donnyman

Thank you!
After much observation, moaning and groaning we think surgery is necessary. We will know more today, xrays show no improvement so another few days of misery is in our future. just one of the facts of life.
My house guest will head home today, I hope she did not leave any of her flu ................... my daughter just called and said my guest now has a fever and probably won't head home.................oh happy days!

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Surgery?! Oh man I hope she will be all right! Hospital says aren't fun you must be run ragged!

Stikum

I started in this hobby in 1968, at the ripe old age of nine, with a plastic U-control. By 12, I was building a Falcon 56 kit. Messed with R/C until I discovered girls, then dabbled in R/C off and on until I got married. Bought a house, got three boys with the wife, got back in whole hog. I walled off half the garage and started building. Two of the boys participated over the years, until they discovered girls. We built a new 540 sq ft shop with a new house attached to it, which I then outgrew and built another shop that was 1320 sq ft. I was president of two clubs (simultaneously) and flew about 48 weeks a year. Kids were all out on their own, wife and I got Harleys - and I started flying a whole lot less. The hobby became a stressor instead of fun, so I sold off most of it and gave away the rest about six years ago - dozens of planes, nearly as many NIB ARFs, about 80 kits, dozens of engines, 10 transmitters, 40+ receivers, hundreds of servos, a custom trailer, and a lot of balsa, ply, and covering. I literally had more in stock than the biggest hobby shop in town. Took the cash and bought guns, and moved to a place where I can shoot in my backyard.

Two years ago, I started having heart problems. My last bout of Afib went nearly nine months, and the property I own now requires a lot of work, so our Harleys aren't getting out much. I've really been missing flying, and especially the guys I flew with for 25 years, so I thought maybe I'd get just one....

What a difference a few years makes! Very few kits available, and at substantially higher prices, Hobby People is out of business, Hobbico is in Chapter 11, radios have more bells and whistles but no batteries or servos, glow no longer dominates the scene, and the hobby is overall in decline. I will probably take a ride down to my old favorite field and see if I still want to get back in, but I'm thinking that it may not be the same any more. Makes it hard to think about spending over a grand to get back in.....

acdii

Welcome
Sounds like you need a nice relaxing LT-40 with a Saito 56 on it. It has been one of my go to planes since I built it in 2011. You can get in cheap too, Hobby King sells FrSky radios with a bunch of bells and whistles for far less than you probably spent on a 4 channel back in the day and they are good radios.

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/frsky-2-...em-mode-2.html

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/frsky-v8...ceiver-hv.html

I use the FrSky RX with my Futaba 14FG, and they have been 100% reliable.

Stikum

I'm thinking more like a Ultra Stick 10cc with a DLE-20. I have a leather recliner for relaxing, as well as a number of very accurate firearms. The LT-40 is a fine trainer, and the Saito .56 (or .72) would be a great match, but if I get back in it will either be gas or electric - and I'm leaning toward gas. I don't really want to 3D, but minimal dihedral and symmetrical airfoil are requirements. Of all the planes I've owned and flown, from 1/2A to 50cc gassers, the Stiks have always given me the most enjoyment. If I get back in, I will probably only fly once a month, and will do my best to only own a single plane.

acdii

I have a Something Xtra with Satio 72.for that kind of flying, and have an FG-11 on the LT-40 with a minimum dihedral wing and a tail dragger to boot. Can fly for 40 or more minutes on the FG-11. Love the four stroke sound of it too. Have DLE and other 2 stroke gas, and if you like chain saws, they are great, if I were to do it, I would get an FG-21 for the Stick.

Stikum

I used to have a Somethin' Extra, bought it cheap because the builder had epoxied the wing panels on. I bought it with servos for $40, figured I'd use it as an engine test bed. It ended up with a Saito - a .91, It was a ball to fly! I gave it away when I got out.

I can live with the sound of a two-stroke, especially in a gasser. The simplicity appeals to me, as do the savings - at this point, I'd rather spend the extra $200 on better servos. This opinion is subject to change without notice....

Stikum

Sure wish I'd held on to the Jerry's Big Boy ARF I had NIB...

Telemaster Sales UK

You may remember me telling you about the exhibition of models which the local clubs put on at a village hall over the weekend of 3rd-4th March. If not see Post 5672! What I omitted to say was that one of my club colleagues exhibited a B17 Flying Fortress. Not really my cup of tea as I'm a pretty traditional modeller and this was a foamy, electric powered ARTF, but it was an impressive-looking model and I spent some time admiring it. The model was for sale at 200€ or about $246 US or £177 Sterling. New they're nearly 300€ ($370 US or £265 Sterling.) I decided that I had too much on my plate to allow for such a purchase. It was an impressive-looking model mind, retracts, bomb doors and everything.

