RoyR

I’m sure the definition of sports flying has been discussed here many times. (I tried to go through all these posts, really I did, but-)
However, I would like to throw a different twist on this question, just for fun.

For Example: You know you are a real sports flyer when- You show up at the field with your 1970something fallback plane (one of 30 flyable planes you own) covered in duct tape and 10 different colors of Monokote to cover the holes and you have long ago taken off the spinner and wheel pants, Yet it still flies.

You know you are a real sports flyer when- Everyone else is practicing pattern work, touch and goes, perfecting their maneuvers in a specific order— when you have no idea what you are going to do next until you do it.

You know you are a real sports flyer when- you are either the first at the field, the last to leave, or the only one there.

You know you are a real sports flyer when- Your engine is too big for your plane, or you have converted your glow to electric, or gas just to see how it works, or you have modified or rebuilt your plane so much you can’t even remember what it originally was.

Or, You know you are a real sports flyer when- you walk back from the flight line after 10 minutes of pure enjoyment being in your own little world, and everyone says, “Nice flight”

So how do you know YOU are a real sports flyer?

karolh

I know that I am one as just about all of the above describes me quite well, plus some that you have not mentioned like having flown one particular model for so loooong that you know what it needs in flight even before it shows you.

Karol

AmishWarlord

My Feedback: (5)

Your plane's instructions recommends a .40, you intend to put in a .60 but since the .75 has the same case as the .60 you use that. Then your perplexed to why your planes insist on rolling away at 25 mph wile idling.

You brag about the amount of time it took you to build your new ARF to a guy who's setting up his 120" Tupolev TB-3 bomber with full rivet detail and 1950's Yugoslavian markings.

Even though you have an expensive proportional servo on it's own channel you only fly your plane full throttle.

You think the rudder is just for taxiing on the ground and to be used one time in a push to the right on take off.

Just like a NASCAR driver you can only make left turns.

"This one is now extinct" Your plans stated your planes weight should be 5 pounds but yours came out at 8 pounds.

You refer to ARF's in the box as "Kits"

You spent the 80's and 90's damning all the helicopter pilots to hell for hovering over the runway and now you spend all day hovering a 45% Yak over the runway.

RoyR

Sounds like someone has a problem with Sport flyers.
I was hoping to keep this on the FUN side of Sports Flying.

AmishWarlord

My Feedback: (5)

LOL came off that way but didn't intend too. I love sport planes and flying but you have to have the negative aspects mixed in with the positive ones.

AmishWarlord

My Feedback: (5)

Here is a good example of modeling terms viewed in a funny negative manor.


Glide Time: The time between the engine falling out and the airplane hitting the ground.

Aeromodeling: The art of turning precision cut and glued balsa wood and foam into toothpicks and confetti.

Crash: Method of seeing inside a model airplane.

Receiver: Part of the radio that picks up interference.

Tank: Temporary storage place for chemicals before they saturate the plane.

Elevator: Device to prevent level flight.

Mixture Screw: Device to meter too little fuel to the engine at critical moments.

Nose Wheel: Device that prevents an airplane from landing without bouncing.

Spinner: Critical part of landing gear

Luck: Very sparse on your side, but plenty with your flying colleagues only they refer to it as SKILL.

Tough Luck: This is what you usually have. Your flying colleagues refer to it as lack of skill.

Bad Luck: Same as TOUGH.

Good Luck: What you need the most, but rarely have.

Crash: Quick method of removing radio and engine from a model to fit them in your new one.

Crash: Also: Synonym for "rekitting" a model

Center Of Gravity: Point in which G-forces, dedicated to separating wing from fuselage, do their stuff.

Cyanoacrylate: Special glue, designed to instantly glue fingers to balsa structures.

Cyanoacrylate: Also: Special glue, instantly curing when parts are misaligned, will hardly (if at all) cure when parts are correctly aligned.

Dead Stick: Two of these can be found on your transmitter after failing to properly charge your batteries.

Engine: Device designed to make noise. Will suddenly stop making this noise when beyond glide-in distance.

Epoxy: The stuff that has replaced the balsa after the flying season.

Fail Safe: Option on PCM radio's that allows a pilot to choose whether to crash near him, or a long way away

Fuel Tank: Plastic bottle, designed to leak when placed in totally inaccessible locations.

Fuselage: Optional interconnecting structure between wings and engine.

Glitch: What you shout when you pull up elevator while flying inverted at 10 feet.

Landing Gear: Structure to separate fuselage from runway after landing. Does not always succeed in doing so.

Propeller: Handy tool to cut away excess skin on knuckles.

AmishWarlord

My Feedback: (5)

Also....

