I’ve had a set, metric and SAE, of Fox prop reamers for decades. They work well, I keep them in might flight tool box. That box is really oriented to glow. I decided I needed an electric oriented tool box too.

Electric planes need props, props need reamers. I got a set of Great Planes reamers from Tower (still available, BTW). Each one packed in its own container. Unlike the Fox reamers, the twist bar is not permanently attached. Without the bar, the reamer body will Chuck up into a portable drill.

I had a couple of model stands that I'd used for years. They had various duties, but mostly holding models while I worked them and transporting fuselages to the field where I wanted them to be more stable. I had and Ernst and a Robart. The Ernst is a trooper and is pretty much in the same condition as when I first got it, only needing a wrap duct tape over the foam pads (that were leaving black marks on airplanes from too much sun exposure). The Robart, on the other hand was just worn out from use, the uprights didn't fit tight any more and the Styrofoam was just breaking off in places. The need for a new stand came apparent while I was repairing my Sig Kougar. I swear, I seemed to spend as much time getting it stay together as I did repairing the plane.

Time for a new stand. I knew Robard had a new generation of foam stands (as seen on RCG) but based on experience, I wanted to get another Ernst. My Ernst dates back to when we had actual model airplane oriented hobby shops, so I wondered if they were still available. So, of course, I asked Amazon. Yes, Ernst it still in business and stands are available. It showed me a picture of the ubiquitous blue/gray stands, gave me a price and told me I could have it in a couple of days. I was about to put one in my cart, when I noticed there appeared to be options beyond blue/gray. There were! In fact you could choose from several colors and, surprisingly, the alternate colors were less expensive than the traditional blue/gray...Continue Reading

One of the things I like about swap meets is the appearance of the itinerate hobby shops, vagabonds that show up, set up camp, provide needed items and slip away at the end of the show. A few years back, I met one of the vendors who used to work for Ace R/C. I was asking about the use of a servo cycler. He told me that early in the Ace experience with radio systems, they had issue with premature servo failure. They tried several tactics to solve that problem but the one that worked was doing a cycle test on each servo they sold.

He said that what they did, and what I should do, is cycle each servo for fifteen minutes. The devil in the details for servo issues is not that they will not work initially but that they will not continue to work. Plugging them up and wiggling the sticks, he said, is not enough, it needs to be done continuously, and Ace determined 15 minutes was ideal. Since nobody is going to stand around for 15 minutes and wiggle the sticks consistently, a standalone cycler is what is needed.

I bought the cycler, seemed like cheap insurance and started doing this on every flight pack I put together. I have a lot of experienced servos I routinely put back in service. This practice has spotted more than one problem since I adopted it. I do it on new servos too. Production technology has advanced since Ace was in business but caution is never misplaced.

Servo Test with Cycler (0 min 20 sec)

Of the San Antonio Prop Busters. In June 2006 blog post, I told of how we built and lost the best model flying field San Antonio had ever seen:

A Cautionary Model Field Tale

We never really recovered. From a high of 150+ members, it fell to about 50 members, and that number seemed to tread water - lose a couple, gain a couple. We had some successes:

Sport Pylon Racing - Using a specific ARF and 0.40 ci glow engines. This remained popular until the primary proponent moved to Ohio.
Holiday Adjacent Fly-Ins - We would have a holiday event, close but not on the holiday, reasoning the families claim the holidays. That proved very successful. We'd provide burgers, hot dogs and drinks and encourage. These were open to AMA members.
Modeler Built Model event - We started an event for people who fly modeler-built models. This was very successful, with a good turnout. It also inspired building activity of club members. It was so interesting to have a flite line with the variety of non-factory-built aircraft.

Alas, as things were getting better modeling wise, troubles were ahead field wise. We leased the field from a club member, it was his family property and he really enjoyed having a flying field handy where he could hang out. His wife was not quite as into it. After ten years she started pushing for more money, a disgruntled former member told her how a local club was paying a lot more than we were. That club had a much better situation with water and power supplied by the...Continue Reading

At the ARCS field in San Antonio, we have a couple of flying chairs, one of which is shown below. In 2010, I lost my left big toe to diabetic neuropathy. Everything was in control until last year. In a bad health year, 2022, for the family, damaged my right big toe, and the edema blew it up and I lost it and my second toe too. I’ve since had a leg treatment to control the edema, they filled two veins on each leg with CA glue. That’s done a great job and my legs are much better.

