A View from Broadway
Henry Nelson's Perky Speed models.
Perky!
The wiener dog of Speed
By Ken Burdick
September 2023
Yes Folks, it’s true.
Although I swore, I’d never build one, much less fly one,
I find myself in late August cutting out parts for a Perky
antique Speed model. I always considered it a joke for
geezers, but *looking around,* I am one now.
I liken it to how 1/2-A Combat took off in the 80’s during
Top Gun. The big guys would all bring 1/2-A Combat wings
to the event and hack at each other until well into the
evening, Friday before the main event. Then it grew, and
the Russian engines took it up another notch to where the
lines were lengthened from 35 feet to 42 feet, and top
fliers in the U.S. now fly the event competitively.
The same may be said of Perky Speed. It began quietly and
somehow caught on. I’m always slow to join so it only took
me 20 years to get around to it. Through a series of
mistakes and good fortune, I came to possess not one, but
two Fora F1C Free flight engines, one side exhaust and one
rear exhaust. My supplier for such rare metal was none
other than Hodakov Tolik.
Tolik is a remarkable machinist, able to manufacture
complete F3D pylon engines of his own design. He has made
pistons for me and fit them to the liners. Toli is also an
excellent source of Fora and Profi engines. He can be
found on Facebook under his name. Anyway, I now have a
couple of very fast .15’s.
Some of you may know that I have a super fast D Speed
model and since the Northwest no longer has D speed as an
event, I have to travel to fly it nowadays. What better
place than the Nats? And if you are going to fly speed at
the U.S. National Model Airplane Championships, you might
as well play with the big kids and that means fly Perky
for the bragging rights.
(SIGH)
So, I have an engine, I just have to build the clunky
thing. No way am I going to build the kit even if I could
find one. I really like Henry Nelson’s side-mounted model
so I came up with a way to make a horizontally mounted
engine model, but nothing quite as cool as Henry’s (see
photo at top).
I sent an email asking Henry if he had any plans for the
thing; after all he did win this year’s Nationals with his
model. Sure enough, H came through like the champ he is
and a set of full size prints arrived in the mail. “It
only has to look like Perky” he said.
Mine is a profile model with the fuselage pieces glued to
each side then carved to the full figure blob that is a
Perky. My model will feature landing gear from Bill
Bischoff, a one-ounce tank yet to be made (but technical
support from Bob Mears will produce an unusual suction
tank) and a lot of whittling on block balsa wood.
I made the profile fuselage oversized so that when the
sides are attached it can be shaped down to the original
template.
The parts.
The spinner must be per the rules, so I
imposed on Richard Hart in Scotland to make a 1-½” spinner
for the nose of this dog. He wrote back saying he had made
it, but it took a great deal of fiddling around since the
1-½” spinners were made for a D or 10 cc engine.
The spinner.
I copied the Perky rules from the North American Speed
Society site and posted them below. It seems that
the top speed has nothing to do with winning the even ...
but the closest to the average overall speed is the goal?
Again, what a wiener of a Speed event.
Stay tuned right here to Flying Lines to see the exciting
(YAWN) conclusion to this one-time project.
NASS Perky OTS Speed Rules Reviewed and approved by NASS
Technical Director to ensure compliance with AMA Safety
rules. This is a one design speed event. The Model is the
1946 Matt Kania designed Megow Perky. The rules are pretty
basic. 1. The Model must be built to the out line of the
original 1946 Megow Perky design. Construction
modifications allowed. 2. Model must be equipped with a 1
½” or 1 ¾” Spinner. 3. Model must be equipped with two
wheels of 1 3/8” to 1 ½” Diameter. 4. Only Suction type
Fuel Systems are allowed. No Pressure Systems. 5. The
Engine size shall be .15 cu in Glow or Diesel. Or .19 cu
in Ignition engine. 6. Glow Engines are to use the AMA 10%
Spec Control Line Speed Fuel. No fuel restrictions for
Diesel or Ignition Engines. 7. No Tuned Pipes or Megaphone
exhaust extensions allowed. Mini Pipes and Mufflers are
ok. 8. Maximum Model weight shall be 23 oz. 9. The flying
wires shall be 52’6’’ in length as measured from the
center line of the fuselage to the center of the grip on
the control handle. Only 2 wire control systems allowed.
10. The flying wires shall be .014” Diameter Solid Steel
Music wire. Wire material shall be the AMA required ASTM
A228M Spec wire. 11. A Pull Test of 25g’s shall be applies
to the model, flying wires, handle and safety thong prior
to each attempt. 12. The Model will be timed for 1 mile,
16 Laps from the point of release. 13. The Pilot is not
required to use the AMA Speed Pylon. 14. A Contestant may
enter more than one model. This would require an
additional entry fee to be collected. 15. For each model
entered, the Contestant will be given 4 attempts to
complete 3 official flights. 16. All other safety rules in
the AMA Rule book apply. There will be one award for the
Model closest to the Average Speed of all Models, and
awards for Top Speed, 1st through 3rd place.
— KennyB
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This page was upated Aug. 30, 2023