on_your_six

My Feedback: (11)

This thread is about what the cheapest (skin flint) RC pilot in the world... make your nominations... anonymous of course, but they might recognize them selves.

Do they Glue back together their damaged wood props?
Do they scrounge the field's donation box for parts for their "best" plane?
Does the monocoat fall off the plane as it flies?
Do they try to reuse the old glo plug that failed a month ago? (what makes them think it is good now??)
How many crashes has that plane had and he still glues it back together??
Does the weight of the epoxy prevent the plane from flying???

Try to keep it funny! Yeah we all take the short cut sometimes!

Tell me your good ones.

trioval00

My Feedback: (17)

we had a guy years ago in our club that was cheap.

we did glue wooden props back together, and when he sold you a plane at the field, he would go home and remove the radio and engine, but when you got the plane you bought from him the next day, he kept the fuel tank, all the push rods, control horns, he kept eveything.....if he was able to un-glue the hinges , he would......

Regent

Let me throw my hat in the ring as one of the cheapest RC hobbyist around. But first let me say that it is not because I can’t afford the hobby, I just love to restore and recycle still usable material out of crashed models.

As an example:
On all of my crashed models, (as well as what I recover from the trash barrel at the field), I will push out all the blind nuts and dig out all the nylon hinges and soak them in acetone, clean them up and put them back in my spare parts bin. I have boxes full of landing gear, motor mounts, fuel tanks and wheels that have been recycled. If a fuselage is totaled and there is a repairable wing and tail section, I save the repairable parts for future use. If the fuselage is repairable and the wing is toast I will save it and use it later when I mix and match parts to build totally new hybrid planes.

If I decide that a part is too much trouble to repair I will just strip it down and cut out all of the usable wood and save it in my scrap box. All the wood in the scrap box is sorted by thickness so I can easily find some piece that I can use.

Now I do have an inventory of fresh balsa and ply that would equal many hobby shops but I do enjoy gluing up two or three pieces of scrap to get a piece bit enough to use. I also am not above gluing up two pieces to get it to the desired thickness.

Everyone in my club knows that I do this and they also know that if they need something there is always the chance that I have it or have something that can be made to work. If I don’t have anything invested in the part I usually will just give it away or just ask for a small fee to cover any sweat equity.

Trainer planes provide a large part of the inventory because they tend to be short lived and many do not have the time or skills to do any repair. For all new flyers I advise them to spend their money on a good quality engine and computer radio and then come over and we go through the selection of wings, tails and fuselages and make up something that will get them in the air for $10 - $15 plus the cost of any fresh Monokote. (I also have a box where I keep scrap Monokote.) Many repairs and trim pieces also come out of the Monokote box and I have decided on a trim scheme based on what scrap pieces in have in the box.

Cheap? You bet. But I don’t necessarily do it for the money for the most part I do it because it is fun.

trioval00

My Feedback: (17)

regent, doesn't sound cheap to me. sounds smart.....or resourceful

Mark

foodstick

We had a guy years ago that had a Yellow biplane KNOWN to be made of five different crashed planes from the garbage barrel, personally I love this kind of innovation. A Long time ago I tried to start a thread that would be a competition of who could have the most frankenstein plane built from the most donor planes..unfortunately it never took off so to speak.

osxpro

My Feedback: (51)

I'm much like the poster above who will scrounge the barrel for parts. I can absolutely afford the parts but on a "bad day" I can reap $30-40.00 worth of parts from those fellas who'd rather toss them out. I have a tackle box (or portable hobby shop) that has close to $500.00-$600.00 worth of parts in it. It took me 10 years to build that arsenal but I rarely have to by parts when I build a kit... And most of these parts are SIG and other high dollar parts!!!!! I agree with the posted above that despite my ability to afford whatever parts I need - Why pay cash when you can spend 15 minutes getting it for free? Now I pride myself on getting these parts but we do have one vulture in particular who will not even wait for someone to trash the plane. As soon as a plane hits the ground he'll say, "You want any of that"? At least I have the courtesy to wait until the plane hits the bin!

Dauntae

A few years ago we had a member who would not buy anything other than the engine, fuel and radio gear (usually used), He scratch built some really strange planes with Ash wood that was scraps from I think a furniture shop, His fuel tanks were hand lotion bottles, His fuel pump was a old windex bottle with a tube glued into the nozzle for real, and when ever he fueled up just walk away because fuel went every place, And the oddest was the wheels he used, He said they where the bottoms of oatmeal containers laminated with epoxy. He had some really interesting designes for planes and a few of them flew ok but most didn't fair so well. He was a nice guy but cheapest person I ever met. OH and his covering was a large roll of thin mesh thrown out by a fabrics company in the next city over, He got a huge roll of it and doped it to the planes.

Dauntae

foodstick

Its getting to the point on this thread the only way to be cheaper is to just STEAL all your stuff

Lorduss

i myself do alot of parts digging, any left over tidbit from a kit or every little dirt cheap parts lot i can pick up from a RC (of any kind) swap meat i pick up.
especially with planes its amazing how often you find parts left out of a boxed kit, or wanting to upgrade to something bigger because you dont like the size or type of something included in a kit, many other reasions etc
i have built a few planes and other things completely from scrap, and actually had one great flyer completely designed from leftovers.
allthough crashed long ago, i think the cheap route is allways interesting and resourcefull, worth proving.
a boxed kit wont impress me much, unless heavily kit bashed etc, but something built from scrap and such is amazing.

wcmorrison

My Feedback: (2)

I like to recycle stuff too. Once band sawed two Avastar just aft of the wing and then patched the two good parts of the fuselage together. It flew a long time, finally totalled it in a tree. I miss that plane, it would really snap in a loop - I guess the incidence was off a tad, ya think? But it was fun while it lasted. I also believe an airplane is no good until rebuilt at least once. Maybe a little heavier but is a hell of a lot stronger at the break points now. Some had so much epoxy, that they shattered when the hit the ground.

