Havent been on here in what seems like ages. having a bit of trouble sleeping tonight, so i was reading back through my old blog entries. Its kind of crazy to think back that far and realize that i used to be a little kid who spent all his money on rc gear from foamies. i remember how waiting a month for all of my servos and batteries to arrive from china-hobby-king used to kill me. (thank god for the US warehouses they have now.)

so heres whats still alive aairplane-wise:

the 70" slick is just as good as ever. im sure the batteries need a charge and the fuel plumbing and carb is probably a mess. but last i flew it all was good

the shrike is here and hasnt been touched in ages, but its fine.

the freddy is still around too. it needs a new set of trexlers, or just some foam wheels...but i rebuilt/recovered the wing recently, so its 100% i think.

and i still have the L-4 grasshopper. it sustained some hanger-rash last time i had a party (drunk friends being drunk), but nothing major. im thinnking about selling it...its nice and all, but just not my speed anymore. and it doesnt hold the sentimental value that the planes mentioned above do.

also have a copy of a twisted hobbies crack-slick sitting around. its pretty beat up. as well as a slightly modified pushy wing that i built with plans from flite-test. it got some remote ignition home-made rocket-booster testing last semester, and honestly did really good. i havent the heart to canabalize and trash...Continue Reading

ok. so bad news guys
about 2 months ago i had a very bad day with my beloved Slick. it was a beautiful sunny day with no wind at all, so i took a buddy with me, and went up to the field with my big blue slick.

had the best flight of my life too! got really low and crazy. and when i decided i had pushed my luck far enough, i lined her up for a landing. took it around once, and started my turn onto final
DISASTER STRIKES!
my slick just sort of locked up all of a sudden, as i was making the left turn onto final. i couldnt do a thing other than stand there and watch my plane dive into the ground. it went in at idle and smashed onto the nose/cowl breaking the prop, tearing out the motorbox and whole front end of the plane. at the same time, the left wingtipp contacted the ground, wich caused the left wing to snap clean off of the plane, shearing the Carbon WingTu, and tearing out the whole left side of the fuse as well. oddly enough, the LG didnt take a scratch. hahaha
needless to say, i was pretty upset, but i handled it better than i expected i would. no tears, nd not much cursing

so my buddy, and some other guys at the field helped me with picking up ALL of the pieces. even the smallest ones. i decided right then and there that i woulod be taking all the time nesscesary to rebuild this plane as perfect as i could.

so my first thoughts for caues of this strange crash were interference, and brownout. but i quickly threw out these ideas as i distinctly remember...Continue Reading

Yeee-Haaaw! i finally did it! i held off as long as i could, and then i gave in. got me some sweet custom vinyl cut out. then i spent all of today applying it to my baby! she be naked no more! feast your eyes gentlemen! im hoping to get some pics in the air tomorrow.

...Continue Reading

i finally talked my dad into helping me build a field stand for the slick! it made of ceder to keep it light, and it comes apart into 3 pieces. hopefully it will fit into my tiny car with all my airplanes. the idea was to make it so that im not assembling my slick on my knees in the dirt anymore. our field is always soggy, and im tired of ruining all my good jeans. lol
thanks, Dad! its perfect!
...Continue Reading

finally got around to making a little video of the big slick. nothing special... just goffing around.

after i landed, i discovered a major problem with my elevator servo. gonna have to send it back to be replaced/fixed. so the slick probly wont be back in the air for like a month or so. dang.

Heli

70" Slick (3 min 14 sec)

took the firefly and camera with me to visit some friends at the lake this weekend

Smith Mt. Lake Firefly (4 min 1 sec)

Yeeee-haaaaawwww! I put in the order tonight for my 70" Slick in the blue scheme, a dle 30, and 4 hs-985 servos! Provided all the paypal stuff works out, it should all get here before the end of the week I cant hardly wait! My first gasser!

