I've been away from the hobby seriously now for a couple of years. Partly due to bad club politics, but moreso due to buying a motorcycle and selling my truck, which meant beautiful days were spent riding. And I figured on the bad days I'd build plastic models instead, so I traded a bunch of my R/C stuff for plastic model stuff with a good friend and Master Model Builder.
I recently bought a house and I can finally set up a modeling room the way I want to do it, so I'm looking to get back into building and flying R/C models again. That has left me in a bit of a predicament. I traded away my Futaba 9C (2.4 conversion) radio, so I need to replace it. But, I don't know what to replace it with. I want to start building bigger, gas-powered, scale models, and also some sailplanes. I was never impressed with any of the JR radios. At our club field it was probably a 2:1 split with JR and Futaba, 2.4 radios. Excluding "dumb thumb" accidents, it appeared to me that the JR radios were responsible for more radio related accidents than Futaba. Now, I can't say that with any evidential fact, but that's the way it appeared to me, so I'd rather stick with a Futaba radio. So... what's the Futaba 2.4 radio market like these days? What's the best route to take for a 6+ channel radio?

I had an assignment two weeks ago to cover NEFI at the AMA International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, IN. I also got to fly a little. I took my Radian powered sailplane with me, and my Super Solution camera plane although my R/C shutter switch wasn't working so I didn't get any Aerial Images .

As a result of having the Radian, and partially due to my Super Solution because it flies like a big glider, I've taken a new direction with my R/C modeling. I've gotten really interested in R/C Soaring and Thermal Duration models. I still haven't finished my Ultra Sport 60, but I will, someday . Right now I've got an Oly II kit on the bench from Skybench.com. I can tell you from looking through the contents of the kit, Ray Hayes of Skybench.com takes pride in the products he sells and these kits are complete. In a matter of just a few hours I had the fuselage parts all dry-fitted and ready to be glued permanently. The design changes that Ray has made (locking tabs and light ply doublers), make a fuse that, even dry-fitted, is tight and true. I'll be documenting my build for a build thread on my local area R/C forums, www.alvinrc.com, but not for RCGroups as there have been several threads already on this aircraft and the Oly IIs, Skybird, and other models produced by Skybench.

Since I'll be building this aircraft stock with no modifications, I should be able to finish it in less than a month, which for me is more like two months because I work a week on, week off, out of town. At any rate, it'll definitely be done sooner than my Ultra Sport 60!

although I still haven't finished my Ultra Sport 60 (no excuse really, other than laziness). I went again to the Joe Nall Giant Scale Fly In and had a great time. I brought my Super Solution camera plane and was able to get some nice aerials of the event. I was also on assignment for Model Airplane News, photographing it for their website. That led to a few other future prospects. So like I said, it's been a good year so far, but I haven't been flying as much as I'd like to and part of the reason for that is as stated above, I haven't yet finished my US 60 .

Besides flying R/C, photography has been a hobby of mine also. Over the last two years I've gotten more serious about it and studied and learned how to use a camera in Manual Mode instead of the Auto Mode. For many years I've wanted to put a camera on an R/C airplane just for the fun of it. My first ideas revolved around simple point and shoot film cameras on .40-.60 size glow powered models with Clark Y airfoils and pusher props. More recently, my ideas have been refined and I purchased a "Hawkeye" designed by Joel Scholz. It's really just a large electric powered kite. It's a beautiful design and a thrill to fly. I did manage to get some great shots with it and the Canon A640 PowerShot Camera. Have a look at my website: www.tangojulietphotography.com

But it has a rather large drawback, in my opinion. Because it is such a lightweight aircraft, it can't handle winds above 10mph very well, if at all. After nearly losing it on one windy morning, I did lose it completely the following morning; plane, camera, everything. Never to be seen again. I've got no one to blame but myself though. The forecasted winds were to be above the safe limit. The problem was, at ground to treetop level there was no wind, so it was deceptive. Once I got to about 250-300', I was in trouble. I could have gone into a death spiral, and should have, but I was afraid of crashing into an un-seen busy street or someones home. I thought I was being smart at the moment. Now...Continue Reading

Balsa USA is using one of my photos taken at the 2009 Joe Nall in their current ad in the November 2009 issue of Model Aviation magazine. The photograph is also my new avatar photo.

This past Saturday, a small group from our club traveled to another club's fly-in in Hattiesburg, MS. The Pinebelt R/C club has a nice field and the weather couldn't have been better; Clear blue skies, light winds, upper 70's temps. One of the neatest things we saw was an R/C Skydiver! Now, we've seen them before, one of our club members has one, but we'd never seen one that worked! This guy jumped five times and had five perfect jumps with full control.

Wow! I didn't realize how long I'd been away from RCGroups! I haven't been out of the hobby though. Luckily, I'm still with the same employer although in a different location than when I started. Next weekend is our annual "Fall Scale Fly-In" and I've got the weekend off. I can't wait. I hope the weather's good. I don't have any nice, big scale birds to fly, but hopefully in the next couple of years that will change. I have a laser cut short kit for a Jerry Bates design, but I need more space before I can start building it.

I'm also a semi-Pro photographer, and today (10/19/2009) I ordered a "Hawkeye" Aerial Photography electric powered plane. I've been wanting to get something suitable for doing AP work and I think this fits the bill quite well. I'm really looking forward to it.

I'm not used to keeping up with a blog, so it's been a while since I've posted anything here. I started a new job back in July and now I'm only home every other weekend. It's not bad though, I work 7 on / 7 off, so I actually have more time off in a month. Now if I can just get a two bedroom apartment and turn one room into my shop, I can get back to building again! Right now all I have to fly is my Combat Gremlin, and I'm breaking in the engine (Super Tiger .75) on my Stinger 60 ARF. If I can get the low end needle set up right, it should be a sweet flyer. I might head out today for some flying and male bonding, if the weather holds up. We always have a fair group out on Sundays, and I guess it's so everywhere, but it seems there's usually about 2:1 talking to flying going on. I don't see much difference between flying R/C and fishing when it comes to all the tall tales.

I spent the day at our club field, ACMA, in Irvington, AL. The weather down here was terrific this weekend, as have the last few weekends. There are always plenty of members out when the weather is good. Last weekend we held our First Annual Scale Warbird Fly-In. It was a huge success! If you're in the area, stop in and enjoy some good southern hospitality (and if you can beat the boys to it, some good grub!)