Radio Controlled Airplanes - Who flies them?

[FiremanBill]

We got to talking about this in another thread so to avoid completely hijacking that one I wanted to start one here and see who all is into flying Radio controlled aircraft.

I have been flying for a little over 10 years now. I started out in electrics, dabbled with glow for a while and now fly a mix of electric and gasoline powered models.

My smallest are some of the UMX micro's from E-Flite that we take on just about ALL our camping trips up to a 1/4 scale 9ft wingspan Super Cub.

I fly a mix of scale and "go fast, turn left" type planes. My fastest is a Seagull Models Shoestring that I have had clocked at 147.8 mph, and a Ritewing Demon at 156.25 mph.

I also like to do a lot of night flying whenever possible.

 

['Lil Guy']

An unusual one (well not for me...) At least one of my model airplanes. Most campgrounds have at least a semi decent sized field I can fly in and it is always a fun time showing them off to everyone. Last time out it rained pretty much the whole weekend so I didn't get to do any flying.

Congratulations on your hobby. I have a few of those things myself. Only have 2 left. A 1/4 scale Super Cub (which I want to put floats on) and a Spitfire with retracts. Got rid of all of my big planes. Hope to run into you someday and we can put them up together.

 

[FiremanBill]

Re: What item can you not camp without?

Congratulations on your hobby. I have a few of those things myself. Only have 2 left. A 1/4 scale Super Cub (which I want to put floats on) and a Spitfire with retracts. Got rid of all of my big planes. Hope to run into you someday and we can put them up together.

I have the Hangar 9 1/4 SC as well. What motor do you have on yours? I have the Evolution 33cc in mine. I only have about 40 or so planes at the moment...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiOA5gwAIMo

 

[Lynn1130]

Re: What item can you not camp without?

A fun hobby and a few of my builds. You can probably tell that I have been heavy on the warbirds.

 

[FiremanBill]

Re: What item can you not camp without?

Nice! Who makes your Corsair. I have a Top flite .60-1.20 kit on the shelf waiting it's turn to get built. I have all the gear for the robart retracts to go in it. Going to run some type of gasoline engine in it. I really don't like the glow stuff. Electric or gas for me.

 

[Lynn1130]

Re: What item can you not camp without?

KMP when I bought it but now CMP, I think. VQ Models sells them. The Corsair was powered by an OS 200. I have about 1/2 glow and 1/2 gas now. Gas is cheaper to run and less messy. I will never say never, but it is unlikely that I will power warbirds with electric. They need to sound like a plane with an engine and not whine. LOL Of all I think the P-61 is my favorite but the Corsair and Spitfire are up there. As a kid I used to watch the Corsairs fly over base at Hickam on their way to Pearl.

 

['Lil Guy']

Re: What item can you not camp without? . . . Actually . . . electricity!

I've got the Evo 33 in mine also, Haven't even started it up yet to break in. Got all of my batts up front to get the cg right. Had to space the engine forward a bit to get clearance. How does the 33 pull that plane along.. The H9 SC is a good looking plane. Also had a smaller H9 Corsair with a Saito 125 in it. You could hover it with that engine. Unlimited verticle. My H9 Spitfire also has a Saito 125.

 

[FiremanBill]

Re: What item can you not camp without? . . . Actually . . . electricity!

Mine balances perfect. I have the ignition battery up front next to the tank and two rx batteries, one under each floor panel.

I have all of my smaller stuff in electric, I've only been flying for about 11 years now and we started out that way. The big birds are more economical with gas. Big lipos are expensive. I had a 27% Pitts that I had set up on a 12s Lipo with a big Hacker motor. 4 minutes of flight time and 2 hours of charging, no fun there.

Lynne is right though, warbirds need that sound. There is a guy in our club that flies all electric warbirds, just doesn't sound right.

Here is a couple of my big electrics, Pilot one Piper PA-12 and Top FLite Cessna 182

 

[Lynn1130]

Re: What item can you not camp without? . . . Actually . . . electricity!

The O-2 was a fun project. It was a KMP Cessna 337 that I did a total repaint and decal on to make it a FAC O-2 from Vietnam era. It was powered by 2 OS 91 two strokes. The landing you see was with the rear engine out. That plane would take off, fly and land with one engine out. More than enough power. Problem came when I did a go-round and gave it too much power. It rolled over with the power at a low altitude and there was not enough time to save it. One of those, "I knew it would do that", but stupid pilot tricks.

 

[FiremanBill]

Here are a couple pics of my bigger ones.

Left to right
1/4 Scale Hangar 9 Super Cub with Evolution 33cc gasoline engine
1/5 scale Pica Waco YMF-5, electric powered
1/4 Scale Pilot one Piper PA-12, electric
1/5 Scale Top Flite Cessna 182, electric
1/4 Scale Seagull models "Shoestring" racer, electric

 

[Nabo]

Hubby does the RCR cars, racing every other Saturday. Bill - are you the one who filmed your plane flying thru a firework display? That was cool.

 

[FiremanBill]

Yes, My Son and I was asked to fly that night. We did a trial run the night before while they shot a couple off to get a feel for how the lay of the land went and where the spectators would be. We determined that we would be far enough away from the crowd so we went ahead the next night. I would not recommend trying this without full cooperation of all parties involved. there was a certain element of danger to what we were doing had one of the planes got hit by a shell. We were flying very lightweight hollow core foam wings with very little mass to them. Had one of them got hit we felt very confident that they would fallen harmlessly to the ground away from the onlookers.

This was at Misty Mountain Camp Resort in Crozet VA. on July 4th of 2013.

We had a "Blast"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVHFbZBjFWc

 

[jimtoo]

I put it all in one place guys.
Thanks
Jim M

 

[FiremanBill]

I put it all in one place guys.
Thanks
Jim M

thanks, but now this thread makes no sense at all... everything is out of order

 

[jimtoo]

I missed the first post ... they move according to time posted.. should be OK now.
Jim M

 

[porthole]

I used too - does that count? Played with helo's for awhile until it got to expensive landing upside down.
RC'ing was in my family before I was. I've seen pics of my grandfathers stuff as well as some of his tube radios.

 

[FiremanBill]

I used too - does that count? Played with helo's for awhile until it got to expensive landing upside down.
RC'ing was in my family before I was. I've seen pics of my grandfathers stuff as well as some of his tube radios.

Nice, Nowadays there are really good simulators. I have wrecked probably close to 3 million dollars worth of heli's on the sim, that little red reset button fixes them every time!

 

[TomSt]

I fly IMAC all the way down to micros. the simulator keeps the thumbs nimble. Two other members of our camping club also fly

 

[DocFather]

My last plane was a Beech 58. I miss flying.

 

[FiremanBill]

Nice Doc! I miss flying too, I got about 10 hours behind the yoke of a C-172 out of the Aero Club here at Langley AFB before they closed it down. My son and I were both taking lessons. He wants to do it as a career and I just for fun so when we had to pay almost double to fly at the local airport I stopped so he could continue. He just about has his ticket now. so it has paid off.