Another hobby of mine.

[1970camaroRS]

Started building remote control model airplanes again. This is the one I'm building right now, a HE-162 Salamander. It will be powered by an electric ducted fan. Has about a 44" wingspan.

[mlcraven]

Re: Another hobby of mine.

Very neat; how fast and high do those models fly? And do they crash often?

[1970camaroRS]

Re: Another hobby of mine.

Very neat; how fast and high do those models fly? And do they crash often?

Only as high as I can see it. And they usually only crash once.

[Thumpin455]

Re: Another hobby of mine.

Ive gotten a few to crash multiple times... the foam ones glue back together easy if you can find all the pieces. I've been having fun with the ParkZone electric warbirds, so far I have killed two FW190s, a P51, and have been eyeing a P47. Havent had the urge the last two years to get out there but I stay up with my stick time with RealFlight.

So is that a kit or a scratch build from plans you got from RCM or something? Always liked the 162, the 262 is pretty cool too.

Hey if you are on RCGroups you have probably seen my brother and his crazy flying wings. The last one was 13' long and twin electric urged. Here is a vid...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY7q5c4YPSA

How long you been flying RC? Cant wait to see that thing done and flying.

[pdub]

Re: Another hobby of mine.

Very neat; how fast and high do those models fly? And do they crash often?

Only as high as I can see it. And they usually only crash once.

Flew an electric-powered sailplane into a low cumulus cloud once...and that answer, "only once," is classic.

Id have to say, they only crash when I fly it. Maybe after I get some sleep, I'll write a book about it. That would be a good book, and I could make it be funny too, all of the guys I hung around and flew RC with. Money in, money out. Not to mention the time. It's a great hobby, epic fun. But it comes at a price. I guess no hotrodder would know anything about that, eh?

[pdub]

Re: Another hobby of mine.

In retrospect, camaro, that's a beautiful piece of art there, that airplane. I can more than appreciate the time and skill it took to get it into that form. The cutting and sanding, and shaping. Been there, done that.

What color will it be? Will you iron on the covering, or use a blower to heat-shrink it on?

I declare, that is a beautiful piece of work. But above all, if you love it, and you are attached to it, DON"T FLY IT!

One of the characters at our model airfield said when I showed up with a new airplane, "You better take a picture now, because that's the best it's ever gonna look!" And he was right. Gosh, was he ever right.

I'm gonna write it up, all of that. That's a story I haven't written yet.

It's all such a thrill, flying RC. If you have a hot gas-powered plane, and I had one. A stunt plane, fully symetrical wing. Over-powered, it didn't care if it was flying upside down or sideways, it was plowing a straight hole through the sky.

I crashed it on a windy day. Straight line sustained wind, maybe 25 mph. We flew anyway. Coming downwind, it looked to me like the thing was going way too fast, faster than I'd ever seen, so I backed off on the throttle, made the base leg turn to go over the field again, (still at low throttle) and then turned into the wind.

With no airspeed, the thing stalled and fell out of the sky. Pilot error. It took a team of us two days to find the remains, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out in the woods. Pieces. It crashed so hard it broke the motor housing. Sure it broke the prop, but the motor housing on the SuperTigre .40 motor was cracked. That ended my flying career, beacuse we had to travel about 50 miles one way just to find a place to fly.

I didn't really feel like doing it over agian. Like I'm not the best musician, I'm even less the best pilot.

[Tom Slick]

Re: Another hobby of mine.

I knew a guy we called "EEPow" - he'd spend 80 hours or so building a stunningly beautiful plane and we'd pull the six foot wing off, put it and the fuselage in the truck and go flying.

EEEEEEEEE eeeeeeeee EEEEEEEEEEE eeeeeee... make a couple of laps...

EEEEEE...loop...

EEEE... Barrel roll... Eeeee... invert it

> forget it was inverted, try to go vertical (which is down when you are inverted) and EEE...

POW. High speed auger. We'd take it home in a shoebox.

He switched to boats. Saved many tears. ;D

[pdub]

Re: Another hobby of mine.

EEE-pow. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup. One of my best friends, who got me into flying, he had a super scale plane. Largantic thing. 24-inch prop. He had to carry the fuselage on the roof of his Isuzu Rodeo with the wings sticking out the back hatch.

He was a great pilot, in fact he's got his private pilot license and is building a two-place ride in his garage as we speak.

He got another great friend of mine, the rocket scientist from Florida, to add an "invert" switch to his radio so he could invert, hit the switch, and use the controls as-normal to fly all day inverted without having to think about things being reversed. While the job was being performed, my flying buddy was out of earshot and my scientist buddy looked up from the radio guts and told me, "He might as well label this switch 'Crash.'"

So my flying buddy borrowed his ex-wife's camcorder and strapped it to the plane to make some aerial footage. This was back when camcorders were not small, but the plane was big enough to tote it. A lap around the field, invert (switch on), one more lap inverted, wait we're over the pine trees now. He rolled the plane back to rightside up, reached for the invert switch, thought he hit it, but he hit another switch instead (which wasn't hooked up to anything, he had a 7-channel radio with switches galore), now CLIMB!

