MAAA Wingspan

15 AUGUST WING SPAN MAAALogo. was aeromodelling gear and in no time, he had a good following at the local high school, flying every Sunday afternoon. “With the collapse of the slot car industry, I was back to working just 40 hours a week instead of the 90 hours that I had been doing,” said Roy. “This enabled me to get back to modelling with a vengeance. I attended the Warrnambool Nat’s with new models, all free flight. No one was more surprised or pleased than I, finishing with three firsts and two second places. “The following Nat’s I decided to chase the Champ of Champs Trophy (you had to gain a place in more than one category) so I entered in some control line events as well as free flight. With wins in F.A.I. Combat, Open Combat, F.A.I Power and third places in A2 and Class 1 Power, I gained enough points to collect the Champ of Champs Trophy, this I held for two consecutive years. “Over the years, I’ve had great enjoyment flying at Australian Nationals- they have taken me all over the country meeting many modellers which would not have happened without our Nationals. “Since the 70s, my main interest has been in free flight power models of all sizes. I have had a 40-size model in the cupboard for most of the time, these are a lot of fun, the motors are cheap, and they don’t have to be high Tec. “I became keen on F.A.I Power models in the late 60s starting with Carl Goldberg’s Viking. I had two of these and I am very seriously thinking of building another just for old time’s sake. “After the Vikings, came the Night Trains designed by George French, a beautiful model and at the time with a Super Tiger G15 on pipe was just wonderful. From here we went to sheeted balsa wings then balsa foil-covered wings, then onto built up wings using carbon D-Box. Now that I am buying moulded Carbon folders, there is plenty of time to build a few scale models, and this is what has been happing over the last 10 years. “The big problem with scale models is they take up so much room, maybe I have too many or they are too big, but you have to use up your balsa somehow. “I hate to see my building board without something under construction, but with the hobby we have, I don’t think there is any chance of that happening as the list of “wanting to build” seems to grow.”