I took a step back today to reflect and give thanks for all the nice people I have met and all the fun I have had flying RC the past 3 years. I started in the hobby back in October of 2004.

I got in from work early this afternoon and it was such a nice afternoon I though ... "this would be a perfect time to take a group shot" !

So I slapped all the models together for these nice spreads in my driveway. Some of the models I have had since the beginning of my RC experience. The Super Star, Fun World & Soar Star were all bought in the first 6 weeks of my first maiden flight back in Oct of 2004. The Superstar is actually my first plane ... and still flys great.

All of these models are RTF except for 1 receivers and a couple ESCs.

So I am taking a step back here a few days before Thanksgiving to take stock and give thanks for all the RC Fun I have had the past 3 years. What a Great Addiction ... Uh .... Hobby, yea hobby ... that's what I ment.

Here is the Line Up in the pics below:

foam U Can Do
Super Star EP
Super Sportster EP
foam SoarStar
Mini Ultra Stick
Mini E3D
EP Sailor 2 meter
F16 EDF
Fun World EP
PAM Tiger Moth
Liberty 182
J3 Cub
SA Cap 232 .40e

Here are the Videos of most of these models

Mike

Selling my PAM Tiger Moth. Never Sold it - And that is a good thing.Click for full details

I try to video all of my maidens and new mods. Well ... at least the 2nd flight or so, so if the plane does not fly we dont happen to capture that on tape.

Mike

Videos:

Super Sportster EP 3 Year Anniversary Special - May 27, 2008

NeoPlanes YAK 54. Finally got some video after 6 months. Been flying this one a good bit, so this is no maiden, but a fun video none the less. May 27, 2008

E-Flite J3 Cub on Floats . The focus of the video is takeoffs and landings - April 12, 2008

The E-Sky Lama v4 (with a nice wipe out) - Late Dec 29, 2007

My latest Addition: The Liberty 182 Trainer - Nov 2007

GWMP - Mini E3D - Oct 20, 2007.
- Dont really like my colors too much, but its OK.

Ultrafly Ultimate - Ultimate video - Jan 23, 2007

Walkera F-16 Ducted Fan Jet - Dec 28 2006 - Came out much better than the first attempt.

Hobbico Super Star EP Flys Over Water - Look Mom, No Floats - Dec 23, 2006

Walkera F-16 Ducted Fan Jet - Dec 12th - Crappy video made by 2 very bad camera guys

Hobbico Super Star EP with Tower Pro 2908-10 brushless mod - Dec 2, 2006

Super Star with Method R Brushed Motor:
I did some testing with this brushed buggy motor back in DEC of 2005 to try and find a replacement for the near extinct Kyosho Endoplasma motor. This one from Team Orion Did OK:
- Test flight 1
- Test flight 2 - retimed the motor.

Picco Z and a Dog - Nov 3, 2006 - Flying this mini Heli in the Living Room

E-Flight J-3 Cub Maiden -...Continue Reading

I am just sitting here tonight taking stock of life, and stuff, and my RC collection.

As some of you know, I had a heart attack 14 days ago (Nov 7th). I guess I am OK, but stuff like this make you look around. It has been hard for me to get back into RCG. But I have been reading some.

I got to go out and fly today. A little to windy for my tastes, and I was flying in a friends back yard ... too tight. Flew the Mini Ultra Stick.

My recovery is going as good or better than expected. I am back to about 70-80% I do not expect any complications from the heart attack except a life of certain meds, and daily exercise. Not really a bad thing.

As I sit here, this is just about my 2 year anniversery of RC flight. I started in mid Oct with a Hobbico Super Star EP. I did lots of web research and ended up going electric instead of fuel and thought I was just going to buy a plane I could putt around a field or a large backyard with.

Boy was I wrong about how addictive it is. Two years later I have had several planes ... And I have never totalled any of them. I either still have them or sold them.

Here is a list of what I have gone thru:

- Super Star EP
- Fun World EP
- Sky Raider Mach I
- Sky Raider Mack II
- Super Sportster EP
- SA Cap 232 .40e
- U Can Do foamy
- Soar Star (wingo copy)
- PAC .25 Tiger Moth
- EP Sailor 2 meter glider
- Wild Fly Flat Foamy (that was a gift)
- Mini Ultra Stick
- Eflight J-3 Cub
- A 2nd U Can Do
- PiccoZ Mini Heli

And still in the box
- A GWS foam P-51
- Walkera F-16 EPP Ducted Fan

Any 9 of these planes is fully fitted and ready to fly at any given time.

Man, too much money. I may be a junkie

I usually fly every Saturday that the weather is favorable, but today was an exception. The daughter wanted a special trip.

