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People might not believe me, but things seem to be slow this week.  I’ve been working on a couple of “tribute” plans and models; one is for a local legend and I will reveal it after Sunday (when I reveal it to him) and the other is for a modeler of great renown that passed away many years ago.  I will probably donate the plans to a newsletter or two and offer up short kits of the models.

I do most of my drawing in the morning – consider it part of my wake-up process, along with the mandatory cup of coffee.  I get in a good hour or two, maybe more, before I start in on more active things, like packing orders, cutting kits, or washing dishes.

One of the things that I have started to do is listen to a “podcast”.  This isn’t an intentional advertisement, but, if you’re like me and love the Golden Age of aviation and racing, you always liked the movie “The Rocketeer“.  Well, a couple of guys are dissecting the movie minute-by-minute and each minute is a new day’s episode.  They really go in depth with the subject, not only about the movie, but the music, key personnel – and the airplanes.  Good stuff; check it out here: http://www.rocketeerminute.com/

My place is a mess.  I don’t mean my house (although my wife would disagree), I mean my work areas, building areas, work shop, business shop – a terrible mess.  I love (hate?) seeing photos of guys building where they have the immaculate work bench.  I marvel at their abilities – not so much their building techniques, but how in the world to they keep it clean?  I get focused on the “build”, the subject at hand, and everything else is secondary.  My bench (pick one) is covered with parts and scraps – wood, tissue, whatever – from several builds.  And as soon as the current build is done, my mind switches to “what’s next?”  I don’t have time to be bothered by clean up.

yes, I need this stuff – or it wouldn’t be there!

Why do I even mention this?  Well, it is incumbent upon all of us modelers to think about our “messes” and what will become of those messes when we are no longer around.  Because whoever is left with our hobby materials and supplies will certainly have a lesser estimate of their value.

I helped with the clean-up of the late Stu Weckerly’s hobby room yesterday.  Stu had moved to an apartment about 10 years ago, so I am sure that he got rid of a lot of stuff himself.  His room was filled with stuff, but in hind-sight, was probably minimalist in what was present.  That’s not to say that we didn’t have a big task in cleaning it out, but it could have been much, much worse.

But the fact remains – we were ruthless.  We trashed a lot of things – things I wouldn’t trash off my own bench.  But that is probably because I am still using them.  But all paints, glues, pins, balsa scraps, and so much more got tossed in the trash.  Even many of his models (the ones that were under repair or missing parts) were unceremoniously shoved into a garbage bag.  I did take home a LOT of stuff, but I will be reviewing it all again and getting rid of what I just cannot keep.  I did take a large stack of airplane books that probably would have gone into the trash.  I don’t know where I am going to keep them, but I couldn’t stand to see them tossed.

So, don’t just “use the good wood“, but make these decisions yourself, or at least as many as you can.  No one thinks they are going to pass on; everyone thinks there is tomorrow and the next model, but that is obviously not true.  Help those that help you – your survivors will not know what is what, or have the sentiments that you do regarding certain items.  Save your loved ones from making as many of these decisions as possible while they are grieving (they will be grieving when you’re gone, right?)  And some of us know in our hearts that we have more of a problem and mess than others.  So get busy and make a plan and put it into action.

One last parting comment – here is a video that came home with me yesterday.  It is Stu flying indoors.  Thanks, Stu, for being a modeling friend.

Maybe the title for this should be “So You THINK You Can Fly”…

This will be a cautionary tale of mistakes I made yesterday that caused me to be less than competitive.  I will also include two examples that can show how YOU can win a local mass launch.

Lesson One

When time rolled around for the WWII Combat mass launch yesterday, I pulled out my Guillows #905 P-51 Mustang (more on this model in a bit).  It hadn’t been flown since the fall, but the surfaces were straight.  But it was missing a motor.  I quickly made one out of 3/16″ rubber.  I tied the knot, lubed it up, and installed it.  As I was loading it, I told Jack, “you know, I forgot to tie the ‘new’ knot and went with the ‘old’ knot.  Now my words cannot describe the knots.  Just let it be known that my old style is what I had been doing for 20 years, but they occasionally come untied.  Last year, Winn Moore showed us a new knot that locks on itself so it will not come untied.

We had six flyers in WWII.  I made it through the first round easily.  And I outflew everyone in the second round.  It was down to me, Jack with his Wildcat, and Winn with his Tony for the finals.  I was confident.  Jack broke his motor winding.  That left me and Winn.  As I was winding – my motor broke!  Inspection revealed it hadn’t but that it had come untied.

