I admit it.

I was a bit spooked to send up the rebuilt Sparrow after its masterful repairing at the hand of its builder; see my previous blog if you wish.

Original plans called for the reinstallation of a simple sport radio, but the elevator interfered with the newly rebuilt and extended rudder. On top of that, the pushrods were flexing excessively. In went a Hitec Optima receiver bound to a Hitec Flash 8 radio. I programmed both surfaces with as much throw as I could manage and tossed in a bit of exponential as well.

When it took off from the runway at the Coachella Valley Radio Control Club, it did so with sheer beauty. Plenty of power, but by no means is it a speed demon. It's much like flying a powered glider and I'm looking forward to taking it up again soon. It landed like a glider, too. I didn't think Anakin wanted to come down!

A visit to the field the next day came complete with what I thought were free models on the free stuff table, a table which netted me about 20 nine-gram servos and some servoless retract mechanisms a couple of weeks prior. Instead, these newest additions to the hangar were very low cost, sold by a friend of mine. Thirty bucks for the pair of old ParkZone models in the photo below. That little J-3 Cub, identical to the second R/C plane I ever owned and wore out, is in outstanding condition other than a bit of fading. It's since been cleaned up and some minor repairs have been made. It's almost like new and while the...Continue Reading