Radio Control: Scale
Bud Atkinson
I'M SURE Toledo means a lot of things to a lot of people, especially the people who live there, but to RC modelers, as the saying goes, it's a hog heaven! I'm sure that every product in our field, be it a radio, kit, or gadget, was shown at the recent Toledo Trade Show (as I would call it) at the Municipal Auditorium. I sure didn't count the many people there, but 20,000 would be a good estimate for the three days.
From a manufacturing standpoint Stand-Off Scale was quite evident, with more new fiberglass kits and fuselages. Bob Holman Plans, for example, had several new fiberglass fuselages. Probably the hit of the show was a fiberglass 1/4-in.-scale P-51 (in fact two P-51's). In the same giant scale a beautiful Waco and a Pitts Special. All fantastic models. (No date or price available on these airplanes as yet.)
How do you power a model of this size? Well, any good 60 now will do the job if you use one of the new gear trains such as DuBro is producing. It turns a 22-in. prop (by Grish). How about that? In my opinion this year's show was Scale or Stand-Off Scale orientated, from the smallest Half-A to the 1/4-scale monsters.
Because of the tremendous turnout it is not possible to mention all the new kits and developments that abound on all sides. But 1/2-A scalers should be interested in two different retract systems displayed. One weighed only 1/2 oz. for each unit. See the possibilities?
Air Force Museum: Since the museum at Dayton was on my route to Toledo, it made a pleasant side trip. From a scale builder's viewpoint, an important feature of the Museum is the fine book store, in the same building as the displays. If there was ever a book printed on military aircraft they had it for sale. I was able to pick up some of the very hard-to-come-by Profile Series — of which they have many, plus many books on foreign aircraft.
One does need to know the number of the Profile wanted. Air Progress and some other aircraft magazines carry ads by Profile. The ads list the subjects by number. After checking them write to the Air Force Museum, Dayton, Ohio for prices, etc., because there are many different prices. Tell the Museum what you are looking for. It's really great to find information in the book store and see a book on, say, the P-47, then to see and touch the real airplane on display.
I received a beautifully done color brochure from Harold Ford, 11 Stephens St., Clifton Springs, NY 14432, Phone 315-462-2235, on their sixth annual Skyrovers Flying Club contest July 16-17 at Lyons, NY. They will have sport scale using AMA rules, so contact Harold for all the information.
Bud Atkinson, 734 North 6th St. Terrace, Blue Springs, MO 64015.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
