how plane crazy are you? EX: after every run of my motor on land (taxing fun) or in air i scrub down it down to its original state. i hate having fuel blotches on the side of my plane its an eyesore [:'(]. what are your stories.

Same I haven't even flown my plane yet (waiting for the instructor to call) and I am always cleaning and checking it over I love it, its gonna suck when it crashes, but thats part of the hobby, and when it crashes I will buy a new one except the next one I want to buy a kit and put it together, then IT WILL REALLY SUCK WHEN IT CRASHES!

Note: I said "when" it crashes not "if" it crashes.

I always wipe mine off after each flight and check the controll surfaces. At the end of the flying day I wipe it down with 409 cleaner and wax it with turtle wax. I keep the control surface area's and the horrizontal and vert. stab area clean with "Q" tips and after run oil the engine . Keeps them in great shape and gives me a little piece of mind. Although i dont fly every airplane every trip all 27 of them look great in the hanger. Oh yeah i almost forgot I religeously check the wheel pants screw after the end of the day also.

I lost my first trainer to a reversed alieron servo, so I check travel direction:

1. during my range check
2. while I'm warming up the engine
3. while taxing out to the runway
4. just before I start my takeoff roll.

Paranoia..... or being carefull?


Andy

I guess I must not be too plane crazy then

I clean my planes at the end of the day. I don't see the sense in cleaning it just to get oil all over it again.

I'm with ya on that. I like to keep my planes clean too. More importantly, I check every single nut and bolt, and screw. Also check hinges every few flights or so. Looking for cracks and such in the airframe is not a bad idea either. Might save your "baby".

Yeah i give mine a quick wipe down after each flight just so the oil and muck doesnt get to seep under the trim and peel off in the next flight..I hate the buzzing sound it makes as its comming off.[:@]

pt, that doesn't make you plane crazy (But the term Anal Retentive comes to mind)

Now I'M Plane crazy...

I.E. Drive past an airport - slow down to look

Channel surfing, see an airplane on TV - Imediately stop clicking and watch

Driving along somewhere new, see an RC field - Stop and make new friends (Get in a flight if I'm lucky enough to have a plane with me!)

You should see my golf shots when a plane flys over. Never hit it. I should know better than to try.

When you take better care of your plane's than your truck, now thats plane crazy!!

I fly almost daily. I just throw them in the back of my truck after I'm done. Sometimes I'm able to get them into the bed on the first toss from my table. Other times they will bounce off the side of my truck bed onto the ground and I'll have to walk around and put them in. If I can't park within 30' of the table, I just carry them to my truck. I guess I'm a little paranoid too.

Ed, next time you fly to Willmar, bring your clubs! We'll get a few holes in (If it's too windy to fly of course)

Skribnod What type of covering have you got mate.

Steve

Plane crazy? I spend just about every waking moment of every day either building a plane, repairing a plane, maintaining a plane, or thinking about planes when I'm at work on a beautiful day. I'll be in Iraq next year and am trying to figure out how to bring an R/C plane to fly.

I'm doing almost that level of control system checks... and it saved the plane on the step 4 check last week. I was doing the final "wiggle the rudder before increaing throttle"... no wiggle. No throttle to turn off the engine... nothing. The battery connector had goten into the rudder servo arm and was pulled.

Check em 5 times... its still going to need another check some day...

Beltdrive , I have Monokote , ultracote and towercote. The 409 works great on the oil and the wax makes the airplane shine like new again. You wouldnt believe the difference waxing a patriot makes !! Try waxing your airplane some time and you will notice a big difference in the speed. I didnt believe it till I did it.

Before you write off the plane, let it sit for a day or two, THEN look it over. Many crashed/trashed planes are very repairable at minimal cost. I recently broke the fuselage in half on one of my planes. I repaired it and it looks like new. Cost - about 3 hours, some scrap balsa, some CA, and some left over covering. Sure is a lot cheaper than a new plane, and is a lot less time then building a new one (unless you use RTF planes).

