Apparently the award of a year's subscription/membership was not sufficient to tempt folks away from the balsa and tissue project at hand because there was no response to the contest. Understandable, but your editor halted all model construction in order to get his mess cleaned up. The old timers among us will recall Fibber McGee's closet in the popular radio comedy series of the 1930s. Fibber would go to his closet to fetch something , and all of its contents would come crashing down on him. The sound effects were such as to intensify the drama. Our own imaginations worked on the crashing sounds to build up a calamity greater than could be shown on TV. Of course it wasn't possible to portray the sexual shenanigans on radio like TV can these days. Or maybe it was possible but producers weren't willing to risk it.. So much for present day morals and ethics; back to the balsa choppin'.

When I started my clean-up project, I kept hearing the words of my vocational shop teacher of high school days: "Clean-up time, boys, and let's try to refrain from leaving this place looking like a pig pen!". Clean-up time was a daily, natural part of working on projects, and I realized how far I had departed from that dictum. All the useful items had accumulated alongside the pure junk in such magnitude that I no longer remembered what I had, and couldn't find what was needed when I did remember. So my first action was to put all the usable, useful electric power bits and pieces, for example, in one box, where I could find them when my interest returned to the battery and charger world. Just now I feel like a helpless bystander as we are bombarded with new battery types, specialized chargers, electronic timers, etc. - definitely not the FAC spirit. Anyhow, my first resolution for 2008 is CLEAN UP AND PUT UP EVERY NIGHT. This means cleaning off all the balsa and tissue scraps and putting the blades, glue, rulers, pencils, etc. in their assigned places after each day's work session.

There was a wide assortment of odds and ends I have accumulated over the years as I pursued new ideas (most of which didn't work), and delved into new areas of interest. Some of the items are still useful, others are possibly useful, and the remainder will not see a useful application in the remainder of my lifetime. I collected all the ones I really hated to throw away, but didn't have a specific place to keep them, in a box measuring about one cubic foot and slid it into a corner. This left the stuff I use regularly in a more accessible (and known) place. There are two metal file cabinets in my "hangar" that perform double duty as places to hang tissue, plans, tips and whatever paper sheets are being used with small magnets. These little magnets are very strong and can play tricks until you become accustomed to using them but they form ideal "thumbtacks" when there is a steel surface to hang things on. Incidentally, in regard to hanging work tips, I found that I had already overdone the idea, hanging them all over the place, where they stayed forgotten and useless for ten years in some cases. I took them down, discarded the ones that were obsolete and/or impractical, and glued the remainder into a notebook. The latter is next to my workbench and will be reviewed before I begin each new model (so help me!).

As the new year dawns, I have resolved to CLEAN UP AND PUT UP EVERY NIGHT. Just about any layout scheme will work if we remove debris and put things where they belong every day rather than procrastinating with "whenever I can get around to it." HAPPY BALSA CHOPPIN' IN 2008!

(Editor's Note: Much has been written about the "so few" who battled the Luftwaffe in the sky, especially during the Battle of Britain, but there were many "grunts" on the ground who worked diligently, under trying conditions, to keep those Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancasters, Blenheims, etc. in the air. Joe Fergusson was one of those unheralded unknowns, and at your editor's request he will be providing us with thumbnail sketches of his experiences in those days of "blood, sweat and tears").

My favorite aircraft was the Miles Master IA trainer. I worked on those for three years and had a high regard for their efficiency and integrity. I flew many happy hours in those as I had in the Hawker Harts, which the Masters replaced in our squadron. I ended my service days on the north coast of Scotland servicing Bristol Beaufighters of Coastal Command which patrolled the Norwegian fiords every day to keep the Jerries' heads down in those regions. (Ah, the tales I could tell if I gave up modeling and took to writing!)

When the first Miles Master arrived we poured over it, looking at all the gadgets which of course we did not have on the old Hawker Harts, amazed at the complexity of the cockpits. (The old Harts had only four main dials.) Although awed at first by the task of learning all the new systems, I grew to love the Miles Master I. It was a workhorse which rarely complained but went on faithfully day after day to the cry of "What did you do in the War, Daddy, how did you help us win? Circuits and bumps and turns, Laddie, and how to get out of a spin." During a day's flying there was a conveyor belt of aircraft taking off and flying downwind and base legs, landing and taking off in an endless stream around the circuit, like yo-yo's. Biggest unserviceability came from the ruts in the grass surface, tipping the aircraft on their noses as on landing. The overworked old Rolls Royce Kestrel engines were prone to internal water leaks in the cylinder blocks and we thought nothing of a Master in the circuit streaming dense white steam from the boiling glycol coolant. The engines were all second-hand salvaged items from the old Hawker Harts, Audaxes, Furies and Demons, etc., and boosted up to 630 hp using heavier gauge studs to tie down the cylinder blocks - hence the coolant problems. In actual fact, when Miles had used up the supply of these old Rolls engines, they had to redesign the forward bay of the fuselage to accommodate radial Bristol Mercury engines which were all old jobs salvaged from out-of-date Blenheims and Beauforts. Although these radial-engined Masters Mk 2s were faster than the Mark 1s and basically the same kites, we never somehow took the same affection forward to these machines. The "ones" were our first and favorite aircraft with a charisma of their own. In time there just were not enough old Mercury engines to keep up with the production rate of the Miles Master so once again an engine change came into being.

