My first 1/2A r/c plane in flight pics.
09-28-2006, 06:20 AM
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My first 1/2A r/c plane in flight pics.
I just finished a hard drive replacement and during the ordeal I ran across a couple of scans of my 1st 1/2A plane in flight. I think I posted a static pic of it around her somewhere.
It was called the "Twin Potts Special" and was scratch-built from my own design & plans. Not much doubt about that when you look at it!
What can I say, it was 1981 and the times were weird so the designs were wierd. It had the 2 Golden Bees on it I'd had since the late 60's and were previously well broken in on various u/c planes. The racket that thing made with the 2 engines resonating in and out of sync. was awesome.
It actually flew very well, hands off even - once trimmed, since all the force arrangements were copied from a book I had on free-flight designs. The booms were alum. arrow shafts and it had full-sized Futaba radio gear with a 500 mah battery![X(] Gawd knows what it weighed. It died an honorable death in 1987 when it was sacrificed in an intentional crash for the crash segment of our club's annual banquet video program.
Sorry 'bout the fuzzy pics, they were cropped from snapshot with a 50 mm. lense & 400 speed film.
It was called the "Twin Potts Special" and was scratch-built from my own design & plans. Not much doubt about that when you look at it!
What can I say, it was 1981 and the times were weird so the designs were wierd. It had the 2 Golden Bees on it I'd had since the late 60's and were previously well broken in on various u/c planes. The racket that thing made with the 2 engines resonating in and out of sync. was awesome.It actually flew very well, hands off even - once trimmed, since all the force arrangements were copied from a book I had on free-flight designs. The booms were alum. arrow shafts and it had full-sized Futaba radio gear with a 500 mah battery![X(] Gawd knows what it weighed. It died an honorable death in 1987 when it was sacrificed in an intentional crash for the crash segment of our club's annual banquet video program.
Sorry 'bout the fuzzy pics, they were cropped from snapshot with a 50 mm. lense & 400 speed film.
09-28-2006, 07:32 AM
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RE: My first 1/2A r/c plane in flight pics.
Must have been real good fliers in that culb to need to stage a crash. The club I fly with could have got you a crash segment about every 15 minutes in the early eighties.[sm=spinnyeyes.gif]
09-28-2006, 08:28 AM
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RE: My first 1/2A r/c plane in flight pics.
Yup, plenty of crashin' going on in our club too....just bad luck that year on having my video camera focused on the action at the time.
That was also the year that I captured what was maybe the all-time best mid-air crash of THREE pylon racers running together with unbelevable carnage and parts raining down. Steady hand on the camera, zoomed in almost full frame, in focus and the light was perfect (not backlit) Only problem was that everybody kept coming over to see the shot replayed. I would run it back to the beginning of the shot play it, rewind, play it over & over, ad nauseum. You guessed it, they called the pilots to the line, I jumped up and got into position to shoot the next race and didn't fast forward to the end of the shot. Dumb ***** me recorded over an absolutely priceless shot![:@] Ever seen a grown man bang an expensive camera into his own head?
That was also the year that I captured what was maybe the all-time best mid-air crash of THREE pylon racers running together with unbelevable carnage and parts raining down. Steady hand on the camera, zoomed in almost full frame, in focus and the light was perfect (not backlit) Only problem was that everybody kept coming over to see the shot replayed. I would run it back to the beginning of the shot play it, rewind, play it over & over, ad nauseum. You guessed it, they called the pilots to the line, I jumped up and got into position to shoot the next race and didn't fast forward to the end of the shot. Dumb ***** me recorded over an absolutely priceless shot![:@] Ever seen a grown man bang an expensive camera into his own head?
09-28-2006, 08:50 AM
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RE: My first 1/2A r/c plane in flight pics.
ORIGINAL: ptulmer
Going out on a limb here, but by the looks of that airplane, the pilot probably had a mullet.
Going out on a limb here, but by the looks of that airplane, the pilot probably had a mullet.
]
09-28-2006, 10:15 AM
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RE: My first 1/2A r/c plane in flight pics.
ORIGINAL: ptulmer
Going out on a limb here, but by the looks of that airplane, the pilot probably had a mullet.
Going out on a limb here, but by the looks of that airplane, the pilot probably had a mullet.
In those days, I was recently single-ized and practically lived at the field. My jeans were nitro & castor washed and the tee-shirts either had the club's emblem or a Sig or a Futaba logo. Ahh, for the old days again. Sure would be nice to go back to those days and take along modern tools like CAD & CNC!
09-28-2006, 03:34 PM
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RE: My first 1/2A r/c plane in flight pics.
ORIGINAL: BuzzBomber
A bit unconventional, perhaps not classically beautiful, but undeniably compelling nonetheless.
A bit unconventional, perhaps not classically beautiful, but undeniably compelling nonetheless
.
09-28-2006, 03:58 PM
#10
RE: My first 1/2A r/c plane in flight pics.
ORIGINAL: DICKEYBIRD
I like it! May I use that? I could really impress a couple of my wine-snob friends with that line.
ORIGINAL: BuzzBomber
A bit unconventional, perhaps not classically beautiful, but undeniably compelling nonetheless.
A bit unconventional, perhaps not classically beautiful, but undeniably compelling nonetheless
.
From whence came the name "twin potts special" anyway?
09-28-2006, 04:18 PM
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RE: My first 1/2A r/c plane in flight pics.
Like most of my aircraft, the names come from strange places. A fellow I worked with at the time called me and my (now ex-wife) "Mr. & Mizz Potts for some unknown reason....my stepdaughter became Lil' Miss Potts. When the twin push-me-pull-you plane came along it somehow became "The Twin-Potts Special." An engine cylinder is also called a pot in some countries too...so there it is.
.
09-29-2006, 08:05 AM
#12
RE: My first 1/2A r/c plane in flight pics.
ORIGINAL: DICKEYBIRD
Like most of my aircraft, the names come from strange places. A fellow I worked with at the time called me and my (now ex-wife) "Mr. & Mizz Potts for some unknown reason....my stepdaughter became Lil' Miss Potts. When the twin push-me-pull-you plane came along it somehow became "The Twin-Potts Special." An engine cylinder is also called a pot in some countries too...so there it is.
Like most of my aircraft, the names come from strange places. A fellow I worked with at the time called me and my (now ex-wife) "Mr. & Mizz Potts for some unknown reason....my stepdaughter became Lil' Miss Potts. When the twin push-me-pull-you plane came along it somehow became "The Twin-Potts Special." An engine cylinder is also called a pot in some countries too...so there it is
.
I see. After I typed the question, the 2 pots, 2 engines analogy came to me, but I figured it couldn't be as simple as that
. Anyhow, I like it!
