Flying for Fun
WOOD: This information about balsa is going to be a refresher for old hands, and basic information for newcomers. I am doing a kit review (for another magazine), and the design uses a great deal of sheet balsa in its structure. The plywood and balsa are above average, but wide variances in grade and weight still exist in the kit box, so individual sorting must be done to best utilize the supplied material. This project reminds me of some long-known, but often-ignored realities about balsa. For optimum strength and durability, one must select and grade the kit wood on the basis of use. An old adage states, "straight-flying models are built straight." To that I add, "you can't expect to build straight with the wrong wood." Have you ever observed someone sorting through every sheet of balsa in a hobby shop, yet buying none of them? This builder has a specific use in mind for which only one type of balsa is suitable, or he or she may be hoarding the good stuff for future use.
Flying for Fun
Wow! My July 1997 column featured the Piper Skycycle as a potential Scale model, and in the nearly 20 years that I've been writing columns for Model Aviation, no other subject has generated so many letters and photos. The response proves, as I had suspected, that the Skycycle is an exciting Scale subject. By coincidence, the July issue of Scale R/C Modeler also contained a piece on the Skycycle! The article featured some of the old material to be found in Air Trails and Air Progress, since the publisher acquired the rights when Potomac Publications failed several years ago.
Flying for Fun
Mail brings information to the modeling press about new products directed at the readers' varied interests. Some of the product announcements are widely distributed to try for free "plugs," and are usually deferred to the "new products" sections of the magazines. However, some new products are of such interest, and of sufficient novelty, that they merit hands-on trials and subsequent reports. Through the years, new products such as FabriKote, Koverall, MonoKote, Ceconite R/C, Solartex, cyanoacrylate adhesives, Davis diesel conversions, etc. were subjects of modeling magazine articles, although some products do not work successfully in our hands and are never written about.
Flying for Fun
DECORATIONS: My four- and eight-year-old granddaughters decided that they and grandpa should decorate a birthday cake. The results were less than an artistic triumph, but to those little girls it was the most "beautifulest" cake ever. That delightful project leads into this month's topic: model aircraft trim and decoration. As with the cake, personal preferences and expression can lead to very interesting model airplane aesthetics. Occasionally the results can be less than pretty, but so what? Scale subjects are limited to what can be found to document color and markings; however, some of the following is applicable to Scale and non-scale. This month I'll look at air-dry finishes, and next month will be catalyzed materials and perhaps Mylars®.
Flying for Fun
And Furthermore: Last month I took a quick look at model aircraft finishing systems that lose part of their contents to reach a final form; they change from a liquid to a solid state by evaporating solvents. They dry, not set! In that discussion I mentioned the use of nitrate and butyrate dopes on paper or silk-covered models. A superb video by Larry Kruse that demonstrates lightweight covering and finishing techniques for models is available from Robin's View Productions (Box 68, Stokertown PA 18083). To paraphrase the old Tonight Show, "everything you could possibly want to know is contained in this sealed videocassette."