So was born the Master Mk 3 which once again needed a modified nose for the chosen power plant, this time the US Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp Junior, which was smaller in diameter than the Bristol Mercury and for my money a nuisance of an engine - sorry, Yanks!.Of course as an airframe mechanic I did not have any dealings with the engine as such but it brought in a whole new method of operation compared to our beloved sleeve-valve Bristols. For a start, with the Bendix down-draft carburetor mounted on the top rear of the engine, it somehow was prone to start-up fires and many were the scorched bonnets of the mechanics frantically trying to put out back-fire flames in the carburetor. Then too when a kite taxied in after a flight, the pilot had to gradually run down the revs before he could switch it off. Not so with our old Bristols; we just shut them down right away. As I said, I had nothing to do with those messy radials up front, whether Brit or Yank in origin. To me they were only stuck up there in front to make a mess of my airframes.

(Continued next month)

Shown above are the in-line and radial engined versions of the Miles Master so dear to Joe Fergusson's heart. The radial-engined Master 2 version was capable of 242 mph. Relatively fast for trainers, some of the Masters were modified into a fighter version and used in the Battle of Britain air war. With that gull wing and sleek lines ("a charisma of its own," says Joe), why hasn't it been modeled?

Harold Lampton passed away on November 10th last year, according to a note from his daughter, Robin Taylor. Although he was never seen at any of our activities, he has been a member in good standing from as far back as the time the club was only a gleam in our eye, July/August 1991. His notes of encouragement at each dues renewal were greatly appreciated. He also gave us some balsa and such when he moved from Austin to Ingram. We hope all those good-guy modelers are back at it up there, where the thermals are soft and numerous and the wind blows only when asked. RIP, Harold!

August 2007 Windy Sock discussed the possible advantage of covering a wing with the tissue grain running chordwise rather than spanwise. Sounds like a good idea; warpage would tend to produce a dihedral arc rather than twist the trailing edge up or down, a step toward disaster. But your editor's previous experience has been repeated: I still get stubborn wrinkles that won't come out. So the battle against warpage continues. And reasonably stout structure plus clamping down during the shrinkage process continues to be our own most reliable tool - or shall we say "weapon?"

Glad tidings from Bernard Guest, who is located at Ludwig-Maximillian University in Munich, Germany: he is organizing "FACE - Flying Aces Club Europe." As of now the main FAC event has been in Brno, Czech Republic, which features only the smallest scale types on the FAC menu. Bernard wants to go FAC in a big way, especially with Mass Launches. Your editor's impression of Czech modeling philosophy is that they love precision in small things, and they excel at it. The idea of a free-for-all Mass Launch is probably some kind of a heresy there. (Editor Joe's opinion, intended only to emphasize Czech skill, and especially do we delight in the new freedom in that part of the world that has enabled us to really appreciate their good stuff.) This is a big step toward keeping our hobby alive and active. With the Internet linking all the nations, a healthy boost anywhere in the world rapidly becomes new energy for FAC freeflight everywhere. You can check out Bernard's web site by going to Google with "FACE Bernard Guest".

That's Bernard below. He can be reached at b.guest@iaag.geo.uni-muenchen.de. Good luck, Bernard, and keep us posted!

How's this for a free-flight paradise? Steve Riley tells us about it. Twenty-seven thousand (yes, that's 27,000!) acres near Denver. About the contest there recently: "The contest was great. We had 28 models for scale judging....Quite a few more in the 'non-judged' events like the mass launch and Jimmie Allen....High marks to the contest staff...a terrific BBQ with well over 30 attending."

"Mister Mulligan" looks good even in black-and-white. The photo comes from Steve Riley. David Wagner built it from a SIG kit. Designed specifically to win the Bendix Trophy, it flew high and fast for that day. Your editor has always been partial to it because he built it, his first model, in 1938, soon after it won the Bendix. I didn't like the all-white color scheme, colored it blue and orange instead. I built one wing panel, my mentor built the other; they didn't match.