Hello all,
After realizing I never made a video of the Taurus planes that were built over 5 years ago now flying, I finally got around to doing so. We had a nice warm week here in Ohio this November so I did what I could to put a video of the Taurus flying. I am also the camera person at my field, so when it comes time to have my models recorded it is hard for me to find a suitable camera person. Well I think I may have finally found one. Also, gotta give credit, this was all recorded and edified on the Iphone 13 Pro max in cinematic mode. Two of the videos were filmed in 3x and one in 1x when a bit of zoom added in post production. I feel the video came out good and shows the great flying abilities of the Taurus.

Top Flite Taurus designed by Ed Kazmirski flying around! (15 min 30 sec)

Hello all,

Just wanted to take a quick minute and share that we are starting to work on a pair of Ed Kazmerski's Simla Kits from Home and Hobby Solutions. Will be doing a video build log with video and pictures during the construction. Here is a brief introduction. Follow me on youtube for more updates.

The R/C plane project reveal! Ed Kazmerski’s SIMLA. Kit from Home and Hobby Solutions. (1 min 6 sec)

Thank you for your time,

Matthew Prachar

Starting on a new project and hope to create as much multimedia for this plane as I can, especially pictures/video of construction and many flying videos when it is completed. Not too many of these planes out flying. Can you guess what we are building? Will post what it is in a day or so.

Thanks for watching!

Matt Prachar

A new set of RC planes are beginning to be built soon.... can you guess which one? (1 min 18 sec)

Below is a link to some photographs and movies of the planes first few maiden flights:

Kwik Fli III RC Plane Flies again after nearly 50 years. (2 min 54 sec)

A few years back while Bill Nichols and I were at the Cincinnati Aeromodelers Swap meet in Cincinnati, Ohio we were given a very old fuselage from a Phil Kraft Kwik Fli III. The fuselage was in disrepair and well used, the wing was long gone. After just asking the lady that was working the table and telling her what the fuselage was from {she did not know} she told us it was her late fathers stuff that she was getting rid of. After a discussion she ending up giving us the fuselage and a very old timer type plane for free, under one condition, someday we would make them all fly again. Before leaving that day, we asked the lady {I regrettably forgot her name} to sign her fathers name in one of the planes. The name was "Bill Lenzer" and the lady that gave us the plane and Bill were somehow possibly tied to ZippKitts.com. I have sent an email to ZippKitts with a link to the video, it was over this past weekend, If I get a response, I will be sure to share it on here. If you from Ohio area and knew Bill Lenzer please comment and let us know, your seeing one of his planes fly again!

Fast forward to our very interesting month of March 2020 and it was time to see the Kwik Fli take to the skies again. After much work on the fuselage and building a entirely new wing, the model was sitting covered in Bill...Continue Reading

Hello all,
I wanted to share a video of the maiden flights on the Imperial Knight Twister built and flown by William C. Nichols of Grove City, Ohio. The Knight twister biplane has a special part of history for Ohio. Don Fairbank's was from Cincinnati, Ohio and the full scale version of this plane is on display at Sporty's Pilot Shop located in Batavia , Ohio. Furthermore, for Bill Nichols, growing up in New Philadelphia, Ohio he would often see another version of the Knight Twister being flown by Tony Sabler.

In the early 2000's he built a 1/2A version of the Imperial Knight Twister, this is powered by a Norvel .074 motor and flies great! Always wanting to build a larger version it happened to be fate, when a plan, cowl, wheel pants, and the long discontinued Magna-lite material the original construction article called for was found at a swap meet in Washington Courthouse, Ohio. It was without delay that this was purchased. It took Mr. Nichols approx 2 years off and on to complete the Knight Twister and after going on a two show model tour and taking "Best of Show" at both events, the biplane was taken up for a maiden earlier this week. The model won "Best of Show" in 2018 at the Westerville Model Swap Shop/Show and at the Lancaster Model Swap Shop/Show both located in Ohio.

Below is a video of the models maiden flights, the aircraft flies great, was balanced perfectly and only required a few clicks of down trim.

The model is of 1/3 scale and...Continue Reading

Just thought I would post a quick video with a couple pictures and videos of the first two maiden flights of my Balsa USA Fly Baby Bipe.

Bought this used on RC Groups back early in 2017 and promised I would post pictures and video of it when it was completed.

I have not got a chance to get any air to air shots with a drone yet.

Plane has a US 41 engine and weighs 25 lbs wet. Covered with fabric and painted with rustolem shaker cans. Had a 20x6 prop on it but going to try a 20x8 on it next. Flies very scale.

