Small planes are back!

Model Airplane News, Feb 1998 by Marshall, Larry

Good things come in small packages!" An old expression-but this is what more and more modelers seem to be advocating these days, as small models are once again making a major comeback. For those of you who weren't there, the 1970s were a time when .049-powered planes were very popular. In those days, House of Balsa had a sizable line of .049-powered scale planes, many popular sport RIC planes had .049-size versions modeled after them, and Ken Willard seemed to produce a new small-plane design every month, while popularizing "fly in your front yard" model aviation. It was a time when small, simple models, powered by the ever-popular Cox engines, were being flown everywhere. All this activity was in spite of trying to do it with radio gear that was none too small by today's standards.

Well, they're back! It's hard to pin down a single reason for the renewed popularity of small airplanes. Maybe it's due to a shortage of building time-goodness knows that building small, simple birds takes less time than bigger ones-and it's fun to be able to build a plane in a few evenings. Maybe the difficulties of transporting today's giant-scale models causes folks-even those who like large planes-to take up smaller planes to increase their stick time by using the vacant lot near their home as a flying site. Maybe it's the low cost of small models, the reliability and ease of use of Norvel's new engines, or maybe it's just wanting to do something different. But whatever the reasons, flying fields are starting to see more and more tiny birds.

The popularity of Speed 400-powered electric models was never more evident than at this year's KRC event. The sky was full of tiny pylon racers, scale planes, sport planes and sailplanes, all powered by these $10- to $12-motors. A walk along vendors' row underscored their popularity, as virtually everyone selling kits had at least one Speed 400 plane for sale, and for many, this has become their bread and butter. The smiles of the pilots flying them should provide us with some insight into why these small models are so popular.

The guys at Norvel have big smiles on their faces, too, because their products are selling quite well; so well, in fact, that House of Balsa is rapidly rereleasing its line of scale planes to give homes to the Norvel powerplants. Robart have just rereleased their micro-retracts to provide tiny scale models with feet. Norvel themselves are gearing up to sell 1/2A planes, and Ace is expanding their "Simple Series" of small, easy-to-build models. Gus Morphis continues to provide those smitten with small-model building with a steady release of new, small warbird plans. Cox is also in the process of retooling to improve their line of engines.

Locally, we're gearing up to pylonrace Ace Texans using Norvel .061 engines. These quick-building planes fly like banshees with the Norvel engine, and it's just plain "cool" when we've got several of them in the air at the same time. What other form of racing is there where the cost of aircraft and engine is $75? The best part is that each time we fly these planes, we seem to "infect" a few more people, who run to the hobby shop so they can get into the act, too.

AMA 704 combat is growing by leaps and bounds. I guess you would call this "combat with style," as the guys competing build gorgeous sport-scale 1/12-scale warbirds and chase one another around the sky. Greg Rose and others have just established an official AMA combat special interest group (SIG). You can get more information about the SIG from the ASDA (American Scale Dogfighters Association) website at http://imt.net /~ims/Combat/combat.htm. If you like warbird models, you've just got to check out this site to see what's possible in the world of scale modeling, without spending a lot of money.

So, if you haven't tried a small model lately, maybe now's the time. But beware! From my experience and that of several of my buddies, small models are like peanuts-it's really hard to have just one!

AMA 704 NATIONALS & DELAWARE WARBIRDS

Just to give you a taste of what I've been talking about, Doug Haacke tells us of the fun they had at the AMA 704 Nationals, held this year in Wyoming. Where else can you find model Hellcats chasing Zeros in true combat?

Lest you think everyone has given up their big birds, we're also taking you to one of the premier giant-scale warbird meets in the country. Warbird meets are also a growing phenomenon, especially up and down the East Coast. The Delaware meet is one of the largest because of its location. The plane of choice here is a big old warbird, with "warbird" defined as anything military. The sky is shared by Sopwith Pups, Corsairs and the occasional "between-the-wars" plane. While the Zenoahs and Quadras roar, a whole bunch of folks have fun at this meet-and that's what it's all about.