Free Flight: Duration
Max-Aid Circle-Tow Device: A glance at the literature that has piled up over the past five years about various circle-tow, catapult-launch, and line-keeping devices for towline gliders leaves one with the impression that it is all part of a master plan contrived by the Devil himself either (a) to condemn the hapless modeler to an eternity of fussing with cantankerous hardware instead of engaging in more enjoyable pursuits, or (b) to render the modeler totally and permanently mad! Fortunately, two series of articles have appeared recently in British publications, which make some sort of order out of the chaos: one by Ex-World Champ Elton Drew in Aeromodeller, and another by the Editors of Free Flight News.
Free Flight: Duration
The Coot: I guess I have a soft spot in my head for low-ceiling indoor hand-launch gliders. You don't have to drive for five hours to get to a place where you can fly them; any school gym or cafeteria will do. In fact, we once held a meet in a fellow's living room! The cost of the materials is negligible, although finding suitably soft wood might be a problem. Sig's Contest Balsa is often suitable, particularly if you can pick and choose a little. A contest-grade model can be built in four hours. They look like they would take even less time, but it is the sort of thing that shouldn't be rushed. And lastly, with little experience, and a 53-year-old arm that never could throw very well, I have been able to give big names, such as Ron Wittman and Lee Hines, a run for their money. A dedicated 12-year-old could do as well. Bob Hayes, Jr., who has done rather well in Indoor Hand-Launch Glider meets, winning the Nats and setting records and all that good stuff, sent me some info about a low-ceiling IHLG that has been cleaning up in Midwest competition for the last few years in the hands of its developers, Mike and Stan Stoy. It has some features-besides winning a lot-that put it in a class by itself.
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.
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.
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.