You might be an r/c modeler if.....
You are making an inverted low pass and then pull UP on the elevator
You get to the field and realize your transmitter is still on charge at home
You will go flying when it's 104 but you wont cut the grass for your wife cause" it's too hot out there"
You buy a $600 mini lathe to make $5 airplane parts
You can program a multifunction 9 channel computer radio but you can figure out your VCR
You have a dog-eared Tower Hobbies catalog in your bathroom
You spend $12.50 to get your wife some costume jewelry and $365 for r/c stuff and figure everything is even
You consider a Sunday picnic a few hot dogs and some soda at the field
Your wedding anniversary falls on the weekend of a fly in and you actually think about your choices
You shop Toys-R-Us for pilots
You have balls of dust on top of your living room furniture
You have EVER glued your hands together with CA and have had to use an exacto knife in your teeth to cut them apart.
You have built two right wings for a single winged plane
You are shopping for land to build your dream home on and would rather have open pastureland than rolling wooded hills
You have at least 3 planes in separate stages of completion
You think R/C flying should be an Olympic event.
You wear goggles and a silk scarf around your neck on the way to the field
You have at least 10 T-shirts with airplanes on them
You use more waxed paper building planes than your wife does baking
You buy the "wife and kids" a new Pentium 3 computer for Christmas so you can practice with the Dave Brown flight simulator
You introduce your wife as your co- pilot

karolh

Unbelievable how many of those 22 things I have been guilty of at some time or other

Karol

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

When your Ugly Stik is Stand-Off scale

AmishWarlord

My Feedback: (5)

That's a low blow MinnFlyer! You leave my sweet'n low stick out of this you snippet!

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

See?

skylark-flier

Geez guys! I actually copied all the posts' lines (so far) with the idea of deleting the ones that I'm NOT guilty of - still came out at 3 pages in MS Word, after deletion (font size 8 - - smallest available).

Can't believe how many of these fit me - almost like all y'all were part of my family.

BTW,

You get to the field and realize your transmitter is still on charge at home

You have a dog-eared Tower Hobbies catalog in your bathroom

Your wedding anniversary falls on the weekend of a fly in and you actually think about your choices

not only "guilty on all counts", but June 21st was my 42nd anniversary - - spent it at the flying field, teaching my wife to fly (and she did pretty darn well).

Dave

AmishWarlord

My Feedback: (5)

That's a cool Bird Of Time you got there skylark-flier.

Can't wait to build mine! Going to bash it beyond recognition though.

pmerritt

My Feedback: (118)

When you sell your car so you can put this combination together and just park it on the flight lineand startit for 60 secondsThen pack her up and go home and leave the guys crying.

AmishWarlord

My Feedback: (5)

Take a good look at the nose on my pic.

pmerritt

My Feedback: (118)

Yeh, Ijust did. NICE.....REALNICE....have any video/sound? The radials I've heard on Youtube made me crazy about having one. Nothing closer to the real deal than that engine one a Hellcat or biplane but Ijust couldn't see spending almost a grand on an engine and hide it inside a cowl. NICEPLANE..which Icould hear it running.

AmishWarlord

My Feedback: (5)

Na, sound on glow radials suck. They sound just like a single when at full throttle. The gas RCS Mokies however do sound really nice.

RoyR

Or you get to the field with your transmitter and realize you DIDN'T charge it at home. Which actually turns out to be a good thing because you then remember you didn't charge your receiver battery either.


To fly a glow plane, for me, there are approximately 10 essential things needed at the field to get it in the air. At one time I have forgotten each one of them, with the possible exception of the airplane, at least once. (but I have forgotten; wing tube, canopy, possibly even a wing) When that happens I make a mental note not to forget that next time only to forget the fuel, or radio, or starter battery or whatever next time.
So I have made a check list of everything I need and some things that are just nice to have, only to load up the car and find I left something out because the check list is just too much of a bother to use. (and I'm retired from flying helicopters where check lists are required all the time)

AmishWarlord

My Feedback: (5)

Mokies definitely have that radial sound even at full throttle in the air on a fast fly by. On the glow engines you just here the prop noise.

Here is my favorite radial video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slK-1Xw6EgM

RoyR

I apologize for jumping to conclusions.

AmishWarlord

My Feedback: (5)

NP

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

You know you are a real sport flyer when you catch yourself talking to your flying buddies about what you liked about your third Goldberg Tiger 60 versus what you liked about your fifth Tiger 60, and how you're going to combine the best of the two when you put your seventh one together.

AmishWarlord

My Feedback: (5)

LOL I'll rember that one when i build my 4th peashooter.

Stik-n-Rdr

From AmishWarlord:


That was a good one Mr. Warlord. If they were Soviet markings it wouldn't have been a big deal, but Yugoslavian? I'm still cracking up, thanks.....

MetallicaJunkie

is that a dummy radial or a real one?