Last Sunday I turned 70 and received lots of congratulatory emails from my club colleagues. Last Wednesday the weather was unseasonably warm with light winds so there were quite a few of us at the flying field. I had been test flying my newly refurbished and electrified Junior 60 and was returning to the pits when through the side door of my van I saw the B17 on the floor! Pascal had given it to me! Some birthday present!

Picture attached. She has a 2 metre wingspan.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

How about a short kit? If you don't mind buying your own hardware sticks, what have you and downloading the plans from online and having the local Staples or Office Depot/Max you can get an Das Ugly Stick short kit for $65 including parts to make the wing bolt on instead of rubber bands. Link below.

Mike

Das Ugly Stik | The Balsa Workbench

GallopingGhostler

....

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I think I would be buying Pascal a bottle of his favorite wine!

jwrich

My Feedback: (17)

Stikum, I would like to offer a suggestion as well. I began building and flying RC Airplane in the mid 70's. I am well above retirement age now and my flying skills have deteriorate some but I still enjoy flying RC Airplanes. The suggestion is WW I airplanes, Balsa USA and Dawn Patrol/War Bird events around the country. World War 1 planes fun to build, you can add as many scale details as you want and they they are not that hard to fly. I attend several events a year and have made friends from around the country and some from around the world. I would also suggest another site that is geared to building. RCSCALEBUILDER.COM . Check it out. If you ever liked to build, you will be like this site. RCU also has a great forum as well. I also have heart problems and this has kept me in the hobby.

Here are some pictures of my WW I planes.

Fair Winds & Happy Flyin'
Rich

Telemaster Sales UK

I actually left him a case of twelve half-litre bottles of beer produced in my home county of Shropshire by a little brewery which operates out of a disused railway station. I hope he likes it.

French beer is stronger but English beer exists to promote intelligent conversation!

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I'll drink to that! They make pi$$ beer over here. You got to buy imported or from small independent microbrewers if you want a descent drink. I'm rather fond of Czech, Polish, German, Irish and English beer and ales. I lean toward the darker ales but some of the wheat and Pilzners are pretty good too.

acdii

You lucky Dog! That is an awesome gift, even if it is foam!

I ran across a 1/10 scale B-17 build that used plans from Jan Hermkens, so I did a google and found his site. I emailed him to get two sets. I heard back the other day that his dad had just passed, but he will get back to me on it. It is the perfect size I have been looking for, 4 Saito 91's on it would sound awesome. If built light enough, can go with 72 or whichever is in between the 91 in a lighter case.

Telemaster Sales UK

I once had to meet a man in his house in London years ago, I can't remember now why I went to see him. He was born in Czechoslovakia around 1920 and when the Germans invaded his country he walked all the way to Syria where he joined the British Army then he remained in England after the war. He offered me a beer. He said that the two best brewing towns in the world were Pilsen in Czechoslovakia and Burton on Trent in the English Midlands, and the reason for this, according to him, was the quality of the water.

donnyman

Good things happen to good people, Happy Birthday!

maybe things will be back to normal soon, the guest is gone with her flu, and my wife has shown improvement enough for the doctors to say surgery probably wont be needed, the doc's are with her now so maybe good news is on the way.

OLD TIMER FRIENDS....................................your good wishes ARE appreciated!

dreadnaut

My Feedback: (5)

Been in and out of the hobby since the mid sixties. Today I drove up to Orange County and decided to drive by the Flagship store of Hobby People in Fountain Valley, only to discover they had gone under.

My first really big purchase from them was for an AeroSport 4ch 72mHz Radio for about $200 bucks in 1974. That represented about six months of washing dishes for minimum wage, plus salvaging copper and brass from demolition sites. I was eighteen years old. I will-called it from their original HQ store on Beach Blvd. in Buena Park. (They moved to FV shortly after)

At the time they were seen as a threat to the Brick and Mortar local hobby shop, since most of their sales were mail order, and their AeroSport line of RC radios were contract built by the Japanese company Futaba. By 1980, the American manufacturers of RC equipment, revered names like Kraft, Orbit, Pro Like, Bonner, Logictrol and others, had ceased to be.