I failed myself in that I knew that I had not done the proper knot before I loaded the motor.

Lesson Two

When I have a new plane I test fly, test fly, test fly, gradually working up to full power.  Everyone does this (right?)  But what about your small modifications on your existing planes?

Over the winter, I needed to replace the lost spinner on my Elmendorf Special.  I went from a balsa to a vacuformed spinner.  and I needed to add a backing plate to the prop.  Well, I wasn’t happy with the old prop, so I made a new one.  It was the same diameter but a different blade shape.  I was trying to optimize performance.

I gave the plane a few low-to-mid power test flights to get it retrimmed and I was satisfied and ready for the races.  I would the motor up to a base-line performance torque; somewhere between 2 and 2.5 in-oz on a loop of 3/16″ rubber.  Max safe torque would be 3+ in-oz, so I had a ways to go before that.  No worries (first rule of mass launch – just fly safe in the first round – someone will always screw up).  Unfortunately, I hadn’t tested at that torque – my plane streaked away and to the left – hard.  It made about 1/4 circuit and hit the ground with the left wing and nose.  I believe the only damage is detached wings and broken center section and associated belly tissue (I think it can be fixed).

Again, I failed myself by not following the practice of test, test, test – my different prop reacted differently to the torque and I nearly destroyed my plane.

For You – How to Win a Mass Launch

As illustrated above, mass launches are unpredictable – mostly due to the lack of human preparation.  I could write pages and pages about how people fail themselves and their models in a mass launch.  It will always happen.  We even joked before the first one that anyone can win a mass launch and I quipped how I have won them with planes that cannot fly an “official” 20-second flight.

But this is about how to win.  You need to build a good model and you need to test, test, test until you know what to expect out of the model.  You need to prepare yourself -don’t do anything different in the mass launch than what you would do in a solo flight.  If your model likes a certain power and a certain launch attitude – do that, don’t change just because of the pressure.

What you need is a consistent flyer.  In local contests and on small fields, if your plane has repeatable performance in the 1-minute range – you WILL win some over the season.  You might not win every contest, but you can rely on people – even the better flyers – to eliminate themselves.  Fellow Cloudbuster, Ron Joyal, has been flying for maybe 4 years.  But he has been learning and he will fly and fly and fly a certain model; testing and trimming.  He and his Mr Mulligan are not the best racers on our Cloudbuster field, but he has won twice in the last 3 or 4 outdoor contests because he has the most predictable performance and “some of us” can’t follow our own rules  Well done, Ron.

For You – A Good Local Mass Launch Fighter

I wrote about this plane before – the Guillows Kit #905 P-51 Mustang.  If you are just getting started in WWII and think Scale Planes are difficult – or if you are just looking for a simple and good flying fighter for your local contests, you really owe it to yourself to give this kit a try.  Mine has turned out to be a fine flyer – very easy to fly with very good characteristics.  It won’t compete at the national level, but it is my go-to local fighter.  It builds quick, it is durable, and I am not afraid to break it or lose it on our small field.

I did do some minor modifications to the kit.  Here they are:

1: The Wing:  I built it to plan, but I added 3/32″ square along the leading edge.  I am pretty sure I just cut off the rib tips and laid the square on top of the recommended leading edge.  This allowed me to sand in a rounded “entry point” too the airfoil.  I don’t know how this affects low-speed aerodynamics, I just know it makes me feel better.

2: The Horizontal Stabilizer:  I added about 1/2″ to each tip of the stab:  I just moved the provided tips out wider and built per instructions.  I read somewhere that a greater span has more effect than a deeper chord.  Again, I don’t know if this has made mine more stable than built-to plan, but mine flies well.

3: The Nose: You will have to add and/or replace wood at the nose.  make is a little stronger and make a removable nose plug.  In addition, replace the nose bearing and the prop (and the rubber).  I used a Gizmo Geezer nose button because it is adjustable.  I swapped in a 7″ Chinese prop and a long loop of 3/16″ rubber.  I also added a Nason Clutch to the prop; that is hiding under the spinner.

Of course, as detail above in the sad, cautionary tales, you need to test your plane a lot.  start at extremely low power to adjust your glide and CG.  The work gradually increase the power to get your flight pattern, using only thrust adjustments.  You will be rewarded!