It was a beautiful morning at the pond today. I brought 5 planes with me and flew them until I just ran out of electrons. It was almost dead calm so I did touch and go after touch and go in any direction I wanted.

These were my first aerial photos taken with a Kodak 110 film camera. With this camera you got 1 photo per takeoff and landing because you had to manually wind the camera to the next photo on the film roll. A servo with a rod attached was used to push the button on the camera. All these were scanned from the original print.
I am posting these here just for my own documentation and amusement.
More info about each one in the captions.

I originally built this model in 1984 while attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. It was my go to plane for many years, with at least a thousand flights on it by my estimation. Over the years It flew with 3 different nitro engines, a K&B .40, a K&B .61, and a Saito .50 4 stroke.
It suffered a major wreck in 1998 when the front wing retaining dowels ripped out of the wing while I was practicing my rolling circles. The wreck remained mostly untouched until last year when I decided to rebuild it and convert it to electric power.

I elected to return it to the original (rubber band wing attachment) configuration for the rebuild since the leading edge pegs were obviously not suitable.
The windshield was smashed and no replacement was available so I just rebuilt that part with balsa and and simulated windows with trim sheet. The entire right side of the fuselage from the wing forward had to be replaced and the entire wing and fuselage recovered. It was originally white with blue stripes, so I now made it blue with White stripes (and a lightning bolt on the tail).

I installed a Power .40 electric motor from leaderhobby.com with a 11x7.5 wooden prop. It has a Hurc 80amp esc from headsuprc.com and power comes from a 4s 4000mah Lipo pack from valuehobby.com.

There was no one available to take flight pictures when I flew it for the first time in 24 years, but it flew as good as I remembered with an estimated top speed around 65mph. As soon as someone can take some inflight pictures for me I will post them here.

My friend Kramer got this for Christmas. I'm so jealous!

Flyzone Beaver on the lake (5 min 34 sec)

Finally got some video of my CL-415 flying off the pond today.

Hobbyking Guanli RC Canadair CL-415 on the pond (5 min 25 sec)

It was kind of a dreary overcast day, but I got some float flying in this evening before the fog rolled in. I wish I could take photos and fly at the same time, but alas I'm just not that talented...yet. So, here are a few static shots of my float planes sitting on the water....Continue Reading

For the last few weeks I have been working on some of my older planes that needed attention, but I also put together this nice Guanli CL-415 Superscooper from Hobbyking.com.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...arehouse_.html

Specs:
W/S 55"
Length 40"
wt rtf 3.2 lbs
EPS foam
2x -Tower pro 2408-21 brushless motors
2x -18 amp esc



It's a very smooth flying airplane. I programmed differential thrust mixed to the rudder for the motors so I would not have to install the water rudder. So far I have only flown it off the grass, but I will soon try it off the pond.

Here's a cool video of the real Superscooper in action:

Mega Machines - Super Scooper (7 min 5 sec)

Here's my friend Steve's dropping water on the runway:

...Continue Reading

Just wanted to post 3 recent videos I made at JaxRC. These videos were all taken with my iPad, which has no zoom lens.

Dynam Grand Cruiser (4 min 39 sec)

...Continue Reading

I've been somewhat busy over the past couple of months doing lots of building and repair work for friends. I have also been flying quite a bit over the summer so this blog is way past due.

I found this Guillow's styrofoam Space Shuttle
http://www.guillow.com/spaceshuttle.aspx
that fit just perfectly inside my twin cargo plane and I have been having a lot of fun dropping it out up high and watching it glide in a nice big circle to land on its own. (freeflight)


Here's a video of me having fun doing touch and goes with my Kyosho PT-19.

R/C Kyosho PT-19 Touch And Goes (3 min 23 sec)

...Continue Reading

Got a couple of new videos to share. This is my friend Gene's Starmax B-17 from Banana Hobby. The maiden flight and the second flight.

