I haven't posted for a while so I thought I would see how many of you are still flying though the winter months and how it's going.

I just started flying this summer, 100% self taught, and it took most of the summer to get real comfortable with my tower trainer, then I upgraded to a twist3d with a magnum 70 4stroke. Now that I have some time on it I'm starting to move the CG back and increase the throws. Today I flew over a frozen lake which is nice because it's completely flat and I have a lot of room, and these little engines and props sure do work good in 35* weather. Wind made things interesting though, I had a nice 12-18mph wind that was knocking the plane all over the place, but I flew anyway. I have had the trainer up in that kind of wind, but with all the wing it has it's like flying an RC kite! It was fun, but I was glad when it was on the ground in one piece.

I think I'm ready to start building a kit, but it seems that there is so much less selection when it comes to kits. I really like scale acrobatic planes like the edge, caps, and extras, can anyone recommend one in a 60-90 size, the 40 size planes are just to small to see if you aren't flying pretty close.

I fly through the winter. Flew last Sunday, and will fly again tomorrow. Just thinking about where you're from gives me chills. You must have been having a heat wave if the temperature got all the way up to 35!

Piper_chuck,
Yahoo!!!!!!! I finally found something that we disagree on!!!! This is the one thing that I just don't do well on. 10 years in the Army and I know for a fact that I just don't function well when I'm cold. I don't like it, no way, no how. But I do enjoy seeing a little bit of a snow storm once and awhile (yeah I know, I'm contradicting myself there). That's one of the reasons why I like living here in Oklahoma, we get a little bit of winter but not too much. Snows once or twice each winter and the snow is usually gone in a day or so. And we usually get at least 1-2 flying weekend each winter month. And winter flying for me is 50° or above. There are a lot of weather that is flyable for me, but it's just not funable for me. And if it's not fun I'm not going out.

The only exception I have is our traditional New Year's Day fly. We go out no matter what the weather. This year it was 30-40 mph winds. 2 quick flights and then off for coffee!!!

Ken

Ken, before you celebrate a point on which we disagree, I should disclose it was in the mid-60s, with absolutely no wind, last Sunday, and will be in the upper-50s tomorrow. Today was in the mid-40s and breezy and I chose to stay home even though it was my first day of "freedom" for 3 months.

Dang, and here I thought we finally disagreed for once!!!!! . It's been really warm here the last couple of weeks, but we've been dealing with all this wind that's causing all the wildfires that are getting us on TV lately. I just got a weather advisory that tonight a front is supposed to blow through with 30 mph winds. Here we go again!!!! [:'(]

Ken

Ken, Alaska is a different kind of cold, it's not wet at all, very dry. So 35 here feels like 50 down there. Besides, 4 weeks ago it was -22F outside. When it warms up 50+ degrees you go fly, I don't care how cold it is.

Besides I would trade a little cold for 100* and 100% humidity any day. Last time I was down in the lower 48, I was in Missouri and it almost killed me. If the heat didn't kill me then life without mountains would.

Any ideas on a kit?

akschu,
I grew up in Missouri so I know exactly what you are talking about. What kind of flying or plane are you interested in building?? There are a good many kits that are good for a first time builder. Sig 4-star, Goldberg Tiger II, Balsa USA Thunderbug, Sig Hog Bipe (if you're interested in a biplane this is a great one), Sig Something Extra (if you want a plane that is a total blast to fly). Just depends on what you want to fly.

I like to say that the Sig Something Extra kit is a "building trainer" kit. It's such a joy to build that I highly recommend this to anybody that wants to get started in building. I like to joke about this kit saying to build it you open the box, throw in a bottle of glue, shake, and remove the finished plane. It does go together really fast. The last one I build I had framed up in a weekend. Very high quality all laser cut parts, clear concise plans, and an instruction manual that is almost a work of art. And to top it all off when you finish the kit you have a plane that is an absolute blast to fly. The only problem with my SSE is that it gets covered in oil on every surface of the plane and takes awhile to clean when you're done flying. This plane rolls so fast that the exhaust oil coats the whole plane when your flying, but it's well worth it because this is so fun to fly.

