Roy prefers to complete the wing panels (above left) and then make the cut out for the ailerons. A template was used to locate the rib cuts. Completed ailerons (above right), ready for hinging and mounting the
control horn. Note, new ribs will be needed for the ailerons after sawing the trailing edge to the narrower width. Use the proper location of the main rib template to make the aileron ribs.
the radio models that Ray was building. The R/C flyers were having a meet on Sunday in a field near Milpitas, California. Dad said we could stop by and watch on the trip back to Santa Cruz. It was there that I saw a re- ally streamlined model with a Rockwood 5- channel radio and powered by a McCoy 60 driving counter rotating propellers through a gear box. The model was built by a model- er named Bill McCracken. I think I saw an attempt to fly it that ended up with both pro- pellers broken. I talked to Dad about the radio and men-
tioned that Ray would assemble the trans- mitter and receiver kit for me if Dad would approve. Dad finally gave the go ahead lat- er in 1952. Not long after I didn’t see my Dad for
CD438 © Carstens Publications
many years so I forgot about the radio. I con- tinued on with controline. My Mom bought the small café where she worked and soon I had a job after school. That is how I financed my hobby. Sometime in 1953 I saw a picture of Ray with an R/C model that he had flown in the 1952 Nationals. I believe the maga- zine was Air Trails. There were also small drawings of each R/C model flown in the 1952 Nationals along with specifications and the builder. The drawing of Ray Mor- gan’s model I later figured out was the gen- esis of the Flying Ohm. In the fall of 1953 a young man recently graduated from college, came to Santa Cruz to work as the quality control superinten- dent for Bird’s Eye Frozen Foods. His name was Dave Shanner and he worked with the father of one of my school buddies. I met Dave and found out that he had a Berkeley Bootstraps R/C model. I told Dave about my friend in Patterson that did R/C. Low and behold! Dave told me that he had worked in Patterson for a time and knew Ray Morgan. Small world sometimes! Towards the end of 1953 I received a let-
Order Plan CD438 for $15.00 FLYING MODELS
ter from Ray telling me that my Dad had stopped by and paid for the radio. Could I make arrangements to pick up the radio? Ray also told me he was making a kit of his own design that he called the Flying Ohm. I told Dave about the letter from Ray. Dave said we should take a trip to Patterson after the holidays. When I told my mother that I was going to build a radio controlled model
airplane, she said something like, “I’m going to get a radio and radio control you!” Actu- ally Mom never disapproved of my hobby. She always knew where I was, home work- ing on a model airplane! I guess it was probably around February
1954 when Dave and I made the trip to Pat- terson. Ray was out at Patterson airport, a crop dusting strip. Ray had a model he called the Meg Ohm, which was much larg- er than the Flying Ohm. I think the Meg Ohm was designed for the heaver multi- channel radios that were starting to appear. I remember it was powered with a K&B 29. I never saw the model again after that week- end trip. Back at the shop I saw the Flying Ohm. The wing and tail looked like the drawing I saw in Air Trails, but the fuselage had been completely redesigned. I liked this version better than the one I saw in Air Trails. I purchased the kit and a K&B 15 and collected my radio and a Bonner SN es- capement. It was a really great trip thanks to my modeling buddy, Dave. The Flying Ohm presented here was a
very popular single-channel R/C model mostly in the northern California and south- ern Oregon regions. It was built for Stunt and when equipped with cascade compound escapements and two-speed throttle control, it became a very competitive contest model. Those of us that sport flew used fields of tall grass. We hand launched the models and the tall grass absorbed and protected the model during the dead stick landings. Without el- evator control, the rate of descent could not be checked, so the grass saved the model. Ray Morgan was a pioneer in what we
now call the cottage industry—those small manufacturers of model items made in garages and backyard shops. Ray’s Flying Ohm kit contained excellent fitting parts, lightweight balsa and an excellent set of plans. My fifty plus year old unfinished Fly- ing Ohms seem to be lighter than the repli- ca I just built. I suppose the development of multi-channel radios with more space re- quirements and resultant weight increase demanded larger models. Howard Bonner’s Smog Hog was pub-
lished I believe in 1956 and Fred Dunn’s low wing multi-channel Astro Hog, published in 1957, passed up the little Flying Ohm. I
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