I know rhis show was months ago, but I wanted to post a few pics. It was a great show and I came home with a coouple of planes. One of them is in the pics below. The red,pink and white one is it. I bought it for around 50 bucks with no engine and only the wing servos installed. I put a Webra .60 in it and it flies great. it has a 91 1/2 inch wingspan.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...4#post23684553

Please see my build thread for the Sierra. All comments are welcome.

It has a 76 inch wingspan. Both top and bottom wing are the same lenght. I think it is aboout 54 inches long. The kit has never been out of the box, but the plans were in bad shape. I think I have replacement plans that I got off of the web. I wish I had the instructions, I read an article that said the instructions were detailed and needed to be followed closely.

I also got this off of Craigslist. I paid 50 dollars for it. I did tile print a new set of plans but if anyone has or knows anything about the instructions, please let me know.

I found this on Craigslist. The guy had it listed for 99 dollars. I texted him an offer of 85 bucks. I expected him to answer with something about lowballing him. 30 minutes later he texted me back and said he would take it.

It is a Top Flite Sierra kit. I got the 80% finished kit, an brand new (still in the box) OS LA 40, a brand new Tower Hobbies 4 channel radio with nicads and 4 never opened servos. Also had enough covering, various tools including a brand new covering iron. Oh and 6 brand new wooden props. The only down side was there was only half the engine mount and no wheels. Both are an easy fix..... I have wheels from another crashed trainer and I just need to buy a new mount.

I am going to try to finish this one before I proceed to the Big John kit.

I got up today thinking that the wind was going to be blowing like it always is on the weekend when I am off work. I was wrong. It turned out to be a beautiful day. I was completely unprepaired in the RC department. I have this Hanger 9 Alpha that I bought from a guy and it had never been flown. It was so pretty and slick that I didn't want to fly it. I have been flying my blue trainer. I flew ti last friday and my radio battery is not the best, so when I got home, I turned on the receiver and the transmittere and let the batteries completely discharge. i never plugged it back up and it it was completely dead. At the last minute I decided to top off charge my Alpha and take it to the club.

This was a great idea.... I had one of the experienced guys take it up for me. He flew it for a few minutes and made some observations for adjustments. We made the adjustments (minor ones) and he flew it again. It was perfect. He landed it and we hooked up a buddy box and I got to fly it. I flew it 3 times for about 30 minutes total. I have to say that it sure makes a difference flying a good airplane. I really would not have thought that it would make a difference. That Alpha flies sooooo good. It is large and stable, it has no bad tendences. It flies smoothe and is very predictible. I landed it smoothly on the first try.

I want to sayfor any newbies or people wanting to start flying RC, get you a good plane. Don't base your opinion of this hobby on a cheap plane. The difference in flying my cheap 40 trainer and this Alpha 60 is like the difference in driving a 72 Pinto and a 2012 Mustang, I am 48 years old and the large size of the plane make it easy to follow and the big wings make for smoothe flight.

I went to th club field friday morning. I had the field to myself. I found it so much easier putting my plane together and starting it on the stand than on the ground. I decided to try to build myself one like it.

I had some scrap treated lumber left over from a deck project. I got it cut out and mostly put together today. It was getting dark and about to rain so I did not get the braces put on, but it is pretty sturdy as is. I will get it finished next weekend if I do not have to work both days.

And I also joined an RC club last weekend. North Mississippi RC Club also known as "The Taildraggers"

I got to go flying yesterday. Went to the local field and found lots of people flying. There were a couple of heli's and several electrics. Mine was one of only two nitro's flying. There were also a couple of gassers there. I posted a pic of the pits. Lots of planes but they were mostly electric.

I put my new Alpha 60 on the CG machine Saturday. Unlike the last one, this one is a little nose heavy. Hopefully it won't take much to get it balanced out. I learned how important that is after wrecking my Thunder Tiger trainer a few months ago.

I am also still working on a Topflite Cessna 310 for someoen else. I am installing Robart retracts on it. It was a bit more complicated than I thought it was going to be. I just about have it done now. Its too big to work on in the shop. I had to bring it in the house tonight to get the wing on it and test out everything. My wife was thrilled when she got home and saw it in the living room floor.

I got this plane from a friend in Arkansas. He got it in a package deal when he bought out a guy who was getting out of the hobby. He gave it to me because he didn't want it and he knew I could fix it.

I like fixing planes and I think this one turned out good. Except for one small thing. It is sooooo tail heavy that I couldn't even get it to set on the CG machine. I finally got enough weight in it to get it neutral and it weighs a TON. I tried to weigh it but my scales are not very good. It seems to be about 10 pounds. That's why I call it the bowling ball. It's so heavy that the landing gear are squatting. I am afraid to even try to fly it.... I don't think the engine is strong enough to get it off of the ground.

