I learned to fly RC in 1956 flying a Berkeley Bootstraps powered by
an OK Cub 14 with a Lorenz two tube superregen receiver driving a
Southwest Magnetic Actuator. Somehow the model survived until I got
out of t he Air Force and I still have it.
When I resumed RC modeling in 1963, I became enamored with a gull
wing power pod sailplane published in Flying Models. It was an
unstable beast and frequently fell into an unrecoverable spiral
dive. The club expert took the transmitter and said "Let me show you
how to fly." He promptly spiraled it into the ground and handed the
transmitter back to me without saying a word. I decided that I could
design a better one so I did. The result was the Tern published in
the May, 1967 RCM.
The Tern used a Controlaire 5 receiver and I retired it to hang from
my shop ceiling when CB radio made the superregin receiver
unusable. In 1970, I had replaced my first proportional radio system
and was looking for something to do with the Microavonics radio. I
remembered the fun I had searching for thermals with the Tern so I
build another one large enough to house the giant Orbit servos and
called it the Tern II. It originally had a Cox TD 09 in the
nose. When we started using winches, the engine was replaced with a
nose cone and a lot of lead to become my first true sailplane.
By 1974, the Tern had evolved to the Tern IV which won a first place
trophy in Standard class and placed 8th overall at the SOAR Nats that year.
All of the models described here (except the unstable gull wing
monster) still exist but not in flyable condition. The Tern IV could
be refurbished but the wing spars aren't strong enough for modern
winches. Ironically, the Tern IV is not eligible to fly in nostalgia
even though it has a 1974 first place Nats trophy because it was
never published or kitted.
Chuck Anderson
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