Rummaging through my holy of holy's modeling closet looking for something, the bag of stuff from a crash a year or so ago surfaced. Within was an Evolution 10cc, servos, receiver, etc... the makings of a build. That prompted memory that a fellow flyer had a 10cc Ultrastick for sale and a deal was cut. The build is now completed and the hanger is full again.

What now? March 19, 2024

I can't imagine not having a project to work on but there is no place to put anything else. In recent years, good flying glow planes were sold to make room, but there are no more of those.

To stay busy, a disc sander was built using a motor from a worn out dishwasher but those kinds of projects take only a few hours... needed is a many months project / pastime.

I got back into RC in 2001 after a seventeen year leave. A few years later, my wife bought me a plane for my birthday and I chose the Hanger 9 Ultrastick Lite and loved it. When it had an encounter with a tree limb that sheared off the two outer wing bays, it got a heroic repair because it was a favorite flyer and had been discontinued.

While doing the repair, Horizon got seemingly an unexpected last shipment as it had been listed as discontinued and a back up was purchased and in time, it was pressed into service and it too in time was lost. and replaced by the 30cc Ultrastick currently in the fleet. It is a good flyer and was the inspiration for using the planform to create the Ein-stick-er that has become my favorite flyer.

The nimbleness of the Lite version was missed however and given the wing and tail planes survived, and a project was needed on the boards this winter, it was time to build a new fuselage. That effort is wrapped up and currently the covering of the old wing is in progress.

The build required making a drawing and used favorite build techniques outlined in other build logs. It has been fitted with the same Zenoah G20 engine that was on the earlier Lite UItrasticks.

Some interesting numbers in comparison of the 20cc Lite to the current 30cc Ultrastick.

At 9.5 lbs compared to 13 lbs 6oz for the 30cc Ultrastick, having only slighltly more wng area, it is easy to understand why the 20cc version is more nimble.

There are only a few changes. This version has a brighter color scheme easier for my old eyes to see. It has a bolt on stab and the rudder got pull/pull control as well as did the Ohio Arts tail wheel.

Follow up report

Now several months later, the 20cc Ultrastick has once again become my goto plane. It is easier to see, a more nimble flier, and quicker and easier to set up and take down,

After retirement from the construction trades at age 67, I stayed fit by walking for a few years but after a knee that had been hyper extended in earlier years balked, an old bike was cleaned up and has been the mainstay for exercise the last several years until last year when spring chores over did the knee.

For two weeks, it was a walker and confinement to the house followed by several months using a cane and dragging the leg made stiff due to the lack of movement in the knee. I was frankly concerned that I'd reached the catch 22 of aging, where a health issue would limit ever being healthy again, where the one way road was rising weight, rising blood pressure and rising A1C... all leading to accelerated deterioration of health. That was the picture at my winter health check up and the doctor asked if I'd ever done a stress test. Answering no, she said 75 years of age and it was time.

It was tough. The nurse outlined a pulse goal of 123. There would be three stages on the treadmill. Late in the second stage, I was tiring and she encouraged another 30 sec and the goal was reached and she stopped it just prior to the 3rd stage but it was all I could do and it revealed just how bad out of shape I was.

After a few initial spring rides last season, the whole season of riding had been lost. Then, one early morning around Christmas time when fetching the morning paper, I realized I was walking with a normal stride and hoped for continued improvement. When...Continue Reading

A few years ago while commissioning a CMP Cub ARF bought before retiring, an engine was needed and on the shelf was a Saito 125a but I'd determined several years previous not to add any new glow powered planes, thus the impetus for my first conversion effort.

It went well and there are now eight.
In order of converting

• Saito 125a - 91" CMP Cub (now has 195 logged flights)
• Saito 182T - 1/4 Aronca Champ
• Saito 90TS - 1/5 World Models Cub video
• Saito 180 - 1/4 Fly Baby
• Saito 100 - 1/4 Pietenpol video
• Saito .30 - Sig LT-25
• Webra .32 - intended for a Sig Kobra build
• Saito .65 - to be installed in a Westland Lysander

End of 2021 - total of 332 flights with gas conversions

Many years ago a Sig LT-25 was added to the fleet for the grandkids. Over the years each got some stick time that made the project worthwhile.

