Flying Aces Nationals: The best of free flight scale

Model Airplane News, Dec 1998 by Marshall, Larry

Another of the young guys was Chris Parent. Chris is a master builder and flyer. His Nakajima Type 91 was built from Nate Sturman plans, and he managed a secondplace finish in the Golden Age Military event. He also brought an Albatros DV and F4B, both built from Golden Age Reproductions* kits, and both were museum-quality models.

There were electric-powered models, too. Both scale and non-scale events were held for small electric motors. For me, the highlights were Joe Barrish's Autocar, powered by a HiLine dual Mini-6, Dave Rees's American Eaglerock (also powered by a HiLine system) and Terry Pittman's Farman Jabiru (powered by four HiLine Micro-4s). But there were electric freeflight planes everywhere; they've really come of age.

It's no wonder that more and more scale guys are becoming interested in free-flight scale. The planes are relatively simple to construct and require far less space to build and store, and the cost of production is almost nothing. They can be flown in small areas with short motor runs or in large fields with 15 to 20 of them in the air at once. Give this form of model aviation a try; it's fun. At the end of the event, Vance Gilbert said, "Only 362 days until the next one." Maybe we'll see you there.

*Addresses are listed alphabetically in the Index of Manufacturers on page 150.