Hope this helps

Ken

I looked at those and it would work if I got a cowl and some wheel pants (really want a scale looking setup). Perhaps I should start with something easy, but I think I'm up for a challenge too..

I really like the look of the extra 330, what a sweet looking plane, problem is that every single one I can find on tower or horizon is an arf.

It's not an Extra 330, but an Extra 300. Carl Goldberg Extra 300 kit. [link]http://www.carlgoldbergproducts.com/extra300.htm[/link] . I've built one and it's a great flying airplane. And it's a good building kit too.

If you're looking for cowls and wheel pants for most of the kits I mentioned (if not all of them) here are some great sources for these:
[link=http://www.stansfibertech.com]Stan's Fiber Tech[/link]
[link=http://www.fiberglassspecialtiesinc.com]Fiberglass Specialties[/link]
[link=http://www.precision-fiberglass-prod.com]Precision Fiberglass Products[/link]

Check them out and see what they've got.

Hope this helps

Ken

Ken,

I looked up that plane at tower and it says:

Any idea why I would need more servos to use the bigger engine? With 4 wing servos, 1 throttle, 1 rudder, and 1 elevator I'm at 7 channels already. Not really a problem though since I bought a 9c, but would still like to know the reasoning behind it.

schu

The SSE is a great kit to build and can be made to look pretty scale... [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=3709876]See mine here[/link] (complete w/o engine)

And here's one with the power plant before the gear and covering was finished.

akschu,
You don't necessarily need more servos (although that would be best), but higher torque servos would help a lot. If you do use more servos you don't have to put them each on a different channel. You can use a Y-harness to hook up two servos on one channel, or if more servos you can use 3 y-harnesses to control 4 servos, etc.... I put an OS 91 FX in mine and put Hobbico high torque servos with metal gears and they did just fine for me, I had plenty of servo.

Hope this helps

Ken

What about the Camodel EXTRA 300L 24% ( http://www.camodel.com.ar http://www.camodel.com.ar/dealers.htm )? People in Pattern and 3D circles seem to like many of their planes.

The good thing about winters is that frozen lakes make great flying sites. In temperatures down to around -10 Celsius (10 below the freezing point) I have been coping with thin gloves.

Several of my club members fly all winter (me included) -- & winter is the real deal here. I generally avoid flying at temps lower than minus 15 -- the wind is like a knife. Minus 10 is just fine if the wind is light. We generally use landplanes with skiis, but the killer set-up is flying boats -- they don't care about ruts in the snow.

I won our "first Flight" competition at our New Year's Day fun fly with a Seamaster 40 (TT 46 Pro). First prize was (note was) a 40oz bottle of Puerto Rican rum -- it was happily shared by all of the frozen pilots.

I had the Goldberg Extra and it is a really nice plane. I used hitec 625 servos all around and they were great. My extra was overpowered with an MDS 148. Vertical acceleration was very possible. You could also look at the great planes extra 300s 60 size. It is a great plane as well. If you are interested in a bipe, the goldberg ultimate would be a nice plane for you.

I was also thinking about the [link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXJ580&P=7]GP 300 extra[/link]. With that new satio 125 that just came out it should be a real performer. I could also move my servos around to get the best cg without any extra weight. There is also a real good thread in the kit building section about how to add more rudder and counter balance the elevator. I also picked up a sulivan smoke kit from my LHS which they where clearancing out for 60% off and this plane is big enough to run smoke, I may even be able to put the smoke oil tank on the CG.

As far as servos go, I like to put better than required servos on my planes. My twist has HS475s on the wings and elevator and a HS635 on the rudder all running on 6v so they are strong and quick for a 5lb plane that only requires standard servos.

Thanks for the help...

schu

akshu,
This is a great choice. Pretty nice building kit, and a great flying plane. If you're going that big of a motor definitely put the smoke tank on the CG. Also move the elevator and rudder servo to the rear of the fuselage to help counter balance the extra weight of the motor. Plenty of reference here on RCU about the building of this kit. You shouldn't have any problems with it.

Ken