wonwinglo

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

wonwinglo

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL.
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you lived in a small house but wanted to still enjoy your hobby ? with the trends these days towards large scale models and kits you would need a barn to accomodate them ! as scales get larger to accomodate all of that lovely detail there is another solution towards building up a collection,still impressive enough to enjoy but well within the constraints of a small area,with a little care and thought it can be done,the home of small scale modelling and collecting is in China where space really is at a premium,many people live in small flats with little space to build and display their models,it is this country that started the tiny small scale model revolution which has its followers worldwide.Now you may be led into thinking that these small models lack any detail,well think again,here are examples of vending machine replicas sold in China,the detail is exquisite even down to tiny undercarriage legs and better canopies than in some of the larger kits,they are in themselves miniature works of art well worthy of seeking out-



These pictures are larger than the models themselves,the minute undercarriage assemblies are fully detailed,the decals would put some of the larger kits to shame,this is real lilliput modelling.



Upper view of these tiny jets,all three would happily fit into a cigar box with room to spare.



The word toys is a mis-nomer as the detail is first class.

So there is something to look out for in the vending industry,for anyone who travels abroad something to keep your eyes open for.But we dont even need to look that far for tiny scale models,a perusal of any kit dealers list reveals some gems amongst them,here are three that I found and built up,a Bede Microjet,a Bede BD-5 Prop,and the delightful little Pitts Special-



Then we have the collectors market which caters for different tastes and sizes of model,just to show you how impressive such a collection looks take a look here,these models are not only fun to seek out but make into a miniature collection in themselves,yes small really is beautiful-

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

wonwinglo

THE MOLLER SKYCAR
Imagine instead of driving to work you hop into your very own personal flying machine and literally hover over the traffic jams ? pure speculation or a figment of the imagination ? no the very concept of the flying car is being actively pursued by a company in America called 'Moller' this company has been actively developing the flying car of the future which will literally change the way we go about our everyday travel,unlike an helicopter which has rotor blades this is an high tech sophisticated machine which has adjustable engine pods which turn to give either forward or vertical flight,the aircraft will fly safely on one engine,the fan units are contained in a shroud with fan units that drive the aircraft,at the moment the aircraft is being actively tested in a tethered state but soon an exciting project will take place where it will be test flown across a large lake called Milk Farm,here over a 60 acre area the Skycar will be test flown with flotation gear attached at an altitude of 50 feet above the 10 feet deep specially built lake which has silt in the bottom and no rocks,this unique method of testing will ensure through test flying and development,full certification is aimed at not later than the year 2008.
This machine is the only feasible and personally affordable vertical take off and landing ( VTOL ) vehicle in the world today.



Moller are totally dedicated to the continued design and development of this remarkable step forward in creating a unique personal transport system,this is what they have to say about the Moller M400 Skycar-
You've always known it was just a matter of time before the world demanded some kind of flying machine which would replace the automobile. Of course, this machine would have to be capable of VTOL, be easy to maintain, cost effective and reliable. Well, we at Moller International believe we have come up with the solution. That solution is the Volantor named M400 Skycar.
Let's compare the M400 Skycar with what's available now, the automobile. Take the most technologically advanced automobile, the Ferrari, Porsche, Maserati, Lamborgini, or the more affordable Acura, Accord, or the like. It seems like all of the manufacturers of these cars are touting the new and greatly improved "aerodynamics" of their cars. Those in the aerospace industry have been dealing with aerodynamics from the start. In the auto industry they boast of aerodynamics, performance tuned wide track suspensions, electronic ignition and fuel injection systems, computer controllers, and the list goes on. What good does all this "advanced engineering" do for you when the speed limit is around 60 MPH and you are stuck on crowded freeways anyway?
Can any automobile give you this scenario? From your garage to your destination, the M400 Skycar can cruise comfortably at 275 MPH (maximum speed of 375 MPH) and achieve up to 20 miles per gallon on clean burning, ethanol fuel. No traffic, no red lights, no speeding tickets. Just quiet direct transportation from point A to point B in a fraction of the time. Three dimensional mobility in place of two dimensional immobility.
No matter how you look at it the automobile is only an interim step on our evolutionary path to independence from gravity. That's all it will ever be.
Moller International's M400 Skycar volantor is the next step.
We plan to begin untethered flights when we have at least one additional M400 nearing completion. All flights will occur over a specially constructed lake. This lake is part of the Milk Farm development , a commercial 60-acre development underway near the city of Dixon in California on Interstate 80. The lake will have an area of 5 to 6 acres and will be approximately 10 feet deep with a silt, rock free bottom. Most flights will occur at less than 50 feet altitude and will incorporate flotation gear attached to the Skycar.