ok. so my friend and i got bored this summer, and i decided to have another go at training a flying buddy. so we built two matching fireflies. they both have 1400 kv outrunners, and apc 6x4 props on a 3s 800 mah pack. i have an 18A esc, and he has a 10A esc... i think that might have something to do with why mine goes a little bit faster than his. idk

he painted his up in a nice American flag scheme. and i didnt want to copy him, so to be different, i made a German flag. (i thought about doing a copy of his american flag, but inverting the colors. mighta been cool... )

today we took em up both to the field, and just tore around at WOT trying to knock each other out of the sky. haha. it was awesome! we came really close to a couple of mid-airs, but never actually collided.

i taped my little camera to my plane (the german one) and took a video. have a looksee

Helifryer

FireFly Combat (5 min 46 sec)

...Continue Reading

i had a blast at Joe Nall! my father came with me - i love father-son camping trips it was my first year there, and i mainly brought small electrics. but im hoping that by next year, ill have something thats big enough to fly with the big boys.

(Pat is the nicest man ever! i got to meet him on the first night i was there, and he even gave us a nice little private tour of his personal hangar! how cool!)...Continue Reading

ok yall. so i got this awesome flying airplane at a swap meet a while back. i made a post on the build up of it earlier in my blog. and since then, i have only had 3 perfect,and totaly succesfull flight on it! i love this airplane! but a week ago i noticed that the wings seemed floppy, and broken off of the fuse....

so tonight i did it. it really killed me to, but i stripped off all of the covering! and oh my god was i surprised by what i found inside! there were a whole handfull of pieces of balsa that were broken off and just floating freely inside of the airframe! the right wing wasnt even attatched! it was just held on with covering! i couldnt beleive how it ever flew! (at speeds near 100 mph!)

so ill finish getting off all the rest of the covering. then i plan to sand things smooth, fill holes, glue everything back the way it should be (namely, gluing the wing back to the fuse! ) and once it it rock solid again, i will deck it out in a fancy bright new covering scheme. i havent decided on what colors im going to use yet, but i do still have almost a whole roll of orange left over from my FRED project...

will post updates as they come....

Heli

All righty! i finally pulled the trigger on a 42" slick! my first 3dhobbyshop plane! (needless to say that my bank account is hurting pretty bad right now...but its worth it)

the airframe got delivered yesterday! i asked the UPS man for a picture, and he was a little confused, but went along with it...lol

got my airframe mostly built. took my time, and got everything done right.

i did a hobbycity order for the electronics - i did the math - by doing it through HC, instead of the name brand stuff, i saved like $200! too bad its chinese new year all month though....my stuff hasnt even shipped yet, and probly wont get here till the end of the month....

im dying to fly this baby!

Helifryer

***edit! : the electronics are here, installed, and the plane is ready for the maiden! waiting on weather now***...Continue Reading

finally! i got some video!

Lanier Shrike 10 (2 min 30 sec)

hey yall. so i have been brainstorming ideas like crazy ever since i read the review that Spackles94 did on the FRED e. i think its such a cute lookin little plane - it even comes with that dummy glow head! well, i got to thinking...wouldnt it be a lot cooler if it actually was putting around with a real glo engine?! and thus: the FRED-n was born!

so my kit arrived yesterday. its amazing! love the quality! i read EVERYTHING, accounted for all the parts, pre-sanded, and got started on the build!

after step 4 of the fuse construction, i hit a brick wall though. i had to totally re-work the firewall to make it accept my TT .07. my father helped me make a new firewall exactly the shape of the lasercut one out of much sturdier ply. it took about an hour of dremmeling, and sanding, and coping-saw-ing to get it to match exactly.


the next challenge is finding a place for my fuel tank. it turns out that there is just no way to make my 2oz tank fit. so ill have to make a run to the LHS to get a 1 oz. (or the smallest thing they sell) im planning on either placing it right behind the firewall, or closer to below the cockpit.


Helifryer

RAMS feild - Big Birds (5 min 53 sec)

well, last saterday, the Winston-Salem RC club held its big swap-meet! i walked around the place with the intention of finding the perfect plane for the .25 motor and servos that came out of my late cessna.

well, boy did i find what i was looking for! i came across a Lanier SHRIKE! it was built from a kit and covered by the lady who i bought it from. it cost me $30, and she threw in a GP adjustable motor mount.

ive been told to expect 90-110 mph out of this baby! (and then 10% more rpms if i ever add a pipe! )

so far its pretty much balanced. all i need now is to do a few more minor things to get it all the way readly for a first flight! im worried that its going to be pretty nose heavy though. i plan on getting an AR500 RX for it. (not yet sure how ill fund that....but....

fired her up tonight, and got a rough tuning on it. this old Magnum Pro .25 is just the best little motor! always starts right up, and idles great!

cant wait! more to come later!

