Aero Mail
October Gems
Just finished reading the October 2005 issue of Model Aviation. Wonderful! Once again, MA is improving in quality. I have noticed this improvement throughout this past year and truly do appreciate it.
I used to quickly thumb through an issue and throw it out. Now I read through it, but find that there are articles that I really want to study/read in depth. In fact, there have been construction articles that I keep.
Thank you and the entire staff at MA for such good work. It is not going unnoticed. I am active on the Internet with various modeling mail lists—the Free Flight mail list, for example—and there have been several comments today about the great issue.
You are really doing great work. Keep up the construction model ideas, the building tips, the pictures of OPAs (other peoples’ airplanes), and the art work.
I noticed that the selection of photographs has also improved, along with the quality of the photos. Just great work.
Nick Vanmatre San Diego, California
I loved the SEFF (Southeast Electric Flight Festival) 2005 article that appeared in October’s issue of MA. Having been there myself, it brought back some fond (and some not so fond) memories of the event—my third SEFF in a row so far.
It’s great that you are now expanding your electrics coverage to showcase large electric RC events like this one. Hopefully, other major events will receive future exposure as well, e.g., the NEAT Fair, MWE, and others. It goes a long way toward further putting us electric modelers on the map with the general aeromodelling population and the AMA.
One error I did notice was on page 55 of the article, in the caption for the Navy Stearman model. The model is owned and was built by me—from a prototype Kurt Bengtson kit, but not built by Kurt himself, although I did consult directly with him many times during the project.
A small error to be sure, but this type of thing is a great source of pride to an average modeler like myself—especially when it’s my very first RC modeling subject ever to be published in a model magazine in 30 years of building and flying RC.
Many thanks for publishing both the SEFF story and my plane in MA.
Rick Kent Jacksonville, Florida
Scale Slipups
The photographs of the Scale models in the “Top Gun” article in the September issue are as outstanding as the models themselves. I can’t believe the care that goes into building these beautiful airplanes, and I tip my hat to the guys who build them. The Scale model section is always my favorite part of the magazine.
The article and pictures of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (featured in the September issue) are awe-inspiring.
However, there’s something that bugs me in the way some modelers put the colors on Scale models. Of course it’s their model and they can put any colors on it they like, but in the interests of accuracy the colors should be correct.
For example: on page 110 there’s a photo of an S.E.5a and a Sopwith Pup. The colors on the tail fins are reversed, in that the blue stripe is to the front and the red stripe is to the rear. This indicates a French aircraft, whereas the roundels on the wings and fuselage indicate a British aircraft. Not acceptable!
Balsa USA makes another gaffe on page 117, where an S.E.5 and a Sopwith Pup are ...
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
