Old News Reels

Ed Hamler wins big at the EuroChamps

Just heard from Mary Hamler via phone that Ed Hamler won the overall Championship at the Euro Champs!! Congratulations Eddie!! Mary joked that she didn't know what it said that the only two times that she didn't go with him to the Euro Champs, he won it!

Ned Nevels




 Slideshow of photos here

Stardust Special

Wedgy

HobbyKing Racer & The NASA Guard House Bird

HI Tom,

 Flew the HobbyKing Racer four times yesterday. I had to move the battery and 2 1/2 ounce weight from the back of the firewall. It was nose heavy. But I had to put the battery and weight behind the fire wall to balance the model as per the manual. So much for going by the instructions manual. The battery is in front of the servos and the model is still slightly nose heavy. Plan on adding some lead to the tail. The model flies fast with my old 60 Speed Webra using a 13 - 4 APC prop.. Flew it in a heavy cross wind this morning. No problems up in the air. Took two tries at landing; but I got it in A-OK! I could not resist taking a photo of the bird guarding the NASA Guard House. Thank You For My Birthday Present.

 Bucky Walter

Don't be maimed, be restrained

More info here.

  Company website http://www.airopult.com/en/

Sioux

After building the Comanche, I got to looking at the plan for the Sioux.  Really, I had just as much fun flying the Sioux as with the Comanche.  What the heck; it’s still raining so why not cut a little wood.  There’s another Cox Black Widow.049 in the old engine box so the power is covered.  The fuse is sheeted all over, so I had better go with silk and dope.  Don’t want to end up tail heavy with a film covering.  My original model was red and I’ve got plenty of red silk, so red it will be.  Time flies when you are building.  In less than a week she is ready to fly.

Live Wire Rebel with converted Heath Kit radio

old radio converted to 2.4 gHz

Tom, It flies GREAT! Just the way Pappy DeBolt designed it. It flew right of the board as they say. A little right trim under power, but that's it. Powered by a P.A.W. 1.49 cc twin ball bearing diesel

that starts every time with 3 flips, it weighs 29 ozs. which is 10 ozs. below the 1956 design weight. I built one in 1957 when I was 14, powered with an OK 074 with a Lorenz 2 tube rx and a Demeco

servo, which was sorta like a compound escapement, but with more batteries. Never got more then some marginally controlled crashes. Times sure have changed. Tony Stillman's conversion performed

flawlessly. Thanks for the tip.

Dave

Junior 30

Joe Wagner's Comanche Revisited

While browsing through my file of old plans I happened upon the plan for the Comanche, a model designed by Joe Wagner in 1951 for Veco Models. Joe designed the Comanche as a dual purpose model: free flight and PAA Load. It featured a fuse operated pop-up tail as a dethermalizer. Then nostalgia gripped me: should I build an R/C version of the Comanche like my old free flight of the early 1950s? With some hesitation I unfolded the old plan and it all came back, those free flight days with pals flying at the old Henderson Field. Oh, Henderson Field is just north of Tampa. It is where the Martin B-26 Marauders trained. Today the place is called Bush Gardens. Well that’s it; I am going to build the Comanche. That Indian name Comanche. Joe Wagner named several models after Indian tribes. The Dakota, a little all balsa biplane, it too I made back in those days. Joe inquired in a 1980s model magazine if anyone had R/Ced his Dakota back in the 50s. I sent him a photo of a much younger me holding my escapement operated R/C Dakota. He also designed the Sioux another high wing model. Yes, I built a Sioux back then. After losing it without a DT and having it returned wet from the swamp by a hunter, I decided to install a fuse operated parachute DT. This worked beautifully for a while. I took is to Ft McClellan, AL where it flew away in a thermal pulling a deployed parachute and all! Back to the new Comanche: I had to add structure to the model to make it strong enough to stand the rigors of R/C; it is ready to fly; incidence checked, balance checked, range checked, etc. I am writing this epistle ‘cause it’s been raining for days and I have nothing better to do. Can’t fly! 

 Fred

Weathervane

Tom, One of Harry Murphy's last wishes was for a replica Zeek as a weather-vane on the top of his house. Harry researched the Zeek history extensively and reported it in NFFS Digest. He truly loved the bird. Harry passed away but wife Phylis fulfilled the dream -- sort of. She pulled out what she thought was a Zeek drawing and had a metal fabricator replicate it and mount it on the cupola of the house. Foiled again -- the plan was that of a Megow Ranger. I'm sure Harry would be very delighted just the same. My son, Gil Jr., went to Murphy's house in Anderson, IN on Memorial Day and took these telescopic shots. No one was home. Something every modeller with a house needs to have! Gil