WOO HOOO! today was my 17th birthday, and i splurged a little....

eflite just came out with thier new piper l-4 grasshopper, and when i saw it in the hobby store the other day, i just fell in love with it! ive never had a scale bird before (or a warbird) so im really excited! this thing is a baby doll! its just beautiful!

here she is: http://www.e-fliterc.com/Products/De...ProdID=EFL5025

i decided that the eflite brand electronics are just insanely too expensive. so i did a little hobbycity order, and i reckon that i saved my self about $150 easily.
heres what all ill be putting in it:
servos: http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...?idProduct=663
ESC:http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...idProduct=6456
Motor: (eflite 250 equivalent) http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...idProduct=8478
Batteries:http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...idProduct=7305

all together i think i spent about $50 on all the electronics for this one (minus the cost of a RX which i havent gotten yet) which is pretty darn good considering the fact that the Eflite 250 alone would have cost me $45.

now i just cant wait till the elctronics get here from HK.

im so happy

E-Flite Piper L-4 Grasshopper (4 min 28 sec)

...Continue Reading

its been a while since ive done anything with my planes, so i got out and did some hovering practice today. it was just a little windy. perfect really.

(thanks for recording lindsey )

hoverin (2 min 26 sec)

...Continue Reading

heres a little flight video i took with my hat-camera-ducttape hat cam. this plane is hardly considered 3D right now in my mind, because of the weak thrust ratio. if my 4s lipo ever gets here from hobbycity, then ill make another video- it should be pretty wild!

- oh - and ill try to remember to zoom in a bit before i begin recording next time

Greatplanes Reactor ARF - helmet cam (7 min 12 sec)

well, i cheated and used 8g servos in the ailerons of the reactor first time around. - i paid for it! one of my ailerons failed, and locked up on the maiden! nosed in hard on the grass. busted up the cowl pretty bad, and knocked out the firewall. (the motor box was fine though cuz i epoxied the crap outa it! lol)

its all fixed now. took out the aileron servos and replaced em with slightly more trustworthy 9g servos. the firewall 30-minute epoxied back in pretty much like new. the only thing is that the cowl had a lot of cracks and chips in it now.....maybe later on ill have a go at repairing that with some autobody repair putty.

here is a vid of the second flight. all went well, and i landed succesfully!

Greatplanes Reactor EP 3D - re-maiden flight. (2 min 16 sec)

WHOOOO!!!!

The local hobby shop (King RC) had its once a year one day anniversary sale. everything in the whole store was 20% off! and it was on the same day that we had a garage sale, and sold a guitar and a few other things, so i had a bit of spending $$$

i had planned on getting either a greatplanes yak 54, a greatplanes su-31, a greatplanes extra 330, a greatplanes ultimate bipe, or the greatplanes reactor.
all of these are about the same size, price, and style of plane that im looking for.

well, i wanted the yak 54 most of all, but when i got to the store, it had already sold.
i decided that i didnt really care for the su-31, or the ultimate.
next in line was the extra - i really like this one! especially the color scheme, and the size of the fuse. but it turned out that the fuse was broken in 3 places! cant have that one!

so i settled on the reactor - man its a good looking plane!

i had to wait till i got some 30-minute epoxy before i started the build (thanks Mr. King! )

on the box, it says 5-6 hours building time. well, unless ur a machine, this isnt going to happen. i spent my whole day in the basement working on it yesterday! it was a pretty easy build. (although i did run into a few snags along the way....with hardware, and superglue..... )i had to put the finishing touches on it this morning though.

im using the rimfire 950kv motor, with a 35A SS esc, and a 11x3.8 prop. power from my Rhino 3s 1550 lipo.
this should provide...Continue Reading