Passengers 4
Maximum speed 375 MPH
Cruise speed (20,000 ft.) 275 MPH
Range 750 Miles
Size Large automobile
Best mileage approx. 20 MPG
Useful payload 750 lbs
Can hover with one engine failed
Uses non-fossil fuel (ethanol)

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

wonwinglo

We have completed the two halves,installed any control rods and glued and taped everything together,next job is to finish off the fuselage properly,whatever finish that is used it should be applied sparingly as we do not want to build up too much excess weight.The next job is to seal the pores of the blue foam,for this we need some micro balloons,go to your model shop and buy a big bag of them,the bag will weigh nothing,while you are there see if they have any tubs of 'Red Devil' filler this is ready prepared mico balloons and very convenient to use,failing that mix up a jam jar full of these tiny micro chippings with ordinary water,next add a spoonful of PVA adhesive to act as a binder and stir the lot up to make a smooth paste,apply this all over the fuselage and hang up out of the way to dry properly in a warm place.Next day put your face mask on and goggles and go outside to do the fine sanding,by progressively using finer grades of glasspaper you will get a nice smooth finish,do this part of the sanding dry using the mask to protect your valuable lungs,otherwise you will end up in a right mess as the filler pulls away,once satisfied the next job is to apply a very thin application of PVA adhesive,just enough to seal and knit together the tiny sanded balloons.
Get hold of some lightweight model aeroplane tissue ( SAMS sell it ) and cut some one inch wide strips,these will run lengthwise from nose to tail down the fuselage and really stiffen up the relatively soft surface finish of the blue foam,lay the tissue onto a towel in lengths and with a diffuser spray bottle ( obtainable from art shops ) spray the tissue with ordinary water ( if you do not have a spray then grab a domestic brush,dip this into water and spatter using a domestic food knife ) carefully pick up the tissue and lay it onto the surface of the fuselage blowing it into place carefully,smooth out and wrinkles carefully with your fingers,next take a brushful of very thin PVA again,and simply apply this straight onto the surface,dont worry it will soak into the tissue and bond itself to the previously applied thin coat of adhesive,keep on going until you have reached the other side,set aside to dry out.A simple jig can make life easier when handling things like this,place a piece of wire either side ie one in the nose and the other at the tail,with two blocks of balsa glued to another strip of wood place the ends of the wire into these,you can then rotate the assembly just like a spit ! it certainly makes life easier when handling a sticky assembly such as this.
Once everything is dry apply a second ( very thin ) coat of PVA and by now you should have a nice smooth taught surface finish all ready for painting,for this you will find automobile spray cans ideal,they give an excellent finish and are durable as well.
Next time I will tell you how to use the blue foam to make tough components for your models.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

rickdev65

Hi,

Can you give the exact address for the Sandvik Abrasive block File which you mentioned above. I would like to get one but the only source I heard about was the Woodworking Exhibition now over. Thanks

wonwinglo

Rickdev65,you should be able to get them here-
http://www.hobby.uk.com/ they were agents for Sandvik,drop them a line.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

wonwinglo

This is a tale of the big bully versus the little guy. It's a true tale. And the little guy is losing really badly. What's more, the big bully may come after your aiplane or your museum next.

Unfortunately, Jeff is trapped in a situation that is so hideous and Kafkaesque that I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. (Actually, I would, because it's truly, truly nasty.) What is frightening beyond his personal tragedy is the potential ramification for the entire historic-aviation community. If some very powerful bureaucrats who have had their way in the actions they are taking against a legitimate seller of U.S. military-surplus aircraft instruments continue to expand their horizons, it can lead to the condemnation and destruction of every airplane and museum in the U.S. that has or ever had any radium-dial instruments in it.