I’ve been flying a lot more this year, but I’ve been uncomfortable. I just keep feeling like I’m not stable. Your big toes are important for balance. I was OK with one, none appears to be a problem. Last Sunday, I drug one of the pavilion chairs out to the pilot line and flew sitting down, and I was so much more comfortable. My flying was also much better because I didn’t have to worry about loosing my balance. I moved the flying chair below to my preferred flying spot for our 4th of July event (with fireworks! ) and I was very comfortable flying. I grabbed it again today and my flying was, once again, more confident than when I’m standing.

So now I know how to fly comfortably at my home field. What am I going to do when I want to go to other fields for events? In the past, one of our senior members had one of those wheeled walkers, in which he’d sit to fly. That might be a good solution. I have a cheap one in the car for my wife ($25 pawn shop to try) but I wouldn’t trust it for actual sitting. I think I’ll get a better one from Amazon.

I have a field and camp guitar. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had it out. My other hobby is playing Bluegrass music. Before my old club lost our field in 2019, I used to take it a lot. I slipped away from playing for a few years but I’m bringing it back. Today I ran through a handful of favorite songs, between flights, enjoying the relatively pleasant weather and a cool breeze.

It’s a Recording King, it has a solid top and a laminated body, the latter making it more durable for this kind of playing. My main guitar is a Martin D-18. I’m not a hot picker, my preference is solid rhythm for backing up songs.

Someone evidently cleaned their shop of excess stuff and dropped off several boxes of usable items at our flying field (ARCS - San Antonio). This is a great idea, if you need to clean house. We’ve kept a couple of covered bins around for people to give and take for quite a while, this was quite the upgrade. I’ve put things in the bins, but nothing like this.

I saw the writing on the wall a while back when they remaindered a bunch of non-primary colors, so I placed an order choosing some good, for my taste, colors they were remaindering and increasing the amount of my favorite model colors. I don't have a ton of Monokote, compared to some, but I believe I have plenty for my needs. The recent formal announcement that made me take another look at what was available. You could tell the amount was reduced even further so I decided to add a few more basic rolls. (Interestingly, the supply increased between when I first looked and when I ordered, I guess somebody found some cases hidden in the warehouse.)

Recently, I was gifted two bound editions of Radio Control Modeler: Volume 6 from 1969 and Volume 7 from 1970. Top Flite was spending a lot of money promoting Monokote at that time. I first used it to build a Sig Banshee CL Stunter using Metallic Blue, sometime in that era. I didn't start in RC until '73.

I’ve been watching the EAA AirVenture air shows on YouTube, using my big TV with the YT app. In one of them they had an extended demonstration of 5he Goodyear blimp. This one is a new design to my eyes. I remember the one that had regular aircraft engines on pods near the gondola. This one has three electric motor powered props that move as needed. It appears there is a engine powered generator at the back of the gondola. It is also a sleeker gas bag than previous and only has three stabilizers instead of the four I remember.

So it’s a giant multi rotor supported by the neutral buoyancy balloon.

Here’s a picture my friend Lee Ray posted on FB

I see routing suggestions on RCG and FB that real model pilots don't need autopilots or gyros. While I think a lot of models can be flown without them, I don't see a problem with using them. AS3X provides gyro functions but it is not an autopilot. I think of it as being a simulation of actual pilot actions in an aircraft. If you watch some videos of pilots (check out the YouTube videos of Trent Palmer or Juan Browne's Blancolirio channel) you will see the pilots make continuous inputs to the controls. While it's been a long time since I have acted as PIC, I do remember that as you learn to fly and gain experience, you do just start responding to the effects of he atmosphere on the airplane automatically. That's what AS3X does, it replaces you subconscious actions since your are not in the plane to act.

I just finished refreshing a Sig 1/4 scale Clipped Wing Cub I got at a swap meet a couple of years ago. I had to cut off all the control surfaces and rehinge it. I had replace all the control systems, electronic and mechanical. I had to replumb the fuel supply. I had to repair some of the covering and do some painting. I gave it a little pop with some Callie Graphics. It’s pretty much ready to fly but my wife just had a total knee replacement, so that will have to wait a little bit. That might seem like a lot of effort for a swap meet plane but I only paid $160 for it, with a Zenoah G23, which is less than the basic kit from Sig.

Having finished the rebuild, I cleaned off my work table. All around me though there was accumulated things that I used or acquired during the build. Now I have to deal with all of that. It’s a semi-yearly task that encompasses reorganizing my hobby shop. I can work through chaos for some amount of time but not endlessly.