Here is the video:

Balsa USA 1/3 Fly Baby Biplane Maiden flight (2 min 3 sec)

Attached are a few pictures of the plane when I acquired it.

Thanks for looking,

Matt

Hello all,
Here is a short video of my Great Planes Clipped Wing Cub. It features air to air video shot with a racing mini quad. The plane is powered by a O.S. FS 91 4 stroke and flies great.

Clipped Wing Cub - Great Planes- Drone chasing rc plane (2 min 11 sec)

** Don't forget to watch in HD **

Thank you for watching!

Hello all,
This is a video that I made at the Hilliard Model Airplane Club located in Hilliard, Ohio. It features a vintage Schluter helicopter being flown by Jay Caldwell. Chase drone pilot is Steve Smetters (maprat). Video was shot on a GoPro Hero 4.

Make sure to watch in 1080P 60 FPS.

Vintage Schluter R/C Helicopter Air to Air (2 min 5 sec)

Thank you for watching!!

Like and subscribe on youtube for more rc related videos!!

Got Smoke: Drone chases RC Airplane with smoke system (2 min 39 sec)

DONE FORGET TO WATCH IN 1080P HD!

Video showing a Blackout Mini H quad chasing a Dynaflite Super Decathlon. Chase Done Pilot is Steve Smetters(maprat) and Decathlon Pilot is Matthew Prachar.

Smoke system is a Sullivan Skywriter smoke pump using Robart Smoke Oil. Engine on airplane is a Super Tigre S3000.

Video was shot using a GoPro Hero 4.
Shot at the Hilliard Model Airplane Club located in Hilliard, Ohio

Hello all,
Here is a video of one of the Top Flite Taurus getting tuned in and making its maiden flight. More video will come soon, hope to get some air to air video of it with a drone soon

Top Fite Taurus Maiden Flight (3 min 54 sec)

Also, if you would like to watch a slideshow of the construction of these two planes that can be found here:

Top Flite Taurus Construction / Covering (12 min 15 sec)

...Continue Reading

Hello again,

Below is a video documenting the construction of two Top Flite Taurus Vintage Pattern Planes. These planes were originally designed by Ed Kazmirski and are very well flying pattern planes.

Construction of these two models took approx. 7 months to build and cover. As of today neither plan has had there maiden yet. It is winter time where I am from and we are waiting for a perfect day to maiden them.

One is powered by a O.S. FX 46 and the other is powered by a Tower Pro 46. AUW is approx 6 to 6 1/4 lbs. Servos are Hitec HS425BB running on 6 Volts.

Instead of posting a crap ton of pictures of the building I just made a video.

Top Flite Taurus Construction / Covering (12 min 15 sec)

Thank you for watching. Like, share, and subscribe for more videos.

Happy Flying all.

He all,
While flying with my friend, we were doing some air to air video with my R/C Piper Cub. We decided to try to get some aerobatics. What we ended up with was kinda cool.

Check it out:

Drone nearly crashes with RC plane (1 min 38 sec)

Well was kinda lucky I feel on this one. Had a few electric models that I was never going to fly again. Mostly stuff from the Hobbyking people. I tried electric, however I am just more into nitro stuff. I feel people who fly electric may be cheating themselves out of the "r/c experience". Anyway, that is for another blog post.

A member of my club, now mostly an electric guy, had this ESM Beaver with a 95 inch wingspan. I offered to trade him two durafly warbirds and a glider and he took the deal. When I got the plane, it originally had a BCMA SPE 26cc gasoline engine. This thing was a hunk of junk. Broke off its motor mounts during testing.

So furthermore, I added just want the plane needed a SuperTigre S3000 30cc Nitro engine. Now the plane has plenty of power. I have flown the plane twice, just finishing on working out some issues, since I was told the plane only flew three times before I got my hands on it.

There are some things to "look out for" on this model. However, it is a good flying model and I look forward to flying it many more times, and hopefully will have it many more years.

Here is a video of some of its first flights:

ESM DeHavliand DHC-2 Beaver RC Plane Large Scale (2 min 10 sec)

Quick air to air video I made. This video shows a vintage RC parasail flying. Video was taken from a Flitetest Batbones Tricopter and GoPro Hero 3 Black edition.

Find me on Instagram @matthewprachar and YouTube channel at matthewprachar

RC Nitro Parasail / Paraglider Air to Air Video (3 min 50 sec)

Hello all,

Here is a video of a vintage Midwest Esquire 3 Channel RC Airplane. Video is from a Flitetest Batbone Tricopter with Gopro Hero 3 Black Edition. I was flying the tricopter FPV while shooting the video.

It is always good to see vintage models fly.

