Well, almost.

Project Zero's airframe is now complete. That cowl was a definite bit of work, but it turned out great! Pardon the slightly filtered photos; it was dusk, I was being attacked by eye gnats and there was a fingerprint on the lens cover. I'll upload better pictures soon, but I was anxious to get at least something posted here.

All Project Zero needs are an engine and radio. Tower Hobbies has a .25 with remote needle valve for under $60. I have a $10 coupon which means that I'll be getting an engine for less than I've paid for some electric motors.

I scored some more freebies this past Sunday, including the old .25 homebuilt combat fighter you see in the photos. I wish that I'd taken photos before I cleaned it up...it was coated in dust! Wingspan is only 36" and the fuselage is only 24" long. This is going to be a real handful, I can tell. Friend who gave it to me knew I needed a .25, but this plane's old O.S. Max FP hadn't been run in years. It's also out of production, but there are still parts available and it has plenty of compression. The carb was totally gummed shut, but a bath in some penetrating oil did the trick. Just waiting for a new mounting gasket. Had to improvise a muffler gasket, though. So did my friend, for that matter. I removed his homemade gasket and replaced it with one of my own. Turns out O.S. is backordered for about a month on muffler gaskets. Go figure.

The DU-BRO spinner is new, but the 9x6 APC prop was the one on the engine when I got it. A new Expert servo is waiting to replace the thrashed Futaba used for the elevator as is a new Sullivan fuel tank. The Sullivan that was in it had a manufacturing date of 1995. Didn't need a receiver battery, however. The plane already had an old Sanwa in it...and a new Futaba battery was given to me as part of the package. I do want to put landing gear on it. Looking into some carbon fiber parts.

Project Zero is nearly finished!

The wing is completely ready to go, servos and all. The fuselage is as good as it's gonna get and the cowl, which turned out to be the single biggest project, is ready for paint. I've even ironed out all the wrinkles in the covering. All that's left is to repair the broken "window" on the canopy and then open my wallet for the radio gear and engine!

It shall fly by summer's end if not sooner. Going on a big summer vacation and I want to save my sheckels for the time being.

Wow, have I fallen behind. These were the newest pictures that I had...and there's been more work done since these were taken!

The wing halves have been epoxied together and the covering replaced as best as I could. It was wrinkled pretty badly on the crash, but it really can't be seen with the wing in place on the fuselage.

I've cleaned up that fuel tank support area in the fuselage a bit better than what you see in the picture. That'll be hidden by the fuel tank once it's installed.

Thanks to my buddy, I now have a Hobbico Torqmaster starter and Hobbico power panel, both nearly new. One flyer at the field this past Sunday brought two boxes of old equipment a friend of his was throwing away. This netted me a second Torqmaster, an old Futaba Attack 4 AM transmitter and RCD receiver with Futaba "G" servo connections(!) as well as...the coveted Hobbico covering iron! My buddy's young son got to the iron before I did thinking the thing was pretty cool and despite the fact that his dad didn't need it; I wound up paying him two bucks for it.

It's nice to know who your friends are.

The gentleman who gave me "Project Zero" called me at work on Friday night and had me on the phone for nearly a half an hour. He was concerned about what had happened to me with a frequency issue a couple of weeks ago which nearly set an elderly seasonal visitor at my throat. Look at my post titled "Of age and civility" to see what I mean.

It seems as if this fellow who wanted to go upside my head has crashed the planes of other flyers on several occasions by turning on his transmitter; he may have done the same thing to me in the past. I discussed "The Curse of Channel 50" in a previous post. He may well be the source! He was there the day my Flyzone Cessna suddenly and unexpectedly went into a hard right turn just before touchdown. The result effectively destroyed my plane. I'm not accusing him of anything, believe me. It's just that he didn't claim responsibility if he was in fact responsible, which I strongly suspect to be true.

As far as "Project Zero" is concerned, things are moving along nicely and I promise to upload pictures. The wing is repaired and the two halves rejoined properly. I've rebuilt the fuselage as best as I could (and it should work just fine despite a few missing pieces which I had to fabricate and since the damage was minimal) and I even fixed the broken tail. Best part is, I didn't need to replace any covering! I just tacked it back down with some...Continue Reading

Wow, what a wonderful weekend this was. Didn't do a lick of flying, but my wife and I did spend time with my sister and brother-in-law at their place in beautiful San Diego.

