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MARCH 2007 ARTICLES
FAC SOUTHWEST REGIONALS
"Some really good news ....we now have a caterer for the field. She will be at the flying (field) from 7 a.m. till 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. That
means hot coffee and soft drinks and food and water....for you guys and your ‘guests.' Also, if you'll turn to page 132 of your new (March) issue of
Model Aviation...you will see two guys on the page who are ALREADY PRE-REGISTERED for our FAC SWR event!!! Mike and Mike...now these
are not real ‘hunks' but they sure do build and fly great airplanes...NOW for all you guys who are procrastinating to fill out your form and mail it
in....these two guys are a great example. Soooo fill those puppies out, write your checks and lick the stamp...we need your Pre-registration ASAP...less
than 60 days till the event. By the way...for you SOUTHWESTERN SQUADRONS....no ‘easterner' has pre-registered as yet....Now, for you
EASTERNERS...let's get crackin.' To reward all you folks who have and will NOW pre-register, we have a special event memento that will be
personalized with your name if you have pre-registered prior to April 5th. Many Maxes to all...Roger, Hutch and George.
P.S. An update from Ross says Lin is on the mend and doing well. Keep some good thoughts for our GHQ Command."
The date draws near - May 4-6. Contest directors are John Hutchinson and Roger Willis 760-603-8877. FAC/AMA membership is not required. Entry
fee is $25, which covers all events. Two-minute max applies to all events. No overnight parking at the field. Scale judging will be held on Friday night,
May 4th, at the Days Inn at Perris, CA. Official flights will be 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday (May 5th) and Sunday 7 a.m. to 12 noon. Awards will follow
beginning at noon. To print off the registration form, Click Here. To print off a site map, Click Here.
by Al Cleave
"The Early Days"
As told to Al Cleave by Leland Snow...(This article first appeared in Ag-Pilot International, February 1991)...The ‘30s were for aviation as the ‘80s are
for the Space Age. It was a big time all over the country, an intense period of flying with all sorts of activities taking place, records being set, etc. I was
born in 1930 at Brownsville, Texas, in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and grew up during this era developing a deep interest in airplanes.
I went to high school at Harlingen, outgrew models (Big mistake, Leland!...Joe), became more involved with the real thing, and made many trips on my
bicycle to a small airport on the south side of town. At fifteen, I got to know two of the pilots, and through them got a job washing and gassing
airplanes in return for flying time. After working some eight to ten months, I soloed on May 31st, my sixteenth birthday. Following graduation from
high school, the plan was to wait for a year before going to Texas A&M. The main reason for this was because I wanted to grow a few more inches
before entering college. During this year, I worked for my dad as transit man on a survey crew and earned enough to take care of my freshman year
tuition. He was helping pay for the second year, so his death at this time eliminated any further financial assistance and made other arrangements
necessary for future years.
I had gotten a reputation around Harlingen for being a pretty fair pilot, and during my Junior year was working on my commercial (pilot license). An
operator named Heard Carden at the nearby small town of Primera needed a seasonal pilot and told me to come to work the next summer. I got my
commercial in early ‘51 and started spraying in May of the same year, flying a J-3 Cub on weekends and going full time when school ended in June. It
turned out, however, to be a very poor year as far as insects were concerned. During the summer of ‘51, I started laying lines for the S-1, the forerunner
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of the future S–2/Thrush series of agricultural airplanes. Because of the unprofitable season though, it didn't look as if I'd be able to make enough
money spraying to go to A&M plus build the S-1, so my mother refinanced the family car for $1,200, and funds were available for the first materials.
My only previous contact with full-size aircraft construction had been the rebuilding of a wind-damaged Aeronca Chief, but this had been good
experience and gave me confidence to begin the S-1. I started on the wings first, and laid out a jig in the garage for the ribs....dusted in the morning and
built ribs in the afternoon. There was a lot of free time due to the slow season. In my senior year at A&M, the welding phase got under way. The 4130
tubing was kept in a long box, and since I lived in a dorm, there was no space for it in my room. It would have got me demerits anyway. It ended up
being hidden behind a couple of sofas in the visitors' room. The first thing on the agenda was to learn how to weld. I rented a garage with no floor or
electricity for $2 per month, bought a torch, rented bottles, and set up to weld spars. With the idea of using steel truss for wing spars, I bought angle
iron and built a jig. Lengths of tubing were strapped to my motorcycle and carried from the visitors' room to the garage as needed. The weather in that
part of the country can be fairly cold in winter, and entailed working in a heavy GI overcoat and gloves. The door had to be open to furnish light due to
the lack of electricity, and the temperature was often near or below freezing with snowflakes blowing in the door. After two or three weeks of cold and
freezing....go to a coffee shop a few blocks away to warm up, then return....it seemed there must surely be an easier way, and as a result, the decision
was made to use wood. I was graduated the following May, and brought the car to Bryan to haul all the stuff back to Harlingen. I'd bought an old
Stinson Voyager with 165 Franklin engine, originally intending to use this from the firewall forward on the S-1, but later came to the conclusion that
more power was needed in the form of a 190 hp Lycoming. An L-5 Stinson had the proper mount for the 190, so the front end of the S-1 fuselage was
designed to fit this. At that stage of the game, building a mount from scratch seemed like possibly more than I could handle. Racks were made on the
fuselage to hold the wings, and the Stinson was towed back to Harlingen at night when traffic was light. I immediately plunged into the ‘52 dusting
season there, which turned out to be an exceptionally busy one. The S-1 wings were completed later that summer.
