I have long thought it was too bad that we flew our plane in distant and inaccessible places.. But flying in public spaces always remained a fantasy. So when Peter Rosenthall announced that he had been overwhelmed by the vision of flying penny planes in Grand Central Terminal, I signed on with alacrity.

Here is my account of the mission as posted on the Free Flight Mailing List, complete with pix. 

I had an old overweight penny plane to dedicate to Grand Central Aviation. It was covered in condenser paper . The motor stick was braced, to overcome a tendency to bow when heavily wound. So I guess it wasn't a legal penny plane after all.

I had trimmed it out in The Dragons Egg, a magical space where dancers rehearse..  I figured that flying in Grand Central was different from contest flying and so trimmed it with a forward CG. I got it so it leapt up 12 ft in a tight circle and banged around in Dragons Egg shedding prop blades  and bouncing off the architecture for more than six minutes and figured a smart person would stop before he broke the plane. So I did.

I made a surprisingly bulky box that would hold the plane assembled and wound..

Saturday morning, Ello and I drove to the New Haven RR station and met up with Peter and Becky and their two boys Eli and Isaac, about 4 and 8 years old. These two  are both up and coming modelers and no doubt we'll hear more from them. Peter and I each had a box full of penny plane.

When we got on the train, we wound the planes and collected at least one interested spectator. I mean I’ve never wound a penny plane in a commuter train and neither have most people. My winding was so uneventful  I added a couple of hundred urns. More about this later. Peter wasn't so lucky and not only did we wind his plane but we added  a good bit of CyA to his stab and wing(?).  Our penny planes were armed.
 

Peter winds on the Metro North Train

Peter Hooks Up

David (dannysoar) Winds

When we arrived to find that Marya Ursin, Queen of the Dragon's Egg, had ridden down on the same train as the rest of us  all the way from Eastern Connecticut to see the event. But we didn't realize she was on the train  It was too bad we hadn't been more organized.

I hadn't been to New York in 15 years and was impressed by the improvements in Grand Central Terminal . Gone was the dirt on the windows left over from the steam engines. And the ceiling is all everyone says it is.  Gold and green with Orion , Taurus the Bull and their heavenly friends. Betelgeuse twinkled invitingly. You can get an idea of the place at THIS SITE
 
 

There was a perceptible draft coming from the tunnels.

We stalled around, pee stopping the kids and  waiting for some folks who said they might come. They didn't. We ambled across the station to get away from a couple of cops and the draft from the tunnels. THE MOMENT WAS AT HAND!

We opened our boxes....
 
 

Peter's Box with an armed penny plane.  Note the plane is upside down, providing a good space for the rubber.

My plane stalled and refused to climb. Peter's set off in raggedy climb which I was too busy to observe.. I was able to retrieve it and relaunch. Still stalled . Another retrieval from amongst the startled travelers. I took a smidgeon of incidence out. It droned along at waist level.  By this time I was resigned to failure. But I tried again and off it went into a slow steady climb.

About this time a station master, with a cop hanging back 15 feet, came up to me and said “You can't do that.” Since what we couldn't do was 30 feet up,  he was pretty much forced to accept my promise not to do it again. I don’t think he ever did find Peter. It was my repeated attempts to launch that identified me. His main concern seemed to be that we were attracting a crowd.

My plane continued to drift back and forth  around the station in an uneventful and graceful fashion, maybe half way to the ceiling.  Peter's continued to bob along.  They looked as wonderful as we had hoped.
 

The plane dead sticks into my hand, under the watchful eye of the station master

No one took any times and the estimates by the observers were wildly optimistic.  My guess is that my flight was about the six minutes I was getting in the Dragon’s Nest.  I don’t know what Peter’s time was. Ello says Peter said 5 minutes.

The effect on the folks was  wonderful. It was Saturday and everyone was in a festive mood. The people's faces lit up at the sight of them. Smiles all around. Some folks clustered around the giant boxes eager to know  more and many more stood heads back and mouths agape. People in the balconies gathered to see. All seemed majorly impressed.   I really think we made many folks day. It was New York Magic and the NYC Chamber of Commerce should hire us. You don’t see this stuff in the Milford train station.