My brother flew himself, his wife and one of his sons over from the high desert to visit my folks here at home. Lucky guy flies a full-scale Cessna Citation for a living and hopped over the mountains in his Piper Cherokee.

Turns out he's reconnected with some old high school chums. Successes, all. I couldn't be happier for them. One couple, like my wife and I, were high school sweethearts and are still married.

My oh my, did they ever have some news regarding classmates.

You see, these folks who contacted my brother were some of the nice people. The ones who got no mention in the yearbooks. The ones generally disdained by the "popular kids." We were in the band, in the theater. Sports? Don't make me laugh. We had one of the worst losing streaks in all of high school football going on when I started there. I turned my attention to the band, mostly because my mom objected to the thought of my getting smooshed on a football field despite my size. While the band was winning awards (I lettered in band, for that matter), the football team was out getting pummeled.

Naturally, they were the ones lauded at the baccalaureate, the prom and in the yearbook. We were largely ignored and hung around other band members and the occasional "Star Trek" fanatic. In short,...Continue Reading

Well, I traded in the Formosa. I think I want one at a future date.

Scratch that: I know I want one.

The gray matter kicked in prior to loading it in the car.

Since I was going to have to spend the money anyway (the store only issues store credit), why not spend it on Project Zero? Oh, yeah.

Except for the Cessna's tail and a spare tail motor for the Blade, the rest of the dough went into balsa stock, adhesives and epoxy filler for the cowl.

I bought Project Zero with me to match up material thickness; a couple of guys couldn't believe it had simply been given to me. An easy fix, they all agreed.

I even dared to look at a neat little O.S. .25 complete with muffler. It'll fit like a glove. Got some plans for my wedding anniversary, so no big purchases for now. Once I finish fixing the airframe and I'm OK with how it turned out, I'll get the engine before I start in on the cowl. That way, I'll know where I have to cut it before I patch and paint it.

I'm pleased to report this first influx of money into Project Zero was rather painless at less than $30.

As for the Cessna, it lives! Not bad for something I dug out of the trash, you know?

Pictures of the Zero to follow ASAP!

Boy, do I feel silly.

I could have saved myself $46 if I'd looked at the damage to the Cessna a bit closer.

The voices in my head told me to dig the Cessna out of the recycle bin this morning. Guess what? They were on to something.

Oh, sure, there was some CA...but only a few paltry drops. The foam was utterly pristine. The broken part wasn't completely broken off, you see. The antenna tube, trim tape and a few small shreds of foam were holding it on, more or less.

I mixed up some epoxy, trowled it on, and put the pieces back together.

It worked. Perfectly, in fact. If that empanage ever breaks off again, it sure as shootin' won't be at that epoxied joint.

The hobby shop will issue store credit, so I'll get the tail assembly and a few odds and ends for the Blade CP. I have two damaged tailfeather assemblies and I may be able to salvage the decals.

As it turns out, I would have had to have spent more money to get the Formosa in the air. My 1100mAh Ni-Mh packs from the Cessna were a bit too thick to fit properly in the fuselage and I didn't want to start hacking foam.

OR...I may keep the Formosa and assemble it a little at a time with an outrunner and a li-po. That'll give me an excuse to upgrade my radio while I'm at it.

Ah, the possibilities.

After three months of irritation, the Flyzone Cessna is hereby retired and will soon be on its way to being recycled into a food tray or something of that nature.

I tell you, I crashed that tip-stalling little monster more than just about anything I've ever flown. Made the mistake of hand-launching it the other day with a less-than-fully charged battery. Darn thing would not climb.

Wound up swinging it around into a palm tree. Ouch.

Busted up the tail and its mount on the fuselage. Glued it together as best as I could, but it simply wasn't going to stay together. I flew it today, but things were a bit shaky. The empanage busted off at the glue joint and the horizontal stab busted off at a whole new location.

By the time I would have bought a fuselage, decals and tailfeathers, I discovered that I would have been within less than ten bucks of a GWS Formosa, if memory served regarding the price of the parts. Doing the wing and cowl to make it a full rekit would have set me back more than sixty bucks. Plus, the fuselages are on back order. Wonder why...?

So, I bought the Formosa.

It looks as if it will accept the Cessna's battery packs with no problem and I already have the proper GWS speed control.

Now, I've seen a Formosa in flight. This little plane is a real athlete, ranking up with the best of them from what I saw, especially when compared to the Cessna with its flat-bottomed airfoil and its complete inability to loop from straight and level flight. I don't recall what the plane I saw had in the way of power, but I'm sure that I'll be happy with the stock setup for now.

