Last October I was flying this at the club field, testing it after a restoration/recover. It flew well but it was getting hit with drop offs of RX/TX packets. I tried just one more flight and it went in fail safe (set to spin in) and it went into the retention pond. We fished it out with a golf pole. Took it home and stripped the radio and engine out, then left the parts to dry in the attic of my home. Wasn't expecting much but no warping or waving of the wood. Here are some repair pics....Continue Reading

2024 begins with finishing out or selling projects. I want to halt accumulation and storage of ideas and execute the ones I see with the most potential for building out.

The biggest priority is to fly more, in all the disciplines I've learned in RC. No sense in gazing at a wall of quads or opening the closet and seeing fine fixed wings ready to go with battery charging.

I do enjoy building more, but I want to get back to flying and building. Building with new ideas and flying enhancing my skills.

The fixed wing projects:

The electrified ME 163b

I seem to remember a quote from Alexander Lippisch, "If you think it is too heavy, it is." So this plane that has a write up is going to get a weight reduction. The current wings are built from very heavy balsa. The fuselage is at minimal construction, (no formers) so I think it is fine. I will likely make new wings exploring balsa alternatives using minmal wood.

A Sport Pattern Plane Gift

This plane has a .90 SuperTigre and came without retracts. I can't tell if it is scratch built or an import from Asia. It has a foam core wing cut for retracts. It is from the ballistic era. It came with a poorly fitted canopy. I'm making a lost foam canopy out of FG that extends the height of the fuse to give it more side area and also hopefully improve the looks. I have retracts rough fitted in the wing. I put the rudder servo at the rear of the fuselage. It is heavy.

House of Balsa FW190 A-3

I got this as...Continue Reading

I acquired a bag of parts to a .56 Saito. As far as I can tell it needs an intake tube, backplate and gaskets. Further examination might require other items. I may power my Telemaster 40 with it if I can get it to run well.

Problem is that the intake tube is backordered nation wide .

Intake tube probably is 8mm since both openings are 8mm, head and carb outlet....Continue Reading

I have an ancient Telemaster 40 that was for sale. It wasn't getting any serious interest. So I stripped it down of all of its monokote/econocote. Whatever it was it took about 15 hours to get to bare balsa. I used an Xacto, packing tape and Scotchbrite pads. Time consuming. No wonder it's a job most avoid. Hunting cool color schemes down. May just go with stock red and white. It was a Hobby Lobby plane. It has builder markings in it.

On my Holiday time off I began building the Bob Holman, Dennis Bryant Me 163B. I built my first one 25 years ago. I still have it.

I acquired the fuselage from a hobby shop owner around 15 years ago that had to close up in Carrollton. This owner offered me $500 for the original one I built. I said after I test fly it. It was a wild flight. Without airbrakes the glide ratio was so long and fast that on landing it glided past the perimeter of the field and stopped after it went under a barbed wire fence. It was unscathed. But Mike said the deal was off.

Years later in Houston another hobby shop had a set of foam wings for sale for it. I already had the laser cut parts for the wing but bought them any way for $20.

That was three years ago. I got motivated for some reason now.

This one is concentrating on lightness. It will be be made without detachable wings. It will be my first electric plane.

I got my son an Inductrix Pro for his birthday. I thought I might be in trouble when I told the folks at the hobby shop I was going to use a DX5e to fly it. I followed the instructions to the letter and could bind the transmitter to it. All it would do was switch between attitude and rate modes, but no joy on throttle up to take off.

Here's the trick. You have to hold back the trainer switch on the DX5e with the throttle stick fully down. Then you can take off and fly.

Let go of the trainer switch and it falls out of the sky.

If you have the throttle advanced anything over fully down and hold the trainer switch back, it will not start the motors. You'll have to move the throttle stick fully down to start the motors up.

I'm still an attitude mode flyer and on this setting on the fifth channel it's docile, and much more docile in yaw than my other quads. I'd rate it as very good for beginners.

The white LEDs illuminated means it's in this docile flying mode.

In rate mode, it does what it's supposed to. I lost control immediately since I have zero practice at it. The first 4 feet it flew was fast.

The video camera is excellent in the house.

Inductrix Pro FPV first flight in house (1 min 13 sec)

The Flash 45 Pro was lost last weekend due to radio failure. From straight and level flight it began a slow left roll. Opposite control gave no response to stop it. Post crash test of the radio with a fresh battery failed to illuminate the LED in the receiver. The battery connection was direct to the receiver. All that's left of the airframe is the tail section, for a wall trophy. All other pieces were salvaged. The muffler was lost and engine head damage from ripped threads occurred. Going to miss this plane.

