In The Air
Spring is finally here. And so is Fall.
For those of us in the northern part of the Northern Hemisphere — the part where it gets cold and snowy mid-November and stays that way until the end of March — there’s nothing quite like feeling the first warming rays of the sun in Spring and watching the last sad remnants of dirty snow drip away. The world is once again full of possibility and we think of summer days to come and the new chapter in our flying journal we’re going to write.
Having grown up in a time when you simply accepted what the science teacher said at face value, I understood the globe had a distinct up — the Northern Hemisphere — and a distinct down which was the Southern, of course. What else could possibly explain the phrase Down Under which I have a decided feeling wasn’t coined by anyone in Australia or New Zealand.
But I also grew up in a time when we marvelled at the Earthrise photo taken by the crew of Apollo 8 in December of 1968. Anybody looking at that photo suddenly realized that you could turn it ‘upside down’ and it looked exactly the same. For the big blue marble hanging in the blackness of space, there is no up or down.
What I’m trying to say, of course, is that while here in The Great White North we revel in the new green-ness of Spring which has just arrived, for many others this is the all-too-soon end of the flying season. The key image this month — once again provided by our friend Régis Geledan — captures the ambiguity of the shoulder seasons perfectly. Is this the first time out after a long winter of hibernation? Or the last flight before retreating to the shed for the winter building season. You be the judge.
I’ve never had to add so many new timezones to my Clock app on my phone! RCSD readers and contributors represent an international community, which I’m proud to now call friends which circles our big blue marble across both timezones and hemispheres. It is truly one of the pleasant surprises of having taken on this role and I’m looking forward to meeting you all in person some day.
For March, I’ve tried to line up an array of stories so that there’s a bit of something for everybody. Leading off is the first part of a four part series by James ‘Doc’ Hammond entitled Designing for Slope Aerobatics. It’s the master class in sailplane design for which you’ve been waiting. We have a comprehensive product review from Pierre Rondel on MicroMAX, the Pocket F3F! Ryan Woebkenberg takes us along with him on My Southwest Classic F5J 2021 Experience which will make you want to attend the next one for sure. Rene Wallage turns the re-kitting of his Schwing Corsa into a Pre-Flight Check from which we can all benefit. Peter Scott walks us through the intricate details of the ToolkitRC ST8 Servo Tester and Tom Broeski (of Tom’s Tips fame) helps us build a Clevis Tool. And you may even find a few little extra surprises thrown in to the bargain.
OK, it’s time for me to get out of the way and I hope you enjoy the March issue.
Fair winds and blue skies!
The gorgeous cover photo for this issue is provided by Alexandre Mittaz, and was taken on March 18th 2021 at La Gruyère, Switzerland. Alexandre goes on to say: “It was an afterwork late afternoon flight, maiden flight of the Vantage F3F, with a moderate NE wind (we call it ‘bise’ here). The mountains in the back are the Swiss Prealpes in Canton de Fribourg, Gruyère Region.” Now, without further ado, please turn to the next article in this issue or go to the table of contents. Downloadable PDFS: article issue.
