Well the hardest part of the F/A-18 is almost over. Even though it wasn't hard in the least, it was just difficult in that it took some perseverance, much patience, and some good luck. Before I painted the canopy, I must have changed its shape at least 10 times. NO JOKE. It started off looking like a really horrible round blob, then from there it became what it is now, not the best, but good enough for me. After two or so coats of watered down drywall goop, it got sanded with 400 grit sandpaper and then coated with a layer of white acrylic paint. The coat of white acted as primer and took out almost all of the dark, show through color of the foam. Then I painted the red stripes, and then after that the grey base color. I still need to touch up on the red stripes, but that will be later.

Also, the inlet diverters have been glued on and sanded smooth.

Cheers,
HT

For many years, my dad who is a firefighter has always kept me interested in the helicopters that are used in aerial fire fighting. They can range from a small Eurocopter A-Star with a small Bambi bucket to the old Twin Hueys of the Vietnam era with dump tanks. . L.A. County in Southern California even has a special "FireHawk" helicopter which is a modified Blackhawk Helicopter with the intent for helping put fires from the air. While fixed wing operations take the brunt of the aerial firefighting duty, rotor craft have one key ability, the hover, while a flying boat can skim over a lake or a fire bomber does a "hot refuel", a helicopter can dip its bucket into almost any water source and be back into the "heat" of it in no time....Continue Reading

In the past few days, I have finished the aft portion as previously stated, but now I have the elevators glued and hooked up to the servos and the pockets for the aileron servos cut out. The aileron servos like the elevator servo are HXT 900's. These are larger than the GWS Pico servos called for, but all the Pico servos I have are in another airplane, so these will have to do.

I also have glued the missile rails onto the wing and have the aileron control horns installed. I managed to find the 1-32 music wire I knew I had but haven't installed them as I need to pick up some 3M tape for the hinges.

HT

So, I have completed the aft portion up to gluing on the top sheeting which will need to wait until I buy a motor for this bird. I have just completed the horizontal stabs.
Instead of using the aluminum tube bearings called for, I used some leftover carbon fiber spar since the CF tubing I used had a hole almost the perfect size for the .157" torque rod. I installed the elevator servo, a HXT 900, and am now going to look for some 1-32 push rods which I know I have laying around here somewhere.

Since the last post I have decided on a color scheme.
It will be the diamondback scheme from VFA-102.

For all those interested, here is an amazing source of PDF decal plans
sized specifically for Steve Shumate's, F-14's, F-15's, and F-18's

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.php?u=89637

HT

Alright, here I have started ANOTHER project!

I saw the plans for the F-18 and then I looked at the equipment I just bought for a DW foamy, and said the the Foamy could wait! Also, the F-18 is going to be cheaper so that helped considerably in the decision process.

so off to RCFoam.com I went and purchased some 6mm grey depron. Turns out I bought enough for 2 airplanes As I used only half what I bought.

It took me one afternoon to print and assemble the tiled plans, one more afternoon to cut out all the pieces and a third to assemble to about the point I have it here. I am glad it is summer because I would have keeled over with anticipation if I had been in school, and had to think about building it all day while doing school. Also, waiting for the FedEx man to come is an extreme form of torture for me, I drive my family crazy with my incessant comments on the slowness and price/ speed of the shipping process, I mean come on, if you shell out over ten bucks for shipping, it should come faster than the week it takes.

OK back on topic.
specs.

wingspan: 28.5"
Length: 41.7"
Weight:15-20 oz

motor and such haven't been chosen yet

The build is really nice, with excellent parts fit and finish so far. I have been using 3M Super 77 spar adhesive, Hot glue, and Yardbird RC Ultimate Foam Glue for the construction, and let me tell you, this combination is PERFECT. 3M is perfect for plans adhesion to the foam for cutting out the parts,...Continue Reading

Ok, for some time these have been sitting up in the attic collecting dust. I thought some of you would be interested in seeing some kits of old.
Two of them, the yellow one (unknown kit, feel free to leave a comment if you know what kit it is), and the old TOP FLITE P-51A kit were bought at an estate sale about 5-6 years ago for $60, and the Carl Goldberg Electra I received as a gift from my dads friend who had the kit sitting on the shelf waiting to be built for some years. It is the kit version that comes with the motor and switch but from some reading many people think it is unsatisfactory, but I haven't read enough to be sure.