Years went by and the plane languished and eventually the bearings in the Saito .30 rusted.

Recently, my flying of glow power ended when a decision was made to buy no more expensive glow fuel. Having converted several four strokes to gas, doing so to the Saito .30 was given thought and decided worth a try, albeit with concern that the little .30 would have adequate power or the air bleed carb would support gas.

It was given a rebuild with loosening up the stuck valves, replacing the rusted and frozen bearings and trading the 6oz tank for a 2oz plumbed for gas.

Somewhat surprised, the conversion went well and power loss seemed minimal and the LT-25 is now flight worthy again with the little Saito .30 running well on gas and now without concern that its minimal flight time will result in another set of rusted bearings or stuck valves.

With 17 flight worthy planes in the fleet, no more are needed to satisfy flying but the itch to build seems insatiable, so what next?

The options

• A Sig Kobra using a Webra 32 that has been converted to gas for power. It is a kit.
• The Westland Lysander won at the last fun fly, an arf that could be powered by a Saito 65 if it will convert to gas.
• The half built Pica Waco that was handed off
• A BUSA 1/4 Cub kit
• A Great Planes Super Stearman having a Zenogh G-26 for power
• A Seagul 120 Decathalon ARF
• An old Sterling Stearman kit
• Sig Four Star 120
• Something not on the list

Big Red - 96" Self design - Lost when hitting top of pine tree.
maiden video

1929 Travel Air 6000 - 96" Outer Zone plan build - enlarged 200%

Das Box Fly Bipe - 90" Outer Zone plan build enlarged 200%

Fly Baby - 94" Outer Zone plan build enlarged 168%

Ein-stick-er - 84" Self design

Pietenpol - Outer Zone plan build

Pietenpol maiden video part 1 - part 2

Note: Links are to build logs

My latest and 5th giant scale build since retiring, is called an Ein-stick-er (cross between a Stick and Eindecker). It uses the planform of the 30cc Ultra Stick while having the appearance of an Eindecker. The goal was to create a mid wing stick with good sport flight manners while resembling the WWI fighter.

The 18 month build went slow at times, stalling to yield the building benches to several critical repairs of other planes, but the raw desire for the build saw it through to completion, and what may be my best build.

Self designs make a project a bit special. They challenge the builder with the end result his creation... good or bad. All the little things that make a good plane are on him. Failing any one can turn a project sour and thus intensifies the build effort in the quest to get things right.

This build seemed to fall together in good ways. The CG was on without any additional weight. The wheel position turned out ideal. The rudder yaws as it should but has no roll component. The total weight was a good number. It turned out simple, quick and easy to setup and take down at the field. Ground and flight manners had no undesirable characteristics.

Stats
Wing span - 85"
Weight - 13lbs 10oz
Engine - 35cc
Wing foil - symmetrical

Features
Cowl with blind mounting screws
Antique Wheels on wire struts
Fore deck with machine gun
Open cockpit with pilot
Top hatch to radio compartment
Bottom hatch to fuel locker
Active wing flying wires that support and retain wing panels
Independent wing incidence adjusters
Bolt on tail planes
Wing tube mounted wing panels
Easy four screw setup and take down.

Recent years just prior to and after retirement have provided opportunity to embrace plan building several giant scale projects, some of which are profiled in my blog here and on build threads in the Balsa Building Forum.

