Posts: 3879
Score: 177 Joined: 3/9/2005 Last Login: 5/22/2013 From: ankeny,
IA, USA Status: offline
The old flying field years ago had a trash can, And there was always part of a plane in it..watching a crashed plane get field stripped can be painful to a rebuilder
I once ended up with a Giant Stinger just because I kept trying to convince the guy not to trash it, and that he could rebuild it.. i didn't even want it, but there was to much left to let it be destroyed.
Hopefully I didn't tell this story already on this thread :P
Posts: 1305
Score: 157 Joined: 10/28/2009 Last Login: 5/22/2013 From: Hunlock Creek, PA, USA Status: offline
Most of the members at my club are cheap. Not me...I'm frugal ! We had a trash can at one time and guys would race to it after someone dumped in a plane! I've done my share of stripping an unwanted hulk too!
Posts: 1000
Score: 264 Joined: 6/15/2009 Last Login: 5/21/2013 From: Maryland,
MD, USA Status: offline
Aww come on man... we have heard of your "frugal" ways all the way down here in Maryland. Oh the hours we have talked about you. Your buddies have given you up sir....
A recent crash victim where the plane was not found had night mares about loosing all that "valuable" equipment...(originally purchased during the Nixon Administration) I had a great big chuckle when I heard that one... He was not on my radar until that moment.
quote:
ORIGINAL: flyinwalenda
Most of the members at my club are cheap. Not me...I'm frugal ! We had a trash can at one time and guys would race to it after someone dumped in a plane! I've done my share of stripping an unwanted hulk too!
Posts: 232
Score: 120 Joined: 9/21/2005 Last Login: 5/21/2013 From: McAllen,
TX, USA Status: offline
This thread is funny, I have seen guys picking up old glow plugs and trying them out to see if they had a flight or two left in them. I had a guy try to talk me down on 72mhz receiver, from $10 to $5 and I told him I would get more satisfaction out of taking a hammer to it in front of him then letting him get a receiver I paid $100 for a few years back for 5 bucks. He looked at me like I was crazy!
Posts: 28
Score: 100 Joined: 5/28/2012 Last Login: 4/9/2013 From: Marinette, WI, USA Status: offline
Whhhat, leave the fallen at the site of the demise. I think not (no really usually avoid it). I would carfully bring the aircraft home then cut the tail off and pin it on the living room wall. Afterwords I'd remove cont. horns ect.. It made for a good conversation piece (oh that it was a northstar, radio falure, uh ya bristol scout, 60 size eng way to big , clapped the wings together pulling out of a dive, Sig cadet, stupit tree)
Posts: 228
Score: 100 Joined: 2/13/2011 Last Login: 2/25/2013 From: sanford,
FL, USA Status: offline
I know a few... There is this guy that always brings crappy planes with crappy engines and always crashes them because of his crappy radio and engines. Yet he has a good 2.4 radio, he just likes his glitchy 72 better.
Another guy, flys crappy planes, and while he dosent crash much, he is usually frowned apon. I bought my first plane from him, and it was just crap, but it flew so I guess it was ok. What is weird is that while he won't buy himself a good plane, he will easily shell out 1,000 dollars for a new 50cc airframe when his 14 year old kid crashes the most recent one.
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Trees have a tendancy to grow a few feet when airplanes try to fly over them.
Posts: 228
Score: 100 Joined: 2/13/2011 Last Login: 2/25/2013 From: sanford,
FL, USA Status: offline
As for myself, I will always look in the trashcans to see if there is any stuff, and go over any free stuff left on the table, but won't always take whats there.
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Trees have a tendancy to grow a few feet when airplanes try to fly over them.
Posts: 694
Score: 110 Joined: 5/6/2008 Last Login: 5/5/2013 From: mount washington,
KY, USA Status: offline
Last weekend I brought home an old Superstar EP that had been sitting in the clubhouse for a few months. I'm not sure why. but it might make an interesting glow conversion.
Posts: 336
Score: 101 Joined: 10/28/2006 Last Login: 5/20/2013 From: Saugus,
CA, USA Status: offline
I had a friend that was so cheap, he used electrical tape from his company truck to strap on his 40 engine to the plane! Super glued the prop on the crank and taped the wings on!
Posts: 329
Score: 105 Joined: 12/27/2006 Last Login: 10/29/2012 From: los angeles,
CA, USA Status: offline
This is a true to life story because it is my grandfather..................he was raised by his uncle because he was a complete orphan..........................he was not sent to school but he taught himself to read and write...................................then he married my grandma who like himself was an only child................they became rich in business..............so my grandpa had this habit of NOT throwing away his used toothpick but would pull out a very sharp pocket knife and shave the used toothpick and then put it back in his pocket to re-use next mealtime. Grandpa also cut the borders of newspapers so he can use the strips to write notes on. That folks is my real life grandpa. 'Nuff said. Larry.
Posts: 41
Score: 105 Joined: 5/14/2009 Last Login: 5/12/2013 From: , UT, USA Status: offline
My late grandfather taught me a thing or two about 'making do with what you have'. This was a man who made a living in the electric sign business and had lived through the great depression. He could rebuild blown out light bulbs......
Posts: 3879
Score: 177 Joined: 3/9/2005 Last Login: 5/22/2013 From: ankeny,
IA, USA Status: offline
watched a documentary one time about how the bulbs were lasting to long, so all the companies founded a group to test bulbs, and make sure nobody was building ones that lasted longer than the new short time they wanted them to last...