Mystery Plane: This one is interesting because it came with a REALLY old EXPERT radio. The throttle gimbal is broken, but it will probably never guide an airplane again so it is fine. Power on the nose is a classic FOX 19 engine which I am sure flew this plane many times, but as of late it hasn't been run since I purchased the plane. It needs some slight repair and other than a new radio and some minor engine work I am sure this plane could be airworthy in a few days time.

P-51: As I said before, this is an old TOP FLITE kit of the A version. This one has never flown as there is no radio and there was never one installed before but it did come with a Super Tigre 60, which I can't tell if it is new, or has been run, but it looks brand new. There was some MAJOR hangar rash as the whole left wingtip which needed to be repaired, and the...Continue Reading

Ok, it has been a while, but there has been some slow progress!

Between being out of school and camping and all that I managed to come to the conclusion I am trying to make the engine too realistic and it will take a lifetime to perfect.

I still will use the sheet aluminum but the design will be simpler,
Today I worked on the small engine housing/cover piece, I took some liberties for simplicity but in all, it is almost scale, it still needs to be trimmed to the final height but I want to wait until I finish the engine so I can get a snug but neat fit.

It is mostly 1-32 balsa with some 3-32 strips for strength.

that is all for now but I will get some more done soon

OK, so this really doesn't relate to RC but it is an interesting Blog topic.

On the West Coast, more specifically, California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah,
there is a Food chain called, In-N-Out Burger.See figure 1. They have food that is really good, with meat that is never frozen, and they even make the french fries in the kitchen! I mean you can see them back there peeling and slicing them and then being put into a nice cozy bath in cholesterol free oil.

Ok, enough with the advertising, so lets say you walk in and look at the menu and it will look like figure 2

but what really gets this post going is that there is a "Secret Menu" that most people do not know about. Not really as cool as it sounds, but very intriguing. And the secret menu is really in the computer, because if you walk in and say, " I would like to order the Flying Dutchman...," on your receipt, it really says Flying Dutchman like it is in the computer.

here is a look into the delectable secret menu,

3-by-3″ = three meat patties and three slices of cheese.

“4-by-4″ = four meat patties and four slices of cheese.

“2-by-4″ = two meat patties and four slices of cheese.

Note: You can get a burger with as many meat paties or cheese slices as you want.
Just tell the cashier how many meat paties and how much cheese you want and that is what you’ll get!
For instance, if you want 6 pieces of meat and 10 pieces of cheese tell them you want a “6-by-10.”
...Continue Reading

Yesterday and this morning I made some considerable headway on the engines.

I decided to hack the rubber foot into Swiss cheese then thought better of it and just cut all of the excess off. (see the picture)
the weight of the rubber cone went from about an ounce to about half that.

I spent this afternoon making a wooden mushroom.

no, not really, but I did start carving out the snorkel tip.
It is not much to look at, but the rounding off of the 3-4 inch dowel for the end, took a long time to get round and even.

Not much else has happened, just some minor sanding, aligning and fooling around with different ideas. I will post some more in this coming week

I have been working on this as a small, long-term project.
My friend who is a A&P(airframe and powerplant) mechanic, gave me these as a surprise and thought I should learn how to do simple repair work as I plan on becoming a licensed A&P mechanic also.

Not much really, like the title says they are from a North American T-6 texan, and as you can see, they are needing some attention and some time.

