The great outdoors...

Around Xmas time during a fit of boredom I clicked on the Hobby Lobby banner at the top of the page for the first time. Yes, in two years I had never clicked there, simply because I figured airplanes were too much hassle what with balsa, covering, construction time and the like. They also needed nice grass to flop on, or a good runway if they had wheels. I browsed around a bit without much interest until I clicked on something called Alfa, and saw a picture of a Wildcat on the page.

And the rest, as they say (who are they anyways?), is history. I have more than a few shelves stuffed full of various hardcover books on WWII, and most of those center on air power, and most of those focus on the Pacific theater. Over years of reading I've had a few "favorite" aircraft, either due to their design, looks or place in history. The Wildcat was an early favorite for a number of reasons, and seeing that it was made from foam and could be flown in a couple of hours really grabbed my interest. However, as it was still an airplane that needed a landing area I didn't do much more than read the review and discover the Electric Warbirds and Parkflyer forums here. The airplane seed had been planted though, and it didn't take long to germinate.

While down in Palm Springs visiting my parents I picked up an ungainly looking RTF called a Slo-V. Seeing as it is rarely windy there it was a good way to learn about takeoffs and landings, and being waaaay...Continue Reading

The indoor times...

Once fall 06 arrived I re inflated the Micro Blimp for a bit of indoor entertainment. Wondering if Plantraco had come out with a newer version over the last couple of years I typed their name into Firefox and hit the enter key.

And the rest, as they say, is history. Seeming to leap out of my monitor was the coolest looking little airplane I'd ever seen. It wasn't scale, it wasn't cute, it was just cool and it was the Carbon butterfly living room flyer. I then found the appropriate forum for these planes on RCGroups, and started devouring threads about these planes and Plantraco equipment. Before I knew it I had a Carbon Butterfly, MicroScout and a couple of MicroRacers from Plantraco. An Okie Bipe and scale looking (I love scale aircraft) Christen Eagle from BSD Micro followed soon after. I then made arrangements to rent time in an old high school gym to fly in, and have flown the wings off of all these great little models all winter.

I figured that R/C couldn't get any better than this, what with having helicopters to fly outside in the summer, and micro airplanes for indoor flight during the winter.

And then I made the mistake of clicking the Hobby Lobby banner at the top of RCGroups, and the third phase was upon me...

Hmmm, a blog. Never done a blog before. Is this where I tell about how I got started in R/C, where I'm going, and how many rubles I've dropped along the way? If so, let's start with the first phase...

The helicopter era...

It all began with a trip to the West Edmonton Mall in January of 2005. Bored to tears from wandering amongst all of the clothing type stores with Management, I wandered into a Radio Shack and saw a funny looking helicopter called the Bladerunner. Having always dreamed of flying an R/C helo I figured for a hundred bucks it was worth a try, so I begged off more clothes & shoe shopping and took it up to the hotel room to try out.

And the rest, as they say, is history. Not only did it fly, it flew well, and I was immediately hooked on R/C flight. Shortly after I discovered RC Groups, and started doing some serious reading, which led me to ordering a Hirobo XRB, which was a huge step up in quality and flight experience. Now addicted to indoor flight I also picked up a Plantraco MicroBlimp for something different, (although this purchase would come back to haunt my wallet in about 18 months).

Once spring arrived and I found the XRB wasn't going to cut it outside, much reading was done to choose a suitable summer chopper. The fixed pitch Corona was popular here as an excellent starter unit, and after building and flying mine for the summer months I was in total agreement. I added a Co-pilot stabilization system and a nice scale Jet Ranger...Continue Reading