At 11:26 AM 4/1/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Yesterday I got a chance to go over to the local used book store. They had
>a bunch of old issues of RCM (a few other mags too, but RCM was all I got a
>chance to really look at). I took the time to dig through the mess and
>found some really neat stuff.
>
>Among the things I found:
>Construction article for the 'Windfreak' flying wing.
>Product review of the 'new' Hobie hawk (April 1974!)
>Construction article for the Gryphon flying wing
>A picture of a much younger Joe Wurts (1981)
>Construction article for the Esprit, the American built up one.
>Proof that one of our local club hot shots (Dale Nutter) has been kicking
>butt in contests since long before I was born.
>New found appreciation for modern radio systems. I found several articles
>from 1965 saying that reliable R/C equipment could be right around the
>corner. They even had articles on do it yourself TX, RX, and
>servos. A 4 channel transmitter in 1971 cost $199.00.
>A featherweight IC servo, only 1.75 oz! for 4lbs of thrust.
>Park flyers have been around a long, long time, but they were1/4A powered.
>Women on the cover of RCM way back when were much more suggestive....
>
>
>I paid $1 per issue, well worth the enjoyment of browsing though them. So
>on a cold rainy day might be worth a trip down to the local used book store
>to dig up some old memories. I bet it will convince you the good old days
>were maybe not so great after all :).
>
Don't need no used book store. All I have to do is go up to the attic.
In 1964, the Air Force loaned me to NASA for 4 months to run tests in their
wind tunnels. The first weekend I went to the hobby shop in Mountain View
and found the 6th issue of a new magazine exclusively for RC models. I
promptly searched all the model shops in the area until I found all the
earlier issues of RCM. I still have all issues of RCM except for a few
that have somehow grown legs and got away. I really need to reorganize my
magazine collection but have found that to be impossible. Every time I
start, I don't get very far because I spend too much time reading.
And you are wrong about the good old days. We didn't have all the modern
equipment at extremely low prices so we built a lot of it ourselves. We
developed and invented all the things you enjoy today. We might not have
had the high performance sailplanes but we had fun with what we had. If we
wanted better models, we developed them by the good old fashoned cut and
try method. I still enjoy flying my own designs more than what's available
elsewhere.
Chuck Anderson
RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and
"unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