The first of those was a plane I called Big Red, my only self designed creation, It was a thirties era looking open cockpit having an eight foot wing span, and powered by an MLD 35. It was a sport/aerobatic plane and flew wonderful. It is profiled in elsewhere here in the blog. Unfortunately it was lost last year after going downwind too far and skidding it into the top of a pine tree off the far end of the runway. The causes of the crash were two fold and combined to produce the sad ending. It happened on a very windy day and I'd not flown the plane in a many months, having given focus to slow flyers. Bottom line, the plane went downwind further than I'd expected due to the high wind and faster airplane than I'd been used to flying. When turning onto final, I was beyond the trees instead of inside them.
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...0#post40355828

The second was a 1929 Travel Air 6000, my first and probably only effort within the scale building genre. It was also an eight foot wingspan build and powered with a Zenoah G-26. The most striking thing to say about it, the maiden was a bit hairy... it yawed horribly away from a turn and needed a lot of down trim. Fortunately, after giving it a huge amount of aileron differential,...Continue Reading

Use this blog to say whatever you wish within the general rules of RC Groups.... thanks.

Arlyn

The Travel Air 6000 was a six passenger early airline plane. Powered by a radial engine, it had good climbi rate but was relatively slow given the wing struts and fixed undercarriage with large wheels for grass strips.

Because of the limited passenger space and its slowness, it didn't stay in service very long, being replaced by Ford Tri Motors and in time the DC-3.

Surplus to the airlines, they found a niche serving mountain valleys because of the exceptionally good climb rate enabling them climb quickly out of a valley and over mountain ridges. Many were equipped with floats and serviced mountain lakes. They also represented the last of the wood spar era.

My interest in modeling a Travel Air 6000 began during an air show at a local small airfield. One had been restored and rides were available. I didn't ride in it that day, but its lines impressed me and the thought occurred that it would be a good RC build.

Six months later, it was there again, and this time the pilot offered a ride and I actually got some stick time. It was a hoot to fly a plane eighty years old and following the flight, the thought of building a model was given more serious thought.

There wasn't much available for plans. The plane had been build many years back when memories of it were yet alive, but nothing current with the latest plan found using an escapement radio. The plan was drawn in the early sixties.

The wingspan was 48" so I ordered the plan doubled to 96" for a...Continue Reading

Several years ago, a guy came to the field selling surplus stuff and I bought ($5) a set of balsa covered foam cored wings NIB. They evidently had been bought from a wing maker to rebuild a model that never got rebuilt.

The panels were forty inches. I determined to use them to construct a self design. My favorite era is thirties through the WW-II era so a thirties looking open cockpit sport plane was envisioned, sketched, drawn and scratch built.

Construction and Flight

• Conception - spring of 2011
• Drawing - summer of 2011
• Acquring wood and hardware and final drawings - late summer and fall 2011
• Buiding - January - April 2012
• Maiden - early May 2012
• Flown - often for fifteen months until mishap during summer 2013

.
Wingspan 96"
Power 35cc gas
Weight 16.75 lbs.

Video of maiden

Sport35.mpg (8 min 5 sec)

The Crash

Normally, flaps were used for landing and a fast idle was mixed with the flaps which worked very well with any headwind but lacking a headwind, I'd suffered a lengthy landing and determined to go back up and do better and chose to land without the flaps/fast idle. There was a cross wind in my face that I failed asses as a danger and slowed too much on base leg and stalled when turning onto final. The plane is salvageable and needs the front section, wing tips and rudder repaired.

We all have one... and mine starts with man's primate struggle to survive. He learned quickly that behavior was critical. Destructive behavior lowered the odds. He labeled that kind of behavior sin and taught his children to avoid. The dichotomy between good and evil was born out of the challenge to survive and live a quality life.

Teaching aids of stories and myths were created. They evolved into religions and given various authority figures (gods). The stories and gods served the various tribes in the quest to survive by providing order, identity, unity, entertainment, consolation when needed, assurance, comfort, hope, maps to guide them toward the future, and much more.

That so many various tribes and cultures had their unique narratives and gods, evidences a human pattern of thought and creative expression. Of course, each will be tempted to claim that his is better or the only true reality.

In our modern mobile world, our neighbors are global and we are challenged to respect and find peace with them rather than war about which religion is true. It might be helpful to accept that they all are alternate realities.