Free Flight: Old-Timers
MAIL: I read and appreciate mail from my readers, and lately I have been pleased to notice an increase in letters from younger builders who did not grow up building the models we now call Old-Timers, and who are having some trouble learning how to do some basic things. That will give me stuff to write about for a few years, and I will start with selecting some photos to show how to get things together using a jig. Instructions so often say, "Build two identical sides," and then, "Join with crosspieces." About equally as helpful will be the next step, "Now cover."
Free Flight: Old-Timers
THIS WILL BE my last column for Model Aviation. The first column that I wrote was published in the January 1988 issue. In September 1987 when I was on vacation in Galveston, Texas, I called home to check my answering machine and heard Carl Wheeley's voice asking if I would like to do the column. I agreed to do it, but I never expected to last very long. Approximately 70 columns later, here I am. I am finished with the column because my interests have changed. After retirement, I am very busy, and I wonder how I ever had time to work. I still build and fly models, and I am enjoying painting landscapes in oil and acrylic. While I am traveling to Rockport, Texas to exhibit my paintings, I haven't flown in a model contest since 1998.
Free Flight: Old-Timers
A couple of the photos this month show an interesting 1938/39 Wakefield-with a folding prop-which has never heretofore been published. It is the design of Jim Bohash, who called it the U.S. Standard Wakefield, and it not only got him on the 1938 and 1939 U.S. Wakefield teams, but won many contests in the U. S. and Canada. Jim tells me that the 1938 Wakefield contest, held at Paris, France, was quite an adventure. Frank Zaic was the team manager and guide, "So we were always lost." Zaic was "broke, as usual," Jim says, and the French customs seized 300 of his Yearbooks-which he had brought along to sell in order to have enough money for his return fare!
1988 SAM Champs
THE ANNUAL MIGRATION of certain bird and animal species to ancestral breeding grounds has long been studied by scientists. Certain of the creatures perform amazing feats of navigation and endurance to reach their goal. I have made a study of the members of the Society of Antique Modelers for many years now, and I find them unique in that they migrate annually to a moving target, with each successive destina-
Free Flight: Old-Timers
THE STORY of the 1939 Wakefield finals, dominated by Dick Korda's first-flight-of-the-day win, is part of our history. I have never had the pleasure of talking to Mr. Korda, but I have talked with several people who were there and who saw THE FLIGHT. There were weak thermals and almost calm winds in the morning, and the afternoon brought more wind, haze, and fewer thermals. While THE FLIGHT was in progress, others did try to launch into the lift but could not reach it or stay in it. THE FLIGHT involved two distinct thermals, two instances of a considerable gain in altitude, and a landing near the launch point.
