Jim Johns

I was working in the garage today and pulled these down from the trusses where they have resided for many years.

I competed with the red & white EU-1A in Novce and Advanced in the early 80s. Power was an OS 61FSRABC with the pipe running down the fuselage side. You can see the two Dave Brown pipe mounts above the wing saddle. After I moved on to a Tipo 750, I sold it to my friend Bill Harden who competed with it for a couple years. Sometime in the late 80s, it suffered a hard arrival that did in the wing. The LARGE cardboard box the fuselage is sitting on is a BRAND NEW set of EU-1A wing cores that Bill ordered from the man himself, Dave Scully at AeroComposites. The invoice is still attached to the box - the cores were $35 + shipping. Bill never got around to building the new wings, so after two long distance moves and an overcrowded storage room, he gave all of it back to me in the late 90s. They have spent the last 12 or so years gathering dust in the rafters of my garage. Lord willing, I hope to strip it down to bare fiberglass and build the new wing for it and get it flying again. I have an OS 61SF-P pumper that should fly it very nicely.

The EU-1A in the Blue Angels paint scheme belonged to my friend Bob Hernandez. He bought it already built and dropped a YS61AR into it for power. Bob asked me to do the first flight as he'd never flown an EU before and I said sure. We tweaked the engine, lined it up and let it rip. It almost flew itself off the runway with very little input form me and climbed out very nicely. At about 25-30' altitude, I reached for the retract switch. That's when things got REALLY EXCITING! I'm a JR guy and Bob flies Futaba radios. The retract switch on my JRs is at the top REAR of the transmitter. On Bob's Futaba, that's the SNAP ROLL switch! Luckily I just flicked the switch instead of holding it, because the EU was on it's left wingtip in a heartbeat!!!!! Bob was right beside me and let out a war whoop that would curl your hair. As soon as I regained my composure and righted the plane, I climbed up to 100' and told Bob to retract the gear. He did so and the flight proceeded without further incident. It needed just a bit of trim and then it flew very well. The landing was beautiful and smooth as well. I thought that mine flew well with the OS - OMG, that YS 61AR is a beast!!! It's exactly the kind of power the EU-1A needed to fly it's best. Huge loops - no problem!

Unfortunately Bob had a not so gentle landing and totaled the fuselage about a year later. At that time he was getting into giant scale birds so he offered the YS 61AR to me. I bought the AR and he gave me what was left of the EU-1A. I gave it a thorough inspection today and the wing is definitely repairable - the fuselage not so much! We'll have to see about getting a new fuselage.

The next two pictures are interior shots of my red & white bird. No, I DID NOT build it - I bought it already built. I would have made it rear exhaust if I'd built it.

In the 2nd picture, the ugly yellow servo is an old Kraft operating the valve for the RhomAir retracts which is at the far right. You can see the white cylindrical air tank mounted just above radio switch in the pipe tunnel floor. The aluminum cylinder just to the right of the power switch is an air tank guage. When you pumped up the retracts, the center of the gauge would extend just like a tire gauge for a visual indication that you had plenty of air pressure. At the far left is a servo arm with small wires running forward and aft. That's the rudder servo arm and the wires are pull-pull cables for the rudder and nosewheel. It worked great. In the 3rd picture, you can see the 16 oz Kraft fuel tank partially protruding from the bulkhead.

The 4th picture is an original AeroComposites building manual for the EU-1A. Very nicely done I might say. I plan to scan it and make it into a PDF at some point and I'll post it here when it's ready.

Roguedog

Oh man!

Looks like you turned that Navy EU1A into a lawn dart. I would've saved it myself.Are you planning on making repairs?

Bryan

dphillips3

I love it. Especially that Kraft servo! Watcha going to do with them? If you want to part with them let me know

DP#3

Jim Johns

It wasn't me flying the Navy model at it's demise - I updated the original post with it's story. I'm hoping to repair both models in the next year. We'll have to see how life goes.

Jim

patternflyer76

Great looking planes. I do like the jet look. Nice looking. Do you know waht year the original EU-1a was designed and flown?

Kevin

hrrcflyer

OK Jim,

You're killing me now.................LOL After the Atlanta and the Aurora, the EU1A in my favorite classic pattern bird. The guy who got me into R/C flying used to fly EU1A's on the east coast in competitions years ago. If you need a new fuse for your EU1A, check with "Frequent Flyer" here in the Classic Pattern Forum on RCUniverse. I think he makes and sells glass fuse kits of the EU1A and his kits are VERY WELL made at a very reasonable price.

David

Oh BTW, what kind of plane is the red and white one?

Jim Johns

Not sure if you're kidding but if you aren't - It's an EU-1A! I guess I didn't say that in so many words in the original post, so I'll go back and edit it.

glowplugboy

My Feedback: (17)

I have an original EU-1A new in the box. All I need is some AAA contest balsa for sheeting, which is hard to find.

Mike

JSchoolcraft

Just ordered an EU-1A short kit from RCAIIR!!!   Super excited to build this classic pattern beauty!!

hrrcflyer

Jim,

I wasn't joking. When I looked at it last night, it didn't dawn on me that it was a EU1A. Must have been because of the fact that most of the pictures of EU1A's that I've seen have a RE engine with the pipe run through the canopy. That, and the fact that I had been at the flying field all day and I was half asleep when I looked at the pictures.....................................

Thanks,

David

FBaity

My Feedback: (2)

One of my all time favorate airplanes, mine had Webra Race engine and Rhom retracts