Spacemonkey71

I finally fixed my "Super Box Fly40" and it flies BEAUTIFULLY!!!!! It's the ugliest and the BEST bird in my stable!

But what I DON'T know is WHO made this plane, WHERE I can find prints/plans/specs and any other info available. I KNOW this plane was built back in the 1980's because Spencer had it A LONG TIME before selling it to Carlos (who crashed it) and Carlos gave ME the busted plane!

It was kind of funny watching the reaction at the club yesterday when I brought this thing out I looked at them and said, "I TOLD you I'd fix this bird and get it back in the air!" They were GENUINELY suprised! They all came over and "inspected" the plane and all of them said I did a GREAT restore job! It made me feel proud to have brought this plane back to life when NOBODY ever actually thought I'd do it

I'm SOOOOO glad I did too! This plane flies SO amazingly well that I was absolutely DUMBFOUNDED! And the BIG .45 engine (a K&B .45 is almost as big as my Webra .61 !) on a plane that only weighs 5.25 lbs made it feel like a I was running the indy 500 in a Gremlin > it HAULED EVER LOVING A## but it handled BEAUTIFULLY with no weirdo handling characteristics. I've grown rather "fond" of this ugly bird now that I've flown it I can't wait to fly it again on Wednesday!!!!!!!

MrMulligan

My Feedback: (314)

This is an ARF that was kitted by Pilot in the 70's and 80's. I had one powered by an early 4 stroke motor. The name escapes me at the moment. It would only run if the plane was straight and level. Pull the nose up or put it down, it would quit. I replaced it with an OS.40FSR and had a great time. Vibration on this plane is a killer as the hard plastic parts crack. On of the finest flying planes I had, the equal of the good flying "Stiks". I think it was called a Super BoxFly .40.

blvdbuzzard

I have one that looks like that but the colors are different. Mine is an American flyer from Hobby People. Mine flies great with a worn out OS FP 40. It does fly great. Mine had the fuse crushed by the hood of my truck. I was charging the Rx battery and the wind lifted the hood up and it came down on the fuse. I spent the next 2 hours gluing it back together. That was 5 or so years ago. It still flies great.



Dru.

F4U Corsair

My Feedback: (22)

My brother in-law has one from the 80's that is .25 size, at least it looks the same and has the same odd fuel hatch double doors. He is thinking of re-training next year with it but the OS25 high speed needle valve is stuck and won't turn. The engine does turn over. Any suggestions on how to unstick the needle valve?

Spacemonkey71

blvdbuzzard - you win the award for "reasons to fix a plane" by a LONG shot!!! A TRUCK HOOD SLAMMED ON IT ???? WOW!!! I'm telling you, and you KNOW THIS, those dang planes are FREAKING BULLET PROOF!!!!! You can smash 'em, crash 'em, and fly 'em into a wall and with a LITTLE repair work, they WILL keep flying !!!! It only took me a total of maybe 15 hours to get the entire thing back into the air (the busted fuse, the broken wing, mount and set all the servos, mount the engine, mount the fuel tank, test it, and then test it some more b/c I forgot some stuff....) This plane was a TOTAL WRECK when I got it. I'm still flabergasted that this plane not only flies, but FLIES GREAT !!!!!!!! I'm glad yours is still flying well after 5 years! I REALLY like my busted up plane and it sounds like you do too! It's just SO responsive in the air that I still can't believe it!

gregoryda - To fix the stuck needle valve, I think I would start with disassembling the carb from the engine body and then soaking it in antifreeze (or squirt just a PINCH, ONLY A PINCH!!!!) of PB on it (PB is what I use to loosen the bolts on my exhaust system, so it CUTS rust, and stuck parts!!!! Just POP a little on it, let it run into the threads, let it sit overnight and try it again in the morning. If THAT doesn't work, spray enough PB into a little container and dunk the whole dang thing in it and let it sit for a few hours. If THAT doesn't work, I'm out of options.... and I hope someone else here can help you [&o] If worse come to worse, he might just be able to buy the assembly new (or used) from the LHS.... they might know someone with a busted engine that might be willing to part with it for the needle valve.

blvdbuzzard

It is like an old pick up truck. It may not be flashy or super fast, but it ALWAYS runs. I am SOOOOOOOO tempted to do a complete rebuild on it just because it has been such a fun plane to fly. The plastic win and tail tips are gone, they flew off a long time ago. It has patches on its patches and still flies like new. I know it is just an Ugly stick type of plane but it is just to fun to throw away. There are no worries when it is in the air. I have a dozen plus planes ready to fly and some I am a wreck when they are in the air. This is just pure fun.

If they came out with this ARF again I would buy 10.


Dru.

TZflyer

You say that is the "best" bird in your stable?
That's because you rebuilt it yourself and that gives an attachment to an airframe.
Imagine how you will feel when you build your first kit
I can't get over that feeling and that is why all my planes are now self built. Starting my first plan built plane soon!

Ray

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Ray, plans building dwells on the Dark Side!!! Once you step over that line there may never be A return trip. Take very slow steps. If you find yourself plans bashing then you will know you are lost!!!

