Radio Control: Giant Scale
John A. de Vries
Colonel, USAF, Ret. 4610 Moffat Ln. Colorado Springs, CO 80915
Although most of our readers are unaware of it, we Giant Scale columnists really know one another. Model Aviation readers know that Dick Phillips, who writes "Giant Steps" for Model Airplane News, and I are in the publishing business together. Both of us, however, know the rest of our compadres. We've met and exchanged pleasantries with the Scale writers for other magazines as well. All of us are modelers first and writers second, but our writing tasks do cut into our designing, building, and flying time—more so for some than for others. We also spend a considerable amount of time answering reader letters, so drawing-board, workshop, and club-field time must be scheduled if we're to keep up with the hobby. Still, we all find time to read each other's columns practically every month—that's how we keep in touch. Most of us receive the same press releases from manufacturers and try to include information of interest to our readers in our monthly columns.
Colleagues and publications
- Dick Phillips — "Giant Steps" for Model Airplane News
- Frank Costello — "Big Bird" for Flying Models
- Bill Skipper — monthly columnist for R/C Report
- Ken Runestrand — "Big Beautiful" columnist for RCM
- Al Alman — monthly column for Model Builder
- The Wischers, Cliff Tacie, Steve Gray — contributors to Model Builder
- Col. Art Johnson — RCM
- Bill Hannan — magazine writer and illustrator
- Phil Kent — RC&ME (Radio Control & Model Engineering, UK)
- Johan Ehlers — South African model magazine
If you want to be truly "up" on everything happening in Giant Scale, Schoolyard Scale, and everything in between, the broader the variety of columns you read, the more knowledgeable you'll become. I also enjoy reading the output of columnists concerned with Free Flight and Control Line Scale—there's a lot of useful information to be gleaned from their monthly musings.
Kit prices and cost of entry
Something that's been bugging me for quite a while is the escalating price of Giant Scale kits. A cursory check of the ads shows many kits in the $250 to $300 range, with a goodly number costing much more. A couple or three years ago, when I clerked in a local hobby shop, the cost of "getting into" RC airplanes ran between $225 and $275 for kit, engine, four-channel radio, and all the auxiliary bits to get a customer airborne from scratch. Admittedly, that wasn't Giant Scale then—Giant kits were few and far between—but the numbers are a rational point of comparison.
Inflation has added $25 to $50 to those figures, and the diminishing purchasing power of the dollar has boosted the prices of Japanese engines and radios. Still, the current total necessary to put a .40-powered RC model in the air is within the same ballpark. When you compare the outfit cost to the price of a Giant Scale kit, the numbers take on a different complexion. It isn't inconceivable that it'll cost $1,000 or more just to shove the throttle forward on a kit-built Giant!
A kit in the hand does save a bunch of labor—prefabrication will get you airborne sooner than scratch or plans building—but at what cost? It scares me.
Smaller-engine Giant options
When many of us think of Giant Scale we imagine big birds powered by four-stroke snarling gas burners. However, there are large RC models whose engine requirements can be satisfied by smaller engines in the .45 to .60 cu. in. displacement class. Case in point: Bill Effinger's latest Plan 'N Pattern set. Bill has drawn a 3/4-scale Cessna with an 81 in. wingspan. It's 4 in. larger than the IMAA-defined minimum Giant, yet the basic recommended engine is .45 (though Bill figures it'll fly on anything from .25 to .80, two- or four-cycle). The high monoplane wing Bill recommends is an ideal first Scale model. Built light, with an optional four-channel radio setup, it should be a winner—particularly if you're upgrading to Giant Scale and already have the appropriate engine on hand.
If you're interested, contact: W.E. Technical Services, 526 Lorell Terrace, Atlanta, GA 30328. Plans and patterns are $14.95.
Publications and drawings
Of the magazine writers mentioned above, the only person I've never met face-to-face is Bill Hannan. We've maintained an extensive correspondence over the years, and his latest mailing to me was his new book, Peanuts & Pistachios, Vol. 3. From the Farman Moustique and the drawing of the Wedell-Williams No. 92 on the front cover to the Wedell-Williams three-views inside, it's another winner—well worth the five bucks Bill asks for it (P.O. Box A, Escondido, CA 92025).
As we've noted here before, Bill's drawings are wonderful subjects for enlargement to Giant Scale sizes. He also carries the Peanut Scale drawings of Ulises Alvarez of Montevideo, Uruguay, which practically demand Giant Scale treatment.
I had a fascinating phone call the other day from some nice people in Terre Haute, IN. As many of you know, the dean of Scale documentation, Paul Matt, passed away recently. For a while there was some confusion about what would happen to Paul's Historical Aviation Album publications and his store of precise scale drawings. Not to worry—they're in good hands. The people at Sunshine House, Inc., P.O. Box 2065, Terre Haute, IN 47802, are Paul's worthy successors and plan to carry on his tradition. They told me they're planning a new volume—an anthology of Matt's Waco drawings and articles.
Products from Century Systems of America
We'll leave you this month in the Wonderful World of Oz—not with Dorothy and Toto, but with the people at Century Systems of America (P.O. Box 4805, Costa Mesa, CA 92626). The "Oz" reference, of course, refers to the source of their products—the great land of Australia. Century Systems has some of the nicest electronic equipment we've seen, including:
- NiCd recyclers (with timers attached)
- Gyro systems
- Lost-model alarms
- Four-channel fail-safe devices
- Airborne battery-switching "black boxes" (provides dual battery power, strongly recommended for Giant Scale)
An SASE will probably get you a mailbox filler at your house. If you can't wait, Century Systems has a toll-free order number: 1-800-999-1214.
Remember: Giant Scale is fun!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
