With flying fields becoming more scarce these days we are all being encouraged to reduce the noise made by our models in the hope of hanging on to some of our existing fields for a while longer. I well remember the time when I flew the first ever silenced control-line model seen in our local park, sometime in the early 1960's and produced our first ever noise complaint!
The only conclusion which can be drawn from this is that it sounded different from that to which the local residents had become accustomed. Ever since that day I have been convinced that noise really has very little to do with the problem. It would seem that the real problem is one of Public Relations.
My own theory, for what it is worth, is that there are a vast number of people in this world who would love to fly toy aeroplanes but would not be seen dead doing so - and if they can't do it why should you? This "boys with toys" stigma is the root cause of the whole problem and we ourselves are largely to blame for it.
There is an old saying which says that the only difference between men and boys is in the price of their toys! I never cease to be amazed at the way some modellers object strongly to comments about toy aeroplanes. Amazed because, if we are really honest, surely that is exactly what we are all playing with. Now, if we ourselves attach some kind of stigma to our favourite hobby, we cannot really blame the uninformed masses of Joe Public for not seeing things any differently, can we?
Looked at logically, a toy is something which is used to keep someone out of mischief and to use up idle time. Granted some of our toys involve a great deal of effort and skilled work but, it is possible to buy an almost completely finished model of almost any type these days. Added to this the day of the complete R/C helicopter, with motor already fitted, is now upon us.
It is, perhaps, intriguing that, in the writers experience, the vast majority of serious competition modellers do not object to the term "toy aeroplane" while most sport flyers do. One is tempted to wonder what a psychiatrist might make of that fact.
Have you noticed that there are an increasing number of model trade shows cropping up all over the place in the last year or so. Odd this since most of them (with the exception of Sandown, which is in a class of its own) claim that they lose money on the deal and traders are always complaining about the high cost of stands, etc.
Some would have us believe that this is a last ditch attempt to drum up trade for a flagging industry, yet this seems very unlikely with new kits, new products and even new companies coming along all the time.
Until fairly recently there were more radio control equipment manufacturers in this country than in the rest of the world. There were something like 4 - 5 times as many manufacturers as in the entire USA and the ratio is still around 3 to one. One has only to look at the model railway world to see how cottage industry reigns supreme in this country and the same thing applies to the R/C industry. Sadly, it seems that the flying side (see above) of the hobby is on the decline, but the car and boat scene appears to be very healthy.
Could this have something to do with the emergence of electric power, one wonders; this being the area where flying machines are lagging way behind the other classes.
The general lack of interest in electric flight makes sense, perhaps, if you look at it from the point of view of a rather heavy sports model which takes half an hour to fill the tank. What makes matters even worse is the fact that if you do not fly out the whole tank in one flight, then you have to empty it - at a similar slow rate - before you can begin refilling it.
It becomes even worse still when you consider that the charging of nickel cadmium batteries, with a view to obtaining maximum performance, is becoming steadily more complicated.
So, it all comes down to reducing model weight and the correct feeding of your batteries. Or, as Alfred, Lord Tennisson so rightly put it:-
The charge of the light brigade.
Those of you who listen to Humphrey Littleton's excellent radio program on Monday evenings may be aware of the following tale.
On one program Humph referred to a pianist as, "The inimitable Errol Garner who has been imitated more times than most people have had cooked dinners." A listener forwarded this to a newspaper for entry in their column on unintentional gaffs and, after it was published, was paid a fiver for it!
I can only assume that the listener concerned could not play the piano!
Incidentally, if the penny has not dropped yet, try changing the words Errol Garner to Frank Sinatra, or Tony Hancock, or.....Dave Bishop?
A friend was test flying a new helicopter and had not realised that one of the servos was moving in the reverse direction to that which was required.
Lets explain here that the modern model chopper normally uses separate servos to control throttle and pitch functions although these are both operated by the throttle stick. To make matters worse in this case the pitch range had been set up to give some negative pitch and it was the pitch servo which was reversed.
After running up the motor and checking all systems an attempt was made to take the model off into hovering flight. The motor RPM was steadily increased with the model showing no inclination to leave the ground.
Eventually, with the motor screaming its head off, it was decided that something was wrong and the throttle was sharply closed. Oh Yes! Did we mention that the model was also fitted with a device known as an autorotation freewheel which allowed the rotor head to continue to rotate at high speed after the throttle was closed?
The result of this was that the model shot up to height of about 20 feet where it stopped - with the blade RPM rapidly decaying - and commenced to fall. As might be expected, the pilot automatically slammed the throttle open again to stop the model falling - whereupon it literally drove itself into the ground! Fortunately, damage was slight.