ORIGINAL: bubba153
I've been returning to the hobby over the last year and a half after a 14 year hiatus. After progressing back through a trainer, a super sportster, ultra stick, and somethin' extra, I want to break out the old DB and the like (before the ''twitchy thumb'' habit from these newer planes gets ingrained). I have several of these older models, but apparently ''back in the day'' I tended to build heavy, and as best as I remember, those planes tended to be a bit quicker than I am currently used to (older eyes and reflexes). However, I truly miss those old designs that flew like they were on rails, and plan on breaking them out of storage in the near future. Can anyone recommend a plane that handles like the old DB, but is perhaps more sedate, or should I just get one of the new kits and strive to build it light? Basically looking for a slower transition plane back into the old classic pattern birds. I'm NOT interested in 3-D, and not especially interested in ARF's.
TIA
Bob
I'm for buying a currently made Dirty Birdy (Bluejay Models) and building it light. Resist the urge to paint the danged thing and cover it with plastic. Forget the retracts and the tuned pipe for now. Besides, some of these new performance mufflers make it so it isn't worth the time and effort to set up a real tuned pipe from the days of yore. It's always an option later on.
I'm thinking about fitting my Dirty Birdy with an OS .55AX. No, I don't think it will be quite as fast as the full size .61 engines with full tuned pipes, but I doubt that we would miss that little bit of power anyway.
Ed Cregger