Radio Control: Giant Scale
EVER SINCE Hector was a pup, model builders have been duplicating Aeronca aircraft. The reason, of course, is that most "AirKnockers" were stable, high-winged monoplanes that have always flown well in model form. Giant Scalers have duplicated several Aeronca prototypes, first because there were great Nosen and Balsa USA kits available, and in more recent times because very scalelike twin-cylinder, four-stroke glow engines were available to simulate the original E-113C Moorehead two-banger. The "Flying Bathtub"-the Aeronca C-2/C-3-was beautifully drawn in five-view by the late Paul Matt in his Historical Aviation Album series. Paul's drawings proved to be the documentation for the Bathtub and subsequent Aeronca models.
Radio Control: Giant Scale
SINCE we're smack-dab in the middle of the Giant Scale building season, some recent correspondence with Louis Hemphill (Columbia, MO) is rather appropriate. It all started out with a phone call from Lou. He's in the process of fabricating scale engines. His building material is a bit unusual-PVC water pipe! With his lathe, he's turning out scale cylinders for Wright J5s and J6s; Kinner radials; Continental four-cylinder and Lycoming four-cylinder "flat" engines. His rationale for using PVC: 1) PVC is a strong, durable material. 2) It's readily available from a variety of sources. 3) It's inexpensive. 4) It's easy to work.
Radio Control: Giant Scale
AVID FLIER, Renegade Spirit, ProTech PT-2-have you seen one? Or a HiMAX, a miniMAX, a Challenger II, a Phantom, a Kestrel Hawk? There are a lot of them around along with a host of other homebuilts and ultralights. If your taste runs to British design, there's the Streak Shadow. The point? There are literally hundreds of small, good flying, man-carrying aircraft that have never been modeled and many of them would make spectacular Giant Scale birds.
Radio Control: Giant Scale
AH! The merry month of May! The flying season is well under way in most parts of the country-or soon will be. The main topic for this month's column was inspired by a "car person" who also flies RC-a 6-ft. Pitts rigged with smoke. Joe Sullivan hails from Dallas, TX. He was concerned with the use of dual-servo (redundant) installations among the Giant Scale birds we're interested in. More specifically, Joe wondered what would happen if one aileron failed at the extreme end of its travel (assuming that the other servo functioned normally).
Radio Control: Giant Scale
SCALE NUTS of the first order! Yes, it is almost a "given" that we who build Giant Scale models are considered as such. Since our models are so large, their scale details are correspondingly large. We are expected to duplicate everything visible on the exterior of the full-size airplane. At standoff distances, the rationale goes, contest judges can see every nook and cranny, every panel line and rivet head, every rib and former. That is true, up to a point. Judges can see the detail if it is present in your documentation book. The most conscientious Scale judge, however, can't commit to memory every bump and depression on every airplane ever built and flown. Being human, they rely on what is presented to them (in the documentation book) in evaluating the quality of detail you've included in and on your model.
