Last model I built was a Goldberg cub back in 1989, it has survived many moves over the years and I'll finish it this spring. Got a complete Eagle 63 off ebay to help me bring back the skills that have gotten a bit rusty before I start on the Dare Ercoupe. I really did miss building air planes almost as much as I miss dads old Ercoupe, the plane I learned to fly in.

who knows, I might even learn how to fly R/C.

Welcome to RCG Kep!

Be sure to post pictures of your progress. In the meantime it would probably worth your while to get in a couple of hours on a R/C flight simulator -dust off the proverbial cobwebs a bit!

Good luck with the building and flying

Odd

Build an elevator today. Also ordered the motor, esc and battery. Took a lot of studying to figure out what I need there. eCalc really helped on that.

Welcome back,Kep.Glad to see your're starting out with a trainer..You have your best shot at flying,with it.
As the Wiz said ,simulator time is good for you. Enjoy.Earl

HI Kep
Welcome back! If you're a real aeromodeller, it never leaves your blood - many of us have taken time out and found our way back.

Good move on the tailplane - start with the easy bits, then put them where you can see them to inspire getting a move-on on with the rest of the model.

Building is the easy part - figuring out a motor with the vast range of choices pouring out of China is real tricky. Easy way - go scrat through the electric forums for others' builds of this kit or similar. Your Eagle 63 is about the same size, though perhaps a little heavier, than a Sig Kadet Seniorita, for one easy example.

Watch out for the kit's trike UC. It was designed around a glow lump spinning a smaller prop than a suitable electric motor will be happy on. A lot of 'electrocutions' end up with taildragger undercarriages to clear that larger prop diameter.

Electric hints. Figure out battery placement and access before you're sitting there looking at a finished model wondering 'how do I get the battery in there?'

As soon as you have all the big bits mostly built, put the model plus all the heavy and expensive bits together best you can and get an early idea of where the CG is heading.

Get yourself more batteries! One battery = one flight. Even if you get a big RV deep cycle battery or a trendy Honda gas generator to field charge your battery, one battery = one flight and a long stand-around while it recharges.

Go find a local club, get to know the members and find yourself an instructor for when you're ready to fly. Sims are basically cute video games that do a lot if you have a training course or instructor - believe me, I spent many hours as both student and instructor in flight sims a while back. Without that, they're one notch over a video game.

If you try to teach yourself to fly, your instructor knows exactly the same about flying as you do. Sorry, that is kind of boring in todays 'isn't there an app for that?' attitude, but figuring out there isn't a reset button as your considerable investment is ten feet off the deck in a vertical dive is best avoided.

Been there, did that once. Cost me three RC gliders.

Good luck all round.

Dereck

Originally Posted by Dereck

Electric hints. Figure out battery placement and access before you're sitting there looking at a finished model wondering 'how do I get the battery in there?'

+1 on that. I've found, with almost every electric conversion I've done, that the fuselage (in front of the wing) needs to be extended, in order to get the CG right.

Alternatively or in addition, find a way to lighten up the aft end of the plane, by lightening the construction, moving servos forward, or whatever.

This is particularly true for "scale" models, but my last build was an electrified profile plane (Paul Swany's Primo 40) that has this problem with a vengeance.

Couple of years ago I bought Real flight 5.5, it was a real eye opener at how difficult it is when you are learning to fly to stay ahead of the plane. I put a Slow stick together last week start out on out back. I am now a member of the AMA, local flying field is about 8 miles from me for the stuff I can't fly in 3 acres. At least one of the local club member has been a friend going back to the last time I tried RC. Most of the planes i built growing up were ether Free flight or Control line. The radio transmitter I bought is probability more then I need right now but I really do like my technology, and a 10 model memory can't be all bad. here is a picture of the cub I was working on (1989) before life got to busy.

That's a fine looking Cub. Looks like it just needs some innards and you'll be good to go!

I had some text here and it up and left. I was saying welcome back. I did the same thing 6 yrs ago my laps was 50 yrs got to be old with time on my hands,
so far I built the Eagle II then the T.F. 1/5 scale mustang and now I'm bashing a Tiger 60 in this same section if your intrested.

Still have the touch I think Leroy

Since He came back,Leroy,and YOU came back,and you're showing your models,maybe this isn't derailing......Leroy,your P-51 has a 4 blade prop..Is that a display prop,or do you fly with it.? I'm an advocate of scale props when possible.
Kep's Cub can use a wood prop,sanded,with pencil striped "laminations"and sprayed clear...just sayin'

And NOW I remember Kep's goin' electric,and prolly won't use a wood prop.....sorry !

If you're going to get technical, a 'pit posing' prop does look cool! Maybe not in these days when the biggest Oohs and Aahs are reserved for the guy who bought the latest New! Exciting! Product! first.

When I flew scale comps back in England - you could actually compete in scale back then without a second mortgage or being a millionaire - the rules on props were that models were static judged with whatever prop the entrant saw fit to fit - so we all built 'scale' props - but could be flown on whatever was suitable for flight. So, we'd use the best prop for flying we'd found, but make a spinner or whatever to 'scale' to go around it, so it didn't mess up the look of the nose or wherever.

With electrics, we could get away with the much larger diameters demanded by scale than any wet power lump could manage, but am not sure I'd like to go to the effort of working up a true scale prop that matched the motor and model too. Too much work to go south in a less than perfect landing.

With my 1/5th Sig Cub, I flew on a 16 x 8 - about the right scale diameter, but an APCE. If she got to pits-pose for a while at flying meets, I'd slip on a scale diameter wooden prop I'd saved from pre-APCE days.

D