The new year is about to drop. Here's hoping things don't get worse...

This year is ending with some interesting things in the works. The world was thrown into chaos with the COVID-19 pandemic, The USA was rocked by riots and everything that was involved there (too much to list), we've got a new presidential term starting up, the FAA Remote ID was finalized yesterday, and so much more.

For me personally, this has been a year of adventure. This year started with a simple idea. My friend and I decided that we wanted to start a podcast. We are both generally new to the RC hobby (my friend more so than me) and wanted to share our adventures and what we learn with others. We've produced and released 13 episodes, one every other week, and have been having an absolute blast! A few months ago, we even landed a sponsorship with RCbattery.com! They have been treating us so well and they make an awesome product! Go check them out. We took a break for the holidays, but the next episode will drop on Jan. 11, 2021.

Alright, enough of the shameless self plug...

RC wise, I've gotten up to some great adventures. Over the summer, I got my father-in-law's Great Planes Spirit 2m fixed up and spent a day at SOAR Utah. Met some awesome people and learned just how fun it is to soar along the slope. I had hopes of doing more soaring this year, but didn't get around to it. Lots of other projects and events.

Just before Christmas, my 3rd co-pilot was born. Happy and healthy, I now...Continue Reading

My friend and I started a new RC Podcast. We document our adventures in this amazing hobby and everything we learn along the way. First episode dropped today. You can find us on YouTube, Spotify, Anchor, and Pocket Casts. We are working to get set up on Apple and Google podcasts.

RC Lawn Chair Pilots Podcast
https://youtu.be/4WkIh8JOAj8

We all know FliteTest, and most, if not all, love them and what they do. They get airplanes into the hands of people that would otherwise not be able to afford this awesome (and expensive) hobby we all share. One of my favorite parts, they provide all their plans for free!

When building one of their planes, you can go about it one of a few ways.
1) buy their speed build kit. pretty nice option for the price.
2) print plans and cut out your own by hand. cheapest option, but can make for a messy plane.
3) find a cutting service to cut the plane out for you. my brother used his college's laser cutter to cut out a couple planes for me and his self.

Well, there is another option out there. ERC TimSav cnc needle cutter. In November 2019, Edward Chew posted on the FliteTest forums sharing his build of a cnc needle cutter. He provided plans, instructions, parts list with links, and even a kit with almost every part at a very reasonable price. My brother went the route of buying all the parts on his own and I decided (months later) to buy the kit from Edward.

After waiting a month and a half for the package to arrive from china (stupid covid...) I finally got to work with the assembly. When I had placed my order, I went to my neighbor and his 3 3D printers and asked if he could print the needed parts for me. Thankfully, those were ready in about a week.

After a week of slowly assembling the machine in the evenings after my kids were asleep, I finally got it...Continue Reading

I tend to be super impressionable and excitable.

Example: I went in to work one day and a buddy started talking about falconry ( the practice of hunting with birds of prey ). Long story short, I was hooked and wanted to get into it. Spent the next months researching and such. I've since gotten over it, but still think it would be awesome. Just not very realistic for me personally.

Fast forward to now. I've decided to limit my self on the hobbies that I have. Thank goodness, RC is at the top of the list. Since I made that decision, I have bought a new transmitter and have been slowly converting my stuff to FrSky. I've been finishing up a couple FliteTest planes my brother started and gave me. I have even been collecting a bunch of kits that I hope to build and fly soon (ish).

These kits include: Phase 3 EF-16, Kaos Wing Kit (from DirectoconnectionRC on here), and 4 different 1/2a Guillows kits. And I have an extensive list of kits I want.

I have even ordered the kit for the ERC TimSav cnc foamboard cutter. Sadly, the kit is somewhere between China and myself... so that is on hold. But I'm excited for the possibilities the cnc will provide. My two boys (oldest is 3) both playing with my discarded FliteTest planes and yesterday was spent hand cutting and building a couple chuck gliders for them to toss around. They had a blast and the planes lasted almost to lunch time today! The cnc will make it easier and faster for me to cut out a bunch of kits for my boys so...Continue Reading

FrSky Taranis X9D + 2019 SE

I've been flying Spektrum for a few years now, ever since I started in the hobby, and I've always appreciated how easy it was to set up a model and get in the air with their radios, but I always felt like something was lacking. The cost, the lack of customization, and lack of features left me wanting more. Sadly, the only way to get even a portion of this with Spektrum was to go with one of their radios that cost $400+. Enter FrSky!

For a minimum of $100 with the X-lite or Qx7, or the choice here for $257, you get more options, customizability, features, and control than you could ever dream of with any spektrum radio! The price point and the power of the Taranis make the switch a no-brainer. I haven't flown yet due to weather, but I've got my first model set up, as well as the model for flying on Phoenix RC simulator and couldn't be happier.

The set up of a model is quick and easy for a simple (no expo or D/R) is quick and easy. You'll be flying in moments. When you decide to really get into all the features, the power of this radio really shines. In 20 minutes, I had my model set up with flaperons, triple rates with expo on each, motor disable switch, and voices to call out each when the switch is moved.

I can take any input or output, control exactly how I want it to behave, and assign it to any switch, slider, pot, button, or stick that I want. No longer am I stuck having my flaps on one specific switch, or the dual/triple rates...Continue Reading

That's right! The change I spoke of in my last blog post has happened!

I have spent the last month researching frsky, reading blogs and articles and forums (I read all 100 pgs of the new ACCESS release thread) and watched hours of videos. All of that led me to this past week.

I fund my hobbies by donating plasma. It's great because I am helping provide medicine for people that need it, and I end up with roughly $400 a month (on long months) for saving and spending on hobbies.

