Originally Posted by Balsaworkbench

Hey KB1BBY, I don't recall if you mentioned what power source you'd like to use on your planes. Are you aiming for glow or electric? Or do you not have a preference?

For a very long time, I have always had a great affinity for internal combustion. Starting with mini bikes and dirt bikes at a young age, then I also played with nitro boats, trainer planes, basic helis and even one of the very first nitro stadium trucks from Traxxas. It was the old Nitro Hawk with a recoil start TRX .12 engine.

So as you can imagine, I already have a pretty good lineup of 20 or more nitro engines ready to go. Although I will no longer bother with 1/2A engines and fuel requirements anymore, I do have several .09 sized engines from Enya and Fuji; which will run well on relatively low nitro content when properly tuned. My largest glow engine is my ASP S61A, but my beautiful Enya CX50 will probably produce just as much raw power to spin a respectable sized prop at a very good RPM. I also have some engines from OS MAX, Thunder Tiger, Magnum and Super Tigre (one with a Jett tuned pipe).

HOWEVER, I am NOT AGAINST the idea of setting up some smaller planes with BRUSHLESS POWER as well. Therefore, I do have a good handful of various brushless ESC's, smaller brushless outrunners and one brushless inrunner. That being said, I have ABSOLUTELY NO PLANS of utilizing brushless power for any plane weighing more than 2 or 3 LBS MAX. Why? one simple answer....PATHETIC FLIGHT DURATIONS. If a plane cannot stay airborne for AT LEAST 15 minutes (preferably 20 minutes or more), I am probably not going to be very thrilled with it, no matter how well it performs in flight. Perhaps this is part of the reason why I have 3 ARF gliders and 7 glider kits, ranging from 36" span, up to 82.5" span.

My ARF glider with 82.5" span is actually a rare old Czech ARF glider made for a .15 sized glow engine, which should be pretty easy to handle, yet loads of fun. Still trying to decide which engine to mount on it though. The blue OS MAX 15LA would suffice, and the magnum GP15 would do okay. But the ASP 15A-S would be a real powerhouse on that plane. It has a ball bearing supported crankshaft and large throat carburetor, so I already KNOW it will be no slouch! I am presently leaning toward saving the ASP 15A-S for my Kyosho Sportavia RF-5 kit. SOME ASP ENGINES unfortunately come with cheap O-rings that fail and leak air into the mixtures. Once that is sorted out and engine re-tuned, most of the correctly broken-in ball bearing ASP engines are much better than most people ever come to realize. That is why I have ASP ball bearing engines in .15, .52 and .61 sizes.

An Apprentice will run 20+ minutes of ahooting landings or other light throttle stuff.

I prefer not to run anything electric that takes more than about a 3300 4s. There is no power at our flying field, it isn’t worth it to go over there unless I’m gonna do a bunch of flights, and I don’t wish to purchase a bunch of batteries in every size I use...

I also don’t care to drag my generator out to the field. If I’m gonna run an engine to fly rc, the engine may as well be on the plane.

For me, nothing bigger than I can field charge off my pickup.

I also enjoy engines, and still fly glow, along with gas.

Originally Posted by JeffinTD

An Apprentice will run 20+ minutes of ahooting landings or other light throttle stuff.

I prefer not to run anything electric that takes more than about a 3300 4s. There is no power at our flying field, it isn’t worth it to go over there unless I’m gonna do a bunch of flights, and I don’t wish to purchase a bunch of batteries in every size I use...

I also don’t care to drag my generator out to the field. If I’m gonna run an engine to fly rc, the engine may as well be on the plane.

For me, nothing bigger than I can field charge off my pickup.

I also enjoy engines, and still fly glow, along with gas.

Interesting info on that Apprentice, thanks. But if I ever do acquire one of those planes, I don't ever want to bother with any of the flight assist or flight stabilization electronics whatsoever. In my view, It is cheating and giving me less to LEARN.

I did LOTS of research and number crunching BEFORE buying all my funny lil' brushless components. Already decided my brushless power limit is 3S at about 2500mAh. Any bigger and I will go with glow power, even as small as .09 Cubic Inches displacement. My fluorescent orange Sig FieldBoss tote has a 22Ah battery, 10" wheels from Tractor Supply and I have a solar panel ready to go!