I got this Mustang off of Craigslist a couple of months ago. I got a sweet deal on it. I bought it from a woman who was selling it because it belonged to her husband who has recently passed away. It was the only plane he had and he took really good care of it. It is a really nice plane with all of the bells and whistles. The only thing missing is flaps. It has a Magnum .53 four stroke, remote glow connection, fuel dot and retractable gear. What more could I ask for. It came with a computer Futaba radio, the only downside of the radio is.... its a 50 mhz. This is the only 4 stroke I have, but I love the way it sounds.

Well lots of water has passed under the bridge since I last posted on my blog. New job, crashed 2 planes, bought several planes,,,,,, scared to fly any of them since the 2 crashes.

I flew my trainer at my house several times with not many problems. I cartwheeled it across the yard once and did a little damage to the tail. It seemed no big deal. I repaired the damage and while I was at it I replaced the reciever battery. Before the crash it was very neutral as far as COG. I left out one main step before I tried to fly it the next time. I forgot to rebalance it. I started it and took off. It was very very tail heavy. That was evident when it took off and the nose went straight up. I attempted to gain some airspeed to level it out. It got over some trees and did a big loop and crashed into the top of a tree. It cut the wing completely in half. In an effort to be a big boy, I didn't get upset, I just picked up the pieces and went home. I knew it was my fault.

The following weekend, in an attempt to not get the jitters and "get back on the horse" I pulled out my blue and white cub. I flew it 3 times that morning with no issues except for having to cut the engine to land because it was going so fast that I couldn't slow it down. The a friend called and wanted to go flying. He came up and we went to my field. His plane lost power due to a stuck klunk and went into the trees. No damage except for a broken prop. I took off, made a right turn about...Continue Reading

I got a P51 Mustang with mechanical retracts at the show. It has a Tower Hobbies .75 engine and a pitts muffler. I am not sure who the manufacturer is, I am kinda hoping it is a Hanger 9, but I am not sure. If anybody can help me identify it please chime in.

Here are some pics from over the weekend. We put the fuse together saturday. It went together pretty easy. We used a laser level to make sure the fuse was straight. that works great. You can see the red line all the way down the model and tell if the tail section has any kind of bow or misalignment in it. I put the landing gear support in the wrong place. i put it in place for tail dragger and it is supposed to be tricycle. We are going to leave it and add the other one in. That way if he ever wants to switch it over to tail dragger, all he has to do is mount the tailwheel and just move the landing gear. The blind nutw will already be in place and the support part is already done. I think I rebuild better than I build.

I am headed to the Southeastern model Show in Perry Georgia next weekend.

http://www.gamarc.com/georgia.html

And if you have been to my blog page before, you know I like pictures. I will try to take lots of pictures and post here on my page.

A friend of mine just got this and sent me this pic. Can anyone tell me who made it or anything about it?

As promised, I got some work done this weekend. I got the trainer 97% finished. I decided that I wanted to start the engine since I had not even seen it run. I bought the engine used from Craigslist (as I do most everything I own) and I wanted to make sure it was going to run. The guy I got it from said that it had only made one flight and crashed on approach to landing. I had a lot of trouble starting it, it had a huge amount of compression. I spun the prop off once, put it back on and then the starter slipped off and hit the cheek of the plane and broke it. I epoxied it back and tried to start it again. i finally got it started and let it run very rich for a while on the ground.

I also changed the plastic hinges over to CA hinges. I was not confident that I had the plastic ones epoxied in very good. I am glad I made this change, the plastic hinges popped out with little effort. Plus I had left large gaps in the control surfaces with the plastic hinges. CA hinges are the stuff. Much easier to install and they seem to be safer.

I also got the wing servo installed and now it just needs a little tweaking and it will be ready to fly.

This is a very pretty plane, I hope it stays that way. But it is a trainer.

I have gotten behind on all of my projects. I am having some trouble at work and I am looking for a new job. I find it hard to concentrate right now. I have been playing some Call fo Duty MW2 with my buddies online. Trying to unwind and take out some frustration.

I am planning on working on something all day saturday. I will be delivering the Superstar back to its owner and making a trip to the hobby shop saturday morning. I am going to take out the plastic hinges in the trainer and replace them with some CA hinges. I don't trust the epoxy on the plastic hinges. I will feel better having som CA hinges before I maiden it.

I think I am going to put my computer radio in the white Cub and set up some flaperons for it.

Anyway, hope to have some pics and updates over the weekend.

I am not going to post the before pictures since I have posted them at least twice in this blog earlier. I got the prop replaced with one I already had. Got the red covering finished yesterday and put the wing on the plane to make sure it all fit. Its a trainer that got crashed on its first flight with its current owner. He says he may be a repeat customer. It is not a show plane, but all damage has been repaired and recovered.

Here is what I got done tonight. Wood fixed on both wings and covered. I need a small piece of red monokote and a piece of white. I am going to replace the prop for him. It had a 10x4 on it but I am going to change it to a 10x6 I think.

I took a job of repairing a Hobbico Superstar for a guy from Arkansas. He is making me a nice trade for the work. I posted some before pics a few days ago. I got started on the fuse last night. I also got some of the teardown done on one of the wings.