Short Days and Long Nights: On the Frozen Tundra
By Stephen E. Kanyusik
Winter Workshop
Modelers living in Minnesota and points north find the long, dark winter days the perfect time to hole up in the workshop. There's time to get really ambitious projects out of the way and ready for the long, bright days of summer flying.
From my vantage point up here in the North Country, I can't help but find some of the messages in the model magazines a bit distorted. This is especially true of periodicals published in the South or the winter editions of other magazines. I'm not blaming the editors, mind you; I'm blaming the ads.
Reading some of these ads, you'd think that every winter we folks in the Frozen Tundra martyred ourselves to the snow and wind. You'd think we hibernated like bears as soon as blizzard weather hit. You'd be wrong—all wrong.
When northern nights grow long, modelers get busy. After cutting the firewood for heating, we start stacking up the balsa. Then we grab a bunch of plans and head into the workshop. No, those ads for the Mint Julep, the Southwest Scale Bash, or the Round Top Tap Dancing Trials in the broiling sun can't faze me in the least. I like being able to concentrate on getting the models made during the long winter nights, because all the while I'm anticipating a feast of flying when the days grow long again.
A Blizzard Story
Blizzards in the Frozen Tundra aren't as bad as the TV coverage would have you believe. I suspect that the networks purposely dramatize the footage from our area. I remember watching the tube during a blizzard one year and seeing nothing but woe and hardship. But six-foot-high drifts don't keep me home when I need supplies—you can't stick wood together without glue. So I grabbed my snowshoes, donned my parka and mittens, and headed to the hobby shop. After negotiating a few of those snowdrifts, I helped a stalled car out of another. Next I encountered a lady with three children, late for tap-dancing lessons; the car battery had died, and I helped jump the battery.
Winter Projects and Allergies
Some folks ski, skate, snowmobile or ice-fish during the winter months; others build models. A friend uses the winter for gliders—a 22-foot ship back. An unusually rough winter is predicted this year. Bob's planning a 25-footer. He's bought the lumber and supplies and has purchased a set of plans which he scales up to suit him. He's building four models assembly-line style, juggling:
- P-51
- Martin B-26
- Boeing F4B-4
- Zero
Using epoxy at such a rate, though, I developed an allergy—my eyes were ringed like owls and my throat was painful for a week. I was finally forced to stop building for several years to purge the system. I returned to the workshop last year but kept projects on a shorter leash. The last model I built before enlisting in the Navy was the Cleveland Cloudster.
Memories of Free Flight
I vividly recall the Free Flight days back in McKeesport, Pa., with the Keystone Klippers. We flew out at Five Fields near Renzie Park and spent the whole afternoon cranking that infernal GHQ hunk of metal. It never would pop out. Ralph DeCecco built first—Free Flight low-wingers: a Pacemaker with blue-and-yellow wings, Army Air Corps style. The model took off, arced up, left and met the ground like a rainbow; damage wasn't too severe.
But Ralph had enough. "If anyone gives me half a buck, they can have it!" I bought my first gas model that day. I still have a soft spot in my heart for that Pacemaker. Hmmm . . . maybe this winter.
Club Building and Prototypes
Let the snow fall and the wind sing like a diva! North Country modelers, cozy in their workshops, are cutting, filing, fitting, and gluing. One winter's projects included a Negotiator from RC Modeler plans. I added Navy-style trimmings to the completed model. Having always thought the Sig Kadet a practical choice for a trainer, I threw that one into the works, too.
In the Mankato Bald Eagles club, Jerry is one of our more prolific builders. He's punched out nearly a dozen kits for himself, plus a couple for nonbuilders. Mike Stott and Gary Endreske are in the process of building several prototypes for the commercial market. It's a sleek Zlin model and a great flier. Mike is a former Control Line Scale World Champs U.S. team member, and his building skills show.
Spring Rituals and Flying
After a winter's building, Mankato's modelers prepare to take to the air. First comes the spring ritual of clearing the flying site—raking, rolling, and picking rocks. All around us are sights and sounds that open our senses. Blue skies swell with cottony cirrus and cumulus, darkened now and then by masses of honking waterfowl, with overhead honking harmonizing with the growls of our SuperTigers, O.S. Maxes, and Enyas.
Models flit through the air like young calves breaking out of their pens—jumping, turning and snorting; rolling, looping and diving. Knife-edges that could almost eat the sky. Exhilarated, the pilots keep their airplanes up till the tanks run out of fuel. Maybe the folks in Dixie can't get one up on us in the wintertime, but we get in our licks when we come up to bat. Join us in the Frozen Tundra and do some tap-dancing on ice!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
