The contest rules are simple:

• The model must be in flying condition
• It must be electric

Please email your entry (joec...@sprintmail.com ) to AmpAviators by Monday, March 26. It must include picture(s) and a description as to why you consider this your ugliest model. The ugliest plane will be decided by the judges (me) or more likely, it will be difficult to decide what’s the ugliest and the $50 cash prize will be awarded by a random pick among the entries.

Good luck!

Lucien's comments below:

There are several columns that are on the chart that should be explained:

In order for electrical engineers to have nice round numbers on the wire charts, instead of finding the cross sectional area of a wire by taking Pi x R x R, they came up with a unit called "Circular Mils". Since 1 mil = 0.001 inches, they decided to just take the diameter of the wire, in thousandths of an inch, and just square that number to get a value that was proportional to the area of the wire. For example, If you have a wire that measures 0.020" in diameter, that is 20 mils, and the area is 400 Circular Mils.

For UL specs in household wiring, they require 300 circular mils of wire per amp of current. That is the value in the last column of the chart.

For wiring in our models over short distanges, 75 Circular Mils per amp is enough for battery leads and motor wires. That is what the 75 CM/A column is for.

When winding stators, since the wire is in direct contact with the stator which serves as a heatsink, and because in most applications you have a fair amount of air blowing through the motor, you can get by with only 60 Circular Mils of wire per amp, and that is what the 60MC/A column is for.

I also have the resistance in both Ohms per foot and Ohms per meter for people that want to calculate line losses in their wires or power leads.

Lucien Miller

Wiring Table PDF DOWNLOAD

In the age of mega-stores, discount chains and internet retailing, small local specialty stores find it very tough to survive. Fortunately some buck the trend, surviving by offering what the chains can't offer – personalized service.

Luckily for RCers in the Fairfield County CT area, Al's Hobbies in Norwalk CT is one of the survivors that specializes in RC products, featuring airplanes, helicopters, cars and boats. Jerry Jarvis acquired the name in 1969 "As a means to pay for my hobby" and has not looked back since, trading in an engineering career with NASA to turn his avocation into vocation.

Jerry started a company to design and build model plane kits; his MEN Trainer was a great success, selling over 25,000 kits, a model that was drop-dead easy to land ("turn off the engine and it lands itself"); production of this model stopped only five years ago and fans still ask for kits. Over time, the retail side grew such that today it occupies Jerry full time.

Jerry's sales philosophy is quite simple:

"Sell a product and you make one sale; Teach someone what to buy and why and you have a customer for life."

I'll attest that Jerry's clientele will patiently stand in line waiting for his personal touch. Jerry's long experience in the hobby is for many an invaluable resource.

Al's Hobbies is housed in a large space filled with quite an array of products:

The hanging planes are customer consignments – ever see that at a chain hobby store?

One feature that I especially like are the pull-out racks – these are large, sliding peg-boards filled with all the little goodies you all-of-a-sudden need to finish a project:

Here's one side of five racks of props:

Jerry stocks about 8,000 distinct items, ranging from the latest Spektrum DX7 to a rack full of small screws and bolts – a "full service" product line; every week Jerry adds about 5 new items to the list.

One other invaluable service for local RCers is repairs:

There are not too many hobby stores that provide this level of service.

The early days (when I started) were dominated by fuel planes – electrics were a small fringe element. In the past five years, the model mix has dramatically changed – where once sales were 10 fuel planes to 1 electric, the ratio has switched to something like 20 electric for each fuel – a seismic shift in the RC business.

In addition, the kit filled with little pieces of balsa and plywood cutouts has also shifted from 20 kits to 1 ARF five years ago to 20 ARFs to 1 kit.

The paradigm shift in the RC business has accelerated in the last two years due to declining electronic costs, more efficient electric motor technology and very good RTFs. With good RTF trainers in the $100 – $150 range, new entrants to RC flying are finding the initial cost reasonable.

I hope that there is still room for the specialized local hobby store – it can make the beginner's entry to this hobby a lot easier and can be a terrific resource for the experienced modeler; nothing can replace "touch and feel".

Attending a model plane show is like letting a kid loose in a candy store – you drool a lot. I had the pleasure of attending a large local show sponsored by the Westchester Radio Aeromodelers – the WRAM show. Included in the show were radio control planes, boats, helicopters and cars.

There were two floors of exhibits – about 150 different booths of varying sizes:

Some of the models were very large and impressive in detail:

This one I loved – incredible detail:

Warbirds were well represented:

And smaller warbirds:

This floors me – a "Beginner's Dream" from Hobby Lobby with a fragile balsa wing:

Sorry – I don't think a beginner's plane should be so fragile. One model that caught my eye was this biplane from Estes-Cox:

I spoke with Rob Tomash who assured me that this can take some knocks – at least the wing is solid foam. I liked the low wing loading:

Looks like a fun biplane that can slow-fly and also get crazy – hope to review this soon. Another model that caught my eye was the RC Bug:

The model pictured is one of their flight demo planes – look closely and you can see some glue lines on the wing. It's built of low density, flexible EPP foam that is easily to repair. It weighs in at about 6 ounces ready to fly. This requires 4 channels – it has ailerons. There is liberal use of carbon fiber rods to strengthen and to protect the prop. The servos are located below the wing:

A view of the aileron setup – all carbon fiber rods:

This gives a good idea of its size:

And the Bug family:

The smaller one is due out in March; unfortunately the smallest one is on hold as the micro-servos used are no longer available – looks like something you could fly in the house. I thougth it would be hard to fly in any breeze, but was told just the opposite – it's a good flyer in moderate air. I'll be reviewing the large one shortly and see for myself.

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I had a nice conversation with Lucien Miller who is importing Scorpion motors and speed controllers:

I found the following interesting:

"The stators are epoxy coated to prevent shorts, and are wound with wire that is rated at 180 degrees C (356 F). The magnets used in Scorpion Motors are N-50EH style, which are rated for operation at 200ºC (392ºF), making a motor that is virtually impossible to burn up in normal use… Scorpion Motors are built to last, and are backed with a 2-Year warranty…"

I decided to try one an bought the Scorpion 2215-22 – the Prop Data Chart gives a wide range of possibilities – nice to have! I'll review these products shortly.

I'm a big fan of using carbon fiber as a basic building block for wing spars and fuselage frames and also to reinforce a model's weak points. After my lhs ran out of carbon fiber stock, I searched the web and found DragonPlate. As luck would have it, they were at the show:

They have some interesting products – I bought some 48" Carbon Fiber Tubes from them to use as wing spars – the prices are good and the four foot length is a real plus.

Another great resource I found at the show was the "decal guy":

Unfortunately he's not on the web yet, but you can call 800 557 5617 and get a catalog. Many of the decals are scaled (eg, 1/8 scale, 1/6 scale etc) which is a big help for scale modelers.

Tools – I love precision tools and RJR CooL Tools has a very nice line:

At any of these shows there are always novelty booths – aside from the usual miniature flying models, helis, submarines and cars, this blimpy thing caught my eye:

Finally, a step back in time – this is what it used to be in RC's stone-age courtesy of the Vintage Radio Control Society:

The transmitters:

And rubber bands to actuate the control surfaces:

We've come a long way.

Shows such as this are a great way to get a feel for popularity (very crowded), talk to manufacturers directly, see new products and, of course, to indulge our fantasies – highly recommended if there's one in your area.