An Ecktronics Nomad was my first RC 'ship, circa 1960. Inside was a Citizenship LT-3 receiver running off two AA batteries and driving a Bonner escapement to control the rudder. The transmitter was a CG Venus. (Do they even _make_ 67 1/2 volt batteries any more?) Still have everything but the Nomad. Did a lot of slope soaring with mine, but also got it in the air with a high start of strip rubber, and a couple of times with a removable power pod (Cox .020).
I still have the plans for the Nomad and have recently been contemplating building one with an FMA Direct M-5 and two micro servos for rudder and elevator. As the original Nomad had the option of elevator - driven by the rudder escapement - this isn't too far off track.
At Purdue University in 1963-64, I built an entirely sheet balsa sailplane patterned after a German RC design published in an Aeromodeler Annual. (Still have the Annual, too.) High start launches only. Not too impressive, even at the time. But I found out just a few years ago that Frank Deis, winner of one of the first NATS soaring events, credited me with getting him started in RC soaring.
Our first tailless sailplane was Dave Jones' Raven which we built in 1984 and which we still manage to take out and fly every once in a while. And we haven't built a horizontal stabilizer for ourselves since then.
Butyrate dope and Ambroid glue still produce aromas which carry a lot of memories. How do four and a half decades go by so fast?
-- B^2 B2Streamlines.com Bill & Bunny Kuhlman 'a resource for aircraft modelers' [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] P.O. Box 975 http://www.b2streamlines.com Olalla WA 98359-0975 USA RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