I built many models from kits I purchased at various brick and mortar hobby shops, including Hobby Shack after they expanded into retail. In the early 1990's imports from first Japan, then Taiwan, put stress on American kit makers like Goldberg, Midwest, and my favorite Sig. Sig and Goldberg survived for a while by off shoring their production. I haven't been following to see if they are still in existence.

It was in the mid-nineties that the advent of the cheep, pre-built planes from Asia (Called ARF's-Almost Ready To Fly) made the hobby in one sense more accessible, while alienating old timer craftsmen like me. There was a huge shift in the culture. It seemed like no one built models anymore, then came the death knell to the RC hobby.

The Quad Copter Drone.

Hobby People (renamed from Hobby Shack after expanding into a Las Vegas strip mall that had a Radio Shack brought them to the attention of the Tandy Corp, causing the name change to avoid a law suit.) struggled to keep up with the changes, but could not outlive the death of the true Model Aircraft Hobby.

karolh

Wow, some guys have all the luck, as my birthday was on the 8th and I received nothing like that. Hopefully next year....lol.

karolh

Dreadnaut:

I've still got my Aero Sport 4 ch radio bought from Hobby Shack in 1979 that is still in very good working condition. That was when I entered into the R/C world and Hobby Shack was one of my main hobby suppliers. Wow....time sure flys as that was 38 plus years ago.

Telemaster Sales UK

I went to the field on Saturday and tried to maiden my reserve trainer, an ARTF Seagull Boomerang 2 powered by an Irvine 46 but the engine vibrated badly, would not run reliably and the carburettor leaked. The last time I'd used this engine was in a Stick which I crashed beyond beyond economical repair. I suspect that the engine may be damaged. Then I flew the club's trainer, of which I am custodian, and succeeded in snapping off the tail wheel. Finally I flew my refurbished Junior 60 Vintaqge/Old Timer model. I need to make some alterations to its down thrust. Not a good day! Fortunately my trainee was too busy to attend.The following morning I changed the engine in the Boomerang for an OS 40 SR which I bought for 5€ about eighteen months ago. It has a broken exhaust port but with a BCM strap-on silencer it's ok. This engine was not my first choice but it was the only one with large enough holes in the lugs to accept the screws I had used to secure the Irvine! At one stage I had seven engines out on the bench! I was a little concerned about the performance of the Boomerang as a 40 is the smallest engine recommended for this model but I need not have worried, it flew it very well.Yesterday it was very cold but there was no wind and my trainee, another expatriate Englishman called Andy turned up. We started off by warming ourselves up with a cup of tea in the clubhouse where it was decided that Andy should try to learn to fly Mode 1 even though I'm a Mode 2 pilot! Actually that's not so illogical as it sounds as there are only two other members of the club who fly Mode 2. One of those rarely attends and the other has no interest in training beginners so if I'm not available at least Andy could fly with one of the other instructors.Having said that the OS flew the model well, the engine would occassionally cut out in flight for a second or two then it would pick up again. Bizarrely, I was able to land the model on three occasions with the engine at tick over. Andy made the usual beginners mistakes: inputs which were too course and a failure to balance the aileron with up elevator. Having said that, it was very cold so not ideal training weather. At close of play we all went to the club house for a beer!The Junior 60 requires further adjustment.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Warts and all it still sounds like a great day of flying.

With United Airlines in the news of late I thought you guys my enjoy this as much as I did. Good change to give the updated functionality a try.You can't blame Snoopy on this one!

acdii

SIG is still around and doing well. There are new owners who were former employees, and Hazel is still alive and kicking, had her 95th BD last year. The owners know the trends and are leaning big towards ARF while still maintaining kits for builders and their quality still remains tops. They introduced a new kit in 2016, a 14' Rascal that is all CNC machined out of plywood, and a few of us purchased the kits, but since it was brand new, found a lot of flaws, the major one being that the wing spars are weak and a few have lost their planes. It also builds very heavy. The sad part is, the team who engineered and was responsible for it's production left the company over some unknown scuffle. I have one of the Rascals, but made struts for it to secure the wing. I also had noticed that the spar to rib connections were not that great and did some structural mods to increase the bond between them while also using thin epoxy to glue the 4 plywood spar pieces together, so hopefully my wing will be strong enough for the 52 pounds the plane weighs. it is SIG's most expensive kit @ $899.

Telemaster Sales UK

It appears that I unwittingly upset my Shepherdess Friend earlier on in the week and now she not happy with me.

To cheer myself up I thought I'd maiden the Baron this morning and drove the short distance to the flying field but I hadn't secured the model in the van and en route it moved and snapped off half the tail.

I'm just waiting for the third one!