2012 FAC Nats
with beautiful hand-carved exotic-wood 3- bladed props. Pete Kaiteris’ unique Me-109Z Zwilling coming into trim and setting some new high flight times. Vance Gilbert’s 48- inch wingspan Curtiss Twin Jenny cruising overhead for a 42-second official flight. Eng- land’s Mike Stuart flying his four-motored Armstrong Whitworth Argosy high over- head not once, but seemingly over and over again. Tom Hallman’s large, new MiG DIS turning in a beautiful max flight. Richard Zapf’s Consolidated PBY searching for the downed Ensign Gay in the Midway mass launch. Mark Fineman’s just-published Bestetti-Nardi (June 2012 Model Aviation) flying high and long, and Chris Starleaf fly- ing several gorgeous rubber scale twins, in- cluding his FAC Scale winning Cessna 310, and making it look easy. We know that’s not the case!
FAC veteran Pete Azure’s grandkids Raven, Connor, and Josh efficiently “ran” models for the Scale judges on Wednesday night with Maxecuter Doug Griggs provid- ing cheery guidance. Kendrick Gosselin and Ben Dion happily flying their catapult glid- ers in Friday afternoon’s rainshower while the old guys sat it out. More kids than ever were in evidence at the Nationals.
Getting a rubber-powered model to fly properly can be a challenge. On a number of occasions during the flying, seasoned fliers would take their time to help a kid to trim their model. Wally Farrell, a serious com- petitor, helped Kendrick Gosselin over a number of days to trim his Ryan ST. The re- sulting 75-second flight was fabulous and Kendrick’s smile told quite a story. Ah, the joys of youth!
Boston’s own up-and-comer, Phil McGov- ern, turning in a 71-second flight with his Golden Age Reproductions Comet Rearwin Speedster in Dime Scale. Hagerstown, MD's Erika Escalante repeating her fine 2011 Non-Nats showing with a new Embryo En- durance model, and Connor Azure flying a nicely built Easybuilt Lockheed Orion. Chatting with Shuttleworth ace pilot Andy Sephton and watching him proudly put his big, beautiful Easybuilt Lysander through its paces in the blue Geneseo sky. Learning about the fine art of custom-mold- ing rubber tires from Derek Knight after watching his flawless Tiger Moth FAC pow- er scale model turn in an especially high, long and realistic flight. Falling in love with the expressive peanut-shell pilots in Old Rhinebeck ace pilot Dan Taylor’s models.
Learned the trick from Cole Palen himself, said Dan.
The use of computer printing on the tissue covering has greatly increased the types of color schemes attempted. There were no fewer than three Fokker D-VII models sporting a full lozenge pattern of colorful polygons complete with colorful pink tail markings. The beauty of this approach is that colors and marking once created can be shared with the speed of the internet. The FAC Spirit lives!
A bit further down the line, another Old Rhinebeck ace, Matt King, works hard to start the little Cox Pee Wee .020 in his usu- ally high-flying veteran Sterling Great Lakes. Not this time, unfortunately, as the little motor refuses to run despite Matt’s best efforts. His beautiful “Seven Swabiens” Fokker D-VII and Avro Triplane Pioneer Scale models fare better at this meet. The memories keep flowing—F.S. Gilbert’s big Douglas Devastator gradually coming into trim over several days of test- ing, culminating in a great, soaring flight in the second round of the Midway mass launch on Saturday. Dr. Harvey Pastel’s lit- tle Prairie Bird Embryo getting lifted off the card table and pulled into a puffy cumulus
Gary Hunter experimented with his electric powered F-100 jet (above left). His F-100 climbs for altitude in the skies of Geneseo. Other fine FAC power scale
PHOTO: DAN DRISCOLL
included Doug Beardworth's Curtiss BF-2C1 (below left) and Tom Hallman's Airco DH-2 (below right).
24
DECEMBER 2012
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