby shop, and see all those airplanes hanging, trains in showcases, and all the things they can build with their hands, maybe this would be a little better world.
No, I'm not in the hobby business. As a matter of fact, I've been repairing cars all my life, but I do thank my dad and uncle for taking the time to read the directions to me as a little guy. A thanks to all the helpers at the hobby shops who have helped me and thousands of other modelers. Enough of the hobby shop bashing!
Don Wehrheim Spring Grove, Illinois
I read Mr. Lance Novak's letter this evening just before retiring. After two hours of tossing and turning, I decided to get up and scribble these comments.
This has got to be the most poorly researched piece I have read in years. You speak of price-gouging, sales tax evasion, and the wonders of buying mail order.
I've only been in the hobby since 1994 and I don't profess to be a buying guru, but here is one of my experiences. I purchased a kit on the West Coast from a local hobby store, along with the retracts. I paid $239 for the kit and $130 for the retracts, plus the sales tax. The last time I looked at the mail-order sheets, the kit was $219.99 and the retracts were around $120. So basically I paid $370 plus tax vs $340 plus shipping. My calculations show the sale price as 8.8% higher at the hobby store. Hmmm—far cry from the 20–40% you claim.
As far as the sales tax we both are supposed to be paying, a fair share of it goes to paying for the roads that your mail-order houses use to deliver the products to your door. Now don't get me wrong about being overtaxed, but quite frankly Lance, if paying your share upsets you that much, why don't you move out of here?
Martin B. Petri Northridge, California
As the Executive Editor of Model Aviation, I hold you responsible for the publication of the letter from Lance Novak. It is not bad enough that someone as self-centered and arrogant as Lance would write such a letter, it is worse that the AMA would actually publish it.
I don't care that some RC flier (he doesn't claim to be a modeler, but that is another topic) squeezes every penny. I don't need to know about his personal problems. I do however take great exception to his slamming local hobby shops and the one referred to in particular. He doesn't name them, but I can certainly picture Lance bringing in something he bought ("great savings") from a discounter and demanding they help him with it. Good for them if they showed him the door!
So what good is a local hobby shop? Just before the 1977 Nats, I needed to test-fly some models in the evenings, after work. Local shop owners took the time to meet me at the Sepulveda Basin over a three-week period. They launched, timed, carried, and offered tips to get my airplanes ready. They didn't have to, but they did.
Price? How do you put a price on two first-place trophies and a national record? They helped me do it. Do you think a mail-order discounter could do that? Probably not.
I could go on about how much this small hobby shop has added to the enjoyment of my hobby, but you already know about them, because they have helped AMA, too.
Knowing this, I have to ask why you would print such a venomous letter? Have the discounters gotten to you? They are your advertisers, hence dollars in your pocket. Have you lost sight of what the AMA is for? It is for us, the modelers, not you. We have entrusted our organization to you for our good, but you have failed us. Lance Novak's letter offended me and seeing it in my AMA magazine offended me even more.
I expect you to issue an apology to all local hobby shops.
Ron Duly Burbank, California
I have this to say to Mr. Novak: relocate!
Mr. Novak, this is to inform you that all Mom & Pop hobby shops in the U.S. are not going out of business. Most hobby shops in my region (central North Carolina) do not fit into your so-called pattern.
As a member of CC/RC (Central Carolina R/C Control Modelers of High Point), NC, we are proud and extremely lucky to have K/C Hobby Shop, Archdale, N.C. From the very first time I visited the shop, I have been impressed by the friendliness and helpfulness I have been shown by owners Kirby and Sherry Crawford, as well as all the other knowledgeable staff. There is always someone there to answer any given question or whatever problem you may have encountered.
Before I discovered K/C Hobby, I too purchased items by mail-order because most shops in the larger cities either didn't have the inventory or their prices were much higher. It is a given that the mail-order hobby shops carry greater inventory and have prices that are lower than most shops. But you cannot get the personal, one-on-one relationship from a mail-order employee. You also do not have the opportunity to place an item in layaway, or to sell some piece of used equipment. If I need an item that is not in stock, usually they will get it within three to seven days, which is usually how long it takes to receive a mail-order purchase.
