Any RC airplane flyers here?

[chadbag]

Any of you guys/gals fly RC planes?

I was heavily into it (power planes -- glow engines) in the early 90s up through around 94 and then I toned it down some and also switched to RC sailplanes for slope soaring and continued that up to around 2000 off and on, when my brother crashed my Sparrowhawk XL and broke the V tail (I bought it used and that had already been broken several times).

In 98 I bought another power plane (trainer 40 size) RTC ARF but did not get it built. Got it built and covered in 2001/2002 but then moved and flew it one day in 2006 a few flights. Nothing since. I also did a small amount of sloping in 2006. Nothing since. (It has been damaged a little in storage since but nothing major).

But my boy is getting old enough to be interested in this. The Easter Bunny is bringing him a "Slow Stick" electric for me to help him learn with :) and I bought a 2.4ghz Hitech transmitter module for my JR 8 channel radio and a few 2.4ghz receivers.

The bug has hit again. I am cleaning up my man cave and setting up some tables for us to work on. I have a 25 size trainer "Freedom 20" that I crashed back in Oct 91 while I was in Germany, rebuilt the nose and repaired the wing 92-93 but it has not flown since.

I also have the 40 size trainer I last flew in 2006 the one day. I am going to re-engine both of them with electric motors and get both of them flying again. I also have a bunch of damaged/crashed gliders I want to get repaired (most are not major) as well as several in-progress "builds" (from a fiberglass and foam wing ARF ASW-24 that is basically ready except radio and rudder installation to a home-built Chuperosa glider built from plans to a re-done straight wing Spirit conversion) my son and I want to work on and get flying again. And a bunch of other kits that were started or are still NIB after 15 years or 20 years :-). My brother started a Freedom 20 I think and we have the kit and his start and I think he doesn't care anymore so my boy wants to build that one (under my guidance)...

Any other RC plane flyers? The technology has really changed over the last 10-12 years. The electrics today are amazing compared to what they were like 20 years ago when I lived in Germany. I think I am totally ditching Glow power (even though I have a NIB YS 45 SF engine sitting here) for all future work.

Anyone else out there with this bug?


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[BCmJUnKie]

I was way into the Heli's for awhile.

Its definatly quite a challenge moving into forward flight.

I got prettyy good at it and then just stopped.

That hobby is JUST as expensive as shooting.

I had to pick one....

[chadbag]

That hobby is JUST as expensive as shooting.

I had to pick one....

Especially helis. Everytime you fly it is $300 in spare parts :jester:

If you just slope soar or fly simple power planes the costs don't keep adding up since, unlike guns, you don't have ongoing costs like ammo on the plane side, unless you fly glow/gas and then you have fuel.

But the gear and toy costs can add up and escalate dramatically!

Good thing is that new 2.4ghz radios are much less expensive than the older 72mhz gear so you can get into it for a reasonable cost now...


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[BCmJUnKie]

Ya youre right about that.

Replacing main blades and tail booms, skids, main gears, canopies etc....thats if you have a light crash.

Boom strikes are pretty bad too.

I started with fixed pitch and then moved up to collective....that is a WHOLE new world.

I still have a couple fixed pitch helo's. They are my favorite, easy to play around with and its tough as nails.

Wind is another shitty thing thats seriously affects flying.

The prices are way down though like you said.

[Vash1023]

yep, im and EDF flyier. (electric ducted fan jet)

link to one i personally own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt09lU2SmXE

love the cheaper cost and high performance. and most you can buy in plug and play style and just set it up and fly for 20mins on one charge.

[halo2304]

My father and I use to fly RC planes and helicopters up until around '95ish. Around that time, he moved up to actual planes. We'd go out to the air field quite a bit and I remember helping to build them. I can still smell the feul and the fumes from the iron for applying the wing skin. My father even started a small business making wenches for sail planes (which he was flying at the time.) He'd get inquiries years later. :D

We had a helicopter that we called the Bumble Bee that had a chainsaw engine in it. He flew it in our back yard once and an actual bumble bee got sucked into the rotors. We also had a Cobra with mocked up rocket pods too!

