This was this years winter build. A Great Planes Ultimate .40 biplane . This is my first biplane. It is all monokote covered with the vinyl decals on the fuselage sides. Hitec hs 225 mighty mini's in each wing half to drive 2 ailerons each. Futaba 3004's on throttle, elevator, and rudder. Futaba fs617rs receiver and guided with a futaba 14 sg radio. Power is from an older OS FS .61 four stroke with a xoar 13x5 prop. It was maidened the beginning of june and it fly's excellent. A little touchy in pitch but i am still working out the balance and expo. Overall i am very pleased with finished project and hope to have many more enjoyable flights with her. Phil

well for 2014 i decided to finish up a project i originally started when i got back in the hobby 4 years ago. Great Planes extra 300s .60. After attending my clubs imac contest last year i got hooked and decided it was time to finish it up. I had to remove the tail because in my haste to build it the first time, they ended up crooked so i had to fix that. Besides that it was a matter of filling and sanding and choosing a scheme. I choose the Tim Weber geico extra to model after. I have to say this is by far my best monokote job yet. I am very pleased with how well this has turned out. Anyways once it has flown i will have a few decals made up for it including the geico gecko on the tail. It is powered with a super tigre .90 and a ma 14/6 prop. Has futaba 3152 servos all around and the radio is lipo powered. Hope to have the maiden flight this coming saturday. This will be my imac plane for a few years till i can afford to move to bigger. This will be flown in the basic class and i think it will serve me well....Continue Reading

well my blog has been kinda quiet so thought I would post some pics of my 2013 winter projects.
First of all at the beginning of the year I finally, after several years of trying, Was able to quit smoking. So to reward myself, I built a new plane. Rcm oct 1983 construction article called side pocket. Described as a pattern trainer, sport plane. Just what I was looking for. So wood was purchased and construction commenced. Just about to the point now where I have to balance and set control throws. Easy build and went flawlessly. Very pleased with the way it turned out. Anyways powered by an os .46fx futaba 3004 servos, Tricycle retracts and futaba r-168df reciver with 5 cell nimh reciver batt. Maiden is due here shortly so stayed tune.
Another smaller project was to put retracts on my direct connection, juno rc tsunami. Fly it last year and it was stupid fast. So decided I need to reinforce a few things. Get a few fixed and get a few things up out of the airstream to clean the airframe up. Once again very pleased with how that went. Remaiden is scheduled for this afternoon. TT .46 with a tower hobbies .46 muffler for power. Hs-225 servos all around futaba r-168 df receiver and all my planes are commanded by a futaba 9c radio. Love this transmitter. Anyways see attached pics and that was my off season in a nut shell. Phil

the side pocket was maidened on june 29 and it fly beautifully. It was fast no trim required fly straight off the board and now I can...Continue Reading

here is my winter project done. An ultra sport .40. Got this kit last year for Christmas and just decided this year to put it together. Powered by a thunder tiger .46, Futaba radio gear and servos, 5cell nimh battery, hobbico mechanical retracts moved out one rib bay for added ground clearance and better tracking on the ground. Also added flaps and the colors my wife picked out seeing how she is the one who bought it for me. Weather is starting to break here in Michigan so I hope to have it flying here in a few weeks.



well this plane was maidened on april 27 2013 and while it fly good, I found it was a bit twitchy in pitch and didn't have nearly enough aileron in low rates. So long story short came in to land it was a little fast and she ended up off the runway into the unplowed corn field. One gear was bent a little, and it put a hole in the covering on the bottom of left wing but all in all i'm pleased. It flew well and fast and now that she is repaired I added a little more aileron on low rates and I moved the battery pack fowward just a shade as it required quite bit of down trim to fly hands off. That was the only trim required so hopefully better next time out. Phil

well I dumb thumbed this plane in yesterday. Rebuilding to commence here shortly. Moral of the story when inverted push instead of pull.

I have a rebuild log here after my dumb thumb incident. Phil
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1923167

well here is my next project. A f-86 sabre built from scaled down rcm-e plans that where in my dads stuff. 37" wing span 37" long. Build thread here. actually went in a different direction. Plans were not scale enough so i doing a glass fuse. This is a first for me. Hopefully i'm succesful. Phil
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1603997

well after a dismal year of maidens, I only had one succesful, I decided to get back to basics and retrain my thumbs apparently. So i bought a tiger 2 kit to help retrain myself and get my thumbs back. It's powered with a thunder tiger pro .46 And has futaba 3004 servos. Guided by a futaba 7c radio and r168df receiver. The plan is to relearn all the stuff i knew years on this so i can stop breakin my scratch builds. Hope ya'll like. Phil



update this plane was successfully maidened on 5/19/2012. Got two flights in on it one of the best flying planes i've ever had. Hope to get many more. Will shoot some video to add next time. Phil

Well it's not a build log so to speak, But more of a documentary of me restoring my dearly departed dad's old piper cub. Best i can tell it's scratch built from from chuck hollinger plans which i've been told that later on became the sig cub. Anyways it had been sitting in the basement of mom's and dad's house for 10 years i bet and when i pulled it out it was pretty rough and the left wing had sustained some serious damge at one point in it's life. So i stripped it all down and asesed the damage and it wasn't to bad so i repaired to the two spars in the left wing and proceeded to sand eveything down and recover. Also made a fiberglass cowl for it. That was a first for me and it didn't come out as well as i hoped but if it lives long enough i'll make another when my skills with fiberglass improve. Anyways power is an os.40 fp radio is an aitronics vanguard 6. Trying to keep it the way he had it to hold true to the spirit of the rebuild. If i have to i'll throw a newer radio in but gonna try the old first. Anys just finished the restoration last night and it is ready to go. Hope it enjoys it's new life. On a side note i remember my dad learning to fly with this plane and that is why i choose to restore it instead of throwing it out. I remember the big ole smile on his face every time it went up and lazily flew around. I hope it puts that same smile on my face when it goes up again in the spring....Continue Reading

this one was done after seeing j morgan putting his beautifu f-84g together. I wanted one couldn't find plans anywhere so i taught myself how to use a cad program and made one myself. It was a simple desighn and i thiought it would work except it needed a ton of lead in he nose to balance and on it's first flight the tail broke of in flight and that pretty much ended that models life. However i have not given up. I took what i learned and made it better i think. This has not been built yet have others i need to finish first, But when i get to it it will be 50'" long 48" inch wing with a 90mm fan. Fiberglass fuse and faom wings. Retracts flaps the whole 9. Here are pics and link to build thread of my departed pusher that gave it's life so i could carry on with another. Phil. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1229163

this my cessna 150i made from enlarged guillows plans and put aside awhile because the polyester resin for the cowl plug destroyed the plug. Come find out i was using to much hardner and that caused it to heat up and melt my foam plug. Put it aside for a while and collected my thoughts and now decided to get back on it. It has a 48 inch wing span ailerons flaps elevator rudder nose wheel steering and functional lights. Hope to have it finished in a week or two. Here is the build thread. Phil https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1407952...Continue Reading