LETS GO DOWN MEMORY LANE PART 2

This month the theme is the “Aeronca” stories.
PAM was well known for inviting guests to fly on a Sunday morning. One such regular, was an older flyer from the Chichester club? Unfortunately, he was not in good health and decided to retire. He flew a 42″ Aeronca, semi scale, 3 ch powered by an Enya 20 using an 8 x 6prop. To say it staggered around the sky was not an exaggeration and it had become badly neglected.
At that time, my wife had expressed a desire to learn to fly and for the money, it seemed an ideal trainer. I cleaned it up a bit, fitted an OS40 driving a 10 x 6 Graupner grey & Sanwa 3/4 ch gear.
The Aeronca is a 1930’s stateside high wing mono plane witha large cross section fuselage. Likewise this model had a body which allowed me to create a compartment 6″ x 6″ x 6″ with trapdoor flap hence, the 4th ch.  It became the PAM toffee bomber & proved very popular, (story later). It was well powered, very stable (empty) and to some peoples amusement it could be throttled down and would fly backwards, nose into the wind.
PAM in its first year became well known for both static and flying demo’s particularly with schools and again there are stories to be told … much later. Setting the scenario brings me to a demo at Churches College. Word was about a toffee bomber and we had not seen so many kids.  With over 2 lbs. of sweets on board, the Aaeronca was a flying pig. Guess who got to fly it?? Yes, Don of course.  A couple of the wives, Pam and Vivien dressed me up with wig, tights and a flowing floral frock, ladies size 36, I was 20 stone.  The announcement went out that miss hatty, sorry, miss Tatty Jacques would appear walking her dog,  sorry, Aeronca. Don, hidden from view wiggled the sticks and I complete with lead, walked the plane across the cricket pitch.  Released the lead and an imaginary ball, fetch and retrieve, whilst Don taxied it around. Finally, it took to the air with me stamping my foot. The crowd were informed that this was the toffee bomber. At Churches, there was a swimming pool surrounded by a 6ft high close boarded fence adjacent to the playing field. That day, a light/medium wind. Unfortunately,the Flying pig, complete with a full load of toffees, was not behaving itself and even Don was having difficulties lining Up for the drop. In the end, he came at it across wind, side slipping & released the hatch. The load came out but the wind carried most of the toffees over the wrong side of the 6ft fence. It was hilarious!!  We had never seen so many kids attempting to scale a 6ft fence since. I wonder what H & S would have to say today?
In its unladen form, the Aeronca was a very stable platform and although only 3 ch was a good candidate for spot landings. The undercarriage was of a wire construction, clad in ali sheet. It was hinged at the back and sprung at the front with rubber bands. This meant it could sustain hard landings very well so a last minute drop was possible if you had not quite got it right.
One such Sunday morning, take off, and spot land in 2 timed minutes. The winner was the closest to the spot in 2 minutes.  There was I, counting down my 120 seconds in my head, lining up for a spot, a shade to fast, so a final heavy dump, the under cart did its job. Unfortunately, I was in the line of flight, 8ft from the spot. The Aeronca bounced and hit me in the chest. I had put my hands up, holding the tranny to protect my face, but the OS40 hit my breast bone. The prop chewed my shirt and for a while I had a hole in my chest complete with screw thread. It put me on my knees; We all know that the body does automatic function like breathing but when you get the wind knocked out of you, opposite to your normal sequence, it’s a very unpleasant feeling, not being able to breath for 2/3mins. We started the club to bring some sort of control and responsibility, always conscious of the safety, noise and interference aspect of the modelling world. Some of the stories may make you wonder, but there was always an underlying concern about how the public viewed us.
Next month- a bucket of bits
Cheers   Cliff Holt