Radio Control: Aerobatics
It is early September as I write this, and the US FAI/F3A team is already in Japan for the 1995 World Championships. What they do there will soon be duly recorded, analyzed, published, enjoyed or agonized over, and then consigned to the dusty stacks of Pattern history. (Editor's note: Full report next month.) This is a tale pulled from those same stacks; partly a story of other World Champs 30 summers and more past, but mostly the story of one Pattern modeler: Ralph C. "Doc" Brooke. Some of you noted his recent selection to the AMA Model Aviation Hall of Fame. A few others still active may have flown with him. Most who will read this are likely unfamiliar with his name, and that situation deserves correction.
Radio Control: Aerobatics
RC CITY HAS BEEN SOLD, as of November 1, 1995. The new owners are Mike and Maureen Dunphy. If you been at all involved with RC Aerobatics (especially Pattern) in this country during the last few years, their names are probably familiar. Mike was the Event Director for the '92 and '94 N-PAC contests, the '95 Nats, the '93 and '95 FAI F3A Team Selection Tournaments, and was Chief Judge at the '93 Nats. Maureen was the scorekeeper for most of those events, and as of January 1, 1995 she has been the Secretary/Treasurer for the National Society of Radio Controlled Aerobatics (NSRCA). The Dunphys are committed, dedicated members of the RC Aerobatics fraternity, and as far as I'm concerned, this news couldn't be much better. I'm certainly pleased for them, because I know that being involved in the hobby industry has been a personal goal of theirs for some time. I'm even more pleased for the rest of us.
Radio Control: Aerobatics
WHAT IS A PATTERN AIRPLANE? A simple question, but the way we answer it defines our event to ourselves and all who might join us. The simple answer is that a Pattern airplane is any airplane a competitor chooses to fly in Pattern-style aerobatic competition, but this seems to beg the question. Somewhere, there must be a definitive description-maybe on an old stone tablet at AMA Headquarters, gathering dust in a museum crate. The AMA Competition Regulations aren't much help. The rules of the event provide weight limits and restrictions on size, but only one rule-an ancient safety prohibition against "knife-edge wings"-defines shape. Still, show a photo of a Finesse, Dr. Jekyll, or Python (three current designs that most competitors would agree have very different shapes) to the average Sunday flier, and all will instantly be identified as Pattern models. Ask further, and you will likely be told that "all Pattern models look alike." They may not look alike to you, but they do to Joe Sunday, the sport flier.
Radio Control: Aerobatics
THIS MONTH we have the Newcomers in Modeling issue, and for this column that means content aimed at newcomers to the entry level RC Aerobatics events: Novice Pattern and Basic Sport Aerobatics. For me, it's the third in a column trifecta aimed at the entry end of the aerobatic continuum; the April and May issues dealt with Novice rules and our cast-iron notions of what a Pattern airplane is and isn't. Now we get to the heart of the matter. Just what is necessary to give RC Aerobatics a try? Even more important: why bother? It makes more sense to consider the second question first. Every once in awhile, I like to make a pigheaded, opinionated, controversial statement, and June seems as good a month as any:
Radio Control: Aerobatics
A RECENT VISITOR to my basement shop surveyed the various projects underway, and remarked, "this sort of building is becoming a lost art." My immediate reaction was protest, but the comment made me pause. Now, after some rumination and research, my thoughts on the subject are mixed. I'm sure that the average Pattern model is as well-built as ever, but I'm not so sure that the building arts are as alive and well as they once were in Patternland. To cap this ambiguity with ambivalence, I'm not even certain how I feel about that. A glance at the advertising in any current model magazine shows that we live in the age of the RC Almost Ready to Fly model. More beginning RC pilots now buy ARFs than build traditional kits. A lesser-known fact is that the ARF sport and Scale aerobatic models sell about as well as the trainers-and to a far-more-accomplished group of pilots.
