You know them, those scale models that rarely see action. I admit I have a couple...and probably so do many of you. So here's your chance to post a photo (or two) of those Hanger Queens that you really really really want to get back in the air...but for whatever reasons...haven't gotten around to.

My SE5a hasn't been in the air since last fall...and it's been three years since the Snipe flew. I've been telling myself, I needed to improve my WWI flying skills before trying again. At the time I finished the Snipe, I had never flown a WWI model. I built my Puppeteer to learn how to fly a biplane. Then I decided to build the SE5a as a "quick build" and use it as an "everyday" flier...and as practice for the Snipe. That ended up taking a year. But the SE5a's maiden flight was such a hair-raiser (seriously tail heavy) and the second flight was also a knee-knocker, so I sort of lost my nerve.

No respectable RC scale model should be doomed to a life in the hanger...or hanging on the ceiling. They are meant to be flown...and if such be their destiny...crashed. Hanger rash is no respectable way to go.

So here are my Hanger Queens. Let's see yours. May they all find blue skies again soon.

Here is the 1/5 scale Fokker FII,
made only a couple of flights in the last three years []
and is doing a good job in collecting dust for some time now,

Frank

I can see why you'd want to take care of it. How does it fly?

This 1917 Fokker design flies like a trainer,
all the proportions, incidence airfoil etc. are 100% scale, (about 5'/125mm thick at the root!)
now hanging from the ceiling of my garage covered with a piece of plastic,
(note to myself: have to remove the batteries and charge them)

Frank

Don't have any , Abu!!!!! They fly or they fly, period.

There must be one that gets less air time than the others. Anyway, I'm much more of a builder who flies, than a flier who builds.

Here my RAF SE-5a and Fokker D-VIII. The SE-5a didn't fly at all this year due to a bad field at my home club and the D-VIII did one flight at the Dutch Dawn Patrol. I sold the D-VIII to a friend so she will be flying next year [8D]

My FW-190 gets the least flight time. Mostly because its a pain to assemble and the seidel radiL is just barely enough power to fly it. This winter I plan to remove the seidel to install it on my 26% GeeBee R2 and place a Dle-55 with a custom muffler on the 190.

I dont think I flew any of the WW1 planes this year. The worst queen though is my Bellanca CF done in 1/6 scale. It is the worst flying model airplane of all time, so I dont want to fly it. Cant pawn it off on someone in good conscience either. All my planes have been hanger queens this year; probably not more than 10 times have I been out. Past Sunday my YS110 shattered in the air; only thing holding the two parts together was the back plate. So that plane is a HQ until I fix the engine.

The Bellance CF, now there's a gorgeous aircraft! And those wing-like struts, wow!

http://airandspace.si.edu/collection...d=A19620015000

What do you think makes this such a difficult to fly model?

Most I think is my model. I know it is my model. I bashed it out of a Sig Kadet Sr. kit. The fuselage, gear, and tail was scratch as close as I could to the 3-view. The wing was almost exactly the right span; added the right number of wing ribs added ailerons and the wing tips. Wing cord was about 1.5 in too wide. Made the wing struts. I am thinking the perfect lazy day scale plane because it is a trainer. Wrong. The worst thing are the wing struts; they interfere with the airflow to the stab. It flies like the half the stab fell off in flight. It has the worst adverse yaw I have ever seen; I thought I hooked the ailerons up backwards it was so bad. Went to rudder to steer. It is really sensitive; like 3D model amounts of control. The only way I have been able to fly it is increase the stab size 50% and remove the wing struts, and it still does not fly well. You cant fly it in any kind of wind. Flaws I see are lots of wing with a short fuselage and wing strut airflow. Here are some counterintuitive thoughts if the wing did not lift as much or it was heavier, it would fly better. At 80 some of inch wingspan, I think the plane is too small for scale configuration. I have flown this plane 15 times, 5 were crashes with first 4 crashes being the first flights. I would like to build one with a scale airfoil but bigger but I hate to put the time in and not get anything out.
It is a beautiful airplane. I have seen it and it is a grand airplane.

if I post a picture, it means I have a problem....no picture, no proof, no problem

Hanger queen in the making and I will fly it.


Peter

Does my old lady count?

Only if you can get her into the air!

The aero-modelers dilemma. Should I build or should I fly. If I build I’ll never fly. If I fly I’ll crash and then back to build. The answer plan and simple. Buy an electric ARF and fly the blank out of it. Your most likely to be a better flyer learning on an ARF that is twitchy in the air and then find out how much better your larger scale builds fly. A pleasant experience. In general I admire good pilots over good builders. Simply put…a good pilot can fly a bad build.

BTW, Peter, that's one darn beautiful model you've got going there!

I fly about as much as weather and circumstances allow...I just don't fly my fine scale models as much as a should. I guess I'm willing to risk my "beater" models in all kinds of conditions, but I keep wanting that "perfect day" to fly the special models. And I know that I'm actually only an intermediate flyer.

I've actually done most of my learning on ARFs. But not the small twitchy electrics. I've heard that can be good training, but just can't bring myself to do it. They just look so ugly in the air and fly like insects.

Builders that fly have guts.

Or at least a gut.

I probably have close to 50 that fit into that category, the other 50 are kits.
[X(]

Here's my Hanger Queen, never flown, hasn't even tasted castor oil. It's a Proctor Nieuport 11, anyone know what the engine is?

Is it going to fly? Someday? I just couldn't build a model then NEVER fly it at least once. Particularly not one as nice as that.

BTW, when I was a kid building Guillow's WWI kits, long before I learned that people actually made the things fly, I'd hang my finished models up for a while...until I got bored with them. Then I'd pack them with matches, hang them from a string on a pole, and create my own little Hollywood special effects! Oh, how balsa and dope do burn!

Also, while I do have these two hanger queens, which I WILL be flying again, at no point have I ever had more than three flyable models at any one time.

I have to keep building as I keep flying..I fly so much that the odds always stack up due to weather, wind, landings and usually " pilot " pushing the limits...... If you guys need someone to fly them there hanger queens , I humbly offer myself for the coveted task...... and guys " BEAUTIFUL AIRPLANES "......

SLOPE FAST - SOAR DEEP

guamflyer

Gentlemen
Oh yes the utter fear and anxiety of that first takeoff of your beautiful, hard work to be thrust into the wild blue wonder not really knowing what will happen. Well I build, mostly scratch and always large long projects. I also always test fly my own planes. The reason for this is I can't amagine the awful feeling of someone having to explain to me why it crashed. In that I mean how they feel. Also the joy one feels after that landing has been made and the pride that goes along with it. The last two years I built a 1/4 scale Stinson Reliant scratch built from Hostetlers plans, and a kit of the STA Ryan, Byrons the following year. Both airplanes were TEST flown at Rhinebeck Aerodrome! yup that narrow no where to go if there was trouble, and lots of trees, runway. Both planes flew flawlessly and actually ended up winning first place each year. If you build them right and have the guts to push that throttle forward you'll be fine. It is a very difficult dission for us all to fly these highly detailed models, but really isn't that the reason we build them?
TK