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Getting Off to a Good Start
October 1950 Air Trails Hobbies for Young Men

October 1950 Air Trails
October 1950 Air Trails Cover - Airplanes and Rockets Table of Contents

These pages from vintage modeling magazines like Flying Aces, Air Trails, American Modeler, American Aircraft Modeler, Young Men, Flying Models, Model Airplane News, R/C Modeler, captured the era. All copyrights acknowledged.

This brief piece from the October 1950 issue of Air Trails magazine was a springboard into articles on control line models for beginners. The Peppy Trainer, for example, is 28" wingspan, flat−bottom airfoil control line model with a solid balsa fuselage and tail surfaces. It used a .09 engine - which would typically be easier to adjust and keep running than a standard .049 engine. That article also recommends more than a dozen other good trainer models to server both the rank control line beginner and someone just getting into control line aerobatics. Many have built-up fuselages, which the experts claim is best for high precision maneuvers since the rigidity of the 3-dimensional structure minimizes twisting, keeping the alignment between the wing and horizontal stabilizer consistent. There are low-wing, mid-wing, and high-wing configurations, both scale-like and non-scale, so a model airplane for just about any taste is available.

Getting Off to a Good Start

Getting Off to a Good Start in Control Line, October 1950 Air Trails - Airplanes and RocketsIn model aviation, as in any other hobby or sport, starting right is half the battle. With a majority of aeromodeling interest centered in control line flying, most of the new recruits now start off in that phase of flying. It's fortunate, then, that the American manufacturers have emphasized training-type sport models to the point where the novice has a wide and appealing selection from which to choose.

On the next two pages Air Trails presents a representative group of 17 control-line kit models which qualify as trainer-sport craft, and in some instances are capable of moderate or advanced maneuvers. For the overseas readers who may not have the benefit of our kit models, and for that relatively small band of enthusiasts who build only from plans, we offer the Peppy Trainer which embodies many of the features or the average primary trainer. It might well be described as the "All-American PT" Model.

About the best word of advice that could be given to a newcomer is that he link forces with an experienced flyer. Most modelers, when approached, are more than willing to pass on their suggestions, and it's a wise recruit who has an experienced man check over his control mechanism and the force and balance set-up of his ship before that glistening new plane takes to the air. A good policy, too, is for the novice to run his engine before the critical eye and ear of an expert.

Another good assurance of getting off to a good start is to seek out your nearest model club. Get acquainted with all the modelers in your neighborhood. If you can't locate a club, ask your dealer. And lastly, read with care all directions furnished-then heed them.

Al Lewis(?)

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