Back in late 1910s -- a.k.a., the dim, dark past (no pun intended) -- aircraft electrical and related lighting systems were far less-than perfect or just plain non-existent. In order to help pilots see their instruments while flying at night, a very small amount of radium was added to phosphorescent paint on the faces of instruments. The radioactive decay of radium caused the phosphorescent paint to glow in the dark. Charles Lindbergh sat behind military-type, radium-illuminated instruments when he flew solo from New York to Paris. They are still installed in the Spirit of St. Louis in the National Air and Space Museum.
Radium is an unstable element, so it is in a constant state of radioactive decay. Eventually radium decays into lead, among other things. As it decays, radium emits Gamma energy (radiation) and also radon gas. Radon gives off what your neighborhood nuclear physicist refers to as Alpha and Beta "daughter" particles. With a sufficiently sensitive Geiger counter, Gamma radiation is detectable even through a metal or plastic instrument case and glass bezel. Alpha and Beta radiation is another thing. It requires ultra sensitive, highly specialized detectors that virtually no one outside of the immediate Nuclear Physics industry has even heard of.
Radiation has long been linked to cancer in humans; after all, Madame Marie Curie, for whom a measurement of radioactivity was named, died of cancer believed to be a result of her experiments with large quantities of radium. It has to be kept in mind that the amount of radium used in radium dial instruments is miniscule. The U.S. government has been sued by technicians who alleged they contracted cancers due to exposure to radium while working on U.S. military-origin radium-dial instrumentation. The United States has successfully defended itself in those cases by showing that the cancers suffered by the plaintiffs could not have been caused by radium dial instrumentation because there was ins! ufficient exposure to radium.
Double Standard.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

wonwinglo

In 1999 Jeff called me to say that the California Department of Health Services, Radiologic Health Branch, came to the warehouse expressing concern about radium-dial instruments on the premises. This set a process in motion that seems to have no end -- even almost eight years later -- and thus far has resulted in the destruction of over one million (yes, one million) irreplaceable historic aircraft instruments and related parts, only a tiny fraction of which had any radium. It has also resulted in the razing of one of two warehouses that housed the items since the 1950s. So far, the cost of the "cleanup" has exceeded $7 million and the bill is being presented to Jeff, personally, even though it was a lawfully incorporated company that owned the instruments. Under the law, he cannot even protect his house and family by declaring bankruptcy, so our government has inventoried his house and ! its contents for possible seizure and sale.
The indications are that the folks who did this have used Jeff Pearson as a warm-up to come after anyone who has a radium-dial instrument, including museums, because Jeff didn't have and couldn't obtain the political clout to stop them. They have already started the same despicable process against an 85-year old surplus dealer in Salisbury, Md., over surplus involving radium that he purchased from the very entity that caused the material to be created and then sold to the public.
When the California Department of Health Services first came to speak to Jeff in 1999, the individual assigned to the task seemed reasonable. Jeff was told that all non-intact radium devices had to be containerized and disposed of as hazardous waste. The DHS bureaucrat (his term for himself) also kindly advised Jeff that "programs" existed through which the Department of Defense (DoD) would take care of disposing the offending items.
That made sense. Of course, the bureaucrat's word turned out to be no good. In a subsequent visit, Jeff was informed that all radium instruments had to be disposed of, not just non-intact items. First Jeff would have to complete a special training course and he would be allowed to remove the non-radium inventory. Jeff took and passed the course.
Jeff also contacted DoD officials, who had no knowledge of any "programs" by which they would assume any responsibility for the materials. This revelation was duly passed along to the DHS agent. Jeff even suggested that DHS assist in having the DoD step up to its responsibility for the instruments it created.
Unfortunately, that approach to the matter of potential radioactive instruments must have made way too much sense, because that state inspector was immediately sent to some other assignment, to be replaced by a fellow whose behavior almost defied description.
This was occurring at a facility where only 5% of the inventory contained radium-dial instruments and only 5% of those instruments were non-intact. The radon level was below the guideline for an industrial setting; however, because that was a guideline, the new bureaucrat's interpretation was effectively law. There was no independent third-party to make rulings on the bureaucrat's interpretations; the bureaucrat was prosecutor, judge and jury and his interpretation of the guidelines changed constantly.
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Once Jeff had jumped through the training course that was the prerequisite to him separating out the non-radium instruments, the bureaucrat announced he could not do so: Jeff could not take out any of the inventory.
Next the bureaucrat told Jeff he was going to have to get a license to handle radioactives. Jeff got an attorney and learned that no instrument shop, repair or seller or museum holding or working on radium-dial instruments in the State of California was required to get such a license. And no jeweler, who also handles radium, was ever required to get such a license. The bureaucrat who insisted on a license also said it was unlikely Jeff could get one, so Jeff, on advice of counsel, did not immediately apply.
The new DHS bureaucrat arranged for someone from the DoD to visit. The representative, from the Navy, took a look and said, "It's all ours." He also admitted that the DoD did dispatch technicians to retrieve hazardous material of military origin discovered in the public environment and that the Air Force was going around and quietly removing radium instruments from its on-loan display aircraft and the "gate guardians" outside military bases.
About then the DHS brought in the federal Environmental Protection Agency for a walk-through. The EPA reps said that if they got involved, things "would get ugly." It was one of the few truths uttered by a bureaucrat during the entire persecution.
Jeff continued to try to have the DHS work with him to have the DoD buy back the inventory, and he went to Congressman John Calvert asking for help. In a face-to-face meeting, Congressman Calvert told Jeff this was something for the DoD to handle and then wrote to the DoD. The Department of Defense responded to the Congressman by saying that since it didn't sell the instruments directly to Mr. Pearson, it wasn't responsible. Congressman Calvert then stepped away from the situation.
Bring In The Feds

