plasticjoe

My Feedback: (22)

Was curious... I have seen many restaurant chains that have planes hanging from the ceiling. One around here is Max and Erma's............... does someone build those for them ? or do they have "moles" that scour RC club swap meets ?

khodges

My Feedback: (1)

I'm sure it's something similar to the "moles" theory. There is a guy locally to me who owns an antiques store, and one of my club mates fixes up old R/C planes for him, They find them at swap meets and garage sales, for practically nothing; my friend takes out the electronics and engines, mounts a prop on a dowel, repairs any crunched spots and repaints them. This guy is only interested in scale models; my buddy might fix him up one for $200-$500 and this guy will turn around and sell it to somebody who just wants something to hang in his cathedral-ceilinged living room for $1000 or more. He's done some neat planes in the last few years, a couple of GeeBee's (an R-2 and a -Y, both 1/4 scale), a Gilmore Red Lion and a BUSA Nieuport 17, also both 1/4 scale. The Red Lion sold to the end customer for more than $2500.

If I had the customer base, I think I'd just build for these people, forget flying them first

plasticjoe

My Feedback: (22)

That's what I'm talin about !! LOL.... ditch the day job and do this for a livin ! LOL well maybe a good gig for a retired fella..... lookin to make some extra bucks on the side and have fun building also

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I was in a restaurant a few years ago and noticed that the planes hanging from the ceiling had engines, and control horns, pushrods, etc. In other words, they looked ready to fly.

I asked the waiter about it and he told me that a local club loans them planes that they are currently not flying. Every now and then one of the owners will come in and take back one of his planes and maybe leave another.

Sounds to me like a great way to store your planes for the winter!

Tall Paul

I had 9 airplanes hanging in the foyer of the local airport, Fox Field, Lancaster CA, for several years.
I've retrieved them, and some of them are back flying.

Live Wire

They just hange around but don't eat much

Mode One

At a mall show two years ago, I brought a Hanger 9 P-40, in hopes of selling to someone who wanted to fly it. Instead a local resturanteer bought it and hung it over his bar. I sold it for $250.00, the ARF cost $259.00. I won the ARF in a raffle, so I was o.k. with selling it at a loss. The buyer asked me to remove the retract servo and mount a prop to the cowling. I sold the retract servo at the mall show for $20.00.

There is no money in building model airplanes to sell. Yes, on occasions you can sell one for a nice chunk of change, still if you consider your time worth anything, you will never be paid enough to put food on the table.

What I'm saying is; Don't quite your day job!

red head

If you can work CHEAPER then the Chinese and make a living GO FOR IT !!! Most people can't even get a fair price for repairing planes for the ARF crowd. ENJOY !!! RED

ho2zoo

My Feedback: (5)

About 10 years ago I sold a huge Boeing F4-B2 biplane to a company in Atlanta. They specialized in antiques, knick-knacks, juke-boxes, etc. for display in restaurants or other businesses. Plane had a wingspan of about 8 feet, was built from plans and had never flown. I had bought it at a swap meet, but I couldn't afford the engine for it.

Man, I miss that plane! But I found it interesting that there are companies that supply decorative 'stuff' for restaurants and such.

If anybody has seen it, I'd be interested in getting it back...

Tall Paul

There's a guy at California City that makes -full sized- replica non-flying airplanes for such displays.