Went to a fly-in up the road about a half hour to go watch, and got to talking with one of the guys there. He asked if i'd seen R/C before, and i told him I had flown them up until about 15 years ago when we lost our field and I moved on to other things. He had his buddy box system with him and offered to take me up with it. I of course accepted the invitation. The plane was an electric GSW Stearman. Not a hot rod by anymeans but deffinately fun. I deffinately wasn't as smooth as I had previously been, but after getting it off the ground and up about 30 feet he didn't take it over for the rest of the flight including the landing. It was overcast, and we were getting 5-10 mile per hour gusts. I have got to get back into this sport.

2 years ago I came back to RC after being out for 15 years.. (funny how that's almost always the number)

My first flight was a little shaky but I was back to solo status in 5 flights.

I flew an Avistar for the first year.. at first with an OS FP40 then turned up the heat with my old .45 FSR

By the end of the first summer I'd done all I could with the Avistar. I traded it for a Cloud Dancer over the winter and I've been having a blast with it all summer.

I also started bring some of my old planes back to life.. I got my old Midwest Sweet Stick flying last month and I'm working on a Citabria kit I started 17 years ago.

You picked a great time to come back.. the new computer radios are amazing and the whole electric scene is hard to believe.

the only thing I really miss from the old days is the huge selection of kits we don't have anymore.
If you are not into building the ARF's have come a long way.

10-15mph gusts?? That's just a slight breeze! I grew up in Wright (I think it was an hour and some change drive from Wheatland) so I know about that Wyoming wind. Get yourself a big glow/gas plane and find a strip of land somewhere (I know there's LOTS of land out that way) and go to it! I'm planning on returning back home for thanksgiving and not looking forward to the cold weather shock from being over here in Okinawa. BRRRRR!!

Shane,

Wheatland is a couple hours south of Wright about an hour south of Douglas, and yep we sure do get wind. THe light gusts we had today would have been nothing with the Kaos I used to fly (currently rebuilding it). on the other hand that little lightweight foam electric job sure didn't like it. I'm getting my dad back into it as well. hopefully we will have someone with a grader out to his place to cut in a new runway. We've been able to mark in a space for a 600' strip and I figure we should go ahead and make it 50-60' wide.

as posted here a few months ago, i too came back after a 15 year layoff myself................maybe 15 years for us guys is some kind of menopause.

have been flying a GP Stik and after the second flight with this bird i had a flame out with about 25 feet of altitude directly over the field..........the reflexes came right back. rolled it hard right, downwind about 30 feet, rolled hard right again, and touched down with no issues. the guys in the pits thought i was gonna end up in the weeds when the engine flamed out, but were spellbound with the evasive manuevers i pulled off. of course the Big Stik is 1,000 sq in wing at 6.25 lbs. so it had plenty to do with it, but nevertheless it got the adrenaline pumping....................oh, the biggest improvement to RC that really brought me back was 2.4GHz systems..................nothing like it. no wait, no worry about someone shooting you down anymore, and believe me, the local (now closed) hobbyshop owner blew me out of the sky once, from his antics.

glad i came back and hope you are going to enjoy yourself as much as i have so far.

Good feeling, isn't it?

Welcome back!

Well it looks like us wyoming boys get around I grew up in hannah not far from rawlins My dad worked in the coal mines there but we moved back to missouir after he passed away . Its funny went to avalon airshow here in australia (( I live here now my wife is from here )) and one of the Air force boys who was standing by the B1 bomber was from wyoming what a small world it is anyways I miss wyoming and hope to come back for a long vist and go back to hannah and check it out now i lived there in the late 70s early 80s and head to yellow stone


jeff

sscherin

You're going to get spoiled rotten with the Midwest Sweet Stik. The new Stiks just don't fly like that one did - probably the best flying of the .40 size genere. I really miss not having one in the stable [&o] - might have to rectify that this winter.

Hogflyer

Yes, yes and yes. I dropped out in 1982 after five years of flying glider & rudder/elevator R/C and got back in around 2002.

Good to have you back Kaos2.

I converted a GP Ugly Stik .40 ARF to tail dragger with an OS 70-II four-stroke on the nose and it was a ball. Tragically lost in a mid-air.

Gotta find me a set of plans for a ugly bipe. I lusted after one of those way back in my teens. Back when they used to bother adding cockpits and tail-gun details to even the "Stiks".

Goodness! You all merely took a long weekend off. My last (and first) RC flight was in 1966 with a Sterling Minnie Mambo covered in colored silk and finished with clear dope. Cox .049 Babe Bee and some unknown asian single channel TX/RX. Minitron escapement with the rubber band you had to wind up. Dry cell batteries.

I've flown control line off and on all through the years but just got back into "modern" RC with a Sig LT-40, TT .46 Pro and Futaba 6XAS 2 years ago. Now have about 100 flights on it. Just maidened my UltraStick 40 last week. Try doing one of those on a reed radio...

I did get a lot of help from a G2 RC simulator and some very good instructors in our club. Took about 6 flights to get myself and my 13 year old son soloed.