About three years ago, I read about a home design model featured in a slick cover magazine. I got a set of plans and the problems began from there. The A/C on the plans did not resemble what was pictured in the article, and the text in the article did not pretain to either. If you looked real hard, the model on the cover did not match the one in the article. The plans were computer drawn, but the length of the fuselage was different by a 1/2 inch between the top view and the sideview. The formers were in different positions in each view, and the wing went from low position in the article photos to middle position on the plans. The outline of parts shown on sheet two resulted in a fuselage thinner than the first page of plans by about 1/8 inch. Looks as though they omitted some balsa sheeting, but did not thicken up the parts to compensate. The pictures in the article showed wood parts around the nose area not noted on the plans, and the cockpit looked more forward than the plans. The pictures in the article plainly showed capstrips on the ribs, and the text mentioned it too, but the plans did not show any. There was no way anyone could come up with Hoz-stab parts as the rib details were not on the plans, and the construction part of the text mysteriously ended after the wing and fuselage construction were described. They showed eliptical shaped tailplanes, whereas the plans had squared off ones. However, there were pictures in that article, and that was supposedly sufficient to complete. To help in the confusion, there was a note on the plans to see the certain issue for construction details and pictures of the finished model.

Two months later the magazine had a booth at the Pasadena AMA show, and although they were very cordial greeting initially, a large fellow had just began ragging them about his problems with the very same model. One thing I overheard explained was that there were five prototypes made and each was correcting or simplifying something found during construction. The exhibitor mentioned to the big fellow if he would have read the first paragraph harder, he would have noticed it was only a "Concept" model and open to individual interpretation. With that statement the big fellow went into a greater rage. I was about to add my two cents when the sole exhibitor turned and walked away. A small young girl later monitored the booth, and all she knew was to hand out brochures.

I got a complementory issue and never subscribed.



Wm.