We had many offers to buy them. (It was NooYawk after all) and Peter was approached by a man who wanted to go into business with him putting Sumatrans to work making them. He left Peter a card identifying him as a lawyer.
 

I think people really were impressed by the magic and simplicity. We fielded lots of questions. One East Indian from Canada, a tourist with his family seemed to be interested in making them as a hobby. I gave him Jerry Knoblauch’s card. Some one with those exEvilEmpire RTFs could sell dozens. Peter fielded questions from a bystander who wanted to know more about indoor propellers.
 

Peter explains propellers to a traveler Becky explains something to Eli

Several folks had a somewhat goulash interest in our relationship with Guiliani’s police. But we were all able to leave without tazer burns and  with intact airplanes. And found a place that would serve food that grown ups and children could eat.

A fun and successful event that provided many memories that will last my lifetime.

POST MORTEM.
I consider this a resounding success, and am campaigning that we get a place in the AMA's honor roll of wacky model aviators, and the generous stipend that goes with it.

But there are some lesson to be learned.

1) This sort of thing attracts friendly and interested attention. And most people are totally devoid of clue about indoors. We should have had more propaganda.

2) We had no problem with spectators grabbing planes &c. The powers that be are pretty much forced  by the friendly crowds to be diplomatic. Peter figured his kids would be useful in this regard :-).

3) These public spaces are drafty. And the models have to be able to fly in what indoor competitors would think of as !very! dirty air.

4) A rubber band will keep it’s elasticity for a couple of hours, no problem.

5) It is not clear to what extent a penny plane will maintain trim wound up in a box.

6) I should learn what will happen if I put in extra turns. I'm convinced that the ones I put in on the train  were as much responsible for my initial troubles as  the floor level lumpy air.

I'm intrigued by the question of guerilla design. You want a plane that is stable in wind and bad trim. It should look good in the air. Six minutes is plenty of time. Much more and the folks will miss the idea that the flight has a beginning and an end. I heard estimates of 20 minutes, for what cant have been more than a 6-1/2 minutes minute flight. Two minutes is probably enough. It should look good in the air. A reliable oddity would do well.

The penny plane seems like a good start. It’s robust, big, and easy to build. The CG should be well forward to compensate
for the air and small warps. Some thinking on the these warps is in order. Geodesic construction? some bracing?
I'm impressed by the possibilities of the P-24’s

The article says it is harmless and without risk so it is okay. It is trespassing! How would you feel to come home to some strangers in your house "just watching TV"! It is harmless! Also if someone did not see the plane coming, the prop could hit an eye. What if someone pushing a baggage cart was watching the airplane and runs into someone?

This is also an AMA violation. AMA rule book, page 1, under AMA responsibility says "It is not a sign of intelligence or skill to be able to fly among or above spectators. It also shows a definite lack of common sense, etc."

It does not specify power, rubber, or gliders. It is bad enough for those flyers to hurt our hobby like this, but to brag about it and encourage others to follow, in a national magazine, is unexcusable (sic).

I think AMA should really look into this and demand a written apology to the authorities of the places they flew in. Also FM
needs to publish an apology for encouraging this in print.

Does AMA have a program to take care of violators? Fines, suspension of license, or whatever?

Enough bad mouth for today. I have been modeling for 45 years and started with 10 cent gliders, through outdoor and indoor rubber, and just about everything. I am now a member of PAMPA and fly C/L Stunt, sport WC and am national C/L Stunt judge.

I like FM because it covers everything. I have yet to try electric flight but enjoy keeping up with it in your articles.

Please don't get narrow minded and tunnel vision like some magazines have. If I want only Stunt I can read Stunt News; if I
want only R/C I can read RC Modeler.
JOHN W. LAWS
McKinney, Tex.

----------FM replies---------
That certainly is a grey area, but by no means does FLYING MODELS encourage thepractice simply because we print it. Columnists do have the right to express their opinion. What FM does encourage is the safe and intelligent promotion of the hobby.
-Ed.
 

So what do you think?. Should the AMA spend some of our money on a private detective to hunt down these renegade threats to good living in New York and rip their epaulets off or not?

   d/s hiding in the "grey area"