K/C's prices are usually in line with mail-order prices, and although you do pay local sales tax, there are no shipping and handling charges added to your bill; one pretty much cancels out the other.
Kirby and Sherry have been solid supporters of CC/RC and other clubs for many years. We are able to obtain equipment at reduced prices to raise money for our club functions. They have also donated many items to be given away as door prizes to our flyers and the public during special events. You would be hard-pressed to find very many, if any, other shops that support their local clubs as well as K/C Hobby does. After all, they're realizing that they need us as much as we need them—and to that end I say a great big thanks!
Mr. Novak, small hobby shops are not dead—maybe they just don't exist in your area!
David Tragdon Star, North Carolina
Mr. Novak states that it is "sad to see the hobby shops' disappear." Well, he can take pride in many that he and his opinion are a direct relation to their disappearance.
As an RC fixed-wing pilot since 1971 in the Los Angeles area, and active club member and officer of the AMA-sanctioned San Fernando Valley R/C Flyers, I've heard and read all the comments about hobby shops, clubs, and the AMA, for that matter. Our club newsletter clearly states each month, "Support Your Local Hobby Shop," with the addresses and phone numbers of local shops listed within the newsletter.
That is not with the caveat, "only while your local shops are learning."
Our club meets once a month, and typically, two club instructors are available on weekends (and occasionally during the evening and during the week). I was fortunate to enter the hobby when the owners had a vested interest in teaching you how to fly two or three times a week, every week, until you learned. During that period there were no club instructors!
Clubs teach "some" people how to fly, and it is not their primary reason for being! So for Mr. Novak to say experienced pilots recommend that newcomers stop purchasing local hobby shop products is not accurate. Why, freedom of free speech aside, because most of the hobby shop owners I have polled expressed their disgust at Mr. Novak's article.
Although a club offers free lessons, resources are not from the membership to cover "every" member or nonmember who wants to learn how to fly. The clubs' instructors do not seem to be bothered by the clients the hobby shop gets. They have all the business they can handle.
I cannot fathom why anyone "in their right mind" would think to compare the purchase price of an automobile at a discount price of $22,000 versus $30,000, to any hobby purchase. Of course, you would buy the automobile at $22,000. It is just a product purchase.
Typically, you do not have to learn to operate a $30,000 vehicle. You do not construct or assemble many of its parts. If you experience an accident, you have a repair shop fix it. And finally, another vendor or service organization typically performs routine maintenance. Basically, you are done with the sales transaction when the purchase is complete. It doesn't matter whether you see that salesperson again in your product's lifetime!
In modeling, this is not the case. You not only need someone to teach you how to assemble, repair, and fly fixed-wing aircraft, but you might want to try helicopters, ducted-fan jets, Free Flight, Rubber, Control Line, or jets with real jet engines. If Mr. Novak thinks you can get all the information over the phone or even from friends at a local site for all of these things, he's fooling himself. Which is OK by me.
Speaking of fools, I do not consider myself a fool when I spend more money on a hobby purchase through a hobby shop than a discount house in another state. I consider it an investment. When I want to try and fit a new engine or muffler to my aircraft, open that new kit to see if I want to really build the aircraft, ask for help at the flying field or to obtain lessons on a new facet in the hobby, I know the owner will be willing to spend time not only in the hobby shop but at the field!
Mr. Novak, I do not miss those trips to the hobby shop like the old days. The old days are still here for me and my family, and the owners are happy to see us!
Bob Smith Santa Clarita, California
Microhenrys
Just to drop you a line to comment on the fine quality of your magazine. It rivals that of the other many fine magazines in the hobby.
However, I would like to point out one gem of a feature that your magazine has that no one else has: "The Microhenrys" by Ed Henry. I am constantly amazed and delighted every month by his great insight into our wonderful hobby. I don't know where he gets all of his ideas for his feature, but I hope he continues with this delightful Microhenrys and that Model Aviation appreciates his efforts and will carry his feature well into the future.
Chester Bojack Jr. Orchard Park, New York
Cumberland Meet
Your comments in the April issue on the annual wave-soaring meet in Cumberland, MD missed at least two important points that I think are worthy of note.