Sure wish more cheap people would come in here and keep this thread going.... :P
Posts: 1000
Score: 264 Joined: 6/15/2009 Last Login: 5/21/2013 From: Maryland,
MD, USA Status: offline
Here is how things really work.
I am sitting here contemplating fixing something that I can (and did) buy new for less than $20. I have taken it apart to find the problem (1/2 hour expended)... I found the problem, put it back together and noodled the solution (probably another 1/2 hour or more). I will have to talk to my buddies about it, get multiple opinions and then write it up on RC Universe... (at least another hour expended)
Gather the material and tools necessary to make the repair... (another hour lost) Open the item and leave sitting on work bench as something new and urgent grabs my attention. (15minutes) Finally get back to fixing it as I need it yesterday.... parts are lost and spread around the work bench, some never to be seen again. Buy more replacement parts, put back on to-do list. (another hour) By now a year has passed, I am quite happy with the new version, the current to-do list is now relative to the distance to the moon. Total time invested 4.25 hours @ over $75/hour = $318.75 I can't just simply throw it away now... I have way too much invested in it.
Posts: 3879
Score: 177 Joined: 3/9/2005 Last Login: 5/22/2013 From: ankeny,
IA, USA Status: offline
I am still going to build a Frankenstein plane out of crashed arf bits.. I need to get the word out I guess, I never seem to find any broken parts in the garbage anymore...
Posts: 1000
Score: 264 Joined: 6/15/2009 Last Login: 5/21/2013 From: Maryland,
MD, USA Status: offline
It seems as this is entirely an American personality trait.... I would have thought that RC builders from other parts of the world would have exhibited similar characteristics.
Then again, the rest of the world is financially much better off and I am sure they don't need to recover the bits and pieces from crashed airplanes, or maybe they are much better pilots and don't crash to begin with... yes, that is it.
Posts: 1000
Score: 264 Joined: 6/15/2009 Last Login: 5/21/2013 From: Maryland,
MD, USA Status: offline
OK so this old wing is laying around the clubhouse and nobody... not even the cheapest RC pilot at the club wants it.. might as well put it to good use.
More structural failure testing... how many stones do you thing it is going to take?
It seems as this is entirely an American personality trait.... I would have thought that RC builders from other parts of the world would have exhibited similar characteristics.
Then again, the rest of the world is financially much better off and I am sure they don't need to recover the bits and pieces from crashed airplanes, or maybe they are much better pilots and don't crash to begin with... yes, that is it.
Gents,
We Dutch modelers are realy cheapest of all. I am not extraordinary, but average. First look at the language, a lot of faults I think, but when you uderstand it, it's alright. Time is money
Look at the photograph 1. My (second) transmitter, made in 1966 or '67. I used my first one to make this one because the transistors were very expensive in the past!! Sticks made of old tumbler and microswitches I lost my receivers and one servo so I needed a new one these days and built me one. Old School!
How? Some pieces of epoxy circuit board, cut some fields with a knive, and soldered the components ot the top surface.
The transistors are old germanium types. The superregeneratieve transistor, AF106 is from an old 40 years old radio tuner for example. Capacitors normaly are exchanged when reusing old radio systems. I don't, I use these again, the round blue capacitors, electrolitic are also from that 40 years old radio too.
The four tone filter coils are as old as the way to Rome and incomplete so cheap, but, the relais are modern, from an old microwave. I adjusted the parts to make them sensitive to use, and added a third (normally closed) contact. The modulation transformer in the transmitter is hand made. I used an old power device transformer. The black coils of the tone selectiv filters are hand made too. Total amount of windings? About 1300 windings in the transformer and 400 in each coil of the receiver so 1600, is totall about 3000 windings, added some 150 of the squelch and receiver coils in the receiver. Servo's? Two old Simprop Tiny proportional servos, electronics removed and switches installed, made of a small fortune (LOL) of real silver wire. A lot of resistors and diodes are of scrap circuit boards of a telephone and radio.
So, what do I have, for nearly nothing an investment?
A four channel double simultaneous transitter and superregenerative receiver with relais output and two double channel centralizing servo's, Current draw of the transmitter, about 35 mA at 12 VDC and te receiver, 10 a 30 mA depending of the signals I transmit. Servos? Depending on load 50 a 100 mA for the short moments otherwise 0 mA. Accupacks? cheap NiHi for many many hours of control pleasure.
Range, tested 860 meters, at ground surfac, but restricted by circumstances, probably more than 1000 m. In the air.... at least a mile,maybe two.
Most interesting fact, All modelers are hopping around in a small 2.4 GHz RF radiobox with complicated radios, capable of control 50 airplanes each.
I built for the same money 50 radios I can use in the rest of the radiospectrum!!
Picture 2? The circuit bard of my new radio. A RF tube used of an old tv set, ECC83, Google for that. If I have one moment of a glitch I blow it away with an second cheap scrath built converter to have some 100 VDC added to the already existing 100 VDC plate tension.
Photograph 3, cost reduction by using second hand plywood of a playing board of the kids, to make the transmiter casings
Posts: 1000
Score: 264 Joined: 6/15/2009 Last Login: 5/21/2013 From: Maryland,
MD, USA Status: offline
Sir it is a pleasure to receive your short wave CW broadcast... I am pretty sure, it took about a year at 1 bit per second to broad cast that to the internet.
Even my "new" transmitter cost me a little "bit" each day to have fun with is after about 35 years, on_your_six Oh that engine was given to me, the owner couldn't handle it. the plane is scratch built.
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RE: Cheapest RC Pilot Out There - 
