I recently had gotten a Hangar 9 Bf-109F-2, and unfortunately, it did not survive the first flight day. Maiden and three subsequent flights were fine (with typical trimming and such). Unfortunately, on the fifth flight, I was shooting touch-n-go's, and had a mishap which put the 109 into the trees. Ultimately the H9 109's nose and wings were turned into pulp. A total loss. I'm still angry at myself for not handling the emergency better. Wudda, Cudda, Shudda...

Anyway, I'm a huge Luftwaffe warbird fan. I just had to have a replacement 109. Since the H9 Friedrich is OOP, I couldn't simply get another. So, I looked around and decided that I'd get the Seagull Bf-109E. Unfortunately, the Seagull Emil is hideously ugly. The green polka dots make me wanna puke every time I look at it. I'd contacted another owner of the Seagull 109, and he vouched that it was a nicely constructed ARF and flies well, helping me decide that it'd be worth my money, time, and effort to get the Seagull 109 and to repaint it into a livery that I'd be proud to have and to fly.



I am going to do a total repaint of the 109, turning it into Werner Moelder's JG53 Chevron and Triangle.



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Nothing special, but I thought that I’d do a build blog for the HK 1875mm B-17 that I recently purchased. I stumbled across the HK B-17 by accident. HK was running a sale, and I couldn’t pass up a great deal on a multi-engine warbird.

I’d have preferred to have gotten an OD Green B-17, but HK only had the silver in stock. I think that HK is discontinuing the B-17 and discounting their remaining stock to free up the shelf space. Glad to have gotten one.

I’m a warbirder, but not much of a bomber guy. So, I did some fast and furious research and decided to model the G Model I’ll Be Around of the 390th, on display in the Tucson Air Museum.


Mods planned:
- retractable tailwheel (FMS 1.4m Bf-109G Tail Wheel)
- G Model nose details (Freewing B-17G plastic parts)
- make the Main Struts more secure (replace grub screw with better fasteners, flatten spit on struts for grub screws, and probably drill/tap additional grub screw holes)
- Decal Set from Callie Graphics.
- weathering? Haven’t decided yet. I may leave it as a pristine B-17G, like the one on display in the Tucson museum.

This is how B-17 looks right now.



The guys over in the HK B-17 Discussion Thread have provided a lot of great information. A special shout-out to BornToLate and BRGT350 for being especially helpful!!!!

As we grow older and things change, some things never change, like my childhood bedroom. Some 30+ years after sortiing to the skies above my childhood bed, the epic battles are still raging. P-38s jumping Me-262s which are homing in on B-17s, P-47s vs FW-190s, P-51s taking on Zeros. Sure, the planes are covered in dust, and many have broken/missing prop blades or are missing props/spinners altogether. Even that JU-87 is still streaming smoke after all of these years! Will it never crash????

Now, 30+ years later, I'm still building WWII fighters, but now I can actually fly them. As we all know, the only difference between a man and a boy is the price of his toys.

I spent the week in Chantilly, VA, on business. But, I couldn't be that close to the Udvar-Hazy, without sneaking in for a few hours. Being the warbird nut that I am, I spent most of my short time there in the WWII section. I especially wanted detail pictures of the P-38J, Do-335, FW-190F8, and P-47D. If anyone wants high-res photos of any of these, please feel free to PM me.

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So, I scored an old, NIB Hobby Labs SR-71 rocket-boosted, RC glider a few weeks ago. My other obsession (hobby) is high-power rocketry. This kit allows me to merge my two hobbies. How cool is that!!!

This old Hobby Labs SR-71 kit is an RTF, just add batteries (alkaline 4xAAA)... well at least in theory. When I tried to power it up...nothing! Verified that the TX and RX had the same crystal and that the TX and RX were getting power, but they refused to communicate. So, being the impatient sport that I am, I grabbed a hobby knife and went into surgery mode. I cut an access hatch over the RX, and replaced the 72MHZ RX with an ORX 4-channel, 2S-180mah battery, and a BEC. The 72MHZ RX is sitting beside the plane in the photo. Programmed an elevon mix into my DX6, and easily bound the ORX to my DX6, and the clunky servos worked just fine. Success! I made the cut-out hatch into a screw-on hatch, for easy access to the battery.

Sometimes the little victories are the sweetest!

Hobby Labs SR-71 (0 min 12 sec)

Makes for a nice view in the rear view mirror...

... me, of course. 🙄

While flying my UMX Radian indoors last week, I'd banged it up pretty badly, hitting all of the obstacles dangling from the roof. Most of the wear and tear was external and was easily fixed with some CA and tape. Unfortunately, though, I'd landed hard on the nose and broke the motor-to-fuselage bond. It was still flyable, but I needed to fix the motor mount. Zip, zip with the Xacto and the fuselage was apart. I finished prying the motor loose, then rebonded it with CA.. I decided that a sliver of foam CA'd behind the motor mount would help fasten the motor in place even better. So, a little dribble of thin CA on the re-enforcing foam and all would be good.

I let the plane rest for 10 minutes or so, slightly nose up, to let the CA set. Pushing on the motor, convinced me that it was bonded in place well enough for me to tape the fuselage back together. Nice, neat taping job, and she was good as new. Fired up the Tx, slapped a batt in her, and everything worked fine.

I'm not sure exactly what I did next, but it had to have involved orienting the Radian nose down. Inadvertently, my hand bumped into the prop... but the prop didn't spin. I instantly knew what had happened. There had obviously been a small puddle of CA sitting in the motor chamber, and that CA had found its way into the motor gears. "Kristy! <my wife> I need some nail polish remover!" And I'm franticly cutting the fuselage back apart. Yep, the...Continue Reading

In my professional career, I've got a BS and MS in mechanical engineering, and I work as an aerospace engineer in spacecraft propulsion systems, although now I'm a supervisor; so, I don't actually do anything constructive. <grin> I grew up as an Air Force brat. WWII fighter aircraft have always been a passion of mine, especially fighters of the Luftwaffe. So, I've been around aircraft all of my life. I know a lot of theory of aircraft flight mechanics, but am lacking in the gut feel and auto reactions for RC airplane control. My main hobby for the last decade and a half has been high-power model rocketry (previously and again serving as the president of our local rocketry club, the Huntsville Area Rocketry Association (HARA, www.hararocketry.org)). I'd dabbled a bit in RC electrics around 2004, but after dinging up the front end of my Typhoon 3D, I had set it on the shelf, and soon forgot about it for 15 years.

In Sept 2015, I was browsing my LHS and an Eflite Adagio BNF caught my eye. 2 Days later, I walked back into the LHS and snagged the Adagio, a DX5e, and a couple Eflite 3S-450s. I took the Adagio to a soy bean field to retrain my thumbs and eyes for RC. The soybean field was a really good idea because I had quite a few abrupt and very unplanned landings. After redeveloping a basic feel for RC aircraft control, I flew the Adagio in my yard, twice having my neighbors roof jump up and grab my plane and another time having a tree swat it out of the air.

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