As a kid I built many an RC without ever having the money to get an engine and RC. I take that back. I did make one that was tethered. It wasn't much fun. Anyway, I picked up an ancient engine at flea market with a RC. Now I am missing an airplane.

The box of goodies at the flea market:

Pro 46 motor w/ mount and prop. (The engine's carb was froze up so I got that all cleaned and hopefully ready to go.)
Front landing gear
Futaba Skysport 4
High torque engine starter

Pretty much old school but I figure the motor might work.

I have no questions or needs at the moment. Just figured I'd put on this forum the beginning of something that might fly.

The Pro series engines were every bit as good as OS depending on who you are talking to. I liked them.

Welcome to the forum. There is usually lots of info here if needed. I still fly control line and find it interesting. Just went out yesterday and probably went 100 mph and scared myself silly in the figure eights. Mostly do the rc thing with really old stuff, maybe 20 years old.

It worked 20 years ago so it should work now. Right? Just not as many bell and whistles. I saw a lot of good comments about the Pro so for 20 bucks I got all that stuff and will do my best to get her operational.

I worked/played with some of the new RC technology building some RC dredges to clean the neighborhood pond. It is nice not worrying about transmissions getting interrupted.

There seems to be oodles of info here. This will be fun. (I am horrible with motors but in the past few years got into 2-stroke scooters and fixing lawn equipment so my fear is slowly diminishing).

Regardless of all the above I think when I think I'll work with a seasoned pilot as my flying skills are worse than my motor skills.

Usually with these old two strokes all that is needed is a new glow plug and a heat gun to loosen them up. The old castor oil gunks up in them but once heated so they will roll over they will usually fire up again. With the bearing engines if you like you can open them up and clean them completely. If it's a really good engine I will take the time and do that. Something like an OS 1.08, I usually don't bother with the smaller engines.

Have fun and just remember : that whirly thing on the front likes to EAT fingers . lol ENJOY RED

welcome back to the addiction. My name is Steve, And im an "RC- a -holic. "

I have been looking for a kit to build. I even drove quite a ways to get to a hobby store that has the biggest selection I have seen since I was a kid. Sadly the staff knew nothing about them. They couldn't even tell me the proper fuel to use (anybody? what should I use?). Everyone seems to like selling electric.

Anyway my likes as a child stemmed around pre and WWII planes. Not many kits out there that haven't been made a zillion times. I'd like to do something a little quirky or different than the norm. I am toying with building an I-16 Type 10 War Thunder. I figure there are not too many of these being flown. If there is any reason this would be a bad idea please speak up.

you could always buy a set of plans from the AMA, and cut your own kit. Thenthe possibilities are almost endless.

Well, the local hobby shops now hire off the street and the clerks are fun to play with, I just love the blank looks I get when I ask for something. Priceless!! I only use one brand and type of glow fuel, Powermaster 15%. There are plenty of others but this one comes up on sale a lot. I never buy it unless it's on sale.
I gave up on kits decades ago and cut my own from plans. It's easy, quick and cheap. The problem new plans builders have is the lack of instructions. Think of buying yourself a nice new kit, opening the box and everything is there except the instructions. If you are good with that then plans building is really easy. Thousands of plans out there. Free or cheap. Some of the new sites with the free plans are great, you just download to disc, take the disc to Kinko's and have the plans printed out. You can change the size if you like or just print at 100%.
Just for the fun of it pull up the airage site, also called M.A.N. plans from Model Airplane News. Take a look at just a few planes you can build.
If you want to try building an easy kit first that will be a match for your engine then look at the Tower Site and the Tower Up-Roar. Cheap kit, easy to build and a fantastic flying machine.

Well said GB.

Thanks Gray Beard. I'll be getting a set of plans and cutting my own. I pretty much never use instructions to build anything. Of course that gets me into trouble once in awhile.

First order of business I feel is to get me a flight simulator. They had one up and running at the hobby store. Talk about "crash and burn".

It really is simple, the hardest part for me is figuring out the wood needed, there is no bill of lading so I lay out the plans on the floor and with a pencil and pad just start looking and writing. Usually do that a couple of times then place my order to National Balsa
Once the wood order is in I remember some of the wood I forgot to order and call them back. Sometimes I get lucky and get back to them before my order was filled. I use a big vise to bend the piano wire. The wire I get at any hobby shop. Cowls and canopies I usually get from Fiberglass Specialties but that depends on the plane.
Going to a club and finding an instructor is a lot better then a Sim. Most clubs or instructors have the trainer and buddy box so the only thing you would need to buy is the fuel. The instructor would tell you what type or brand. That's how I do it. I have an old G-2 Sim I loan to my students for use but I tell them what plane and what I want them to do on the sim.
See, so far you haven't spent any money. No transmitter or anything but a gallon of fuel.
I even help a student pick out there plane after there solo. Before that I also loan them the trainer and a transmitter so they can take there time.
You see, everyone wants to build and fly that warbird or Extra but you have to walk before you can run. Your first build should be something you are able to fly. Probably something you wouldn't think of. I also teach building and use the Sig 4 Star 60 kit to teach with. Good build, good plane and there are several mods that can be made to make it an even better stunt type of plane.
Anyway, this is just food for thought.
One of the guys pulled up one of my builds in kit building of the Prime Cut and I may or may not have shown the cutting of the kit?? I didn't bother looking at it and can't remember what I did or didn't do? You can take a look if you want.

Gray Beard,

Thank you for your valuable comments. I took back all the parts and the SIM I bought. I will try my luck asking around at my local airfields. My usual modus operandi is to get a few facts online but delve into a project by myself without relying on others tooo much. Course that usually gets me into trouble many times. I guess I should let them share their knowledge and fun with RCing.