NEVER DONE ANY GASOLINE powered R/C and that goes for cars, trucks, boats, planes & helis. Thought about a small Evolution gas engine on my Funmaster 72 or Phoenix Dolphin, but the bigger gas engines on slightly bigger planes probably run better I'm sure.

Back to the apprentice, I don't think that is an all wood airframe. I only have ONE small foamie kit, a Flite Test Corsair. Other than that, ALL my ARFs and kits have ALL WOOD airframes. I just like wood a whole lot better.

Lots of guys like to fly the smaller planes with electric power, but the 09 and 10 size engines are just too much fun to miss, as far as I'm concerned.

So, have you gotten any closer to figuring out what you're going to start building?

Originally Posted by Balsaworkbench

Lots of guys like to fly the smaller planes with electric power, but the 09 and 10 size engines are just too much fun to miss, as far as I'm concerned.

So, have you gotten any closer to figuring out what you're going to start building?

YUP!

Must do clear coat on my big fluorescent orange Sig FieldBoss tote and do the decals, then more clear coat.

Must airbrush bodies, then build & detail some old muscle car plastic model kits as Christmas gifts for old friends & relatives.

THEN I will build a couple of my smaller HERR kits. Starlite Backyard Flyer & mini Sport will have small brushless motors with 2S packs.

Star Cruiser will be small glow or brushless. Cloud Ranger will be small glow power, probably Enya or Fuji .09

I MAY just combine the plans to build Star Cruiser and Cloud Ranger kits to BOTH have ailerons and tricycle landing gear. IF I do that, they will BOTH get small GLOW POWER

Just got me yet another Fuji .099SR glow engine on ePay for $45 and this one is still NEW in the original box. Engine & muffler both sealed in original plastic bags inside the gold box, which also looks near mint. Even came with another brochure of all available Fuji engines of the era. ALL my Fuji .09s are from the last 2 or 3 years of production. Between the Enya .09s and Fuji .09s, I must have about 10 of those small .09 size glow engines by now. I love those cute lil' nitro sippers! Looks like I will be shopping for a few more 7" and 8" wood props of various pitch.

Did you ever decide what to build? I ran across this thread because I just flew my dad's old Cloud Ranger a couple of times this weekend and I wanted to see if anyone else was still building/flying it. My dad is not able to fly anymore, unfortunately, and I hadn't flown it in a couple of years, so it was great to get it out again. The flying conditions were almost ideal, when the plane's stability makes it look larger than it is. This plane was wrecked a couple of times as my father learned to fly, so it's not too pretty and we ended up leaving the gear off while making the last set of repairs in order to make landings easier. 70g/1100KV motor and 3S 1300 mah lipo. Plenty of power without going over the top. I've never been much of a kit builder, but I'm a little getting more interested as time passes, and I'm a little envious of the OP's extensive selection.

Hi Prefabu.

I have been busy as hell, just hauling freight, mostly all over TN, AR, OK, KS, MO.

I have not obtained my AMA number or joined one of the local Knoxville area clubs as of yet.

But I HAVE STILL BEEN COLLECTING KITS, ARFs, ENGINES and SMALLER BRUSHLESS POWER PACKAGES.

I am now up to about 53 boxed airplanes. 12 of them are ARF, AWARF or RTF and another 41 of them are KITS that must be built. But I still have not built a single kit yet!!!

BTW, nice Cloud Ranger! I really like the Herr kits and I have several of them in my kit collection. I like the Cloud Ranger so much, I bought TWO of them. I also have the Star cruiser, Air Boss, Starlite Backyard flyer, Aqua Star, Piper Cherokee and Rally XP.

Below I will post pics of all my planes, starting with the ARFs, then listing all the kits in order of wingspan.

Ok, that was just all my ARFs. I have to go run an errand. When I come back, I post pics of all my KITS...

OK, here are my kits (not counting the 2 boat kits)...

