Well, even though I don't expect many readers, I thought I'd make an update on my current status in the RC realm.

Recently I've made the transition from flying all the time to building more. It's taken a while to hone my skills enough to comfortably build, and I'm really enjoying it now. I haven't given up on flying, but with daylight savings time here, flying after work is impossible. My only flight time is the weekends, and it's been raining way too much!

Now on to the interesting stuff!
I currently have several projects on the table. I have the problem of going from one to another to another, but I think the upside of that is I never get bored with a project. OR, when I start to get frustrated(it's supposed to be fun, right?) I can just go work on something else.

Here's what I'm. working on

1. Guillows p-40 rc conversion
This one is a neat little project. Basically I'm taking an old Guillows kit, and modifing it to fly RC. I'm going with full T/A/E/R controls. Setup is a Blue Wonder motor, Plush 12a Esc, and heads up rc 9g servos.
Progress has gone well with the basic frame and wing going together quickly. I also have the tail surfaces sheeted, and one aileron cut out so far. Right now I'm working on the other Aile, and designing a mount for the servo. The servo is actually taller than the wing. My solution to this is to hang the servo out of the bottom of the wing. The p40 has a "belly pan" that goes under the wing, so the bottom of the servo...Continue Reading

Well, this isn't much of a build log, but it is just about the plane, sooo. yeah.

Anyway, picked this up a little over a month ago. Great looking plane. Had the usual issues, covering didn't match the paint unless in natural light(in which it looks great). It is a great design. Pocket hinges, airfoiled tail surfaces, included painted spinner, a few cockpit peices, VERY detailed instructions, etc. Very scale. In fact, I haven't seen any other ARF under a 1.20 size that is as scale as this plane is out of the box. Even the other hangar 9 and I think seagull mustangs are not as good.

As I was installing the control surface hinges, I realized that on the left wing, the flap was warped. Very warped. Considering I had never flown a plane with this high of wingloading before, I didn't want to leave anything to chance. My LHS(Whobbies, great place) contacted Horizon about the issue. Horizon sent me a whole new wing set! I almost felt bad, but considering that the price of a wing set is $10-$20 higher than the entire ARF, I knew they hadn't sold any in a while.

I need to stay slightly cheap on this build, so I went to look for used parts to complete. I halfway accomplished that. Here's my setup and cost

ARF-$140 new
Power 32 - $53 used
jeti 70a opto - From another plane
AR600x - 45 used
700mah life 6.6v x2 - $10 shipped
Batteries - Already owned(3000-4000mah)
6 hs-81's - $76.14 + 1 replacement $12.69
Optional bombs - $12
"ill wind?" decal set - $21
...Continue Reading