This is one of the longest-running fun-fly meets that I know of. It was started in 1968 through the joint effort of DCRC and the Cumberland Aircraft Model Society (CAMS) and has occurred every year since. This gives the meet a continuous run of more than 30 years.
In the early years, just getting up the mountain was a major challenge because of the cowpath nature of the original road, and it was only a hardy bunch that made it to the top to suffer in the cold winds of late October. Early attendees at the meet included such notables as Maynard Hill, Walt Good, and Howard MacEntee, among others.
Also among the early attendees was a young man by the name of Jim Dolly. Jim enjoyed the meet and the flying site so much that a few years ago, when the property came up for sale, he bought the site and has subsequently installed the weatherproof clubhouse that now resides on the field. Jim's purchase also eliminated the need to use the old cow path for field access and made available the new access road that enters on the north side of the field.
In view of the AMA's interest in preserving our disappearing flying sites, I think Jim's investment deserves some needed recognition, which is my second point.
The site is located on the Allegheny ridges, just south of Cumberland. It is on the distance-record route used by several full-scale soaring pilots to set several major out-and-return distance records in the U.S.
Because of the unique geographical location, the site can experience all three major forms of soaring lift simultaneously: ridge, thermal, and wave. Given the right weather conditions, the wave can be easily accessed by model aircraft. It is truly one of the more interesting soaring sites on the East Coast.
How do I know all this? Because I was in on the founding days of this meet and still occasionally get back to Cumberland to do a little flying with some of my old friends in the CAMS.
Dick Miller Hollister, California
Family Affair
I would like to share a story from last summer.
On August 7, 1998, I took my family to see Giant Scale RC air races in Oshkosh, Wisconsin at the site of the famous EAA fly-in. I think I got to witness one heat race in the Formula 1 class.
There was this group of guys from Milwaukee called the Circlemasters. The Circlemasters had set up, with the help of Sig, a Control Line flying display where people could try flying a 1/2A CL trainer. Two of my three children took a turn at the controls.
That was it for the air races. My six-year-old daughter Kelsey and seven-year-old son Erik spent the entire day flying the Sig Skyray CL airplanes, with help from the Circlemasters. My wife Melissa and I also had a go at the handle.
My four-year-old girl, Sonja, sat on a nearby bench, a little disappointed that we felt she was too young to fly.
I had never imagined that my children would get such a thrill from flying a Control Line model.
The Circlemasters deserve applause for their efforts to introduce youngsters and their parents to model aviation. These guys tirelessly endured starting and launching the models, sometimes over and over on the same tank of fuel, as their students battered the airplanes, trying to get the hang of flying.
Here is an example for all of us involved with model aviation. The Circlemasters didn't have a big PR machine in motion for this event; just a few guys with a sun shade, some 1/2A CL trainers, and a little back room Sig. We went home from Oshkosh with our own Skyray kit, which has flown dozens of times.
Kelsey asked for and received a Sig Buster kit for her birthday. Erik has soloed the Skyray and now digs through my old stacks of Model Aviation as though he has discovered Egyptian treasure. He wants a .35-size Skyray.
I own a model rocketry manufacturing company. I have also built and flown a multitude of model airplanes over the last twenty years. The experience we had at Oshkosh had a real effect on my family.
Erik and Kelsey have been around many types of flying models, without developing any particular interest in modeling. It seems that, at least with my children, capturing their interest took exposure to the right form of aeromodelling. Perhaps herein lies the key.
At this point, if a person sees any form of aircraft modeling in the public realm, it will most likely be Radio Control. To this I respond: Free Fliers, Control Liners, Indoor flying people, and rocketeers, let's get our models in front of some kids and see what happens.
RCers seem to do a pretty good job of holding displays and public events. As my kids exemplify, RC is not everyone's bag. Yet how many youngsters even know of the existence of other forms of modeling?
Circlemasters, job well done. I saw quite a few kids with smiles holding flight certificates and little Sig "wings" pins. Some of those were pretty big "kids"!!
The EAA also deserves credit. EAA volunteers were on hand with RC trainers and buddy boxes, giving all who desired it a turn at piloting. Thanks a million.
Howard Olson Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
