The large and small of it all!

Time and weather finally stopped conspiring against me; it only took a month and a half for me to finally maiden my rebuilt E-flite UMX F-16 with its custom Callie Graphics decals.

Yesterday was that day along with another resurrected model, my 980mm FMS Ki-61 high speed foamie. That was a case of "dumb thumbs" which could have been a lot worse. I was landing with the sun in my eyes, I let the speed drop too low and I stalled it in. All I needed were the fuselage, a spinner, the simulated pitot tube and removal and straightening of the landing struts. Other damage to the wing was cosmetic and easily repaired, so I really lucked out. I already had a prop and holy mother of speed, I missed flying that bird! It sat for a long, long time before I finally started the repairs a bit at a time.

I did some homework regarding the F-16. Others have written that it likes a lot of runway before liftoff and such was the case. Tracking was laser straight and when it lifted off, was it ever a thing of beauty.

As is the case with other UMX models I've flown which feature Horizon's excellent AS3X stabilization, the F-16 went exactly where it was pointed. It's also the fastest UMX I've ever flown; that little EDF gets really small really quickly!

Naturally, I couldn't resist getting a picture of the F-16 next to a Boomerang turbine in Thunderbirds livery!

Next project: The crash damaged HobbyKing DC-3 I reviewed for this site is being repaired and redone as the What's Up Doc? C-47 at the Palm Springs Air Museum! HobbyKing was kind enough to send a replacement kit after I'd inquired about replacement parts. It turned out to be easier (and really generous of them) for them to send a new model. An assessment of the damage shows the original to be totally repairable and, thank goodness, no damage to the electronics. I crashed it under the same circumstances as the later crash of the Ki-61 and I've always wanted to do a C-47 anyway.

The Callie Graphics decals arrived over the weekend and the museum was a huge help in getting detail shots of the livery. This is going to be a fun rebuild, so please stay tuned!