Just home from 3 of the 4 days of 2005 Woodcrafters. Here are some
observations:
- Incredible scale jobs in abundance. As these were handcrafted, wood-based
models, it wasn't a parade of "glass slippers". ALL were aerotowed - not a
single scale job was winch launched. Notable were the performances of Ken
Bate's GKB-1 flying wing in the stiff winds present and Gordon Pearson's
WACO CG-4 that actually soared. Steve Moskal's models of a TG-3 and the Air
Force Academy TG-2 were beautiful both on the ground and in the air. There
should be pictures of these and other neat scale jobs including a Franklin
that just dripped charisma. BTW, the real plane on which each these models
was based has a great back story just like the survivors in the TV series,
"Lost". For a model "back story", ask Tom Broeski about the roundel on his
Minimoa. BTW, the Minimoa was so good looking in the sky, only absence of
snow-capped mountains at Muncie made one viewing it realize he wasn't at
"Die Wasserkuppe".
- Winds were strong - not the best conditions for bent-winged beauties but
fliers bravely flew from the winches provided. Today's conditions included
gusts exceeding 25 mph. I watched an Oly II get an incredibly high launch
only to scoot most of the way to Ohio (winds were from the west) when the
pilot made a turn. I don't know if these were special winches but NOBODY
folded a wing during the 3 days I was there. I suspect that one
aggressively launched Windfree had more dihedral than it started with after
the day was through.
- A couple of modifications to Ray's "Bird" series were notable: Tom
Scully's beautiful flat wing, full house "Extreme Bird" performed well even
in the heavy wind. Tom Tock removed the "Wolf" influence from his "Bird
kits and, with a small adjustment in rudder outline, could have convinced
people he was flying a new "Icon RES" prototype. With ballast galore, Tom's
planes (and Tom) handled the adverse conditions pretty well.
Fun was in abundance - looking forward to 2006,
Jim Deck
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