I planned to go to the University of Texas at Austin in the fall for one year's post-graduate study, choosing UT mainly because of the quality of its
engineering department. In addition, it was only a few hundred miles from Harlingen, and after four years of men's college, the coed aspect also entered
into it. (For the benefit of those not familiar with Aggie tradition, Texas A&M has since been converted to coed status....Joe). During the summer of
‘52 before enrollment in Austin, I located a mechanic named Ernie in Harlingen who could weld, and took the tubing and fuselage drawings to him.
Every time an inquiry was made concerning progress during the weeks that followed, the standard reply was always, "I'm going to get on it first thing
tomorrow." When the summer ended, Ernie's tomorrow had never come, so I gave up on him and had the tubing shipped to Austin. After getting
situated at the University, I went to Ragsdale Flying service at the Austin airport. Bobby Ragsdale was both interested and generous, and a deal was
worked out where if I hired one of his mechanics for welding, I could occupy part of the shop free..The mechanic, Jack Haag, was a real doer, and it
was hard to hold him down. He jumped right on the drawings, and in no time had chalk lines laid out on the floor.
Returning to Harlingen at the end of the school year, I started the ‘53 cotton season, which proved to be a complete bust. (This reminds ye editor of Al
Cleave's reply to the question, "Were you ever near death in your crop-dusting career?" He said, "Yes I almost starved to death twice.") After six weeks
of doing practically nothing, I went back to Austin in hopes of being able to finish the S-1. The wings were already completed, so I fitted them to the
fuselage, built struts, then covered the wings. During this summer, I heard of a possible opening for a pilot at Wharton, Texas, and drove there to check
it out. This outfit was Acock Dusting Company, and was managed by Rosy Grantham. They had three new Super Cubs and two pilots. There was
enough work for two-and-a-half pilots, so we came to an agreement where I'd use one of the Cubs to commute. They'd call the night before when they
needed the third airplane, and I'd leave Austin before daylight and fly to Wharton. I'd set my alarm to 2:30 a.m. and take off at 3:30. Arrival would be at
daylight or a little before, with a landing being made on a street in a new subdivision. This part-time job was desperately needed after the bad season in
the Valley, but it was hard physically to work on the S-1 all day and then get up at 2:30 the next morning to go to Wharton.
(To be continued next month)(Click Here to go to April)
PROPS, PROPS, PROPS...MY KINGDOM FOR A DECENT PROP
By Tom Arnold, from Scale Staffel Newsletter
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SHOP 101
DOWEL TIP
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POLAND'S PZL P-11C
With details galore, this plan and article from 1960 Aeromodeller is about as good as such data that was ever developed for scale modeling use. We
haven't seen any evidence of great flying success at Geneseo or anywhere else but it should do reasonably well in a large size. Actually, to take
advantage of the details provided, it would probably be too difficult for most of us to replicate it in less than about 30" wingspan. At that size, it should
fly well enough to be competitive, especially with high scale points added. Regrettably, Aeromodeller has become history, and data like this is not often
seen in modeling publications. Even if no model is built, connecting the items in the "Data Index" table with corresponding details on the plan is
rewarding in itself.
The P-11c was obsolete when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 but the Polish Air Force did put up a valiant fight using the plane. At the outbreak of
WWII on September 1, 1939, P-11s attacked 100 Luftwaffe aircraft headed for Warsaw. Though obsolete, they caused the enemy formation to disperse
with the result that many of the bombers had to drop their bombs on the countryside. Later that day the attackers returned and were again engaged by
the Poles. Fourteen Luftwaffe planes were shot down while ten P-11c's were lost; only two pilots were killed.
The P-11c was all-metal with the gull wing intended to provide high visibility, a trait that was greatly valued in WWI fighters but rarely achieved. The
pilot has unlimited visibility above and behind, the two directions most favored by attacking aircraft. The thickening of the wing at the strut was
necessary to provide sufficient attachment for the strut to do its job, not simply to please us modelers esthetically. Its service ceiling is specified as 36,
080 feet; we cannot help but pity the poor pilot in that open, unheated cockpit. With a top speed of 242 mph, it could climb to 16,400 feet in six
minutes. That early in the war, there was probably not much action higher than that. This reminds us of other obsolete aircraft in the early days of
WWII, especially the Gloster Gladiator and the Fairey Swordfish. There are tales of the three carrier-based Gladiators - Faith, Hope, and Charity - that
engaged the Luftwaffe, and there was the example of the Swordfish torpedo plane that disabled the Bismarck, a mighty German battleship, by
damaging its rudder and setting it up for final destruction by the Royal Navy surface vessels.
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