I am glad to see that you realize you will crash. Maybe not right away, but sooner or later, My trainer made it all the way through to my check off flight. The plywood wing joiner failed halfway through the checkoff flight. It is a VERY INTERESTING sight to see your wing suddenly fold in half while flying straight and level at 1/2 throttle. [X(]

mini flyer does this tickel your fancy

Would Armor All work well on planes? I have a 28% Extra 300s that I have used some spray wax on, which didnt seem to work all that well. Can anyone recommend a good quality wax to use? I have had lots of succes on my car with the Mguiers line of Automotive care products. Just curious as my Extra's covering is a few years old. Hey when I was in Iraq I brough my real flight with me. Yeah I know its not the same thing, but close enough. No sh*% there I was, knee deep when I pulled out my realflight and called for some CAS via a quarter scale Extra.

ABN Sarge

doing the samething over and over again and expecting different results
now....that's plane crazy

Inspecting my plane over and over again... that's plane crazy

I've started hiding some of my models at friend's homes so that the Dragon doesn't know how many I have, clean or otherwise --that's getting seriously crazy

I started this *very addictive* hobby in May of this year. It took me a short while to get hooked, but when I did, man, I'm plane crazy! I've gone to full scale fly ins now that I never would have went to before. I had to fly on a business trip yesterday and while looking in the AA magazine that is on the plane behind every seat, they had two or three electric trainers for sale. I got all excited and told the man nexst to me about my recent hobby interest, he was not amused So I had to keep it to myself the entire 2.5 hour flight...

My first gallon of fuel (glow) lasted 8 months-winter came, not many opportunities to get out and learn and practice. 2nd gallon lasted 6 weeks, 3rd and 4th gallon about 4 weeks each. I'm on about my 10th gallon and it's 1/2 gone, opened it 4 days ago. I guess I'm getting crazier by the minute. I only have 3 planes at the moment, a trainer (Superstar/LA.40), an ARF(SIG Rascal 40/Saito .56) and a kit(SIG 1/5 Cub kitbashed to an L-4/Saito .65). I midaired my 1st trainer, also a kit (SIG Kadet MkII/Tower .46). This all in the space of a year and a half. I fly about 3 times a week, mostly the Rascal, but more and more the L-4, and occasionally, if it's real windy, the trainer

The L-4 took over 8 months and 450 hrs to build, is highly detailed (in Pilot projects, MAN couple issues back) and I have been terrified every time I've flown it, because I don't want to ding it up, so as a result I dinged it up the fist 3 or 4 times I flew it. Even stalled it and crashed from about 75 feet up into a Kudzu thicket--talk about total terror, went to get it thinking it was totalled, found it pointing straight down with the nose a foot off the ground, and not a scratch anywhere. Bought the Rascal, figured I'd get a plane that I'd have no emotional attachment to, beat it up learning to fly a tail dragger; what do I do? crash it, immediately order a replacement because I liked flying it, then figured out it wasn't hurt so bad and repaired it, so now I have a brand new one still in the box--gonna keep it and put a set of floats on it.

I've also got a 1/4 scale Super Decathalon in the box to build, but it was an impulse buy and there are other plane kits I want to build first, most notably a Stinson Reliant, DeHavilland Beaver and L-19 BirdDog. Love those tail-draggers.

I'm more than plane crazy, I'm Plane Insane. I eat drink, sleep, dream airplanes. Can't wait to go fly, cuss the weather if it's bad, let the grass go unmowed to go fly. Fortunately I have a wife who understands the compulsion. She is the same way with her horses.

I've been flying almost 4 years. I have well over 30 planes that are flyable including my glow planes. I use the wife's clothes hangers to hang up all my electric powered models. If you look in my basement (shop area), it looks like all the models are ready for attack!!!!!
Came home yesterday as I was in McMinnville Tennessee all last week for training and drove the Nashville, Louisville, Cincy, Columbus
route to come home. As my colleauge and I was on route 65, a plane was landing at Louisville airport and it looked like it would land on the highway. I just about stopped to watch it when the guy behind me was blasting his horn. Hehe, I never heard him!!!! And while I was in Tennessee all this past week, had my wife look after my "babies" while I was gone!!!!

Dave...