an Epic journey

2004... the first date on my Cad file for my new F3A design. I had just made the switch to electric and wanted a design all my own. I am NOT a qualified Cad operator, but I am capable of drawing a side and top view of a plane. So I set out to make my first design, Argo at the time, and got started. It would be built out of wood and foam since that would be the only chance I had at making it myself (LOL). The fuse would have straight sides and top and bottom decks out of foam. Should be easy enough to do... if I would ever settle on a final design I liked. After a few different outlines, I settled on one I liked, but didn't have the motivation to build it. So there it sat...

2006/7... having gone through 3 'designs' at this point, I was at a point that I liked the look of what I had. Deciding that this plane could be a great plane for Shulman Aviation to carry, I shrunk it down and had a .40 sized one built, the Era. This proved to fly so well that a couple of us had used it in a few pattern contests, so I had a .90 version done as well, the Eon. The Eon also flew well, but met an early demise, and unfortunately we (SA) never went through with doing either of them. But I still could tell that a full 2M version would work.

2008... the Integrals had be working great, just returned from Argentina with a 4th place finish and it was time to pull-up the Epoch (formally Argo) and get back to work on it. So by this point I think it's gone through 7 different design 'tweaks' and looked nothing like the Argo I started with. The canopy had moved from the middle of the wing to the front of the wing, the fuse grew 2" taller and the chin was a bit smaller. Still not able to really dial in a look I wanted, I took another break.

2009/10... I get an email from Chip while he is down in Argentina working at CA Models saying "hey, it's time you designed an airplane of your own, so let's do it". Uhhh, OK!!!!! So we started with a basic outline, changed some things around, swept the wings, turned the gear around and after about 100 emails, we had the Envision (my 1st name choice was shot down, Exsweption). Chip always knew I had a thing for the Vision line of names ever since we were in AZ and he 'borrowed' it for his profile plane lol. He actually thought of Envision and it was an easy choice to go with it. He test flew the prototype in Argentina and made a couple of minor changes to the next one that made its way to me. Finally, my design had made it to the air and it was a joy to see.

2012... in June I asked Joe Walker if I could borrow my old Envision and he said no problem since he didn't think he was going to make the Nats. After some practice, I still felt that I needed something 'newer' for the F-13 and new Unknown maneuvers that I had just noticed. I sent an email to Marcelo (CA Models) and asked if he had a RTF Xurama for sale, but he had just sold his last ARF Xurama and only had kits of both. OK, no luck there... or was there. I had mentioned that I had a new design in one of the emails to Marcelo, but hadn't thought much about it, not thinking my Nats would turn out so well with the Envision. Well 3 weeks before the Nats, Mark Leseberg offered me the use of his Sensation bipe and the rush was on. Now I hadn't flown a pattern bipe much, but the few bipes I had flown, this was going to be a challenge. So 2 weeks before the Nats I get it and start working on it. Change up a few things, install my Rx and Esc and out to practice. Have to break in 2 new set's of batteries and that was actually a great thing because I took those 20 flights and learned how to roll that plane cause it was so different from anything else I'd flown. Then BAM, get sick and loose 3 days of flying with 4 days of practice to go. One last day of practice and headed up to the Nats.

2012, Post Nats... turned out that I was more ready than I thought and made the Team. So instead of waiting until 2013 to start figuring out what to do for a plane, I sent Marcelo and e-mail and asked if he was interested in doing the Epic (formally Epoch). He was on board. Here's a couple of pics of the fuse of the CA Models Epic.

More later