I just can't help but wonder if I'm a victim of karma after what happened the other day. See my post below.

I've begun the preliminary repairs on the Zero. I reinstalled the framework for the fuel tank support (with as many of the original pieces as I could find) and reinforced it with some balsa. Once I repair the tail, I can turn my attention to the wing. Success!

I wish the rest of my day was as pleasant.

Today was as perfect a day for flying as one can imagine. In fact, I was one of the first at the field where a loose band of hobbyists like myself meet on Sunday mornings. The fellow who gave me the Zero brings a frequency board with him...but he arrived much later than I did.

There generally aren't any frequency issues, but those who grab the pins ask aloud if anyone is on that frequency.

Had a frequency issue today.

An elderly seasonal visitor flies on channel 50. My little Flyzone Cessna is on 50 as well. He hadn't verified that anyone else was on the frequency.

He arrived considerably later than I and was in the air when I switched my transmitter back on...and I had previously verified that no one else was on the channel.

The result was predictable. I sent the man's plane nose down into the dirt.

Before I go on, I have to say that the folks who come out to that field are some of the nicest in town, including the seasonal visitors. The only really poor attitudes belong to, well, the snowbirds. One of those snowbirds utterly refuses to check frequencies and has splashed a few planes as a result.

But I digress.

He and I had a...Continue Reading

Well, here's what I'm up against. I neglected to get a photo of the wing prior to cutting into it. The damage is the worst on the whole model...and it isn't bad at all. It'll be hidden by the fuselage anyway.

This should prove to be a heck of a lot of fun.

I was thinking of documenting the repair of my crash damaged CMP Zero 25 with some photos just for fun...but my buddy in Georgia took it one step further. He suggested something in book form which in turn led to my idea of documenting it right here on the blog. It'll be a learning experience for me, so feel free to offer comments.

We shall see if we can get this Zero to terrorize the skies once again!

Now that I've gotten that eBay thing off my chest, I'm pleased to announce the arrival of my re-flashed PowerZone adapter board. It's back on the Blade CP and works to absolute perfection. Thanks, Thomas B.

I'm also pleased to announce the arrival of a free airplane to my hangar. Earlier today, a flying friend of mine gave me a CMP Zero Fighter 25S that had been damaged in a rare midair collision with another plane out at the field. He'd built it as an electric, but I'm going to "go for the gas" once it's repaired. The damage is actually quite minimal. The LE of the wing has a ding where it meets up with the saddle, the fuel tank mount and motor mount broke off, the fiberglass cowl got kind of beat up, there's a hole in the canopy and one of his sons did some slight accidental damage to the tail after he dropped something on it. I gave him two brand-new sets of wings from my old UltraFly Cessna 182. He's happy; I'm ecstatic. Thanks, Mitch H.

This gives me the opportunity to develop some building skills now that I've polished my flying skills thanks to RTF's and ARF's. Yes, I know this plane's an ARF, but it's a traditionally constructed ARF. Only other balsa ARF I've owned was too badly damaged in a crash for me to even attempt a repair.

Been looking for an excuse to buy a covering iron anyway.

Someone, somewhere, just laid out nearly ten million United States dollars over on eBay. The item is the single most expensive one ever sold on the site.

His 9.9 million just got him an autographed 1969 Dodge Charger done up like the General Lee of "Dukes of Hazzard" fame. The autographs are of the surviving cast and the car's owner and builder is John "Bo Duke" Schneider.

Ten million bucks? For a Charger R/T with a Hemi and a Torque-Flite automatic?

What I'd like to know is this: How smart did the guy have to be to earn the ten million in the first place and what could have possibly caused him to blow a fortune like that on a hot rod Dodge?

Guess there's at least one multi-millionaire "Dukes of Hazzard" fan on the planet. This is a scary thing.

Have we really elevated pop culture icons like this car (not even an original from the series, but did see use in a movie) to this lofty height? If the guy had the bread to buy this one, could he not simply have duplicated the feat himself for say, $25k? Even at $50,000 this is a comparative bargain. I understand that John Schneider is a very nice and decent guy. I'm sure he'd have autographed the car.

This Charger's new owner has a ten million dollar paperweight. He sure as heck can't drive it now! Not after laying out that kind of coin.

If anyone's interested, I'll be putting my '69 Ford Ranchero on eBay real soon.