I just got through flying my mini drone conversion out in the parking lot of where I work. The lot lighting is really good. It was the first time where I felt less reactive and controlled it deliberately. There was no wind and I got it trimmed for no drifting. I landed it on the hood of the FJ. I ran 4 packs through it for about 10 min of flight total. It's perfect for keeping the stick skills up.

Here is the story behind it. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...aupner-2-4-Ghz

On a quest for consistent pull through maneuvers I bought a 13 x7 Graupner prop. I'm enjoying inside and outside maneuvers with with good down line speed. Verticals don't pull forever, but I have not taken it vertical to stall. Knife edge takes just a bit of aileron to keep the wings vertical too. It powers through gargantuan inside loops. I've discovered that this plane can do low speed aerobics in tight spaces pretty well.

Flights for last week were very challenging. Winds were in the teens gusting to 20. On Sunday the 15th we got gusts at the field at 35 mph. So what was I doing flying? I had to get some stick time.

The first day, was a slight crosswind and the Flash in windy conditions can practically fly backwards. I ballooned up trying to flare and it was almost hovering when it finally came down hard and chipped the 13x6. No spares and no more flying. Tracking in wind was ok. I was kind of fun to fly in, and I was the only one out at the runway.

I visited the field this Saturday, numerous pilots, crosswinds and no tables to set up. I split.

Sunday's weather said 6mph down the runway at home. In 20 minutes much can change. Got there and wrestled with assembly. Fueled it up and taxied out. Windy but there were other pilots, two others. I took off with the runway to myself. I had installed a 12x10. Unbelievable performance. It's the prop for the plane for windy conditions at least. The wind was blowing down the runway, so high that it was flapping my pants legs like flags. I aborted two approaches a couple of feet off the ground. The third time it greased in as the wind died down at that moment. No damage, so I left. I had a spare 13x6 that took 2 hours to balance the night before. I bought it thinking that the 12x10 was going to bog the .70 Magnum. Nope.

The front came down that eve and in the morning, there were tornado warnings for Fort Bend County.

Just to sum up almost a year of flying the Flash 45Pro, it's been great. Since I had time during the Christmas Holidays, I was able to fly it more. It also got some maintenance. An aileron servo horn's hole got a bit sloppy, so it was replaced. I also changed the tailwheel mounting. It was the "Joker" type, but the silver soldering was not holding up to use. It's now a common plastic mount and uses the same rudder connection that the old one did. The tail weight fits nicely in the mount.

One crosswind landing resulted in a main landing gear failure. The spring loop of the gear leg must have been weak and the music wire broke. No damage of the plane at all. Both have been replaced with new pre bent wires with rectangular loops. These new wires are more rigid.

Trimming of the plane seems to be progressing well. For knife edge, it still may be tucking into the canopy each way. It seems to climb with rudder while in knife edge.

Cosmetically the plane is getting more wear. It still gets compliments at the field.

I went out and flew last Friday. I took the Flash and the Commando. The day was very calm with cumulus clouds developing. Buzzards were riding the thermals.

First, I took a flight with the Flash. It was an ok flight with just a few nervous moments. I'm still squirrly, or it is, on knife edge. I have to remember if it tucks or pulls, but it does take elevator to stay on course. I'm just too new at it. All I want is rudder after the quarter roll.

I landed and then chatted with some club members, actually I listened since one the club member I was having a conversation with was an expert pattern pilot and I tried to absorb what he said all in. He measures incidences to 1/10th of a degree. He discussed pattern judging and new technologies to aid in perfection of plane and pilot. His main point was to trim the aircraft to how you want it to fly and not adapt to the airframe.

Yes the Flash does need more time to trim, perfect, as well as me getting more stick time on it.

Now for the Commando

It's fun to get the veterinary syringe out and fill up the balloon tank and watch people's faces and field questions as I pinch the fuel line with the hemostat and attach it to the carb. The O.S. 10 started right up with the old Sully. The plane took off in about 2 yards and climbed strongly.

Soon I was up making a pattern lapping the field. I then started circling and pulled back the throttle to near idle. Then I saw a buzzard circling and changed course to match his...Continue Reading

I've been trimming the Flash 45Pro for precision. I've read Triangulation Trimming from Bryan Hebert to improve flight, and re-read it and re-read it. It stressed being honest with yourself. Was my plane flying hands off for the length of the field? No. Were my up lines staying straight. No. How about knife edge? Huge belly tucking and then going wild. What was the plane telling me? I don't know, but I was going to use math, science and the article to find out.

One flight In accidentally took off with the glow battery on the engine. It actually flew better. This blunder pointed me in a direction. The first thing to do is set the CG correctly.

First was what is the CG. What was it really? The Flash 45 plans from 1990? or the Flash 45pro online? The wings are different between the two.

