District XI—Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington
Chuck Bower
Vice President
cbower@whidbey.com
6075 S. Coles Rd., Langley WA 98260
Tel.: (360) 632-9211; www.amadistrict-xi.org
Building season is upon us with winter making it hard to get much outdoor flying done. I hear that more clubs are finding places to fly indoor RC and indoor Free Flight, including foam profile fun-fly airplanes, Scale electric conversions, and indoor slow fliers. I attended the Willamette Modelers Club indoor season opener. There were models from Pistachio Scale to a large F1D Duration airplane. Jake Palmer did several trim flights with his F1D in preparation for the 2017 Nats. Pictures, and even videos, don’t do this kind of model justice. You need to see these in person to fully appreciate this art form. Check out the video of Jake’s F1D in the digital edition and at www.ModelAviation.com.
One of my favorite things to do is visit other modelers in their building spaces. Some have large shops, while others get by using the kitchen table. The names of these modelers aren’t important to this column—it’s the space where we build our dreams, and where we fix those dreams when they need some tender, loving care.
Shop 1 is large enough to have produced many large-scale gas-powered replicas of World War I aircraft, as well as sport models of all sizes. Note the walk-around worktable. The end of the long garage is also an aircraft work space. This maintenance table doesn’t interfere with the building space. There’s also room for more tools and spare parts.
Shop 2. This time of year we might find ourselves in the warmth of the house, maybe by our computer? The key word is warm.
The garage floor has a tool room, with a workbench for oily, smelly things such as a test-stand project for an old ignition engine. Good ventilation is important to keep the rest of the family happy.
Shop 3. This is the messy part of a shop. You only have to clean it up when you want to find something.
This shop has a hobby-grade laser cutter as well as most of the common hobby tools somewhere in the mess. There’s video of it in progress in the digital edition and at www.ModelAviation.com.
You might see me in a shop near you.