Opening bid: $1,000,000.

No reserve.

I remember a book on automobiles that I used to love when I was a kid, namely The First Book of Automobiles by Jeanne Bendick. Wanted to build that go-kart described in the last chapter like you wouldn't believe, but I digress. In it was a statement about how Rolls-Royce had the best customer service in the world, even going so far once as to send a technician to Africa to assist a British aristocrat out on safari. Parts? No sweat. I understand that the company stocks virtually all parts back to about the 1909 model year. Those of you with a Silver Ghost or Phantom II in your garage, please take note.

On the other hand, it seems as though the hobby industry at large is quickly catching up to that level of service.

I've never had anything but the best service imaginable from Horizon Hobby. If something of theirs breaks under unusual circumstances, odds are they will cheerfully and quickly replace the item. They've done so for me from everything to an aluminum Blade CP swashplate that came apart in flight (new one's on its way) to entire aircraft, like the ParkZone P-51 that lost an aileron on its second flight and hit the deck hard.

Or how about Castle Creations? Buy their ESCs and you're set for life regarding firmware upgrades. I've lost two Phoenix-25 controllers in crashes. Both were replaced for the princely sum of $25 each.

I just sent my PowerZone adapter board back to its manufacturer in Folsom, California. This is the wondrous little...Continue Reading

I seem to have more or less overcome the urge to visit and/or use Wikipedia. Had to log on just a couple of days ago to remove the e-mail address from the profile which I was told was deleted. I was still getting unwanted e-mails! Sent an e-mail of my own to the site's owners requesting total obliteration of my account.

Haven't heard back. Account's still there.

For your amusement, a couple of recent entries. Our first is apparently from a college student at Barnfield College, wherever that is. Dude's been posting since February. His latest, about-to-be-obliterated "entry" consists entirely of the following (quotes mine):

"Barnfield College Computing and Information Technology"

That's it. Not even a period.

Another vandalism "article" about somone named Victoria Beales:

"Hi!"

Or the guy posting lots and lots of articles on little towns in Colombia. An example:

"Puerto Asís is a town and municipality located in the Putumayo Department, Republic of Colombia."

He's done about a dozen of these.

My favorite thus far is about Adalbert II, Count of Ballenstedt:

"Adalbert II, Count of Ballenstedt, is an ancestor of Queen Elizabeth II."

See what you learn when you use the internet?

Oh, wow. Wow. All I can say is wow.

Here am I, blissfully happy with my flying Styrofoam cups thinking how cool it is to fly.

And it is.

But for those who've never seen jets...

I just got my first up-close-and-personal look at turbine-powered R/C aircraft at a jet meet sponsored by the local R/C club. Before today, I'd never been to that club nor had I ever seen a turbine model in operation.

These guys are good.

Picture, if you will, a knife edge only about six feet off the runway at nearly 200 mph. That's 320 km/h for the rest of the world.

We are talking giant scale aircraft that not only operate on the same principles as their full-sized counterparts, they run on the same fuel and make the same sounds.

And hoo boy, do those big planes get small quick. Real quick.

Except for one poor chap who lost an engine hatch and collapsed a landing gear during the same flight, this event went off without a hitch. The airmanship was incomparable. Fantastic raffle prizes, too.

I didn't win...but hey, I had a ball.

Thinking it's time to reactivate my AMA membership and join this club. The new president has done much to eliminate the "us versus them" mentality of its members. There are those among them who think we electric guys are less than pilots.

They are in the minority.

With all due props to the glow guys, at least I don't have to clean up the goo all over my plane when I'm finished nor worry about a dead-stick landing.

That is, until I step up to glow or, better still, gas.

Bring on the flying weed whackers, gentlemen. Here I come!

I've seen it windy here before, but oh boy, this is nuts.

Virtually all of inland Southern California is under a wind advisory. Needless to say, I probably won't be doing any flying in the foreseeable future.

On the bright side, I've just about finished converting a spare bedroom into a hobby paradise, due in no small part to the generosity of my sister and brother-in-law. They gave my wife and I a truckload of near-new furniture and accessories that wouldn't go with the new furnishings in their new home. Worth every dime I spent on a 17' U-Haul truck. I cannot thank them enough.

One of the things I was lucky enough to get was a beautiful European-style workstation that once served as my nephew's homework desk and which must have cost a small fortune. I've been using it a lot and I have to say that I'm one lucky sonofagun since I don't make that kind of bread. Been careful, too. Don't want to scratch it.

