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.
Likes Nieuport Drawings
Congratulations on your February issue of Model Aviation. The Nieuport Type 27 and 24 drawings are terrific. What a shot for the true scale modeler!
I save all good aviation three-views I can find, because sooner or later I can use them. These drawings go in my top drawer!
Virgel Raddatz Sutter Creek, CA
Lazy Duck
I enjoy Model Aviation magazine and read it with delight. I have just started with the RC model aircraft hobby, and I have found it to be very interesting.
Enclosed are photos of the Lazy Duck built from the article and plans which appeared in the May 1984 issue—by Tom Chipley. Please inform him that the model flies well even for a novice.
Model Aviation, keep up the good work.
Robert Klaviter Hickory Hills, IL
Farewell, Friend!
It was with great regret that I read about the passing of Mr. Hank Clark in the February issue of Model Aviation. His excellent cutaway drawing and silly little comic strip were the first things I looked for each month.
It is a sad fact of life that we do not tell someone how much we appreciate them until it is too late, and they are gone.
I could tell from his drawings just how much Hank loved aviation and flying. He has left a void in the lives of the many modelers who knew him—and a mighty big pair of shoes to fill. I am sure I speak for many modelers all over this great country of ours when I say: Farewell, friend; we will miss you.
George L. Ardwin Sabina, OH
Flying RC at Age 7
My name is Kurt Klingebiel. I am seven years old. I learned how to fly radio control airplanes this summer. My dad taught me how to fly. After about five weeks, I was taking off, flying, and landing all by myself. I enjoy flying a lot.
Kurt Klingebiel Colesville, MD
Charter Club Liability Is Everywhere
Many AMA Chartered Clubs invite a guest speaker for a club meeting. The guest speaker may bring models, engines, etc., to exhibit. If they are lost or stolen during a club meeting, the club may be liable.
I bring this to your attention because our club (Cape Ann RC Club, Rowley, MA, 170 members strong) learned from an experience. We have monthly membership meetings which are always open to club members and non-members. On one of these occasions, we invited Harvey Thomasian, a notable expert on all facets of our hobby, including antique engines. Harvey brought 15 to 20 antique engines from his collection. He gave a talk about two-cycle and four-cycle engines and passed the engines out to the crowd to show their unique design and engineering. Well, as you can guess, when the talk was over the engines were passed back to the guest speaker, and the meeting was adjourned; but when Harvey finally inventoried his engines at home, he found that three were missing.
What's the club's liability? Should we have safeguarded his property? Should we have recommended that the engines not be passed out? Should we have inventoried the engines brought to the meeting and, again, after the meeting? None of these procedures was done, and due to our club not taking reasonable safeguards of Mr. Thomasian's assets, we may be liable. On the other hand, was the guest speaker liable?
He did pass out the engines to club and non-club members. He did not realize his loss until he was home. He passed out many more engines than could be controlled. He did not inventory his engines while the audience was still present.
In our circumstance, we are fortunate that the speaker and the club are working to resolve this issue, but as you can see, a club can be placed in a very difficult situation.
Current AMA insurance will not cover this type of loss. The only insurance available is the guest speaker's homeowner's insurance. You may want to acquire insurance for this type of occurrence. At a minimum, you should institute controls for a meeting to safeguard a speaker's assets. In addition, give the guest speaker some guidelines. For example, in this case, you may not want the speaker to hand out more than one or two engines at a time.
I hope our experience will help other AMA Chartered Clubs become aware of another area where prudence must be practiced. Even off the flying site, liability exposure is everywhere.
John F. Murray, Pres. Cape Ann RC Club Danvers, MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