So today I put a bunch of those things on my work table and got started.

Recently there was an RC Groups Magazine post asking why we fly RC. I answered with the following first paragraph but I wanted to expand that to a larger life as a modeler story, so here it is...

Why do I fly RC? In short, for me it’s the ultimate expression of the model aviation experience. To get that airplane in the air with anticipation, to feel the elements of the sky pass over you and it at the same time and by concentration on the task to escape all the issues of day to day like, that is to slip the surly bonds of earth.

Of course this whole experience is built on a lifetime of interest in airplanes, full scale and model. Aviation was hot in the fifties and there was a lot of it on TV, I’m sure that’s where I got the love of airplanes. My introduction to model airplanes came while my father was golfing. I was waiting in the club house with my mother. We must have been on some sort of veranda because I saw small airplanes flying in circles across the fence near the entrance. I got her to walk me for a closer look. There were a couple of guys flying Flite Streaks (I didn’t know that then but realized it when I got model magazines). Mind blown – you can have your own airplane! (I’m not sure but I think this was at Melrose Park in Houston, which, at that time, had a Control Line field adjacent to the club house for the Par 3 Pitch and Putt course, also part of the park.)

I started getting model magazines, primarily Model Airplane News (MAN). Read them cover to...Continue Reading

I smacked my GP Zero in while trying to get slower on my landing approach. I was so mentally tied up on my touch and goes that I didn’t notice the wind had shifted into my face. Not the the infamous downwind turn, just a plain straightforward stall - into the ground. I broke the cowl loose and shatters the lite ply electric motor mount. Now, I’m putting it back together.

Even though it crashed on a textile runway, some pieces were missing. I decided to cover all four sides with 1/32nd plywood.

The cowl mount ring may not be repairable. I might have to go to a more standard approach....Continue Reading

Silly question, of course you can’t…

My distance vision is now in pretty good shape, and bound to be better with the second cataract removed, but I still need a little help in close. The close and far replacement lens approach wouldn’t work because my right eye is super dominant. According to the eye doctor I need just a slight correction to get to 20:20 in my right eye, so I’ll have a little benefit from bifocals, progressives because I’m used to them. I got to thinking though, maybe some sort of wearable magnifying system would be good.

I went on Amazon and, while most of the lighted magnifying systems were standalone, I did find a reasonable selection of wearable devices. I chose two. First, I picked out a lighted headband with a selection of lenses from 1.0 to 3.5 diopters. The light has two power settings and it’s adjustable for angle. I believe the light source may also be useful without the magnifying lenses.

My second choice was a large, lighted magnifying glass with an adjustable neck strap and a built in standoff to push the lens away from your body. I think this will be useful for two handed efforts that could benefit from some extra light and some modest magnification.

I expect my first use for one, or both, of these will be rewiring the aileron servo connections in the Clipped Wing Cub I’m rebuilding. I have a build log you can find by searching my RCGroups name.

Loosing sight to a cataract is, to analogize, is like boiling the Lobster. It sneaks up on you. I had my cataract surgery on my right eye, my dominant eye with the worse cataract, and the change is stunning. I took this Zero out yesterday. I last flew it around Christmas time. I had a little trouble following it then. Yesterday, I had no problem at all. My club also has a lot of EDF jet fliers and they were disappearing on me, not anymore. (I still have no personal interest in jets, having spent a career in jet fuel research).

The Zero has survived both my eyesight and, perhaps, my bad judgment. I bought it at the club swap meet last fall for $100 in the closing auction. It’s the Great Planes ARF and it had a Rimfire 32, Spektrum receiver, ESC and four Hitec BB Mini servos. When I got it home and fired it up, the right aileron servo started cycling full throw, up and down. Maybe the aggravation is why it was sold. I ordered a new servo from Tower and set it aside. When I got the servo I went to replace it. When I checked Ed the wiring I got the impression one of the connectors was loose so I pushed it together and now the servo worked fine. I flew it a few times after that. I later took it out and the servo acted up again. When I took it apart I was checking it under power and when I wiggled the Y-harness it would stop the cycling, so I replaced the Y-harness and it seemed fine. Fast forward past my surgery, I took it out of town for a fly in. I powered it up and the servo started cycling again. OK, I can take a hint - it’s the servo. I replaced it with no issues since.

