When in doubt, go to the source.

I bought that little Thunder Tiger Bearcat I've been blogging about from the Pegasus Hobbies booth at the AMA expo. They just put the receiver-ready version on their website, in fact.

Gave 'em a call with the part number...success! My credit card is only eight bucks lighter.

It'll get the Suppo outrunner and ESC I used in my Frankensteinian Flyzone Cessna, now retired after its final crash. For that matter, I got that motor and ESC at the AMA about four years ago and it has very little runtime since that Cessna spent more time tip stalling and crashing than it did flying. It just isn't worth repairing, but it was fun while it lasted.

Oh, and I'll fly it with a computerized spread spectrum radio. 27MHz is so 1990s.

Well, I did it. I assembled the Thunder Tiger Bearcat park flyer I wrote about in my last entry, charged up the batteries and headed to the field.

My gut feeling was that it wasn't going to have nearly enough power to lift off.

I was right.

It rolled along the runway just inside the safety line and veered off course into the dirt shoulder which caused it to bounce just enough to lift off for a moment before coming down. The tail wheel is fixed in place and there's no rudder, so there wasn't much I could do.

No damage, glad to say. One of the landing gear blocks delaminated (the five-minute epoxy hadn't properly set) and the motor mount popped loose. It had been glued in place at the factory and apparently not too well.

Oh, and one of the prop blades snapped like a twig at the two-piece hub. Meh. It'll get an APC or Master Airscrew prop before long.

The good news is that I have the necessary electrics on hand and a proper 2.4GHz radio. Even better is my having learned that Thunder Tiger has a new distributor in the US. It's located in Utah, but I don't recall the name. I learned that during a phone call to the hobby shop.

They're going to contact that new distributor in the hope of getting the TT brushless motor mount. My contact at the hobby shop has the Rare Bear version and he says it's a superb flyer with a brushless up front.

That'll leave me with the existing electrics including two new NiMh batteries, but I'll find a use - or a home - for them.

Having the AMA Expo each year here in SoCal makes it worth living here.

Of course, the deals help and do I ever have an unusual one for you...

I picked up a factory sealed Thunder Tiger F6F Bearcat park flyer for fifty bucks, tax included. With a radio. And a battery. And a charger.

Here's the rub: It has a 370 brushed motor with a gear drive, a three-channel 27MHz AM radio, a NiMH battery ( I purchased a second pack from the store itself later that afternoon) and a DC charger.

With a mechanical timer.

It's pretty much ready to fly out of the box save for the horizontal stabilizer, the propeller and whether or not one wants to put it together with extended landing gear for ROG or simulated retracted gear for hand launches and belly landings.

However, the EPS model looks well made as one might expect from TT. There's even famed Ace R/C mascot Cap'n Eddy installed in the cockpit. Not so well made are what passes for aileron hinges. They're little more than shiny strips of 3/4" clear tape across the top of the wing.

Weird, but that's what the manual calls for.

Not that it matters: Hobbico discontinued the Thunder Tiger and Ace R/C brands on December 31, unbeknownst to me until moments ago.

I was considering slapping a brushless motor in place once I had the proper mount in hand. However, I think I'll just enjoy it the way it is.

If it flies well - and I have no reason to believe otherwise - it'll make a fun Saturday flyer over at the nearby grass field.

I'll just have to explain that long, shiny antenna atop the transmitter.