MAAA Wingspan

31 AUGUST WING SPAN MAAALogo. The “Great Attractors” at the time were the Hobby Shop situated in Gawler Place, Adelaide and Colley Reserve, Glenelg where I met many model builders and flyers, Malcolm Pring and Ivar Stow, fondly known as “Stowie” among them. We were game for it all with stunters, team racing and of course combat- nobody could beat “Stowie.” Malcolm Pring, a schoolteacher was a great encouraged to us all and allowed us to use the woodwork shop at his school for some building on a Saturday. With no basic income to support my habit, I took to building control line models for the hobby shop owner, Brian, I think. On one visit he offered me a “starring” role in his upcoming TV program on channel 9; over a few shows we were going to build a small 049 powered model and on short lines, fly it in the studio. Luckily, it was not colour TV as the blood didn’t show when I sliced my finger cutting cloth. Like all aeromodellers I used what was at hand to stop the flow of blood, C22 balsa cement did the trick. Success was ruined when the COX 049 refused to start. My T.V career suddenly came to an end. With school days ending and no money to buy R/C gear it occurred to me that if I studied electronics, I could learn how to build my own equipment. I obtained a position at WRE, now DSTO, and at taxpayer expense learned how to do just that. During a stint at Woomera I shipped up all the materials to build a John Marquette “Cicada”. This was the model of the day and because it was clunky, my work mates called it a Brick Bomber. I joined Constellation Model Flying Club (CMFC) and with Graham Ward importing Orbit servo mechanics, built a pile of servo amplifiers, Doug Saxby paid for his with a “Taurus” kit with fiberglass fuselage and foam wings. As with most of us, Aeromodelling then took a back seat to girls, water skiing, marriage, and house building. Extended by the construction of two speedboats, one from scratch. In 1972 I relocated to Melbourne, so off to the Hobby Hanger to see Tony Cincotta and purchased a set of Futaba gear. Tony recommended a few clubs but, in the end, joined Victoria Association Radio Model Soaring (VARMS) and took to slope and thermal glider. VARMS was a great club with lots of fantastic flying sites, Mount Hollowback, Glenfern Road, Camperdown and Dandenong Ranges. Whilst with VARMS I flew with Ralph Learmont, Southern Sailplanes, and the legendary Col Collyer. Victoria is a great aeromodelling state with lots of clubs to visit. https://varms.org.au/ In 1977 I relocated to Sydney, shock number one being there are no nice rolling hills for slope soaring. I took to flying with the Northern Beaches guys over cliffs at Long Reef, Mona Vale and other surf beaches. Landing was a challenge due to the savage rotor behind the cliff so best done on the beach after a scramble down. If you picked the correct spot, you could give the sunbathers a smile and a nice look. Sometimes we flew from West Head over the harbour and occasionally at Stanwell Park, this is where Hargrave did most of his kite research, but it was a long drive. Driving near Turramurra, I noticed a little park suitable for a bungee launch so started flying there, this attracted other guys and we formed a small club, “Sunset Soaring”, which is still active. We were limited to bungee launch and electric; electric was very limited at the time due to can motors and NiCad batteries. http://sunsetsoaring.org/wp/ I joined Warringa club, WRCS, flying at the Jack Black field only 25 minutes from home. The field was an old quarry hacked out of the Sydney bush and some members called the area ‘Death Valley” as an out landing in thick bush was a real health risk. Great club with terrific blokes and I had to learn to fly all over again with power. We had regular monthly competitions and I served a minor role on the committee as contest director.