Build Straight, Flies Great - Build Light, Flies Right
Build Straight, Flies Great - Build Light, Flies Right
11-15-2013, 05:15 PM
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I go to great lengths to build the best model possible. I will re-jigger from the plans to keep from adding ballast(dead weight) to balance my planes.
Anyways, way back in the day, in my early days of building & flying r/c planes, a guy shows up at our flying field with a Top Flight Headmaster kit. It was untouched and he said for someone to make him an offer on it. Nobody wanted it, so I said I would give him $10 for it. I went home with a 60 size advanced trainer kit practically new in box. It was my first taildragger. Plans
made so that it could be conventional or taildragger. Turned out to be a great flying plane.
I was already past the trainer stage, so I would do some crazy stuff with it that I would not do with some of my better planes. Doinked it up all kind of ways. Hit a tree, cartwheeled on landings, etc, etc , but never hurt the wing. I patched up & rebuilt the fuse many times. Each time it got heavier & more crooked. One of the last crashes broke the fuse in two (or was it 3 pieces?) I slapped it together once again, but this time the aft of the fuse behind the wing I intentionally offset about 10 or 15 degrees to the left. The only covering I had at that time was yellow. (the plane was black, white & red) My buddies nicknamed it "The Flying Banana" because it was so crooked & ugly.
Moral of the story? It STILL flew great...
I go to great lengths to build the best model possible. I will re-jigger from the plans to keep from adding ballast(dead weight) to balance my planes.
Anyways, way back in the day, in my early days of building & flying r/c planes, a guy shows up at our flying field with a Top Flight Headmaster kit. It was untouched and he said for someone to make him an offer on it. Nobody wanted it, so I said I would give him $10 for it. I went home with a 60 size advanced trainer kit practically new in box. It was my first taildragger. Plans
made so that it could be conventional or taildragger. Turned out to be a great flying plane.
I was already past the trainer stage, so I would do some crazy stuff with it that I would not do with some of my better planes. Doinked it up all kind of ways. Hit a tree, cartwheeled on landings, etc, etc , but never hurt the wing. I patched up & rebuilt the fuse many times. Each time it got heavier & more crooked. One of the last crashes broke the fuse in two (or was it 3 pieces?) I slapped it together once again, but this time the aft of the fuse behind the wing I intentionally offset about 10 or 15 degrees to the left. The only covering I had at that time was yellow. (the plane was black, white & red) My buddies nicknamed it "The Flying Banana" because it was so crooked & ugly.
Moral of the story? It STILL flew great...