She wanted to see Space Shuttle Atlantis lift off from the Kennedy Space Center. We had tried yesterday but got put off. So today we drove back over and was not disappointed.

We viewed the launch from Space View Park in Titusville which is about 12.5 miles from the Launch Pad (39b). From here you could see the pad but not the shuttle on the pad as the shuttle is on the beach side and the pad blocks the view. We had bought a 700 / f 11.6 Telescope yesterday from wal mart and this helped the view out a lot. She got to see it go up thru the scope and it was very clear.

Crowd at the park was very large. We were in the front row as we had arrived 3 hrs before lift off.

11:14 AM - Perfect launch. Great View (best public view short of the KSC on-site sites). Daughter loved it. Good day. Did not mind missing the flight action.

Watch as it pierces the cloud. It looks like the bottom of the cloud is on fire.

Video is shot with a Panasonic DV-52D Mini Digital Video recorder. The camera had a 10x optical zoom with a 700x digital. I was on a tripod and could only get steady and clear up to about 85x optical/digital. I think the 700x is propbably a waste. It is not very clear at 12.5 miles.

Here is the video we shot:

STS-115

Gas-to-Electric Conversoin Maiden
Tower Pro 3520-05

The Motor

This is the first field test of this budget Outrunner motor From Tower Pro. It is in my friend Otto's Phoenix Super Decathlon Gas to Electric conversion. This was his first conversion and first large electric model.

The plane can be had for $120 from Tower and is very sweet indeed.

The specs of the plane with a gas engine are suppose to be 7 lbs, but the plane did not feel that heavey to me - more like 5 lbs. See the pic of the manufactures specs below. His cowl was broken from a previous gas crash.

The model was set up with:

- the Tower Pro 3520-07 from Gorrilla Bob's - $45
- Tower Pro 65 G2 ESC - $40
- Reciever Battery
- 14x7 prop APCe
- 4s 10c - ?3700 mAh? (i think) pack from Common Sense - could not confirm mAh as their site seems to be down.

Shipping to Fl for motor and ESC from Bob was 2 days.

We used the Eagle Tree Data Logger for in flight Data. Tried to connect the temp probe to the back of the bell, but it did not read?? But got in flight amps / watts / volts. Check the graphs below. Amazing power output.

Flight Summary:

All I can say is wow. This 66" gas to electric conversion was over powered. Flew beautifully. took off in about 25' with only 3/4 throttle from rough grass and we flew it for nearly 8 minutes and still seemed to have plenty of power.

I took the controls at about 5 minutes into the flight (no video), and did loops, stall turns (not...Continue Reading

After a summer of destroying 2 other foam planes , I decided to order the parts to get the Great Planes U-Can-Do 3D foam back in the air. It had taken some abuse back in early summer and got stripped for parts and shelved. But it was always my favorite.

Got the few little parts in today and sat down at the bench to "Shoo-Goo" some wing and fuse breaks. Had to install a servo too.

The faithful Himax HC 2812-0850 had had a summer of abuse. It was in the foam Raven when the battery flew off in a flat spin about 50' up. Battery hit the paved runway, it was mangled. Plane and motor free fell and nosed in, but no damage to the motor. Now It was right at home again fitting nicely in the U-Can-Do.

After gluing the U-Can-Do back together and installing all electronics, It was ready to go .... but alas, it was now dark . What to do. Hmmm .... wife is in the shower Check out the Video.

Re-maiden U-Can-Do Flight

Mike

Well I thought I would try a few new things this week.

First is the RCG blogs. I thought I would start a Personal RCG blog about my flying and the fleet I fly. I have a blog of my own in another location, but it is primarily for my PodCast to keep it updated (Oh, If you are interested in receiving my weekly PodCast just add this line to your Pod Catcher: http://feeds.feedburner.com/BethelPodcasts or visit the URL to learn more about PodCasts.)

So, Since it seems most of the stuff I rant about crosses over motor, battery and plane lines. And starting a thread on one limits my discussion to only the one, I thought I would open a Blog about my over all RC experiences.

The Second thing I thought I would try New this week was Sail Planes. I had been wanting a sail plane since last summer and A few weeks ago I saw on the Air-Borne Models site a World Models EP Sailor w/ geared 550 motor in the scatch and dent for $69. It was only a damaged box, but the model was complete. Well that is all it took to get me started. I ordered it and it arrived just a few days later.

Well, Got it up and running yesterday, and did a maiden this AM. This is my first experience with a large 2 meter sail plane. Weather was perfect (but a little cool - so no thermal activity that I found).

Well all I can say is ... "Sail Planes are Cool" This thing is RC Fun on a whole new Level. I only flew one pack in it today - a Thunder Power 2100 3s prolite. It was too...Continue Reading