Free Flight: Duration
A NEW BEGINNING, a clean slate, a time for reflection. Why are we here, where are we going, how do we get there from here? For starters, I'll do what comes naturally: a disorganized potpourri of successful or interesting models, useful hardware and construction techniques, Free-Flight products, and news of Free-Flight happenings. I'm not an expert at anything in particular, so I will depend almost entirely on material I receive from you. If you would like me to include more material on a particular phase of Free Flight, or less, let me know. Where we go depends largely on you. Perhaps between us we can show the ukie jockies and beep boxers that Free Flight isn't merely CL with broken lines, or RC with dead batteries, or a mere stepping stone to either one. My address: 4200 Gregory St., Oakland, Calif. 94619.
Free Flight: Duration
Free Flight Spokes Here: If you dig Free Flight, and want to learn more about it, we suggest you consider joining one or more of the following organizations: The National Free-Flight Society (NFFS), The National Indoor Model Aviation Society (NIMAS), or The Society of Antique Modelers (SAM). NIMAS, the oldest of the bunch, is spark-plugged by Bud Tenny. Its monthly publication-a minimum of four pages-gives the results of the most recent contest happenings, latest national records, a schedule of forthcoming indoor meets, lots of hints and tips, and one to four three-views of outstanding models from the U.S. and abroad. Annual dues, which include a subscription to its publication Indoor News and Views, cost $3.50. Write to Bud Tenny, Box 545, Richardson, TX 75080.
United States Free Flight Championships
Temperatures reached 95 to 96 in the afternoon all three days, and the humidity was unmeasurable. That's a sneaky way of saying I forgot to bring my hygrometer. At their strongest, winds were gusting between 10 and 15 mph, which made keeping track of the smaller models for five minutes extremely difficult when they dropped below the outline of the surrounding mountains. Three contestants suffered serious effects of the heat; one was taken to the hospital in an ambulance beckoned by radio by the first-aid station set up at the field by the City of Taft. It is surprising there weren't more, considering how little attention most people give to guarding against that sort of thing.
Free Flight: Duration
Free Flight's Top Ten: The National Free Flight Society announces the recipients of its ten Free Flight Model of the Year awards for 1975: In the pole position, receiving their second such NFFS award, are Bill and Bob Hunter, the greatest spectacle in free flight, with their Satellite 226. Check their new GLH series, which we predict will be due for another NFFS award along about 1977. Big Red Johnson gets the nod for his Tarter 800, highly successful in Southern Cal competition. The FAI Power award goes not to a U.S. team member, nor to a World Champs winner, but to a guy who stuck to a concept he knew was right; Bill Gieskieng for the flapped-wing concept, as exemplified by his Siren-Dippity. In Wakefield we have John Gard, who received the award for his outstanding long-motor-run still-air machine.
Free Flight: Duration
Preparing For The World Champs: Many free flighters who specialize in the international FAI events bumble through the qualifications and semi-finals with last-season's models and half-hearted preparations. Preparation for the Finals is usually taken more seriously: new models, new engines for the power-models, new gadgetry and techniques for the towline glider flyers, scrounging and testing rubber for Wakefield motors, and lots of test flying. But when, after the Finals, one suddenly discovers that he is on the team that is to defend the reputation of U.S. free-flight model aviation at the World Championships, the work really starts. I have had some correspondence with Jim Walters recently concerning his preparations for the World Champs, where he will fly Nordic towline glider. I rather imagine his level of effort is somewhat representative of what the other eight team members (three in each event) are going through about now.