It is crazy how really old grease turns into a glue, I had a really hard time with some of the parts.

as of right now all I have really completed are the rudder pedal adjustment levers, they allow the pedals to swing forwards and back allowing for a taller or shorter pilot to fly comfortably, much like how you move your seat back and forth in a car, but instead the pedals move.

not all the pieces are on the assembly he gave me, but I doesn't really matter as he said if I gave him a list of small parts I needed he could send any extras or found pieces my way

well that is all for now, until I get some paint stripper for the old, flaky pant and then I can just reassemble what I have using some new, non rusted certified hardware

I have made some more progress and now have the Sea-Snorkel roughed out .
It is nowhere near scale but if I had made it scalsish it would have been really fragile so I just captured the essence of the shape with the v-shaped fins and little ridges on the top.

Also I joined the aft and center fuselage sections together.

progress on the engine stuff has been slow but I think I need to find something else besides the rubber things because of the weight and also the shape.

I am not sure and will decide soon.

I found some rubber chair leg caps and they are almost perfect.
only drawback is that they are almost an ounce adding a total of about 1.25 ounces to the uber light structure so far.

the metal tube is a rolled piece of that sheet aluminum =

and I started on the Sea-Snorkel
It is just a dowel with a few angle cuts the gaps are going to be filled and sanded since this piece will probably be painted

I had never heard of these before until the other day

My friend went to New York and bought me this as a gift.

It is a little trying on the patience with all the small parts but is a real builders project for sure

It comes with everything you need in one box including the "microbeam" glue

The pieces of wood are large matchsticks and the glue is a fast drying wood glue

the only thing I think you would need separately would be a piece of sandpaper but other than that it comes with everything you need

oh, one more thing, they give you this acetate pouch to insert the plan pages in and then you glue the parts to the sheet and to each other so they stay square until dry then you can pull the parts off the sheet and then continue building.

Just got back from a couple days in Yosemite National Park

The weather was awesome and the Merced River was insanely high.
We did all sorts of stuff, biking, hiking, eating, wandering and just plain having an excellent time. We go all the time so all the touristy things to do are boring because of the crowds of all those who haven't been there before.

All the photos are by my mom, who is an amazing photographer!
We had an amazing time and hope to go back before our big camping trip there later this summer.
If you have a chance to go, do it it is a amazing place to go and just walk around.

I still am working on the Skycrane but progress is just fine tuning and alignment on what i have so progress is not very visible.

Also look up East Coast Scale helicopters, all the stuff is huge but very awesome and inspirational, when you have a chopper powered by a jetcat
turbine, it is going to be undeniably sweet!

Here are some of my awesome pets.
They are two Oriental Firebellied toads, they eat live crickets and like
warm water and their sunlamp

I couldn't take a good picture because of the glass and the reflections but I did manage

They like to lurk in the water and wait like crocodiles, it is kind of amusing

I have carved up a radome/avionics blister for the nose,
also I followed up on the battery issue and a 3S pack should fit quite nicely
up in the fuse. with room to adjust for CG.
i also spent a lot of time yesterday doing the tedious job of trying to align the two belly tank/mechanics bay halves to fit together and on the bottom of the fuse. with no gaps at the 3 seams.
Glad that is over with, sand, sand some more, test fit, realign, and then sand some more.

Besides balsa I like plastic models
They are harder in my opinion but more fun to build
For some reason I hate car models, but like to build any thing else, cars for some reason seem to be really hard in comparison to planes,boats, or what ever, some of my models are really good and others not so good, but oh well
All of the kits are Revell-Monogram, I find they have a really good quality of parts with little to no flashing. They really are my personal favorite, although I have built a few other brands for friends....Continue Reading

This past spring break I went down to sunny Palm Springs and convinced the parents to go to the Air Museum. There was so much cool stuff and also a P-51 demo flight as the museum is right on the airport. All of the stuff at the museum flies including the B-17, B-25,P-63, PBY Catalina,T-33, A-26 and many more awesome flying pieces of history.
website is http://www.palmspringsairmuseum.org/

so anyway, here are some pictures.
really a neat place and if you time it right like we did, usually on the weekends, they have a flight demo going on after lunch.