Spacemonkey71

Well, until I get the senior falcon back up in the air because of the SEVERELY buttt heavy CG (CG = Cool Gnome - he likes pie ) OR I dope and paint the Das Ugly Stik, it IS the best plane that I own, regardless of how how much or little work I put into. In fact the original owner is my instructor and yesterday he said, "Boy.... she was such a good looking plane when she was new! But she still flies great!"

I can definitely see the bias towards a plane that you built peice-by-peice. It's the time, effort, and "part of yourself" that's going into the plane. For me it's like another form of art, painting is a good example for me. I put alot of myself, my patience, creativity, and skill into generating even a single 8x10 image.

BUT in this case, it's not fact that i took the time to figure out HOW to fix the plane and some of it's previous "fixing" mistakes (knowing nothing about the plane, and having very little "practical" knowlege of how airplanes really fit and work together), worked out the details of the plane (the wing area and loading), and bought all of the equipment to make it fly -I found and bought an engine, bought servos, an extra transmitter + receiver, fuel tank, props, and even a nose cone. And then learned how to install all of this stuff without the help of a manual or someone I could ask to come over and help me work some things out - all of this when I really didn't have the money to spend on anything! but the ACTUAL FACT that the plane REALLY DOES FLY INCREDIBLY WELL!

I've seen alot of trainers in the past and they, for lack of a better term, act like "trainers" - they're tame, you couldn't snap-roll one if someone had a gun to your head (at least not do it well! you CAN do them at a rate of about 1 per second if you catch the wind JUST right), they have slow reaction times, self correct alot, etc... but, the fact of the matter is, they do their jobs well - they TRAIN people in how to fly! You learn all about plane attitude and altitude, you learn how to translate what you want the plane to do "in your head" to "how to move your fingers" to make it happen, and with SOME you can even learn basic aerobatics (immelmans, split-s, cuban 8's, inverted flight, and outside loops, (I've never actually SEEN one "hover", but I'm sure some planes could do it with the right person flying it -there's a guy in our club named Johnny who, I'm sure, could at least give one a good run for it's money! This guy seems to be able to hover ANYTHING!)

In terms of expectations, I REALLY wanted the Tower Trainer 60 to fly well, traded a NICE camera for it (because, with the right wing, it flies remarkably well), and I worked hard on getting it fixed, got my hopes up, and in the end, it turned out to be a lemon because the dude fixing it (incidentally the same guy who let me crash it while on the buddy cable!) put a 40 size wing on a 60 size plane! ===> this DOES NOT WORK worth a darn! The wing area is all wrong, the lift isn't balanced enough to make it fly right, the wing loading goes through the roof, and it flies like a washing machine!!!! In short, it REALLY BLOWS!!!!! now I'm just stripping it for parts because I really hate the thing - it represents a mistake that I made by trusting someone who didn't repay my trust in equal measure - he took advantage of my lack of knowledge, skill, and experience.

But, this FREE PLANE that I brought home with a completely severed fuselage, a crushed wing, no engine, no electronics, and a the rest of the plane that looked like crap BEFORE it was crashed, can burn a hole in the sky! I've seen sport planes that couldn't do snap rolls as well as that thing does. It CAN fly as tamely as a trainer "should" doing basic turns, banked turns, rudder turns, landing approaches, etc...or it can be yanked around like a sport aerobatic plane! And I knew NOTHING about it (who made it, HOW it should fly, control surface settings, etc...) I really expected this plane to be "fun to crash" because it looks like SUCH a peice of junk! And I'd use the parts to buy a flashy ARF with some style and substance Instead, I've got a hotrod underneath the facade of this TRASHED plane! When I saw the original owner flying it and doing SUCH amazing things with it - I almost broke my jaw from having it hit the ground!

I completely agree that part of my favoring it is because I litterally resurrected it from the dead and I DO feel a sense of pride from having done so, but HOT D***** IT this thing can REALLY FLY!!!!!!!!!![X(]

TZflyer, what kind of plane are you building? I've been looking at some of the vintage planes on http://my.pclink.com/~dfritzke/ - some of these planes look pretty hot and I'm wondering if "I" could build one of these! You sure wouldn't see 2 of them at the same club! Some of them are big enough to handle a .15 to .25 engine! And there are a TON of SPAD plans out there http://www.spadtothebone.com/freeplans.htm or you could order some plans for almost every plane available (there are alot of good places to get all KINDS of plans from -these aren't free- http://www.rcmmagazine.com/store/sto...G6ownUujU2y0i9 )

I'm really curious to see what you're planning because I REALLY want to go that route myself! I've got the original plans for the Das Ugly Stik, maybe I could make some mods to it and come up with something "new" off the "box" fuselage.... hmmm...... ideas, ideas..... [&:]

fly boy 2

My Feedback: (1)

Who built me? What am I exactly?

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

That is spot on right there. Being an R/C modeler of 36 years I'm still on the dark side of only flying what I built ( or re-built ). Most times I end up designing and scratch building what I want. The reward is a double dose of pride.

fly boy 2

My Feedback: (1)

Who made me and what is my real name?
I just bought this and would like more information on it.

Many thanks to you for helping.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

I want to say it's an old R/C America Extra 300L. It was basically a copy of the Midwest Extra. Both discontinued now. If I'm correct it will have a wingspan of 80" and be powered with 1.8 or so glow or 40cc to 45cc gas.

If it's smaller then that it's a Yellow aircraft ARF that was made by a company called Funkey.