So I found the MAC of the wing by measuring the one I had in hand, not from either plan. I then calculated the CG as suggested by the triangulation trimming article, 25% of MAC. I compared it to the online plans and it came out a bit forward of the published point. I had it set at the published point. I put the plane on the balancer and it was tail heavy by a lot. That might explain the knife edge tucking and constantly correcting at level flight.

I got rid of some tail weight and got it to balance on the calculated CG.

Out came the incidence meter. I blocked the fuse to level the thrust line via the horizontal stab. I used an old iPhone and Carpenter App to lay on the stab at 0°.

I go...Continue Reading

Houston monsoons result in the Monokote irons, glass and scalpel come out to hand cut the logo and cowl swooshes then iron them down. If I get tired of it I can peel it off.

Fort Bend RC has been hosting us past few months because of flooding at Dick Scobee field here in Houston. I've been enjoying myself flying at this club. It's secure and friendly.

I took the Flash Pro out there to test fly it after the repair of the airframe and engine. I took extra special care in weight and balance of the plane and it paid off. I flew it with a 12 x 10 prop and it was not getting good vertical performance. A pattern veteran out there said "diameter over pitch" so installed a 13 x 6 APC prop and it greatly helped. It wasn't unlimited but where it bled off it seemed to hover. It's the size I had used before the crash.

Taking all the care during the repair improved the quality of control. The extra rudder throw got it to knife edge. It pulls through outside and inside loops, big and round. Inverted flight has less down elevator. It was a limp sock day so landings were easy and smooth. Here are the photos of it after three flights today.

I probably got 20 flights on it and late in the day, in the 90's, pilot dehydrated with kind of a dull headache and after taking around 4 flights, I took another flight with the Flash.

After about 7 minutes I decided to land. A slight crosswind had developed, mild. I approached pretty hot and the drift wasn't being compensated by the wing being lowered into the wind.

I started to add up elevator and the plane pitched up, ballooning. I corrected down, got a little lower but it drifted in more to the pilot area whereas I gave it a combination of left aileron, left rudder and up elevator to try to get it to mush down. You don't want to do that at waist level. The left rudder was added last and the plane snapped just like it should with the Saphir wingtips. Don't fly tired.

The wing was undamaged as it did a complete half roll and planted nose, canopy and rudder first into the asphalt. Just some upper wingtip scuffing.

The fuse cracked, the canopy gouged and the tail cracked. Spinner was broken and the cowl had two minor scrapes.

It's been repaired and stripped of all paint and covered with Oracover. It's not as smooth. With all of the paint removed it became nose heavy and I had to add lead to the tail to balance.
The 70 FS up front is the reason. The lead proves to me that paint finishing is quite a bit heavier, so no weight loss from the repair.

It's not as pretty but I took care to finesse alignment of everything and added a ply bulkhead to the center section of the...Continue Reading

Since moving the Commando story to here I took it out for a test flight. It flew well and the old motor ran the whole balloon tank dry with plenty of power to throttle back for about a 5 minute flight. It was a ROG flight in perfect control. The elevator trim has a lot of down. Remounting of the stab for + incidence would help but, I'm just leaving it alone. Next flight will be at a desolate south Texas ranch.

Searched the web and found that it is a very popular design globally. Kits exist. Plans exist. They all differ from this build. I read the design is Canadian from 1938. It was a free flight model of course.

I found a Polish site that had a simple plan that seemed similar to the Commando at hand. I'm redrawing it to use the OS max .10 FP. The plan is electric. I got the engine spacing from an online OS manual. The engine rails and the firewall interlock and span back past the main bulkhead along the fuse sides of the lattice framework.

I went ahead and drew up the wings. Now I have a base to work with.

I was flying the Flash last week and a club member came up and said "Check out the clubhouse. There's a bunch of free stuff. Take what you'd like."

Large scale Minimoa, Oldtimer planes with motors, Baby Bowlus scale model, towline glider, Radios, field box and a plane called a Commando.

I picked the Commando because it looked interesting, as if maybe a son and dad had built it. I found the matching transmitter and snagged the field box.

Found out that the son had left everything for the club as his dad had passed away.

Well, this means only one thing for me to do. Get it airworthy and fly it up to the sky closer to the maker.

Hope he and the Almighty get a kick out of the process.

I'm going to strip it all down and make a few mods. I'll also remake it lighter....Continue Reading

It was Valentine's weekend and I was going through old photos to find one for my wife and found an old picture of the first Flash I built from the kit. As I said I kept the plans, but modified it to the PRO standards. This had fluorescent green and red. When I sold it it was gone in 2 weeks. It was all before the web. I also saw the photos my wife took of me flying it. My shorts were in the same color palette and it's just too embarrassing to post sober.