Building techniques

[StampingKid]

I concur. When helicopter gets to Kentucky, I am sure I will try my best there, too. But it just does not seem to be as involved as wright stuff and I am sure that the learning curve will not be as steep. There are so many factors involved in building and trimming a wright stuff plane and flying it according to conditions that for a middle schooler it seems as complex as the space shuttle. But as complex as it is, a middle schooler can do it with time and effort. It is also neat to see the looks of amazement on the faces of the basketball coach, the players, and their parents and school administrators staying after school when they see this delicate craft fly on and on and on when you try to sneak a flight or two at the other end of the gym before practice begins.

[jander14indoor]

I'm not going to get into event selection, there are good reasons for rotating events into and out of the tournaments. Wright Stuff has actually had a fairly long continuous run and it will be back.

In the meantime, don't underestimate the helicopter event. I think you'll find it a challenging and interesting event. One thing always missing from Wright Stuff has been the ability to really mess with propellors much. Helicopters requires you to build your own propellors (though they're called rotors). And they're still rubber powered free flight with all those interesting nonlinearities. And built to weight, they can be just as impressive as a WS plane.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[blue cobra]

Are blades like these just as sharp as carbon steel blades like these:

https://www.a2zcorp.us/store/ProductDet ... uctID=5795 ?

I have dozens of the utility blades, but they seem to take a bit more force to cut than other razors I've used. Maybe it's just me, but I need to get to $15 anyway on Indoor Model Supply, so should I try them?

[jander14indoor]

Probably not much difference between those two blades.

If you want something noticeably sharper, try the #11 real scalpel blades on A2Z (or many other sites). You can get a scalpel handle, or I just use my normal hobby knife handles. You'll be pleasantly surprised how much sharper these are than craft knives or X-Acto blades like you pointed to. Their thinner to so they don't mash soft balsa as much, but also won't cut really heavy stuff as they start bending.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI