Letters to the Editor
All letters will be carefully considered; those of general interest will be used. Send to Model Aviation, 1810 Samuel Morse Dr., Reston, VA 22090.
RC in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
I thought it would be smart to avoid the 45-min. drive to the desolate flying field in the boonies, so I went to a new subdivision about two miles from my house; it has streets and street lights (drat) already installed, but no houses. I took a Cessna 150 foamie (45-in. span) that I bought used over here for $7.35. I put an OS .10FSR in it with an Aero Sport 4-Ch., Royal mini servos, and a 2-oz. tank. It's nice and quiet as well as small.
It's amazing how those flat-bottom airfoiled, high-wing jobs need down trim when they fly fast. It's been a long time since I messed with a trainer.
I completed the third flight (during which my two students both got in a little stick time), landed, and went to pick up the plane. You would think it was just like a police story: three police cars came screaming up with seven police in them! I thought I was going to get introduced to the Saudi jail! They were very curious, wanting to know where I bought the plane, and they wanted to fly it. Meanwhile, they placed a call to the police chief, obviously checking to see if there was a vacant cell for me.
I cranked up one more time, took off, and let one of the officers get in a little stick time. (He did better than my two students, or so I told him, but his age is about half that of either student—and I firmly believe the quick reflexes that young people have is a plus in learning to fly.)
The police were happy. They left, and I didn't go to jail. I learned something: don't try to save a 45-min. drive to the regular flying field! (All this took place with police speaking very little English, and with me speaking very little Arabic.)
You might relay this story to Ken Willard. Doesn't he have the "Dum Dum" contest each year?
Mike Sherrod Saudi Arabia
This is part of one of several letters we have received from Mike since his job took him to Jeddah. He says that U.S. guys are lucky to have such ready availability of modeling supplies, kits, RC gear, etc.
Just Nine!
My son became interested in RC airplanes this past year. He has watched the Signal Chasers RC Club fly their planes.
Could you use this cartoon in your magazine? It would mean a lot to him.
Mrs. Barbara Lenz St. Louis, MO
If you'll look closely at the small-size reproduction of the cartoon by David Lenz, you'll see that he has put down his age as nine. Aren't moms grand?
Historically Speaking
There may be two or three people somewhere who have read my couple of model histories, namely about Megow and Comet. At present I am working on several other manufacturing companies from the period of 1929 through WWII.
Should anyone have such information on the following companies, I would greatly appreciate hearing from them:
- Heath
- National
- Lewis
- Aircraft
- Duncan
- Ace Whitman
- Construct-A-Plane
- Madison
- Miniature
- Various others, mainly from the Thirties
Also, I need kits, catalogs, and advertising material from the companies listed above (and others). This is not a gimme request. I will purchase the material if possible; otherwise, I will copy it (photos, too).
Surely there should be some of these things in Brooklyn! After all, Brooklyn was the hotbed of manufacturing at that time. There must have been at least one balsa cloud hovering over every block during the Thirties.
Walt Grigg 1303 Stetson Orlando, FL 32804
Sparky's a Gas, too!
We passed on an inquiry to Don Srull, who authored the "Electric Sparky" article which appeared in the July 1983 issue, about using a gas engine in the twice-up version of Ed Lidgard's original rubber-powered model. Following is Srull's response.
The OS .10FSR sounds like a good choice for the big Sparky. It should provide real zippy performance as compared with the electric version. If the old non-Schnuerle Max .10 were still available, that would be a good choice, too.
I would not beef up the model much at all. It is already pretty well over-designed to simplify construction and for knock-about sport flying. Keep it light—35 to 40 oz. or less would be a good target.
Here's what I would recommend:
- Make the nose section at F-3 out of 3/16" ply as a firewall. Move it fore or aft as necessary to suit the engine you use. Make a removable cowl to fit the area between F-1 and F-2.
- Sheet the nose back to F-7 with 3/32" light balsa.
- Cut large lightening holes in the 3/16" balsa floor piece.
- Make the forward wing spars out of spruce or very hard balsa.
- Use as small a fuel tank, say 4 oz., as practical. The nose moment from the CG to the fuel tank is long, and that could cause problems with too big a fuel load.
- Mount the radio equipment in the area shown on the plans. Shift the batteries to get the correct CG.
- Use the 2-1/2" spinner as shown. The 8" prop will look ridiculously small, but it will work OK.
- If you fly from tall grass or weedy fields, you may want to increase the gear wire to 5/32" or shorten it a bit.
- Fly, have fun, and send me a picture.
Don Srull McLean, VA
Quadra U.S. Male
We dropped the dihedral in the wings, added ailerons to the bottom wing, and installed a Quadra (with beefed-up front end). We have a great flier.
On the fourth outing, the top wing came off! We found it flies very good as a low-winger (just a bit faster).
Thanks for the good plans.
Bob Shaw Ludington, MI
The U.S. Male design by Clarence Haught was featured in the December 1982 issue. The author had very satisfying flights with a .60 in his prototype, but we can understand why someone might want to use a Big Banger. Thanks for the report, Bob.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
