VintageViews I
was going to write about “flying reeds” in this month’s column but have re- ceived several great responses from readers
regarding my last column
about Galloping Ghost. So I will share those responses with you this month.
I will write about the “Reed Days” in my
next article, so if you have some stories to share about your own “Reed Days” please send them to me.
From Al Knight, Lewis, Delaware: “I just received the April 14 issue of FMand was surprised to see what I believe to be my old GG actuators that I gave you at a WRAM show several years ago. I am sure they are mine because all three of them shown sure look like mine.
“The GO-AC was bought probably through Grid Leaks magazine somewhere around the early ’50s. The other two using Mighty Midget motors were built from mis- cellaneous brass shim stock that I ‘bor- rowed’ from my employer at the time. The plans may have been in Grid Leaks also. Both had the throttle function by holding the signal either full on or full off. “My transmitter key was hooked up to a rotating drum that had a brass sleeve on it that tapered from a point at one end to a full circle at the other. A wiper could slide from one end of the rotating drum to the other. In the center you got 50-50 pulses for neutral rudder. This was a crude proportional GG system!
“In those days the biggest problem was getting the correct tension on the centering rubber band. Don Brown, who made one of the first fully proportional systems, showed me a trick to keep the tension right on the rubber band. He wrapped the band around the wing hold-down dowel and you just twisted the dowel to get the correct tension! Any day you got your plane to land in the same field that you launched it from was a
PHOTOGRAPHY: BOB NOLL
Mister Ewas one of many Ted Strader designs which was kitted by Kustom Kit expressly for Special Edition Plans. The plane was designed for Galloping Ghost with only rudder and elevator control.
great day. Thanks for bringing back all those memories.”
From Bill Mohrbacher (no address
given): “The GO-AC was designed, built, and sold by Ted Strader, long-time, prolific RC designer and a major FM contributor. The GO-AC pictured in your April column is missing the throttle lever. The following is text from my ebay ad when I sold my GO- AC. Copies of the original instructions are also attached.
“The GO-AC was designed around a Mighty Midget electric motor; the workhorse motor of the times. I never actually flew with this actuator; Rand came out with a better unit before I ever used it. I can’t explain Gal- loping Ghost in this short space, but it was a valid method for getting simultaneous, pro- portional control of rudder and elevator from a single channel; quite a feat in the ’50s. Ap- plication of up elevator caused the tail to os- cillate between neutral and up (imagine do-
ing a loop by pulling back on the stick and letting it go about once every ¾ second). This was the “gallop” in Galloping Ghost. “You have to study this unit with its ‘read a whole lot between the lines’ instructions to appreciate what modelers in the late ’50s, early ’60s had to master. There was no ‘take it out of the box and fly’ equipment. If you didn’t understand some level of electronics and have some native mechanical instinct, you were ground bound! Ted Strader, who designed dozens of very successful RC planes in that era, designed and manufac- tured this unit.
“Many of these old actuator designs used rubber bands for centering. Quite convenient since as your batteries (dry cells) ran down, your travel decreased. By slackening the rubber band you could get some travel back.” From Duie Matenkosky, (no address
given): “I just read your column in the latest FM, where you show the various pictures of
by bob noll You can reach Bob Nollvia e-mail at
bobrc@aol.com
Another of Ted Strader’s designs, the Go-Wind (at left) was designed in 1963. This Go-Wind was built by Ted’s son Eric and flown at an early VRCS reunion. Tom Ailes (above), of Valpariaso, Indiana showed off his fleet of nine vintage planes at an early VRCS Reunion. Tom is partial to Midwest planes having worked for them for many years.
58 JUNE 2014
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