The Perry Swap Meet By James Goss      Perry Georgia is the host for one of the biggest R/C swap meets in the southeast. It has been going on for about 12 years and has become known as one of the best. This was my first time to attend the Perry show and I was truly amazed at the number of people in attendance. If I had to guess at the number of people, I would guess around 10,000. At times the isles were so congested with people you just had to stop and wait for an opening and dart through. It is very encouraging to see this many people involved in radio control. I had no idea this hobby had grown so much in the last few years. There were a lot of hobby shops there as well as individuals selling and buying. The leader of the AMA (President Dave Brown) was there walking around and looking at everything just like an average RC guy. We talked with Dave for a while and he seemed like a really nice person. I may start using more of his RC products in the future.     Three of us went in one car and four went in a van. Pat Vic and myself were in the car and Cecil, Gene, George and Glen went in Gene's van.  I would like to thank Pat for being the host and allowing us to ride in his car with him. The trip can take anywhere from 2 ½ to 5 hours to drive, depending on how fast you drive. Gene's group left Friday morning so they could look around Friday night before the main show on Saturday, and would be there when the doors opened at 7:00 am Saturday morning. Pat got under way around 4:30 Saturday morning. I went to Pat's house and left my truck there. We then went to pick up Vic, and got to his house at about 5:15 am. I knew Dr. Vic was really ready for business when he came out carrying a plastic bag that was either full of engines or money, I didn't know which at that time.       We got under way and had heave rain all the way to Perry. We made two or three stops on the way that would account for about 30 minutes of the three hours to get there. So Pat drove it in 2 ½ hours in heavy rain. I think he put some 25% nitro fuel in his tank. When we arrived it was still raining heavy so we got wet getting inside the building. When inside, it was such a large display that we didn't know were to start. Luckily one of the first people we saw was Cecil. What are the odds of running into a club member when there is 10,000 people all around you? Cecil filled us in on some of the locations of things, including that a second building was also full of good displays. We were like kids on Christmas morning. Outside flying demos was also planed, but the rain prevented this event on Saturday. I think they had some flying on Friday evening. There was also a good demo on high-speed boats. It was held on a lake next to the buildings. We could hear the boats screaming so Cecil, Pat and myself decided to walk down to the lake at about 1:00 pm. On the way it started raining heavy again and just as we walked up to the event, all boats pulled in to shore and we didn't see the first boat in operation.      Just about all areas of R/C was represented. One large building was devoted to only small electric and rubber band models. This indoor flying was very interesting and I had never seen this event before. The rubber powered miniature planes were so neat. And what was so amazing about them, they would fly very slow and stay up, for what seemed like, forever. Then came a perfect landing and they were ready to go again. A lot of young kids were involved with this event. This is a really good way to introduce our youth to modeling. I guess the most unusual part of the RC hobby on display was the battleship combat event. This event involved ships that were about three to four feet long and were built from balsa. They had functional guns that shot bb shot by compressed air or CO2. The guns would rotate around by servo control. The objective was to sink the other ship before they sent you to the bottom. The bb shot would penetrate the ship's hull with no problem, and the shot were fired at a high rate like machine gun fire. I guess this would be like combat flying with our model planes. It wouldn't be hard to install these guns on a RC airplane, then we could compete with these fellows.      The idea of making the trip in a car was that we didn't plan on buying anything big. I figured that this was fine because I wasn't looking for anymore big planes at this time. I already have a giant scale under construction in my shop now, and was just going to buy a few batteries and heavy duty switches that I needed for this project. When we first arrived Cecil mentioned that there was a ½ scale Cap 232 kit for sell just over the way, so we headed over there to have a look at the big guy. When I got it in sight my heart started pounding, wow, what a kit. It was an all fiberglass fuselage built in two sections. I could see that the motor box was part of the front assembly, all it would need is a firewall added to the rear of the fiberglass nose. This would save much time in its construction and I really liked that! What really caught my attention next was the giant engine cowling and aluminum landing gear. This cowling would completely swallow my 1/3 extra, and I thought the extra was a very large plane.      The landing gear was a full ¼ inch and didn't have a scratch on it. I couldn't believe the size of this landing gear, it is huge. The workmanship on the fiberglass was one of the best I have seen. The kit comes with all foam cores for the wing and tail, and a very well constructed canopy, about two feet long. This plane will have a 147-inch wing span with a 10-foot fuselage and will weigh about 65 lbs. It requires a 200 to 240 cc engine. The wing doesn't have an aluminum pipe spar like the other giant scale I have built. It has a hardwood spar about 1 inch thick and 4 ½ inches wide running the length of the wing, and the way the wing plugs into the fuse is also unique.  So everything was there except the wood and of course the hardware. It looked like a very nice package, but at this time I decided not to buy it because I had no way to get it home. The kit sells for $900 from G& L hobbies, they make several 50% scale kits and also some ¼ and 1/3 scale kits. I told the nice gentleman that I might see him later on in the day and then moseyed on down the isle.      In a little while Pat, Cecil and myself met back up with Dr. Vic. Now I know that Vic didn't have any money in his plastic bag because he made his deals with psychology. He just talked the fellows into giving him anything he wanted. I wish I could have been beside him when he made these deals so I could have picked up a little of his technique. Vic also came across a very nice sport/pattern type plane with a fiberglass fuse and foam sheeted wings. This was another great deal.      It was about 12:30 now and we made our way back around to the ½ scale Cap 232. It was still setting there just as big as life. I thought it may have been purchased and gone by now, but it was still there. I was kind of glad to see that it was still here because in a way I really wanted it. About that time Pat gave me some words of encouragement, Pat said, “I am sure we can get this plane into my car”. I said, “Pat, are you sure about that”? With Pat and Cecil's help we started getting the price lowered. Too bad Dr. Vic was not around or we could have got the fellow to give the Cap to me. Anyway, I ended up paying only $300 dollars for this very nice super giant scale kit.      So I now was the owner of a ½ scale Cap 232 kit and we started loading it up in Pat's car. Now we had three grown men, a ½ scale airplane, a 60-size plane, a small delta wing plane that Pat bought, plus a large set of golf clubs to get into the car. For a while I thought I was going to be riding on the hood of the car because everything was put into the car except the large wing cores, there was just not enough room for them in the car. I was wondering just what I was going to do now, when Cecil come up with a good idea. He thought Gene might still have enough room in his van for the wing cores, so he located Gene to ask him about it and Gene said sure we could, if they would fit. They did fit and I was really relieved to see them go in the van. Gene dropped them off at Cecil's house and I picked them up Sunday evening. Now I have all the parts stored in my shop just waiting to be assembled this spring. On our way home Pat couldn't really see how to drive because of the fiberglass that was in the front seat. It required all three of us to navigate our way back home. This was one delightful experience that I will never forget. We got back at Pat's house around 6:00 pm Saturday evening. Next year we plan to take a larger vehicle even if we don't plan on buying any large planes. If you have never been to a really big swap meet, this is the place to go. Keep it in mind for next year.      As I was writing this on Monday afternoon about 4:00 pm, Pat called me to let me know that I didn't have the entire plane after all. While Pat was unloading his golf clubs, he found the rudder to the big guy. It had got behind the golf bag some how or another. Now how did I not miss that big of a part, because it is a huge rudder. Pat gave it to Cecil and I will pick it up tonight at the club meeting.