Cheers,

Chip

Bundubasher

On Your Six,

I don't know about the cheapest R/C pilot out there...... but looking at the attached pic, I have no doubt about the cheapest pilot in the Universe........[sm=what_smile.gif]

Cheers

Billyfloyd

Reading these posts makes we want to go crash one of my planes so I can aquire some "repair experience"!  It would also help me to finally figure out what some of the stuff is that I got when I bought my planes.  Great topic, guys!!

Bundubasher

Hi BillyFLoyd, hey, don't worry, that 3rd rock from the sun sometimes has this characteristic to jump into the air and knock a flying plane clean out of it's flight path.........they explained it to me once over a couple of beers.... all I came remember was it has something to do with the alignment of the sun, moon, Jupiter and the plane.......... whether it is correct or not, the fact remains that planes get knocked out of the sky... you will have your experience too....... Cheers


Talking about tight pilots. I know a guy that don't fly that much, his fuel is around 8 years old and by now certainly attracted moisture. He believes filtering the fuel with filterpaper to get rid of the moisture. Needless to say his engine don't run well at all and cuts out. I have never heard this before as moisture is extremely difficult to get out of methanol, if not impossible by normal means. Probably absorbing the oil onto the paer if anything.

Dauntae

Just remember, Every plane comes with an expiration date, They just used invisible ink so none of us know what it is....[X(]

Dauntae

rambler53

My Feedback: (494)

We search for these types for a laugh. When we crash a plane into pieces, we leave it at the field parking area in a pile sometimes when it's a windy day with guys that haven't flown in awhile, and sure enough a few start picking through the pile. "I can fix that" or "there's a perfectly good mount and control horns on this fuselage".
I call two guys routinely to see when they're flying, we help each other carry planes to the line, search for lost planes, apply 1st aid if the need arises....anyway, I always tell them "Yeah retired the PT-19 today, it's in the trash can waiting for Wednesday pick up" and sure enough in 30 minutes it's gone.
I'll rebuild a kit, but not an ARF.

proanti1

My Feedback: (2)

Why is it frowned upon to pick through wreckage looking for parts? Are [some of] you guys to proud to use old stuff? When someone crashes and leaves the pile of plane there, I usually pick through it and take the control horns, pushrod tubes, and just about everything that isn't balsa. I hate having to ask for parts out at the field or a get together when I just feel like bringing the plane and a glow ignitor, especially when it leads to watching some smug ******* dig through a box full of new crap and say "hmm, well I dont have any thing to give ya... sorry". Half my parts have come from wreckage, so I dont mind handing the crap out by the handfull... hell, I have even given out engines I have found (haha, I love when someone says "bring me the receiver and servos, you can have the rest"). And leave them in the parking area in a pile? so the wind blows the covering and balsa all over the place? personally, I like my runway free of garbage... and I appreciate it when people pick their exploded plane up and put it in the garbage can so conveniently placed. I personally have taken crashed planes home and rebuilt them... of course they never fly right, but they are still fun, and you wont cringe so much when you lawn dart the thing.

ckangaroo70

My Feedback: (51)

How about a guy who writes DA-50 on the side of his FREE Ryobi weedeater engine because he is to cheap to buy the real thing?

foodstick

ckang, I may be stealing that low cost horse power trick !

cheapflyer91

I think that I am probably the cheapest flier at my field. Most of my equipment was either free or bought at a swap meet.
I am also the recipient of many smart comments for the oxidizing, scrap metal engines I employ.
Oh well, I enjoy the challenge of rebuilding $1.298 power plants i buy from swap meets.
Anyway where else are you going to get a RTF sport plane for $120. Even if it is held together with scotch tape.

dannfive0

Last winter flying my Vapor indoors all season I burnt my motor out. Of course too impatient and cheap to order another one I scrounged my house looking for anything that possibly had a small brushed motor in it. Cd and tape decks, too big. So I found one in a small mustache/beard trimmer aka Magic Razor. It worked pretty good.

vicman

My Feedback: (10)

I once got a few extra runs out of a burnt out .40LA by taking the sleeve out and heating it strategically to make it shrink in the right area. Thus giving me compression back. I reeeellie wanted to fly but didn't want to spend money for a new engine that day.

Crazy4Flight

My Feedback: (540)

How about the guy who solders Futaba J connectors, from dead servos, on even older S28 servos with "G" plugs.

on_your_six

My Feedback: (11)

Spring is coming... I would like everyone to keep their eyes pealed for that next level of "recycling" and report back. Oh the DA-50 marking was classic... kudos

I will be watching a particular pilot, cuz I know I can depend on him for a good laugh. Heck, I dig reusable stuff out of my own untimely deaths, but there is a limit to how far I will go. I encourage you to proceed without limits.

Has anyone built an aircraft out of free materials like the coffee stirrers at Starbucks? Ooops wrong crowd... you guys would never buy a $7.00 latte. How many guys grab the catchup cups at Mickey Ds for epoxy? I know you cheep b....ds eat there.

foodstick

I can get a 22 oz. refill custom mix coffee for $1.05 ...if I wash out the foam glass !!!

Bundubasher

Hey Six, been skimping on your English spelling lessons lately old chap........
Nah, just yanking your chain.