I have a weed whacker that I am converting to an engine. This is going well. Seems I enjoy building more than flying. I did pick up at the flea market a balso kit for a British S.E. 5A by Guillow that I will upsize the plans to fit the engines I have. Will a bi-iwing be more stable or forgiving as a first plane?

National Balsa here I come.

Godspeed,
Oops

Sorry Oops in the vast majority of cases the only answer possible is no on both points. Now add to the factors that you blew up Guillows plans to some size guess hoping it works with your converted weedwhacker and on top of all that expect to learn how to fly with. The chances of success is almost nil. First suspect any one who says oh sure I will teach you with it. Its unlikely you find any experienced mentor/instructor who would agree to teach you with that airplane. Why?? Well its simply that most of us has seen it all when it comes to guys trying to teach someone with an 'inappropriate' airplane and its never a pretty sight in the long run.

The scale I-16 you mentioned earlier if it is the Russian fighter you talking about then that is just about the worst example of a monoplane possible to try to teach someone with.

Do yourself a favor go ahead and build your dream airplanes but build a sig kit Senior Cadet and use your TT .46 Pro for it, Perfect engine for it , that is if you are serious and actually do want to learn how to fly beside just building.

John

I lost 2 SE5A's to tip stalls. They're not very forgiving.especially if your first build is a scratch build from Plan.I would have to concur with the last post. Get yourself a kadet senior and go fly the wings off of it.there's kind of a natural progression to this hobby. some guys can skip ahead on major parts of it, but most need to walk and then run. Just my $0.02

Bipes in general aren't a good starting plane. For several years all I built were bipes and just setting the incidence on the flight surfaces can be a thrill.
There is also a reason they call trainers trainers and most people really require a trainer and instructor. You can learn to fly without one but it will cost you a big pile of money every time you crash.
John has the right idea, in my case I used the Senior Telemaster but it's almost the same thing. Big easy to fly and build airplane.
Engines, years ago conversions were a great idea, today not so much but they can be. One buddy of mine was converting Royobi engines, the brush cutter came with two sizes and he figured out the bigger model and used them. He and the club members had a connection at the local dump and got them about this time every year when people tossed out the cutters. They also had an on line place to get the new carbs for RC use. They were cheap and fun but today you have DLE engines out of China that are better and easier to get and use.
It's getting a bit late in the year but you can still go to a local club and find an instructor with a trainer that they use so you can learn to fly for the price of your fuel.
Model Airplane News plans or Airage has several plans for the SE. I built the sister ship, the Fokker D-VII a couple times. The planes were designed for RC and not something you just enlarged.
You just seem to want to do things the hard way and you will be disappointed with what you get. You know, the Right way, Wrong Way and the Army Way. The plans in MAN have the plane in giant scale and the smaller 40 size that just uses a nice .46 engine. Give the plans a look.

This is the small D-VII I built in 02, I built two at the same time. There is also a SE-5-A by the same designer. This was a nice little plane to fly but it sure isn't a trainer!!! We had a Dawn Patrol back then. My God, I still had dark hair in 02!!!!

"My God, I still had dark hair in '02!!!!" Yeh, but the beard was still gray! I thought you signed off and left town...glad you're hanging around.

I'm sure not the answers you hoped for, but believe me when I say, were not giving these answers because we don't want you to have fun. We give these answers because we do want you to have fun and maybe not make some of the mistakes that we've made. Because believe me mistakes are like lessons. they always cost money. GB, may have been dark on top, but I see why your called Greg Beard. I'm following right behind ya there.

Love the pics Gray Beard. Thank you.

I guess I didn't make myself 100% clear. The strategy that me and the hobby store guy came up with was for me to buy an electric trainer to learn to fly. I also said I wasn't about to fly the I-16 when I made it and that I'd let him fly it. He said he'd relinquish that job to a master flyer which made me even happier. My hope was to eventually learn to fly it. In my readings on the I-16 it looks like it was just too difficult to fly even for veterans so I bagged that and thought maybe my first gas plane would be a bi-plane. My intention was to put the 0.46 in it. The plane as-is was recommended to fit a 0.20. I figured if I did a straight doubling that would be in the range of the .046 to handle.

Understand I am not going to waste my time making a trainer. It is going to be something I deem cooler. I'll crash a 100 cheapo electric foam fliers before I would try to fly what I built (if I ever do).

As for the weed whacker. I love to tinker. If after I get it running and it isn't all that, I'll put it in a boat. No worries everybody.

Larry, I had signed out of all the active threads I was on but just missed this one. It showed up in my email.
Steve, the beard was the first thing to go gray. The handle gray beard was a hunting accident given to me by my best friend just before he died. It was really only used for three days or so at the refuge before the opener of duck season. Soon after that Crow died. I had only used the name in his honor. At the refuge in the sweat line it was really a lot dirtier then just gray beard and it involved beer. Beer and Duck hunters!! Beer, duck hunters and my camper with a refrigerator. I lived for Duck season and the sweat line was something I did every year.All of us at the front of the line knew each other for years. Tradition!!! Good times!!

Seems to be a lot of lack of making things clear going around. I never saw the IL 15 mentioned but I am a huge fan of the Polikarpov planes and have been reading about them for years. The IL-16 is a better choice though but I have only seen one fly. It was a giant scale at an IMAA event, scratch built and electric powered. Here is the deal, I have never seen any plans for either of the planes. There is a build thread on the 16 someplace here on RCU I think? It's big though and required a lot of mold making skills and things I have never done.
Whatever floats your boat. Hope you are good at CAD and 3 views.
Good luck with your endeavors.
One word of advanced knowledge you should know. If a full scale plane had a round engine then any model you make will be tail heavy. There, you have advance warning!!
Now, I'm signing out of this thread too for reasons Larry knows.