SOPHIAFLYGIRL

I've recently started building again and have turned just about every square inch of my 4 br house into an RC workshop!! Here's the cowl from my 81" Bonanza I'm repainting because I couldn't stand that awful gold stripe ruining an otherwise beautiful scale plane. I cook each stage of primer, paint, clear coat at 170F then turn the oven off and let it dry. Always comes out beautiful.

Nice part is: I don't have a husband that will complain about me putting airplane parts in our oven 🤣🤣🤣

Propworn

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LOL its wonderful to hear it from the other side you go girl

SOPHIAFLYGIRL

Thanks. Waaay back in 1987 there was this lady who flew at our field in Madera CA, she inspired me to fly RC and I've been in it ever since.

khodges

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Tell me about the Bonanza. Is it the Top Flite kit, or something from plans? There's a guy that is one of our landscaping customers, I knew him years ago when I was flying R/C. He's about 85 now, still builds and flies. Anyway, he has a half-finished Bonanza fuselage hanging in his garage workshop, it's a V-tail model. I keep asking when he going to finish it, but never get a definitive answer. It looks to be about the size of what you're building.

I have a good friend who owned a full size Bonanza, and I used to go flying with him quite often. I made two trips to Oshkosh with him (from NC) and came to love the type, although I always thought the V-tail plane was pretty cool. Unfortunately, in 2015, he had a catastrophic engine failure on takeoff and crashed it with 3 other people with him. Everybody survived, mainly due to his skills, although he was seriously injured. Everybody else walked away. No more Bonanza, but he's now flying a Baron, so I guess he did all right.

As for "cooking" an airplane cowl in your oven with nobody to complain, It's not as bad as a guy I used to ride motorcycles with. He owned a motorcycle repair shop and used his wife's oven to heat cylinder heads to replace valve guides, and engine cases to replace bearings. She never said a word about it.

I quit flying R/C about 14 years ago, but decided to start building again and I'm just starting a 1/4 scale L-4, check out my build thread (1/4 scale BUSA L-4). I'll be following your Bonanza build.

SOPHIAFLYGIRL

This is my small Bonanza: ESM 81" I also have a Hostetler 108.5 inch Bonanza A36 that was just finished being built, has yet to be maidened.

I'm pleased the way this cowl turned out. Got that finish after wet sanding 400,800, 1000 then primer, 1000 grit again, dried in the oven, wiped down with a lint free cloth and shot it with gloss white from a can.

BarracudaHockey

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Very nice Sophia!

speedracerntrixie

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I feel fortunate to have a significant other that encourages my hobby. Yesterday she went to a swap meet with me, when she asked about if anything caught my eye I pointed to a Sig Liberty Sport. I made a few excuses ( not really valid ) on why I shouldn’t buy it. She walks over to the seller, hands him the cash and say’s to me “ gab your airplane “.

SOPHIAFLYGIRL

She's definitely got your interests at heart. 💜💜

jduino

I told my second wife, when we were dating, that if we buy a house with a 1-car garage, it's for the models. 2-car, 1 is for the models. 3-car, 2 are for the models.
Our current house has a HUGE 3+ car garage, and it's about 90% committed to my hobbies.

SOPHIAFLYGIRL

2 rooms in my 4 br house are nothing but airplanes and parts. My entire downstairs is a building area and another "hangar"


I feel sorry for the man I marry ..... hope he's also an RC Pilot or builder becuase he's only going to get 1/2 of a dresser for his clothes

khodges

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Beautiful Reliant.

A Wyoming girl who builds and flies RC? The guys ought to be standing in line for the chance.

BarracudaHockey

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Lets not go there. She's just another modeler here. I for one am glad to see it, we (the AMA and hobby in general) need more.

DGrant

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I was in/around Madera/Fresno back then(still am), and I vaguely recall a lady flyer in the area. I was actually in the Madera club for a few years in that era, as well as the Fresno club(still am a member there)..

We've lost many members over the years though, and many have moved away too. Still a few of us around that were there back then though. Keep flyin', and building. In some ways I think it was a life saver for me a few times, just being able to have something to escape and pass time back then, now it's something I do every day.

SOPHIAFLYGIRL

Do you remember Jack's RC shop in Clovis? Jack was a very personalble fellow, flew a beautiful CAP 21 gasser at the field in Madera.
Also the older lady Pilot who flew in Madera used to be a VW mechanic/restoration person also in Clovis I think. It's been a few decades but I still remember some of my fellow fliers.

SOPHIAFLYGIRL

I do appreciate you saying that, however, I didnt take offense to his previous comment; I think he was trying to pay me a compliment, which I'm humble and grateful for.

I agree we need more women in the hobby. I try to get any of my girlfriends who might be interested to come out and watch the airplanes when I fly. Never know who you're going to inspire.

