Hummmmmmmmm?
Uhhhh? How do we figure in the BOM on this one. AM I GUILT RIDDED! NO WAY!
Maaaaaaaaany years ago. A friend of mine had purchased a Skylark kit. He and his son started the fuselage...built part of stab and elevators...
but the wing was never built.
I had a beautiful old Bob Hunt wing that I bought from another friend that I modifed and put the skylark wing flaps and then assembled all the pieces.
Built the rest up...but then had to move to another apartment, so I gave the model in bare balsa to my friend Parsons....who blew on a thick coat of primer and had carefully sanded it down all ready for paint.
He gave it back to me....I sanded it out and put on two coats of thinned Aerogloss white and added the trim detail...but because I wanted to try out tha new toxic a 2 part Emeron top coat...
I had another modeler friend who worked as a truck painter blow on the clear coat.
It came back, OOOH SO PURTY BUT OOOOH SO HEAVEEEE'RN' HELL in a hand basket and never was a really competitive stunt model.
I then flew that lead-sled model for a while...gave it to a friend just before he left for the nats because he didn't think he would finish his beautiful modifed Novi 4 with the V tail in time for the nats which I had carefully built and was virtually ready for covering and finishing.
Hummm?
Anyhoo....he and his Dad managed to finished the Novi in time....and he gave the lead sled to someone else? Where? Who? When??? Who cares?
I don't know if that purty old piece of crap ever recieved appearence points or ever flew in ccompettiton anywhere.
That old Skylark ended up in the hands of another modeler friend who sadly blew his own beautiful old Nobler all over the field just before the first contest of the year at Eugene Ore.
Where or where did all those old models or modelers go...gone to balsa dust...everyone as the song says:
Bottom line:
(When I think back...most of the folks flew these models with little qualms about who so ever built these models and most the most part....
JUST MAYBE...IN THE BOTTOM END..WHO REALLY GIVES OR GAVE A RIP ABOUT HOW THAT MODEL ENDED UP FLYING IN COMPETITON.
MOST OF THE TIME...THESE OLD HAND ME DOWNS...LOOKED HORRIFIC ANYHOO AND PERHAPS DIDN'T DESERVE MANY APPEARENCE POINTS TO BEGIN WITH...
AT LEAST THEY CONTINUED TO HELP FOLKS CONTINUE TO FLY COMPETITON.
Personally...I alway looked at competition stunt flying as a SPORT and NOT A HOBBY-HORSE BEAUTY CONTEST.
Give out the purty hardware for the purdeeeist' model...and then lets just GO FLY STUNT!
HOPEFULLY, IN THE END...
MAY THE BEST FLYER WIN THE EVENT