Also attached some photographs from the video.

Vintage Midwest Esquire Flying (3 min 21 sec)

Hello all,

A friend of mine and I have been working on getting better air to air video via fpv flying with multi rotors. This is the latest video that we have produced. Steve Smetters was flying his Blackout Mini-H quad and I was flying the Goldberg Anniversary Cub. Video was shot on a GoPro Hero 4.

Thank you for watching if you like was you see, check out my instagram page at : @matthewprachar.

PS. Best part of the video is at the 1:20 mark. Also, don't forget to click the gear and what in HD!

RC Goldberg Piper Cub Air to Air video (3 min 19 sec)

So a good friend of mine was flying his Black Spider Hexacopter at our flying field and was getting some amazing video of planes with his Gopro. A model was brought out of retirement that day a 36 inch Wingspan "mini" version of a Goldberg Skylark powered by a Norvel .061 engine.

This was a really enjoyable airplane to fly. Both the pilots of the Skylark and the Blackout were flying together and even a twin "sister" of the Skylark a mini version of a Goldberg Falcon was also flying.

In the long run, the Blackout pilot was putting his aircraft in position for the Skylark to do a flyby, however, the Skylark made it to position first and they ending up colliding. The best part of this is that it is all caught on video!! Check it out here:
**Be sure to click the gear and watch in 720P HD**

Blackout midair crash - Drone hits plane - Plane midair crash- Goldberg Skylark (1 min 50 sec)

The Blackout Spider Hex lived, nothing on it was damaged, except for the leading edge balsa piece that was stuck in it!. The Goldberg Skylark will be rebuilt eventually to fly another day.

I am just sharing this so people can enjoy the video, it was friends having fun, the two pilots are still friends and there are no hard feelings. People in our club love to make air to air videos and once in a while something bad but very interesting to watch comes of it. Remember as "Devin Supertramp" says "It's all about the shot"

Now for even more details before people call this a drone crash. The Blackout hex was actively being piloted, it was not in any form of autonomous flight. The Blackout Hex Pilot was flying FPV, with a spotter over a field, no people were around just three pilots and a spotter. No one was injured as a result of this. All aircraft were well below 300 feet.

Watch the video for your enjoyment. Also shows how good these Blackout mini multi-rotors are!

Thank you for reading!!!

Since, I am new to the blog thing, I thought I would share a video that a friend and I made last summer. My friend was flying his Flitetest Batbones Tricopter at our field in Hilliard, Ohio. I was flying the Hobbyking Le Belle Dame 3ch airplane.

The Le Belle Dame is a great three channel airplane for gliding around on calm days. However, thats not the reason for this post. The reason is that we caught a neat video segment/photo from his Tricopter just when I said "danger close" at the flight line.

If you listen carefully you can actually hear the rpm changes on one of his motors. My wingtip just grazed the underside tip of the tri copters rotor. There was no damage to either aircraft and we both kept flying afterwards.

Hobbyking Le Belle Dame Air to Air Flying Video - FPV (1 min 46 sec)

I know some of you may think we were being careless, however, he was flying fpv and could see me, I announced to him on the ground what I was doing. We were the only ones at the field, and no one was around.

"In our eyes, it was all about the shot"

Thank you for reading!

Hello all,
This photograph is of a Berkeley Buccaneer C Special originally built in the early 1970s by George Morgan (AMA #80117). The original AMA model identification sticker shows that it was originally powered by a converted Torpedo 35 engine and weighed 5 pounds.

After Mr. Morgan passed away, the model eventually ended up in the hands of William “Bill” Nichols (AMA # 151059), President of the Hilliard Model Airplane Club located in Hilliard, Ohio.

Bill Nichols restored the aircraft to flying condition in late 2012. The airplane is now powered by an O.S. FS-40 4 Stroke engine and is controlled by an updated Futaba 6EX 2.4 Ghz R/C system.
The link to air to air footage of the plane flying is:

Berkeley Buccaneer C Special Old-Timer RC Plane Air to Air Video- Vintage R/C Plane (3 min 13 sec)

Bill enjoys flying the model; it handles the wind well and is fun to fly around with the FS-40 about half throttle. The best part of the plane is the great touch-and-go landings. The other club members have given the aircraft the name of “Olde Yellow”. Bill is nice and plays “pass the transmitter” with other members, and it has quickly become a favorite plane to fly for many people.

In, 2014, Bill had to restore the aircraft for a second time after his wife, Jill Nichols partially ran over it with her SUV while parking in the garage. Occasionally, Jill still gets reminded of this incident.

This goes to show how much fun old-timer RC...Continue Reading