I’ve seen multiple references questioning the future of Monokote. I went to the Tower website to check out availability. I found there’s a big sale going on. Lots of colors less than $10 but it seemed many were missing, so I hit the Show Discontinued button and there were the missing colors. As I went through the list again, I noted everything was on sale but the basic colors were $15 or on backorder. Makes me think Horizon is trimming Monokote to the most popular shades.

Earlier this year I did a stocking order of my favorite colors. I contemplated the meaning of all this and made an additional order of every color I could envision using plus a few more of my favorites (except Orange, which is on backorder). My order arrived today.

I’m scheduled for cataract surgery tomorrow. I know it’s routine, done thousands of times a day, but I’m still nervous. It’s going to be on my right eye. My, by far, dominate eye. My left eye also has a cataract but starting with it would have been useless. I’m worried because a mistake could leave me functionally blind. (For a while, the eye doctors have always told me that should I loose vision in my right eye, my brain would make my lazy eye shape up. Not something I want to experience.) The problem is, my cataract is getting progressively worse and starting to have significant impact on day to day business and hobby activities.

What’s the experience? I’ll share some so you can consider the signs. I have acute glaucoma so I have to see the eye doctor routinely, so I knew this was coming well before I had vision issues. If you’re eyes are others healthy, it might sneak up on you. As my right eye cataract grew, I started having a continuous feeling my glasses were dirty. Sometimes they were but cleaning them never really fixed the problem for my right eye. One of my fellow RC club members stated it very well, he said “It’s like looking through a dirty window.” Now there are obvious drop out spots that seem dimmer, until I close my left eye and they just become blurs.

My left eye has a shift in color vision. I can tell if I’m looking at something brightly lit with my right eye closed. What appears white with both eyes looks yellow with just my left eye. At night, all...Continue Reading

I find it very conversational. We don’t really have the kind of LHSs we used to have where we good go hang out and exchange info with other builders. Sometimes there are two builders at the flying field but not so often. So, if you want to talk about what you’re building, a Build Log is an opportunity. Better than temporary social media, where info only passes tangentially with little chance of retrieval. OK to post a link.

I also find it great for remembering what I was planning. Life can just interfere with your building and a well documented Build Log can help you get going (voice of experience).

It’s also a good way to get help. You can post a link in a forum from which you want help and you’ll probably get it.

There is no set form. Detailed or highlights. Straight through or meandering. It’s up to you.

Give it a try.

Between the Pandemic and the Crazy Breakdown of Civility it's time to get deeper into the hobby. If you watch the news, you'll get heartburn at best or an ulcer at worst. Put down the remote control, stay off Twitter and avoid non-hobby or non-family book pages. Go to your shop and start working.

I just listened to the latest RC Roundtable Podcast (I recommend highly). Part of the latest episode was an interview with Brian Bychowski, the new owner of DuBro. I was very encouraged by what he said. Evidently a lot of people are getting fed up with the current state of affairs and hitting the shop. He said their business has never been stronger. He indicated that it wasn't just modelers supplies but also supplies to burgeoning kit producers, like Old School Model Works.

I find this to be good news in a sea of depressing messages. I expect to see the fruits at the flying field as more people get to flying. I've kept flying all along. Radio Control is pretty good for social distancing . One of the clubs I belong to is in a County Park that has closed a couple of times but the other one is on electric gated private property. No spectators.

After a decade or so of marginal participation, I decided to get my flying skills back. From reviews and comments, I settled on an EFlite Sport Cub. April 2015. I flew that plane in all conditions. Hot. Cold. Facing crosswind. Tailing crosswind. Reverse pattern wind. Even too much wind. I flew pretty much every weekend I was home and it wasn’t raining or worse.

Besides dealing with air conditions, I did a lot of very basic practice. Clean patterns, smooth circles and and figure eights. Lots of touch and goes in both directions. As the routine came to hand, I started pushing the limits. Lots of low flying and aerobatics. Lots of high alpha flying. This high risk flying came with a lot of impacts and smacks. Most were just bent gear but some required repair. In the four plus years I flew this plane I had to glue the tail on twice (only one my fault) make special repairs to the wing to deal with broken mounts. I replace the tailwheel twice and the main gear wires once.

Even though I have several other planes, the Sport Cub became something of a touchstone. I tended to start any flying session with at least one Sport Cub flight. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year. The constant flying and risky behavior took its toll but paid big dividends in my flying confidence. It made four years this spring but the end was near. I wanted another one, so I checked the usual places but I didn’t find any. Then a buddy who had one indicated he much preferred his Timber...Continue Reading