This one is about modeling but not about sailplanes. They hadn't been
invinted yet. I had just receintly bought my first RC system, a Berkley
Super Airtrol, but had not been able to get it working.
Chuck Anderson
1953 MATS
In the summer of 1953, I had been accepted fpr Aviation Cadets and was
waiting for orders to report. I manage to save enough money to go to the
National Model Airplane contest at Willow Grove Naval Air Station in
Philadelphia that July. My brother Louis drove me up in his 49 Ford while
I paid the gas bill. He wasn't interested in model airplanes but he did
want to see the big city. I collected all my free flight models and
entered 1/2A, A, and B free flight. I also signed up for food and lodging
that the Navy provided for contestants at very low cost. Louis slept in
the car and we alternated in using my meal tickets at the Navy Mess hall.
On one day I would eat a large breakfast and supper while Louis would gorge
himself at the noon meal. The next day we switched rolls. The one eating
only one meal a day would buy hot dogs and candy bars from one of the many
venders in the area.
I had only one good model, a 1/2A Fubar, that I managed to crash into the
only obstacle within a mile in any direction. There was a large metal wind
tetrahedron in the center of the triangle formed by the three runways.
After a successful test flight the Fubar glided into the edge of the
tetrahedron breaking the wing. My other models didn't even get that far so
I spent a lot of time in the hanger provided to the modelers for a work
area. The Navy hanger was the most memorable thing about the Nats when the
Navy sponsored them.
The Navy would clean out one of their large hangers and set up work benches
for use by modelers. It was quite an impressive sight. Row after row of
work benches filled with every kind of model. There were even a few R/C
models being worked on. The recently approved License free frequency of
27.255 opened the door for the modeler without a ham license to participate
in the event called radio controlled flight even though the controlled part
was sometimes suspect.
The hanger was a beehive of activities 24 hours a day. Some modelers were
building new models for tomorrow's event, however most were repairing
models damaged in today's event. It was there that I met the legendary Jim
Walker one night while repairing my Fubar.
Jim Walker was everywhere promoting his line of models. That particular
night, Jim came through handing out free samples of his 10 cent glider.
Soon impromptu contests were going on all over the hanger. Like all true
modelers, we soon began modifying the gliders for better performance. The
first step was to change the stab to make it at zero relative to the wing
to improve launch altitude. After several other mods, I was getting
phenomenal launches, often going up between the exposed roof beams. If the
model did not hit one of the roof beams, I was getting times approaching
one minute. In fact, one flight was timed at just over 1 minute. That
time would have been good enough to take third place if I had taken it over
to the Lakehurst airship hanger and entered it in indoor hand launch. Jim
Walker was walking though the hanger and witnessed one of the better
flights and came over to get a better view of the model. He turned it over
in his hand and shook his head. He didn't say a word and walked away still
shaking his head. I tried many times to repeat the mods on other gliders
but was never able to approach even half the performance of the original
Glenview glider.
While I didn't win any trophies, I did come away with many memories of the
classic Navy Nats as well as disposing of my free flight models before
going into the Air Force.
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