We live in an age in which technological advancements take place so often that their occurrence is almost as common as blowing one's nose—sometimes resulting in a product that's more or less as useful.
     Seriously though, blinded by our own troubles, it seems that we hardly bat an eye when a flu vaccine saves thousands of lives, when an energy-efficiency practice suggestion saves the average family hundreds of dollars annually, or when the ultra-tough servo gears hold strong so that an RC model skillfully avoids a lone field box placed not 3 feet from the pilot.
     Albert Einstein gave us the theory of relativity, and Henry Ford made it possible for the average working person to own an automobile. I'd like to take this moment together to appreciate the swimming pool noodle.
     Visit your local outdoor store, toy outlet, or "NowhereNearaDollar" store, and you'll find bushels of these human-height, brightly colored, Ethafoam tubes that are sold as water-jousting implements. (Kids, please don't take that as a suggested practice.)
     Sometimes these candy-colored items can even be had for $1 or less; we modelers can be resourceful when it comes to finding bargains. The impact-protective spaghettilike child's toy is practically five times as expensive if purchased from a manufacturer that makes it into packing material that you and I throw away with the box containing a new home computer.
     However, the pool noodle is far more useful to the aeromodeler. Thanks to its soft, round shape, there's hardly an edge to harm a point it may contact. That alone makes the miracle material perfect for wrapping the sharp ends of a propeller blade or for being carved into the travelwise wheel chock.
     On the workbench, sections of the oversized neon-colored foam drinking straw can easily be sliced off for use as a method of preventing CA containers from tipping or holding bottles of epoxy inverted so that they're always ready to pour without having to wait a day and a half for the 1/4-inch puddle inside to make its way out of the spout.
     In my car, I always have foam padding at an arm's reach. These wispy, lighter-than-air makeshift pillows are good for keeping an airplane wingtip from scraping the paint off of a helicopter canopy.
     They can also be used in lieu of water balloons to get the attention of a 12-year-old middle-school student who is texting the pretty redhead he met in social studies class, whom he hated until the second the news of note passing broke on a friend's Facebook page. I think Twitter recently posted that it's probably wise to wait until your kids are at least 31 to allow them to have cell phones.
     The other thing pool noodles are good for, and the real reason for their invention if you ask me, is to be used as sheaths for PVC pipe that stands vertical on the racecourse of a Club 40 Pylon contest. Their colors regarded as stomach churning, avoiding them not only becomes habit, but is also a health vitality stimulant.
     If you look at Don Stegall's article "Pylon Racing for Everyone," one of the photos shows that alternating sections make the pylons even more avoidable and that much easier to recognize when it's time to turn around.
     In addition, if one of the suggested RC models is introduced to said benchmark, damage to each would be minimized. Okay, I'd laugh if it were my airplane.
     "Find your own way" is what I always say. Racing in any form is a thrill, even if the seriousness of the venture is pressed only for a weekend. We're all serious about having fun, right?
     Take Eric Henderson's article about aerotowing. Thousands of dollars didn't go toward the know-how to experience the excitement of a cool tow model and the grace of a glider. Because the two were looked at with an open mind, a successful venture was created that didn't take a second mortgage on the family farm.
     As modelers, we find a way to make something from nothing. Laddie Mikulasko constructed planks and sticks of balsa into a beautiful 1/4-scale model of the Jodel D-9 Bebe. His version can be powered with either glow or electric power; it's your choice.
     And John Hunton's look at dealing with torque on Scale models was new to me. His solution didn't cost much more than two bits. MA