Jeff decided to apply for the license. So the bureaucrat promptly told Jeff that he would have to obtain a multi-million-dollar bond for "cleanup" before getting the license. He then said he'd give Jeff time to get the license, but meantime the warehouse was completely sealed off and no one was allowed to enter, unless wearing hazmat suits -- for a radon exposure level less than is allowed in industry. (All previous entry had been in street clothes.)
Jeff made an appointment with the DHS head of licensure in Sacramento, who informed him that he certainly could get a license and that there was no bond requirement.
Before the scheduled appointment with the head of licensure, the DHS bureaucrat apparently realized that Jeff might be able to jump this last hurdle that the bureaucrat had erected and took action to keep Jeff from ever recovering any of his inventory: He brought in the EPA, which declared the warehouse completely contaminated. Then, without any testing of the instruments themselves, they hauled every single instrument to a hazardous waste site and destroyed them. No one, neither the EPA nor the State bureaucrat, ever tested the thousands of historic aircraft instruments that were destroyed. They simply said, "We believe they are contaminated," and destroyed unused antique artifacts. Despite being in a warehouse with a radon level below the guideline for an industrial area, the EPA -- without compensating Preservation Aviation -- trashed several million dollars worth of historic airplane instruments. Only 5! % had radium dials and only 5% of those were not "intact." (The EPA admitted the quantities in writing.)
The EPA then razed the warehouse. If you go to that block in North Hollywood, an historic aviation site, all you will see is flat ground. The EPA has said that the cost of their "cleanup" is over $7 million.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