This also gives me a suitable workplace to put the HPI Savage back together. Yup, still nothing more than a rolling chassis awaiting the new engine. Oh, well.

One thing's for sure: I'm going to lay out some newspaper on that workstation when I'm ready to hit the wrenches and install that mill.

Getting back to the wind issue, all I can say is "nuts." After sixteen months, countless repairs and a whole lot of simulator time, I am finally at the point where I'm wearing out more parts than I'm breaking on the Blade CP! It's doing exactly what I want it to do. Only mishaps as of late were mechanical failures of the tail motor (surprise!) and of the aluminum swashplate.

I am now thinking "Align T-Rex."

Might have to save my sheckels.

Until next time, have fun!

Anyone who's done time in the Southwest knows that Circle K convenience stores are on practically every street corner in the region. There seems to be one on every other block in Tucson.

I, on the other hand, am not presently in Tucson. There are, however, a few Circle K's in the area.

They sell an interesting little frozen concoction called a "Froster" which in turn is manufactured by that grand old soft drink institution in Atlanta.

The names of the flavors have to be seen to be believed.

The one that caught my eye was "Rotten Eggs." Not far from it was "Snot Surprise" or something like that.

Ah, but my favorite: "Trout Fart."

Given the propensity of the average twelve-year-old to find bodily humor absolutely hilarious, there's no doubt that it's the intention of those responsible for this, um, marketing to have our neighborhoods filled with sugar-amped preteens running around asking passers-by to pull their fingers.

While the twelve-year-old in me sees something funny in drinking Trout Fart, the adult in me finds it almost pathetic that a major company would stoop to such depths in order to sell frozen drinks.

It also makes me wish that hobby companies would start marketing outside of trade publications and go directly to these kids via traditional media outlets.

Perhaps they should consider naming an R/C model boat "Trout Fart."

It would sell like snot rockets.

I've been having so much fun with the planes and the helicopter as of late that I still haven't put the new engine in the HPI Savage! I'm amazed at the thought; back before I got hooked on flying thingies, I'd have been all over that.

Cars, planes, boats or whatever, one thing is clear: R/C brings out the most curious and fascinated folks. Putting a bird in the air at the soccer park is guaranteed to start a conversation with a person or persons who want in on the fun and I have to tell you, I'm more than happy to oblige. The gentleman who co-owns the company I work for is getting hooked and darn quick. He bought a Hirobo Sky Robo indoor helicopter for his dad a while back and they proceeded with merry abandon to bounce it off the walls with a combination of over-controlling and tweaking of the gyro and trim pots...!

Pleased to say that I not only got the Hirobo flying straight again, its purchaser bought himself Realflight G3.5 and may be buyng himself a HobbyZone Super Cub! He, his four-year-old son and his folks were at the field this past Sunday and were they ever blown away. His dad actually used to fly B-29's...he is really fired up.

Apparently, those individuals who paid upwards of $10,000 to be the first to get themselves a PlayStation 3 have never seen a real, live, powered model streaking across sky, ground or water. Too bad, too.

Ten grand buys a LOT of hobby stuff.

What a wonderful pastime we have, no?

Well, the P-47 is dialed in, my helicopter skills have gotten a really good workout as of late and I had a situation in which art imitated life.

Allow me to explain:

One of my oldest and dearest friends of these past thirty years (specifically, the gentleman mentioned a couple of posts ago) is a guy who doesn't fly R/C but who does, rather amusingly, refer to our sport/hobby as "clanging." In other words, when a plane hits the ground in a crash...CLANG!

I actually made a CLANG the other day with the Cessna.

My bad.

I let it get a bit farther out then normal at the soccer park and it got too close to one of the big overhead light clusters. The result was a huge metallic CLANG that I heard from clear across the field followed by the plane floating to earth in four different pieces.

The CLANG was from the aluminum landing gear contacting the lights; that sucker was bent but good.

Fortunately, the only loss was the wing...which was damaged anyway. The firewall popped off as did the battery cover. Other than a new wing and prop, not to mention a bit of 15-minute epoxy and voila! Back in the air.

Since then, I've had all three planes and the heli in the air without the slightest hint of a crash. Sure, I've replaced nearly the entire airframe on the Cessna since buying it, but it's dialed in...and I don't plan on flying too close to lights!

In short, I've been clang-free, knock on metal.