Written & Submitted by FC (03/1987); Transcribed by NR (01/1996); Edited by SS (2002), Reformatted by JS (10/2009)
Career
- He participated in the AMA rules-making process by submitting rules-change proposals, many of which have been adopted
- Organization, administration, and competition have been important facets of his model aviation activities
- Wrote a monthly column – three pages, on average – for American Aircraft Modeler magazine, then for AMA's Model Aviation magazine
- Served as editor of the National Free Flight Society (NFFS) Symposium Reports for 1968 and 1994, and as co-editor of the 1977 World Championships Technical Report, both published by the NFFS
Honors
- 1978: Received one of the 10 Model of the Year Awards of the NFFS
- 1989: An Aero Honor Society for Newsletter Editors award
- 1990: AMA Distinguished Service Award
- 1990: NFFS Hall of Fame
Résumé of Model Aviation Activities of Bob Meuser
Bob's activities in model aviation have included organization, administration, competition, and publication, almost all with respect to Free Flight activities. In the beginning, Free Flight was the only game in town.
He served as Associate Vice President of District 10 for a time. He has served in the various offices within his local club, off and on. He has been a Contest Director and scientific leader for many years.
In 1937, he organized the Oakland Cloud Dusters, a still-active body with over 50 active members. He is currently active in the club, and has served in the various offices of that organization many times; his present position is historian. In 1987, he organized the 50th Anniversary Banquet of the club, which drew about 100 guests. The membership includes many of the Old-Timers of the 1930s and 1940s and five world champions in both indoor and outdoor FAI Free Flight events.
He is the originator, sponsor, organizer, and director (with lots of help from others) of the Unlimited Mulvihill event, held annually at the U.S. Free Flight Championships starting in 1978.
This event is for Mulvihill Rubber-Power models (as defined by AMA rules with certain additional constraints), flown within a 20-minute time window shortly after dawn; unlimited flight duration, one flight. Designed to test the ultimate flight duration capability of outdoor rubber-powered models under as near to thermal-free conditions as it is possible to attain, this event has drawn many of the best rubber-power modelers in the country for more than 20 years. He has participated in the AMA rules-making process in several ways: by submitting ruleschange proposals, many of which have been adopted (“But if fewer than 50% are rejected, then I'm not working hard enough,” he says); by publicizing the proposals; by making his views on the proposals known to his contest board representatives and urging others to do so (the Contest Board Representatives, he discovered by corresponding with a lot of them, get precious little feedback from the troops); by helping others formulate proposals for changes in current rules and for the initiation of new events. Some of the rules-change proposals he authored or co-authored and which were accepted include:
Adoption of Pennyplane (Indoor) event Adoption of Limited Pennyplane (Indoor) event
Extensive modifications of the competition rules for the Indoor and Outdoor Ornithopter events, which were at least partly responsible for a resurgence of interest in the events, and outstanding technological advances in one of the traditional Free Flight arts. When an event has stayed dormant for decades, and suddenly scores that had stood for 40 years became tripled within a period of five years, that's progress!
Allowing electric-powered and expansion-engine-powered scale models to compete in the Free
Flight Scale Gas events and renaming it the Free Flight Scale Power event
He won first place in the distance event in the First Great International Paper Airplane Contest of 1967, sponsored by Scientific American magazine, in which there were some 12,000 entries. He repeated that performance 18 years later in the Second Great International Paper Airplane Contest of 1985, sponsored by the National Air and Space Museum, in which there were some 6,000 entries.
He received one of 10 Model of the Year Awards of the NFFS in 1978 for his No Nonsense Indoor Pennyplane design. The record setting performances attained by this monoplane model stood for a long time, but biplanes ultimately exceeded them.
While organization, administration, and competition have been important facets of his modelaviation activities, his main activity has been in the area of communication of ideas through various publications.
As both a technically oriented person by profession and a Free Flight, competition-oriented modeler by choice and heritage, he has attempted in his writings to present technical material in such a way that persons without technical training could comprehend it and put it to use.
He wrote a monthly “column” – three pages, on average – for American Aircraft Modeler, and later upon its demise, for AMA's Model Aviation magazine, continuously for some 17 years. In addition, he wrote a number of topical articles for those publications and also for Aero Modeler of England. He has contributed many papers that have been published in various NFFS Symposium Reports.
He served as editor (or rédacteur-en-chef the classier title with which he prefers to identify himself, tongue in cheek) of Free Flight, the NFFS Digest off and on for about 13 years. He served as editor of the NFFS Symposium Reports for 1968 and 1994 and as co-editor of the 1977 World Championships Technical Report, both published by the NFFS.