wonwinglo

Overblown Hazard

It's interesting that the original estimate to identify, carry off and bury the contaminated instruments, and clean up residue on site, was well under $100,000. Jeff tried and tried to have the EPA and the California State folks carry out that plan -- that they themselves originally proposed -- but the bureaucrats kept changing their stories, changing their interpretation of the guidelines and lying to Jeff. The word on the street -- and I don't know if it's true or not -- is that Jeff wouldn't contribute anything to the Poor Bureaucrats' Beer Fund, so any time he agreed to a cleanup procedure, the DHS increased the amount of Jeff's inventory that would be affected until every single one of the thousands of historic artifacts were hauled off and destroyed.
Our constitution says that the government may not take private property without compensation. Jeff had figured that Preservation Aviation would take about 20 years to sell off the North Hollywood inventory and that in that time, the total value of those instruments, sold one by one, retail would run about $10 million. I don't know if that is true or not, but even if that estimate is off by three standard deviations (and I saw the staggering magnitude of that inventory) it was still about $200,000 to $500,000 a year in sales.
Neither the EPA or DHS paid Preservation Aviation for the inventory that it had purchased in good faith from a man who had bought it in good faith from our government. Nope, the EPA gave Jeff, as a private individual -- not a stockholder of a corporation in good standing -- a bill for $7 million.
The Thick Plottens
The County had the clout to compel the EPA to back down and -- to try and keep this recital to a reasonable length -- after a lot of arm waving, the EPA backed down and finally agreed that someone actually determine whether there was actually any contamination in the hangars, rather than just go with the EPA's previously used "we believe" standard for contamination.
The County was required by the EPA to hire a company that could evaluate the radioactive hazard in those hangars and clean it up. The County hired a company approved by the EPA. It came in and found no significant contamination. The EPA went ballistic and had the company fired. A second cleanup company was hired. It went through the T-hangars instrument by instrument at a horrendous cost and it, too, confirmed that the EPA's assertion of "widespread contamination" was absolutely bogus. In Jeff Pearson's inventory it found fewer than 2% of the instruments to have radium dials. It found only seven instruments to be "non-intact." On the floor of Jeff's hangar it found 13 spots of "elevated" radioactivity (by the EPA's standard, not any law). Of those, one -- count 'em, one -- had an origin tied to radium. A piece of tape was applied to that spot and the contaminat! he stuck to the tape when it was pulled away from the floor, removing that tiny bit of contamination. Five spots were found to be Potassium 40, a by-product of deicing fluid. The testing equipment then broke, so no one knows what the other spots were. To the EPA's chagrin, no radium or excess Alpha or Beta particles were found in any of the hangars.
Several other areas of Potassium 40 contamination were detected in the other hangars. The EPA required no remediation.
Double Standards.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

wonwinglo

Museums are more like industrial sites than homes. So are warehouses. Industrial radon exposure guidelines should be used for collections of radium dial instruments because people do not spend nearly as much time around inventory in warehouses or museums as they do in their homes. Millions of homes in this country have radon levels that exceed EPA recommendations. The standard mitigation is ventilation. If ventilating an area that has some excess concentration level is acceptable for industry and homes, it should be for warehouses, hangars and museums. If a radium-dial instrument is removed from an antique airplane, there has to be an acceptable level of contamination established, rather than junking the airplane. After all, those airplanes fly very few hours in a year and people are simply not exposed to the small level of contamination that may exist, especially if the instrument had b! een intact.
The Department of Defense said, in Jeff Pearson's case, that it did not have the budget to deal with an appropriate cleanup. In other "cleanups" it apparently did. Jeff will never be able to pay the millions that were incurred by overzealous, self-righteous bureaucrats, arbitrarily enforcing nonexistent standards so the money will be paid by some branch of the government. Therefore, it's a book keeping transaction and bureaucrats at one agency trying to protect their budgets should not be allowed to get in the way of doing the right thing. Here, it seems to me, is that the right thing is for the DoD to buy back radium-dial instruments that are actually a hazard and pay for such cleanups that are actually necessary and not the result of some bureaucrat's opinion that he "believes" there is contamination.
Unfortunately, and all politics aside, our government doesn't exactly have a history of doing the right thing, so we can expect more of the disaster that Jeff Pearson went through, with the loss of irreplaceable historic aviation artifacts simply because they were near or in a building that had radium-dial instruments. It's already happening to the gentleman in Salisbury, Md. How would you like it if an EPA bureaucrat met you at your hangar and informed you that because the Stearman next door has radium-dial instruments, your airplane is going to be scrapped and hauled to a hazardous-waste disposal site and that you won't be paid for your property -- on the contrary, you'll have to pay for the disposal?
The bureaucrats have already come for some of us. Unless we stand up against them, they will keep picking us off

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/