Below are my recent projects. The B-17 is a Multiplex Cargo conversion that I started about 6 years ago. I finally have some time to work on it again. I still have some more work to do on it, but I hope to fly it soon.

The other plane is a Nitro Hammer 20. It has been hanging from my ceiling for 20 years. I removed the old K&B .40 that was on it and replaced it with a 3548-1100 outrunner and a APC 10x7 SF prop. Powered by a 4s 4000mah battery. It flew fine, but overheated the the 50 amp esc I used, so I have replaced that with an 80 amp esc and mounted it with the cooling fins sticking out the side of the plane. Current draw measured 52 amps. No wonder it overheated. Looking forward to flying it this weekend.

Starmax B-17 Maiden Flight at JaxRC (5 min 16 sec)

...Continue Reading

Recently put my ipod touch video camera to use and posted these to my Utube channel.

Me flying my Parkzone Habu (1 min 34 sec)

...Continue Reading

Seagull Extra 300, E-Flite Mini Edge 540, Multiplex Cargo converted to B-17 "Memphis Belle."

This has been a back burner project for almost a year, but I finally finished it and flew it twice today. It's another one I built for my friend Rick.
It's a pusher ( I don't remember the motor size ), runs on a 5s 2650mah lipo. Top speed is about 75 mph.

This was a very strange airplane to build.
The wings and tail are foam that is covered in some type of plastisized paper covering, not like Monokote, but thicker.
The fuselage has a plywood framework, but the skin is entirely ABS plastic.
Most of the details are done with stickers in the normal fashion of most ARFs, but the bottom of the fuselage had to be painted which I did over several hours with a brush and modelling paint.

My friend Rick and I finished up the second of his 2 Bobcat/Falcon planes yesterday and flew this one today. I estimate about 120mph top speed with unlimited vertical. This one flies just as good as the 80mm fan propelled one in my last blog entry. The only difference is that you have to be a little smoother on the throttle with this one because it tends to want to torque roll if you advance the throttle too quickly.
These planes are kind of a pain in the butt to assemble, but they are so worth it for only a $55 plane.

http://www.nitroplanes.com/bo90arfrarec.html

Just finished this Bobcat lookalike, Super Falcon-25 for my friend Rick. 80mm EDF runs on 6s 4000mah pack.
Wingspan 40", length 46". Weight 5.2 lbs. Hopefully the weather will cooperate this weekend for the maiden flight.

Here's one I am building for my friend Steve DeLoach. This 1 sat in the box in a garage for two years before it started going together. Still have lots to do, but I finally got it standing on its own legs. It will have a pair of 4260-06 motors, 80 amp ESCs, and Robart pneumatic retracts.

Update: 03/17/12
Finally finished it and did the maiden flight this weekend. All worked well....Continue Reading

I accidentally found this youtube channel with some really unique 3 dimensional full fuse cartoon fattie designs.
I really admire talent and imagination like that. Check out his stuff. They are really cool.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ey0927399/videos

http://www.rchobbystream.com/

If you have an iphone or ipod touch here's a cool app that has some neat tools.

Besides the RC news articles, this free app comes with four different tools:
Barcode scanner
Camber Gauge (for rc cars)
Heli pitch gauge
Control surface gauge

When you tilt your idevice the protractor indicates the angle you are holding it at.

I just put the finishing touches on my PT-19 today. Got the windshields on and the faux landing gear strut covers + a little touch up paint here and there. I still don't know the purpose of the mast between the cockpits, but its on there. One of these days I will have to get an answer on that. I am pleased with the way it turned out. It flies very scale on 4s and with good power on 5s.
It looks like the winds are going to finally calm down a bit this next weekend so I hope to get a few more flights on it then.
I hope someone will bring their video camera so I can get some footage.

It was a foggy morning today, but the Dawn Patrol was out in full force as usual on this Sunday morning. There were 2 notable new planes that took to the air and both flew well....Continue Reading