Whatta crash. That thing tore the tops out of pine trees for a while or two. Debris scattered everywhere. The NTSB wouldn't know where to start investigate that crash. He lost it all that day. It bent the crakshaft on the engine, even his radio reciever was reduced to silicon salad. Well, most of the servos remained intact. Ex wife's camcorder and the tape inside it, mincemeat.

H was backing his Rodeo up into the woods to get closer to the crash site so he could use the Rodeo as a dumpster. He backed over a pine stump which tore through the sidewall of one of his brand-new tires.

[Junk Whisperer]

Re: Another hobby of mine.

Besides my Cars,I'm into my N-Scale Trains "kinda heavy"...I have a room in the House here just for them. In the Basement of Mom's old House,the Twins have a massive "S-Gauge"(American Flyer...)Layout,complete with multi-track Freight yard,a two Track 'Main Line' and everything you could possibly think off for such a Layout. Besides His Buick's and GTO,my Brother John had a thing for late 60's/early 70's Gas powered 'COX' Airplanes. He has 3 Planes(Piper Cubs??...),the complete 'Factory' Carrying Case complete with spare Engines,Tools,Owner's Manuals,Newsletters,everything. Most of this stuff was bought by Him brand new,or sometimes the Folks got Him some peice for His Birthday or somthin'....at one time,before the Cars came along,He was pretty addicted. He also has a HUGE remote-control Tug Boat which He bought as a D.I.Y. Kit. It's pretty damn impressive,and moves on the Water. Another 'thing' He was into was.......wait for it.....50's-through-70's HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES : :o ;D! You name 'it'...He had(some of the smaller items are stored in some of the Buick's Trunks....)it,everything from a vintage COLDSPOT Refridgerator,to all KINDS of small,Handheld NORELCO rechargable Razors,RCA/General-Electric Reel-To-Reel Tape Recorders,MICRO Tape-Recorders,Hand-held Transister Radios,old ZIPPO Lighters(HUNDREDS of 'em...),several un-opened Boxes of YALE & MASTER........PADLOCKS!!!!........LAVA LAMPS :o ;D!!,ANOTHER Refrigertator,this time 'an ADMRIAL,some various,Chrome-Plated,TOASTERS,Clothes Irons,some soild Copper Fire Extinguishers,you name it,if it was neat lookin',or shiney,my Brother usually had it. His old Garage is still filled with the stuff I mentioned,although when He moved overseas,we had to ship some of His stuff over for Him,including His old RCA Victrola Record Player. Another 'thing' He was into was Typewriters,there's about six old Olympia's sitting in the Trunk of the Wildcat. ~J/W.

[dieselgeek]

Re: Another hobby of mine.

Started building remote control model airplanes again. This is the one I'm building right now, a HE-162 Salamander. It will be powered by an electric ducted fan. Has about a 44" wingspan.

Hey, that's not an "RTF" kit - you don't see that much anymore! Did it come as die cut balsa? or is that a plans build?

[1970camaroRS]

Re: Another hobby of mine.

Yeah, I have an ARF Great Planes Ultra Sport .40 in the garage, but it just wasn't fun to build. I used to build laser cuts kits with my dad when I was younger. A few years ago I wanted to get back into it and bought this as a set of plans and laser cut wood, but it sat around until a few weeks ago. Here's a link to the rcuniverse build thread.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10264179/tm.htm

[pdub]

Re: Another hobby of mine.

Wow, that is cool stuff!

I built a few from sticks, and then got into ARF. The hotrod stunt plane I crashed to bits was alrady built by somebody, bought it without a motor at a hobby store.

Don't get me thinking about it again....no, there's no point. There's nowhere to fly around here anyway. Like there's nowhere to play music, either. Dang, why can't the world just be more fun?

[dieselgeek]

Re: Another hobby of mine.

That is an awesome build. Most impressive because 99% of the RC planes being flown today are "ready to fly" which is perfectly cool - it's just that there's so much effort going into assembling your own... I can't wait to read how it flies.

[pdub]

Re: Another hobby of mine.

That is an awesome build. Most impressive because 99% of the RC planes being flown today are "ready to fly" which is perfectly cool - it's just that there's so much effort going into assembling your own... I can't wait to read how it flies.

Me, too. Want a followup!

Being as bored as I was at the time all those years ago I actually kept a time log building the sailplane kit. At the end I had 100 hours in it before it was ready to go to the field.

I flew it for some weeks and months, maybe a total of 3 hours in the air, until one day I decided to do a loop.

Folks, don't ever try to do a loop in an electric-powered sailplane. It'll make the left wing break off and it'll fall like a rock from about 1000 feet into the cars that are parked at the field. And it just may barely miss somebody's wife sitting there reading a book in a chair. That's what might happen.