DGrant

My Feedback: (4)

I absolutely remember Jack Thomas, and his brother Bob,and Mid-Cal Hobbies was the shop on Larkin Ave in Clovis. They were both real nice guys. Sorry to say they're both gone now. Bob passed probably 20 or more years ago, and we lost Jack just a few years back if that. Jack had moved over to Nevada in his late years,but still was active and kept memberships in local clubs from what I remember. He got involved in the racing circuit and was part of the "Madera Air Races" when that was popular. He also apparently went into the balsa biz for many years after closing his shop. I'd see him on occasion at local fields, but he had his own runway/property east of Clovis that he used. Yeah I knew them pretty well, and would hang out in that shop, sitting at the table in the back and drink coffee or whatever. Jack was somewhat of a legend, in that he was flying giants long before they were mainstream, and he lead many of us into larger planes, just by association.. haha.

You struck a memory as well with the mechanic lady, and yeah I remember her too. She actually bought a few planes from me back in the day, but I hadn't seen nor thought about anyone except Jack for probably 25-30yrs(yeah it's been that long), and we/I was young as well... haha.. alot of energy and alot of flying back then. I still fly at least twice a week at the FRM(Fresno club) site, and the newer club ClovisRC out near Reedley.. and occasionally on the west side of the valley. So yeah, we're still flyin it up out here in Cali.

khodges

My Feedback: (1)

I was, and thanks for taking it that way. My wife was very forgiving of the time I spent in the workshop and at the field, and we had two young daughters that I should have been spending more time with, rather than crashing airplanes and then fixing them. I quit flying, partly for that reason, and haven't regretted it at all. Now that they are grown and on their own, and I'm retired, I can get back in the workshop. My wife still supports my "private time", she's baking bread and cookies while I'm gluing and bending wood. After 31 years, it's a perfect relationship.

SOPHIAFLYGIRL

Wow...what a small world! There was also an "older" gentleman who used to hang out at Mid Cal Hobbies, he was an electrician. One day he cut 1/2 of his thumb off trying to stop the prop on a P51 mustang that was screaming at near full throttle. I remember him coming in after he was all bandaged up. His son was a wire-haired blonde kid who used to fly out there also.
lots of fond memories. I flew with a couple guys from Mid Cal. One was an airline pilot, Asian man, very mellow demeanor.

cafguy

Hi Sophiaflygirl
Like your shop looks a lot Like Mine. My wife and I have different hobbies and Thanks to her being a super genius and making good money I get to spend enough to keep me building and flying She Loves my airplane hobby and is fascinated watching me turn sticks to airplane but I can never get her to pick up a radio not even with the little park homies I have.
I always wanted to build a bonanza But I have heard that, just like the real ones (my time in one is about 6 hrs.) They are a little tricky to fly, is that true?

P.S. She is great about my hobby but I could NEVER use the oven

khodges

My Feedback: (1)

I can't speak for the models, but the standard tail Bonanza flies pretty much like most low-wing high performance GA planes of its class. The V-tail has a few quirks, though. It is known for a "Dutch roll" when hand flying, but does fine on autopilot. It also has a narrow c/g range compared to similar sized planes, and is relatively easy to get the c/g at the rear limit. I would imagine the V-tail model might be more difficult to get the control settings just right for coordinated turns. The full-size has a bungee arrangement, tying the rudder pedals to the stick inputs, it makes turns easier but you still have to moderate and override the bungee system depending on what you're doing. I'm not a pilot, but I've flown several hundred hours in a V-35B with a friend who owned one. He'd let me fly some to get a feel for controlling, plus I learned the radios and some navigation. His plane had the swing-over yoke, so it wasn't truly a dual control. I've been to Oshkosh twice in that plane (from NC), plus countless $100 burger trips and times when he just wanted someone to fly with him to do touch-and-go's and other practice sessions. He knew I'd be up for a ride any time. In that respect, I'm sort of glad he didn't call me one day. He was taking a friend to get his own plane, which was at an airport about 30 miles from his home base. The other guy had two friends who wanted to go, so they had a full plane, but not full tanks, which may have saved their lives. He had a catastrophic engine failure (120 hours post TBO) on takeoff; 350 feet and 85 mph and he was a glider, but he saved the three guys (they all walked away), beat himself up pretty bad (broken hip, left arm and head injury) and the plane was a total loss. Even sadder, he'd installed a G1000 panel 4 months before the crash. Thank God for insurance, huh. He fully recovered, flying a Baron now.

GREG DOE

A lot of our model airplane racers are "V" tail configured, including all our modern Quickie 500's. I tell people if I were to handed them the transmitter while the airplane was in the air, you would not know that it wasn't a conventional tail. Don't avoid building a V tail Bonanza because of that. Of course you could build the straight tail Bonanza or the Debonair. I don't know what degrees the V is on a Bonanza, but most of our models are 110 deg.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

The trick with V tails is rudder differential. A little more downward then upward.