F/FSport N
by david mitchell You can reach David Mitchellat 230 Walnut St. NW, Washington, District of Columbia 20012, or via e-mail at
davedge@me.com
o-Cals; it seems freeflighters ei- ther love them, hate them, or don’t understand them at all. Scale purists may sniff their noses and deem them unworthy of attention. Indoor purists may shake their heads, finding them hopelessly opaque, heavy and inefficient. Many dismiss them as “beginner’s models.” The truth is that No-Cals occupy some- thing of a no-man’s land between “true” in- door competition models and outdoor scale models. They offer much of the satisfaction that can go into researching and modeling a full-on scale ship, while requiring less com- mitment in the way of time and materials. No-Cals are capable of very impressive flight times.
Their fun/cost ratio is extremely high and there are many plans available from the in- ternet for free or for a very moderate cost. Among the best known sources are the sites run by Paul Bradley,
www.parmodels.com/ Plans and Michael Morrow,
www.aeroaces. com/
nocalplans.htm. For those of us who are computer literate, these sites often feature downloadable “skins,” which can be printed onto tissue for a minimum-hassle covering job. Check them out!
The No-Cal skinny
Wait…maybe you’ve never even heard of them. No-Cals are very lightly constructed, rubber power “scale” profile models. You will probably most often see them flown in- doors due to their relative frailty, but you will also regularly see more robust models flown outdoors. The Flying Aces Club regu- lates No-Cals very lightly; a 16-inch maxi- mum wingspan and a bare handful of other basic rules keep things simple. While there is no official minimum weight requirement—the really top builder/fliers like Ray Harlan will show up with models weighing less than 2 grams—many clubs es- tablish minimum weights at their local con- tests in an effort to keep things competitive. A weight of 6.2 grams (the weight of two cop- per pennies) is a suggested standard, as it makes it easy to weigh models using a sim- ple balance beam scale.
Since a decent model can be put together
PHOTO: DAVE MITCHELL
Dave’s SBC-3 HelldiverNo-Cal weighs 6.6g without rubber and is a real floater with all that wing area. All markings were done via inkjet printer on tissue. Lightweight construction is the key to a successful No-Cal.
in a relatively short time, No-Cal designs are a good choice for advanced beginning model- ers who are ready to move on from basic de- signs like Delta Darts, Z-15s and the like. The apparent simplicity of No-Cals should not be taken to suggest however, that they are without challenge. A successful model requires attention to structural detail, care- ful use of adhesives, and clever engineering. I believe I have learned more about the finer points of balsa structure and construction through designing and building No-Cals than any other FF rubber class I have at- tempted. Everything has to do with maxi- mizing the strength and effectiveness of the minimal structure.
It is a pretty easy thing to casually knock together a No-Cal in the 10- to 12-gram range, which will seem like a shockingly low weight to anyone accustomed to flying mod- els in the 50-gram range. But when you see a well-trimmed, 6-gram (or so) No-Cal put- ter by at less than a walking pace and com- pare that to your 10-gram heavyweight
blasting around the arena, I promise you cannot help but want to do that, too! So you start weighing your balsa more carefully, thinking about whether or not that fuselage upright in the rear is really necessary after all, begin building with 1⁄20- inch strip and exploring ways to make ever lighter prop blades. You might even cross the Rubicon and (gasp!) purchase a rubber stripper. The difference between your model on a loop of .080 and a loop of .085 will shock you. You will begin to grasp that a mere half-gram of ballast may represent 10 per- cent or more of the entire weight of the mod- el and do everything in your power to avoid that ballast.
And then….the first time you have to add weight to your model to bring it up to the minimum required for the contest, you will enjoy a certain satisfaction knowing that you have arrived, at least in terms of No-Cal construction! If you now apply the focus and discipline you have developed to your larger, outdoor builds, you will find dallying with No-Cals to have been a worthwhile pursuit indeed. That is, if you ever make it back to those larger builds. I warn you, you can’t eat just one. These things are addictive!
A weighty challenge PHOTO: PUBLIC DOMAIN - WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Admit it, you have always wanted to model the Breguet IV, but didn’t know where to run the rubber. A fine, fine subject for a No-Cal.
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Another, perhaps less obvious, angle to No-Cals is the opportunity they provide to get into the air with rubber freeflight models of odd, fascinating subjects; airplanes that will just never, ever get modeled other- wise—at least not by any sensible person. Think of all the crates you wouldn’t even pause to consider because the fuselage is too skinny to handle the required rubber. The rubber motor on a No-Cal is outside of the fuselage. Problem solved!
Or how about planes that are so weird, ungainly or unlikely that you wonder what
APRIL 2014
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