Louis Joyner

lookING AND leARNING: If you are
like most Free Flighters, you toil in relative
isolation with only limited contact with
like-minded modelers.
That’s all the more reason why you
should take every opportunity at a contest
to examine the work of other modelers.
Study their models up-close, check out the
details, and ask questions. As long as the
modeler isn’t busy getting ready for a
contest flight, most will be more than
willing to show off their handwork.
And the question “How did you do
that?” usually leads into a long discussion
of tools and techniques.
Which models should you look at? Don’t
limit yourself to the events you fly. Many, if
not all, techniques can carry over from one
type of Free Flight (FF) to another.
Don’t limit your attention to the
winning models. There are good ideas
even on the worst-flying models. (And bad
ideas are sometimes used on good-flying
models; you have to use judgment.)
overall appearance is a good place to
start. At the risk of generalizing, most
well-built and well-detailed models are
clean and neat; that doesn’t necessarily
mean an elaborate multicolored tissue-trim
job or fancy graphics.

ON THE DIAGONAL: In the days before carbon fiber and other high-tech materials, building a stiff, warp-resistant wing was a challenge. You could use a sheet-balsa D-box or a completely sheeted wing, but the weight penalty was often more than you, or more accurately the model, could bear. For lightweight structures, the tissue covering offered some increase in torsional stiffness, until it went limp in the rain or on a humid morning. Multispar construction also helped by breaking the wing structure into many small panels.