Sm Tall alk W
ell boys and girls, there’s a nip in the air, a touch of frost on the windshield, and the smell of Fall is all around us. The air conditioner is finally getting a well deserved rest, and the furnace is cleaned up, fired up, and all set for the winter chill. Well, not re- ally, it’s 93 degrees out, there’s not a cloud in sight, and a bit of relief from the summer heat would be real welcome. But by the time this makes it to press, the former might be more accurate then the latter and those among us in the North Country might just be preparing for the winter building season. That being the case, and even for those of us in the high desert where we fly pretty much year round, it might be a good time to clean up the shop in preparation for the up- coming winter building season. It would also be a good time to take a close look at the mod- els that served us well through the summer flying season, clean them up and make the repairs that we’ve been avoiding so that when next year rolls around we’ll be ready to break them out and fly rather than deal with the problems when it’s far less convenient. And then, we can start those new building projects we’ve been looking forward to through the summer. Meanwhile, the shop is no doubt a bit disorganized with the clut- ter from those quick fixes and other small projects, and a bit of cleaning and straight- ening might be a great idea too, so that when that next big project does get underway, all of the tools, parts, and other modeling giz- mos we’ll be using will be handy and easy to find.
There’s one other thing that has been be- coming a problem in recent years, too: Parts. With the local hobby shop quickly fading into obscurity, parts all too often have to be mail ordered, so rather than running to the corner store, we order on-line, and we wait!
by pat tritle You can reach Pat Tritle at 10313 Snowheights NE, Albuquerque, NM 87112 or via e-mail at
patscustommodels@aol.com
PHOTO: JERRY SMITH
The Swami, built from the recently released BMJR kit, is a classic old freeflight model updated for laser cutting and radio control. The model can be powered with either electric power, or a Cox .049 engine.
There’s nothing much more frustrating than having to put the skids on a project just be- cause we need that one little item only to find we used the last one last year. So, take a close look at the kit or plan you’re about to start, make a list of all the items needed to complete the project, check your inventory, and then start gathering up the rest so that you won’t find yourself stalled along the way, patiently waiting for something to get there. A few spares might not be a bad idea either ... just in case.
Making new acquaintances In recent weeks I met a new modeler here in ABQ, Dave Salguero, who is really doing some cool stuff. Dave is one of those guys
that “likes ’em all”, and has modeled sever- al great little airplanes, and flies them too. His first is the Antoinette that he built for 3- channel electric R/C, and in spite of what one might think, this little model flies beau- tifully. The model was built from Bill Han- nan’s 29.5-inch freeflight plans. The R/C conversion was done using a Spektrum AR6400 brick with a pull/pull control sys- tem running the rudder and elevator. Pow- er is an E-flite 180 outrunner with a 120 mAh 2S Li-Po battery. And the best feature on this model—if you could only pick just one—would be the engine detail. Very nice- ly done.
Two more of Dave’s creations are the Fokker Eindecker and the Piper J-4 Coupe;
PHOTOS: DAVE SALGUERO
Dave Salguero converted this Bill Hannan freeflight Antoinette(above) to an electric powered 3-channel R/C and came up with this beautifully detailed, and great flying little model. Dave has also been busy converting the Dumas 17-inch span freeflight kits (at right) to 3-channel R/C using the power and guidance systems from the ParkZone P-51 Mustang.
50 NOVEMBER 2012
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