Henry R. Carstens
president and publisher
carstens@carstens-publications.com
Frank Fanelli editor
Jim Wiggin associate editor Maureen Frazer production editor
John A. Earley vice-president and director of advertising
Pieter W. Uptegrove advertising manager
George Riley director of marketing
Larry Deitch advertising production manager
Tammy Havens advertising production
Phyllis M. Carstens assistant to the publisher
Otto Vondrak webmaster
Chris Lane book acquisitions manager
Lynn Good, Dot Schmidt customer service
Cathy Streeter dealer service
FLYING MODELS (ISSN 0015-4849) Incorporating FLYING ACES and R/C Model Boating, is published monthly by Carstens Publications, Inc., 108 Phil Hardin Road, Fredon Township, Newton, New Jersey 07860. Phone: 973-383-3355. FAX: 973-383-4064. Visit our web site at
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his issue is packed! That’s good for you but what a Sisyphean task it was for us. If your Greek mytholo- gy is rusty think of the guy who
kept trying to push a huge boulder up a mountain only to have it come rolling down again, each time. Well, where Sisyphus failed we succeeded because you’re reading this, which means we finished the issue. But before I highlight what’s in this month’s pages let me tell you about an apparently insignificant little in- novation that might make your reading a lit- tle more facile. In the body and caption text of all the ar-
ticles you read this month, we’ve “colorized” all the websites and e-mail addresses men- tioned in the columns and the feature arti- cles. It’s sort of like the same thing you see when you go to a web site and can click the “colorized” links mentioned in the text. No, you can’t put your finger on it like you
can click on something with a mouse and have the website or e-mail magically appear. We’re good, but not that good. Instead we’re trying to make it easier for you to find the links our authors have offered to help you get more information. Let us know if it helps. One more bit of news. Dave Lockhart isn’t
with us this month. He contacted me and told me he’s been strangled by deadlines and model events that really put him up against the wall. So he asked if he could have a month off as a breather. Based on the prodi- gious output he’s shared with us these past months, how could you I no. He’ll be back next month. Okay, on to what’s brewing in this issue. Probably the best place to start is with in- troductions of our two newest contributors, Scott Copeland and Tom Binkley. Both of them came out of the clear blue, asking if FMwould be interested in their respective articles. At that point I always suggest some sort of teaser to see what the quality of the article is like. Both passed with flying colors and that’s what you’ll see in Scott’s article on sliced ribs, and Tom’s article on his Yard Stik. If you ever get a chance to look at the wing
rib structure of a light aircraft like a Cub or similar GA planes, you’ll see that there’s a lot of “air” in them, nothing like the solid sheet ribs we almost always use in our mod- els. That design characteristic is a nod to making construction easier. But, an open rib, like the aforementioned Cubs and oth- ers could only provide the same strength and the added benefit of increased lightness. So how do you add that advantage to a
model? Sliced ribs. Turn to Scott’s article on page 44 and you’ll see how you can make them not just one at a time but a bunch of them together. Tom Binkley, on the other hand, was al-
most pretty well satisfied with the perfor- mance of his original Lite (now Pico) Stik. It taught him how to fly R/C but subsequently left him wanting something more.
4 At this point he embarked on his own pro-
gram to improve what was a pretty good model airplane and make it suit him. The re- sult is his Yard Stik, a plane that yields a decent amount of performance but retains the simplicity and economy of its forebear. There’s a familiar author who’s back with
us this month, Tom Sandor. Over the years he’s presented us with a string of neat freeflight designs like the PT-22, the Grum- man Widgeon, the Ansaldo, the Aeronca Champ and others. This time around he turns his attention to a pretty obscure but interesting WW I plane, the Hansa-Bran- denburg CC. Look across at the facing page and you’ll
see it’s pretty unique: extreme wing gap, neutral stagger, and a flying boat hull. If you were looking for something off the beat- en path then your search has been narrowed quite a bit. So, while on the subject of flying boats
let’s segue to my article on the ParkZone ICON A5. What an intriguing aircraft. The company who manufactures this full size light sport aircraft calls it the jet ski of the air. ParkZone’s foamie version of it repro- duces the latest version, complete with the sawtooth snag on the wing’s leading edge. Been a long time since I flew off water and
always find it a thrill, like learning to fly all over again. So, I couldn’t resist taking on the chore of this intriguing aircraft. It left me frustrated because it was so much fun and different to fly it off the water, yet the cold weather has arrived. That means I’ll have to wait until Spring to try it again. But maybe not. Perhaps the snow will prove another suitable runway for this very neat plane. Whoa, space is running out and I still
have three more things to mention, one of them my article on favorite workshop tools. Take it for what it’s worth. I’m sure you have your own go-to tools but these are the ones that I seem to use all the time. Their use- fulness is far more valuable than whatever they cost. Maybe there’s one that will help you out more than just a lot. Jim Wiggin has also been busy on the key-
board with his two articles in this issue. The first, about Retro RC’s News Flash, let Jim hook up with his past, after camping out by Mark Freeland’s booth at the Toledo Show. Seeing the longing look in Jim’s eyes, Mark took pity and bestowed a News Flash kit on him. You’ll have to find out how it all turned out in Jim’s article. By the way, Jim has a habit of hanging around like that. He did the same thing with me, not once
but twice. The second time around he wan- gled the onerous chore of reviewing the ParkZone F4U Corsair. After reading his in- troduction, I realized this was another throwback in time to his youth. You’ll have to see what I mean by reading it yourself. A reminder: go take a look at the sample
digital edition of FMif you haven’t already. It’s the December issue and there’s an ad on page 74 telling you more about it. Let us know how you like it. –FRANK FANELLI
FEBRUARY 2012
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