That's a great collection. I think my plane preferences are similar to yours, though I don't like the sound and mess of glow engines, so I'll never opt for fuel unless I get into bigger planes in the future. I do really like the sound of some of the larger muffled gas engines. Brushless motors are powerful and quiet, allowing me to fly almost anywhere without disturbing people. Plus, they're reliable and predictable, which is good for beginners. I also like hearing the whoosh of the plane as it cruises by, especially a glider at fairly high speed. So, considering that preference, I would probably start with the Mountain Models Round2it, the Herr Star Cruiser, or the Herr Cloud Ranger. I know the Herr models are pretty robust, so they'll stand up to some beginner mishaps and they're easy to repair. I love powered gliders, so the Round2it also has a lot of appeal, and it can probably be flown more slowly than the Herr models.

It sounds like you had a little experience in the past, but if that feels like a distant memory you might benefit from spending time with a simulator. It made a huge difference for me since I learned to fly on my own, and they do a reasonable job of recreating the real-life flying experience if you fly in calm weather. Probably the next most important key to success is to fly in a huge open area. You can recover from a lot of mistakes if there are no obstacles to avoid and you just stay as relaxed as possible. But as someone else already said, you have to accept that there will be times when you damage your plane. Keep us posted!

YEARS AGO in the early 90's, when I still lived up north, I would go to the BALSA BANDITS club field in Torrington, CT and also the Quaker Farms R/C club field in Oxford, CT.

I would fly every darn aircraft available on RealFlight simulator at home and I had ALL the add-on CDs. I flew all the helis, jets and planes on that sim. I turned up the landing difficulty so it was the absolute most difficult to land. I got to the point that I could set down a heli or jet 20 or 30 times in a row with not so much as a bump on the landing field. Then I would go to the flying field and fly the hell out of my planes...but only when there was someone else around to LAND them for me LOL!!! I have always been afraid to LAND my own planes. Heli landings are just a simple matter of many fast and precise throttle control inputs, while nulling out the rotor disc and settling back into a hover. But landing my planes has always scared the living crap out of me LOL.

Right, I bought RealFlight after I crashed and destroyed my first plane on my first day of flying. I practiced with all kinds of planes, not so much to try to be able to fly those planes specifically, but rather just to get used to different responses. I didn't expect the sim to match real life perfectly, so I just prepared for variety, and that worked really well. Landing is probably still the most challenging part, at least when the wind is somewhat strong and/or gusting. You can always build a plane for belly landing (like the Cloud Ranger pictured above). That makes landing *really* easy (at least on healthy mowed grass) and opens up a lot of options for flying locations. It also saves a little weight and makes the plane have less drag. With landing gear the best landing surface I've experienced by far is artificial turf. It eliminates bounces from less-than-ideal landings and slows the plane to a stop quickly but gently. I don't go beyond park-flyer size planes just to be on the safe side. Artificial turf is very expensive, so I don't want to risk damaging a public field. If I win the lottery, an astro-turf landing strip will be very high on my buy list.

Belly landings are the reason I have so many sailplane/glider and similar type kits. But I won't be able to get away with that kind of cheating forever IF I ever want to fly some of my bigger planes....and believe me, I definitely DO WANT TO!!

SADLY, the ORIOLE .020 kit by Dare got lost in the mail, due to an "ePay" seller using the cheapest available shipping, just to save $2 or $3. Somehow the parcel left this universe or disintegrated or maybe even got vaporized at the huge USPS distribution hub in wonderful Atlanta.

So you can SCRATCH that wonderful little plane kit from existence within my collection ;-(

On the brighter side, I have just acquired TWO of the 29" span WillyNillies "EAGLET 250" kits. I plan to set one up with an old Cox .020 with THROTTLE CONTROL and a 1 ounce or MAYBE 2 ounce tank in the nose. The other will end up being a brushless lil birdie, but I will probably need to use some of my 1.5gram ULTRALIGHT servos if I want to set it up with ailerons. That may seem somewhat troublesome for such a small plane, but planes with the right dynamics do fly much better with ailerons and I like challenges.

Here are some stock web shots of finished EAGLET 250 kits by WillyNillies...I am very fond of them indeed!!!