Model Aviation Articles by Bob Meuser
Does not include monthly 'column' in American Aircraft Modeler and Model Aviation magazines.
Code for names of publications
AM American Modeler AAM American Aircraft Modeler AerM Aero-Modeler (England) FF Free Flight, Digest of the National Free-Flight Society INAV
Indoor News and Views (National Indoor Model Airplane Society) MA Model Aviation MAN Model Airplane News Sympo Annual Symposium of the National Free-Flight Society Title And Why Not Gears?
Coast-to-Coast on a Paper Airplane Optimum Rubber Weight… Try Catapult Gliders Effect of Model Design and Flight Pattern on Wakefield Model Performance Optimum Tune for Low-Ceiling Flight Choosing the Best Wakefield Prop The U.S. Nationals The 1970 Nats: Free Flight Free Flight Team Selection Trials in the U.S.
The Albuquerque Affair (Team Finals) The 1971 Nats: Free Flight The Best-Ever Free Flight Meet (1971 U.S. Free Flight Champs) The 1971 U.S. Nationals Elegant Models at the Cow Palace
Publication MAN AM FF AAM Sympo
Date July 1965 Aug. 1967 March 1968 Nov. 1968 1969
Page
INAV
Sympo AerM AAM AerM AAM AAM AAM
March 1970 1970 Oct. 1970 Dec. 1970 Dec. 1970 Feb. 1971 Nov. 1971 Nov. 1971
AerM AAM
Oct. 1971 March 1972
Where to Put the Ballast The 1972 Nats: Free Flight The 1972 U.S. Free Flight Champs (with Dick Mathis) Free Flight at the U.S. Nationals Indoor Towline Glider Meet at the Cow Palace Can-Formed Prop Blades Electric-Flight Motors The 1973 Nats: Free Flight The 1973 U.S. Free Flight Championships Asymmetrical Model Airplane Contest Painless Propeller Pitch Determination A Method of Visualizing Airfoil Sections The Ten Models of the Year (with Bill Bogart) SuperSweep (Ron Whitman’s record indoor H.L. glider) Free Flight Team Selection Finals (for the 1975 World Championships) The 1974 U.S. Free Flight Championships The 1975 U.S. Free Flight Championships Carving Props From Thin Boards The Fourth National Paper Airplane Championships The 1976 U.S. Free Flight Championships Corrections to The 1976 U.S. Free Flight Championships article The 1977 Nats: Free Flight No Non-Cents (Model of the Year Award) The Free Flight Team Selection Finals The U.S. Team Trials The 1979 U.S. Free Flight Championships The Free Flight World Championships The 1981 U.S. Free Flight Championships The 1982 U.S. Free Flight Championships The 1983 U.S. Free Flight Championships
Sympo AAM AAM
1972 Nov. 1972 Dec. 1972
AerM AAM Sympo AAM AAM AAM AAM Sympo Sympo Sympo AAM
Nov. 1972 May 1973 1973 July 1973 Nov. 1973 Oct. 1973 April 1974 1974 1974 1974 Sept. 1974
AAM
Dec. 1974
AAM
MA Sympo MA
Jan. 1975 Sept. 1975 1976 July 1976
MA MA
Sept. 1976 July 1977
AAM
Sympo MA AerM AerM MA MA MA MA
Nov. 1977 1978 Jan. 1979 1979 Sept. 1979 Jan. 1980 Sept. 1981 Sept. 1982 Sept. 1983
AMA National Records Set by Bob Meuser Senior Age Classification Date 2/23/1941 11/24/1940
Classification Class C
Category Model Rise-off-Water (ROW) Gas Outdoor Autogiro
Open Age Classification Date 4/26/1981 4/30/1978 4/30/1978 8/27/1977 8/28/1977 5/21/1978 5/21/1978 1/26/1976 5/14/1977 3/24/1968 4/28/1968 1/20/1980 5/20/1979 4/27/1980 10/29/1978 3/18/1979 3/18/1979
Classification Outdoor Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor Outdoor Outdoor Outdoor Indoor Indoor Outdoor Outdoor Outdoor
Category II III III I I I I III III
III
I I III III III
Model Ornithopter (Outdoor) Novice – Pennyplane Ornithopter Novice – Pennyplane Pennyplane Ornithopter Novice – Pennyplane Pennyplane Novice – Pennyplane Wakefield (F1B) Wakefield (F1B) Autogiro Ornithopter Ornithopter Helicopter Ornithopter Autogiro
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