So, I took the month of January and saved all my donation funds to aquire the following:

1x Frsky Taranis X9D Plus SE (ACCESS)
1x Frsky RX6R (ACCESS)
1x transmitter battery
1x sd card preloaded with the needed files

All of this purchased from Aloft Hobbies!
After having seen how well Wayne responded to peoples questions on the ACCESS release thread, I was impressed and felt comfortable ordering from him.

Last Thursday evening, I placed my order and got the two day priority shipping (cheapest option besides in store pickup). Today I was greeted with a winter storm as I left my house. 6 inches during the night and it was still coming down. Thank goodness USPS will deliver in just about any weather! I arrived home to a big box with my name on it.

Now to figure it all out. Videos and articles only reach so much.

I'll post more as I figure it all out.

I've been flying rc fixed wing on and off for a few years now, using a "hand-me-down" extra TX from my father-in-law. A Spektrum dX6i. It has been good to me, but the limit of 6 channels leaves me wanting more. I want to build and fly more epic planes, do more epic things. But to keep with Spektrum and do that, I'd be shelling out many hundreds just for the TX. Sadly, my money tree is pretty slow on production.
Enter Frsky!
Over the Christmas break I spent a few hours talking with my brother. He works for a company that designs and produces tube launched drones for military uses. Pretty cool stuff! But the key thing here, is that he an just about everyone at his company fly rc planes and such! My brother has the dx6e which serves his purposes well, but leaves more to be desired. Especially for someone that builds as many planes as he does. They get pretty epic!
Now, all of his buddies at work fly with one of the Frsky Taranis radios. My brother has seen the capabilities of these transmitters and many of the cool things you can do in OpenTX.
After talking with my brother, I'm convinced and ready to make the switch! The greater capability, and customizability of the transmitters and how you can program it are amazing! And there is no way you can argue with the price point!

So I've decided on the Taranis X9D Plus 2019. Solid radio, lots of switches, big screen, lots of channels, good price.

Now to the questions.

1) The x9d plus boasts 24 channels......Continue Reading

Good news and bad news.

Lets go bad first, its a shorter story. My company got a new large format scanner/copier/printer recently. Sadly, we also got a new IT company recently, and they can be a little slow to set up necessary equipment and systems for us.
With that said, I was unable to scan the plans into the computer for digital sharing and such. much sadness. When the IT company gets around to PROPERLY setting up the scanner, I'll have those available. I've already met a few people here that are looking for those plans. If anyone reading this need plans for this kit, feel free to send me a DM.

Now on to the good news! The copier portion of this crazy thing works just fine! My boss helped me break out the 36" roll of paper and we were able to make full scale copies of the plans! After a little bit of trial and error, I now have 3 copies of the fuselage assembly and 2 copies of the wing assembly. This is perfect, as I'll be able to take it home, lay it out, and make any modifications I want without ruining the originals.
I will be copying any kit plans from now on. This is a huge benefit and really relives the stress of working directly on the original plans.

Looking over the plans as is, I know there are a few changes to the original design that I want to make.

First desired change: GoPro mount inside the cockpit for a "Pilot POV". I have the Hero Session 5 and it will fit perfectly within the cockpit and provide an epic view (IMO).

Second desired...Continue Reading

As previously mentioned, my father-in-law and I started a Piper Cub kit build a few years ago. My life is finally in a place where I have some time to work on it again.

In preparation for this build, I reviewed the build instructions again and wanted to view the plans. Only problem, finding a digital copy of the plans to review remotely, without carrying around the actual plans, is impossible.

Enter: awesome job, awesome boss, and a large scale copier/scanner.

I work for a manufacturing company in North salt lake Utah as a Design engineer. My days are spent creating and modifying drawings that are regularly up to size D (24"x36"), sometimes larger. How convenient, that the plans for this Cub are D sized! After speaking to my boss and giving him an intro to this hobby and what I plan to do, he enthusiastically said yes to my request to scan the plans, and make an extra copy.

The best part of this, is I can now print out, on regular paper, small sections of needed. And with a digital copy, I can help others. I've seen posts on this forum regarding plans for this kit and I hope to be able to help those people out.
Oh, to go with this. So long as I'm at this job, I will be able to scan the plans for any kits I do in the future

As for the progress of the build, we have completed the rudder, elevator, horizontal stabilizer, and vertical stabilizer.
Pics will come with another post.

Note: I have contacted Great Planes/Hobbico/Horizon Hobby regarding these plans. No one there seems to know where to find an extra set of plans. Very frustrating.

Hey everyone!

It has been many moons since I last visited, let alone posted, here. Life has been busy, but it is now time for me to dive back down the rabbit hole that is the world of RC madness.

I'll give a quick intro to myself here and at a later point, I'll start a blog (that's a thing here?) detailing my RC crafts and current projects. Hopefully, I'll be able to record most, if not all, of it and post to my YouTube channel.

I've been into RC for several years now. It started when I was in elementary school (late-90's) and my parents got me an awesome RC car. It was super fast, and I spent a few summers racing it all over the place, jumping it off anything that would ramp properly. When that finally broke, I ended up on a hiatus from RC till 2013. My father-in-law has several planes and an truck. He taught me how to work the truck and let me have my way with it. It was in need of some repairs and I spent a few months getting it running again. It has been in my possession ever since (see below). Shortly after my intro to the truck, he taught me how to fly with one of his two Slow-sticks. I did a few lazy circles above his neighborhood and immediately wanted to fly on my own. I later was introduced to FliteTest and immediately set about building a Tiny Trainer. That thing flew ok, as I had cut the parts out by myself. But I was hooked. Since then, I have built 4 FT planes (see below), spent many hours in Phoenix RC simulator crashing many planes, and built up a...Continue Reading