Written & Submitted by KER (03/1997); Transcribed by NR (06/1997); Edited by SS (2002), Reedited and Reformatted by JS (01/2010); Updated by JS (03/2013)
Career
- Contest Director
- QSAA Pioneer #P-024
- IMAA Founding Sponsor #FS-34
- Served as IMAA District Director
- Writes column in RC Modeler magazine, Big is Beautiful from 1985 to the present [1997]
- His Eagle Squadron newsletter, Flight Report, had a nationwide mailing list. At 62 years, born in 1934, I am still breathing, just another modeler for over 50 of those years. After orange crate biplanes and solid model kits, flying models began with American Junior Interceptors, stick-and-tissue models in the early 1940s. (Who hasn't set one on fire and chucked it from the barn roof?) I couldn't wait for the new box of Shredded Wheat that had the World War II profile models printed on balsa sheets that separated the biscuit layers. Powered modeling began in 1947. I flew Free Flight, Dakota biplanes with .049 OK Cub engines and a Scientific P-51 U-Control model. I stepped up to Torpedo 29, O&R 23 and Veco engines, and models such as the Warrior, Brave, Goldberg Shoestring and, of course, a Ringmaster. Radio Control started in mid-1960s with a Sterling Mambo Special with a reed system that was the size of the whole fuselage. The TriSquires with Bonitron Galloping Ghost system had some success. I bought a Kraft Gold Medal with KPS-10 servos in 1968 and never looked back. Still on hand, the radio was used into early 1980s, with 9-foot span with Quadra-powered models. Also, I still have a PCS (Proportional Control Systems) that Cliff Weirick marketed. They were generic Kraft radios with a stacked PC board receiver and brown vinyl transmitter. I loved those ads, and then Cliff married the woman in them, which broke my heart.
I built Goldberg Skylarks, Falcons, Ugly Stiks, and then began designing and scratch building foam-winged door-skin models. I built about four a month, selling three to club members to finance the hobby.
My first pattern ship was Bridi Kaos that flew oh so nicely after my “hot” little creations. I didn't have the patience to become a real pattern pilot. I started building bigger beginning with the Senior Telemaster, Nosen J-3s, and various Citabrias in the mid-1970s. An OS .80 or Fox 74 just wouldn't do it, but Quadra gas engines appeared just as Eddie Morgan was getting a gang together for a quarter-scale meet in Las Vegas in 1977.
The Citabria with a Quadra Q-35 made it, and I became pioneer member #P-024 in the Quarter Scale Association of America (QSAA), as did about eight giant nuts from the Sacramento area that went. During this time, I was doing my own article, Aerie, for the club newsletter. In 1978 and 1979, a local giant scale interest group was formed with me as president, chief cook, and bottle washer. The club, Eagle Squadron, later became Chapter 1 of the International Miniature Aircraft Association (IMAA) when it was founded in 1980. I became a founding sponsor # FS-34. My Eagle Squadron newsletter, Flight Report, which had a nationwide mailing list. My Aerie column began regularly appearing in the IMAA newsletter, High Flight, and the QSAA newsletter, The Quarter Scaler. The club sponsored/co-sponsored 11 annual giant scale fly-ins at Merwin Ranch, a sod farm near Sacramento, from 1979 to 1991. I was contest director from 1983 on, for the last seven of those meets. The annual event even drew the German B-17 team, as well as notables such as Bob Beckman and Norm Goyer. It was a model flyer heaven until Bill Merwin retired and we could no long use the event location.
I served as IMAA district director for District X from 1984 to 1986. I regularly attended the annual QSAA events. Then, at the October 1984 meet in the desert, I was approached by Dick Tichenor of RC Modeler magazine. Dick Phillips had left the magazine and the Big Is Beautiful column. I was asked to pick up the reins and my first column appeared in the March 1985 issue of RCM. It has continued to this day. [1997]
I became a published designer in 1978. A plan was drawn up at the urging of others for my 9-foot Piper L-4 design, which appeared in Scale RC Modeler in December of 1981. A 9-foot Piper PA18 Super Cub followed in 1982, as did my 10-foot Pober Pixie, an EAA parasol design that appeared in November 1984 issue of Scale RC Modeler.
Float plans followed, as well as other designs, and all plans were made available to others, although I never endeavored to make a business of the plan service. The designing is done to please myself, and then I offer them to others. Designing and drawing continues, but is done for my own enjoyment with an AutoCAD computer program, and information usually appears in the Big is Beautiful column.
I have never been more than any other modeler has and my writing endeavors have only been an effort to share the fun I have with others in the wonderful world of modeling. (Signed) Ken Runestrand AMA 2499
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