Ahh, the good ol' days!

[P2000]

I fly sometimes, mainly with my old roomate. He is severely into rc planes. He is also a pilot. I have a sea fury foam plane and a small indoor helicopter. It is pretty fun! I get more of a rush out of flying rc than I do shooting, but I still like shooting more. I guess the rush of flying rc is because I don't want to crash and ruin some expensive stuff.

[chadbag]

yep, im and EDF flyier. (electric ducted fan jet)

link to one i personally own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt09lU2SmXE

love the cheaper cost and high performance. and most you can buy in plug and play style and just set it up and fly for 20mins on one charge.

Another example of cool things that the average Joe can now afford that back when I started with this hobby 20 years ago only a few could do. Ducted fans. Of course, the gas ducted fans tended to be larger planes but they were thousands of dollars. (I think those guys have graduated to real jet RC planes and the average Joe has gone to EDF).

Way cool and thanks for the link. Santa this year should have lots of things to choose from. The A380 I saw online (1.4m wingspan, 4 small electric ducted fan motors) looked really fun. Need to get some simple EDF under my belt first.


I will have to admit that slope soaring still is the number one draw for me.

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[kartoffel]

I will have to admit that slope soaring still is the number one draw for me.

Have you tried dynamic soaring?

[chadbag]

Have you tried dynamic soaring?

No. It sounds like an interesting technique. I'd like to watch someone do it. The "point of the mountain" (famous sloping place here in Utah) would probably be a good place to try it since it juts out and has a front and back side with good winds crossing it.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Our recent thread on personal drones got me looking at remote control planes. It got me into the dual rotor MCX2 helis for indoot, which lead to an MSRx constant pitch which kicks my ass. Wanted to flow outside in light winds, so I bought a $90 trainer cub (no alierons) and had a lot of fun, till the xtra balsa to fix breaks, and the flash drive camera I put on it drove it out of its flight envelope and broke the tail on impact. No spare parts in the system, so I bought a UMX Beast with AS3X--- WAY to much of a leap from the cub and crashed hard on the first flight. I really need something inbetween and probably a better controller like a 6DXi or some thing.

All bought with my 7 year old in mind, and he has flown them for about 5 minutes....

[chadbag]

Our recent thread on personal drones got me looking at remote control planes. It got me into the dual rotor MCX2 helis for indoot, which lead to an MSRx constant pitch which kicks my ass. Wanted to flow outside in light winds, so I bought a $90 trainer cub (no alierons) and had a lot of fun, till the xtra balsa to fix breaks, and the flash drive camera I put on it drove it out of its flight envelope and broke the tail on impact. No spare parts in the system, so I bought a UMX Beast with AS3X--- WAY to much of a leap from the cub and crashed hard on the first flight. I really need something inbetween and probably a better controller like a 6DXi or some thing.

All bought with my 7 year old in mind, and he has flown them for about 5 minutes....

It helps to have an experienced guy help you and train you and give you stick time in a controlled environment...

I've been out of it for a while (quit power planes [glow] in 1994 and went strictly gliders. Flew a 40 sized trainer with glow for the first time again in 2006. Didn't crash it. Flew it several flights... But I don't consider myself an expert at all and will get a lot more stick time under my belt before I try the fancy stuff :)

[murphy j]

While I've never flown the type of RC aircraft you guys have, I am qualified on the RAVEN and PUMA UAVs. Does that count? Lol

[kartoffel]

No. It sounds like an interesting technique. I'd like to watch someone do it. The "point of the mountain" (famous sloping place here in Utah) would probably be a good place to try it since it juts out and has a front and back side with good winds crossing it.

Yep. Some of my old RC buddies ended up on the west coast and got hooked bigtime. 200 mph with no motor. It's pretty insane.

Come to think of it, there's some nice sharp ridges on the Wellsville Mountains (between Brigham and Logan). Would be quite an expedition to hike up there but hey, I bet it would be a world class DS'ing spot!