- I started radio control modeling in May,
1970, about a month after I got out of the U.S. Army. My first RC
airplane was a Top Flite Headmaster powered by an Enya .15 and controlled
by my newly completed Heathkit 5 channel radio. It was a bit under powered
but after doing a few cart-wheels during landing attempts I managed to
successfully teach myself to fly the model. As I became more proficient
I replaced the Enya with a McCoy .35 engine. Although the McCoy wasn't known
for high quality and slow idle it did give the Headmaster a great boost in
performance which allowed me to learn many new aerobatic maneuvers.
- After flying the Headmaster for about a year I moved up to the
Top Flite Contender. I installed a Super Tigre .56 engine and my
trusty Heathkit radio. It turned out to be a really fine intermediate
airplane as well as a pretty good fun-fly machine. I put over 400
flights on it before it succumbed to engine oil saturation and old age.
I was so happy with this airplane I immediately built a second one. I
installed a new Super Tigre G.60 with tuned muffler and a Hobby Shack
Cirrus radio (built by Futaba). It was even a better performer than my
first Contender. I put over 400 flights on this one before half of the
horizontal stabilizer separated in-flight.
- By this time, I was really interested in pattern flying so I built
a Bridi Super Kaos. I installed my G.60 which I modified with a PDP
(Perry Directional Porting) cylinder and Perry Pumper carburetor for
a fairly significant power boost. Also, I installed a brand new Futaba
FG (FM) radio system which has proven to be very reliable. The Kaos
(which is now 18 years old and still going strong) turned out to be a
really fine pattern ship. It will perform just about any aerobatic
maneuver in the book.
- Along the way I did try my hand at sport pylon racing (not Formula
One). My first racer was a 1/2 A Honker, a design adopted by our local
RC club. It proved to be very economical, lot's of fun and surprisingly
fast for such a small engine. After a couple of years, our club opted to
move up to something a little quicker so we decided to modify Top Flite's
control-line Combat Streak for our purposes. We managed to squeeze the
requisite 3 channel radio into the narrow fuselage (aileron, elevator and
fuel cut-off only) and then bolted K & B's potent 3.5cc free-flight engine
on the front. It made for a very fast, economical racer that was very
easy to fly. Later, we added a tuned muffler and picked up a few more
MPH. The best Streaks were clocked at over 115 MPH around the pylon
course; not bad for only a .21 engine and a fairly fat wing airfoil.
And, this was achieved on only 25% nitro and a box-stock engine.
- After we lost our really terrific flying field my son and I decided
to give RC helicopters a try. My son bought a (very) used Schulter Mini
Boy. It came complete with an OS .45FSR and JR heli radio. Although it
proved to be a maintenance nightmare and difficult to fly, we both
managed to learn to hover. Eventually, my son actually got it into
fast forward flight. Of course, this was after I rebuilt it a few times
after spectacular crashes (every crash was due to a component failure).
- Currently, both my son and I are flying Shuttle ZX's. His is powered
by an OS .32SX-H and controlled by a JR X-347 radio. Mine was originally
powered by an Enya .35H and controlled by a rather basic Airtronics VG6H
 heli radio but I have since replaced the Enya with an
OS.32SX-H and the radio with an Airtronics RD6000 (great system!).
After a year and a half of fooling around, I've finally started some
serious forward flight. I'm now practicing landing approaches. Although
the RC helicopter is incredibly challenging, I've found it to be extremely
fun and rewarding.
- Well, I just completed my first ARF.
 I've had a growing interest in the so-called "3D" flying,
so I decided to try a U-Can-Do 3D airplane. I bought the .46 size model. I
installed my trusty Super Tigre G.61, but I might replace it later with a
.70-size 4-stroke engine. This is also my first tail-dragger airplane, so
I'm hoping it will prepare me for the new Killer Chaos I now have on the
building board (sad note: my faithful Super Kaos mentioned above punched in
last July due to radio interference). I've watched both the .60-size and
.46-size UCD's fly at our field and they look pretty docile during the
takeoff roll and in flight. Now, I just need to figure out a convenient
way to start that inverted engine...
- Update on the U-Can-Do 3D: After fighting the balky G.61 2-stroke
engine for about a half dozen flights, I replaced it with a brand new
Magnum XL-70 4-stroke engine. It's like night and day! Where the G.61
would mysteriously quit during flight, the Magnum just chugs away through
all flight attitudes without a whimper. Also, the Magnum idles extremely
well and so far, is still running after every landing and taxi back. The
airplane will come to a complete stop while the engine ticks over in a
smooth, slow idle! I like this! Also, even though the Magnum isn't
completely broken in yet and I'm still running it very rich, the U-Can-Do
easily hovers at about 3/4 throttle. This maneuver is easier to
accomplish than I anticipated. Perhaps my helicopter experience helps a
little. In any case, I'm now really excited about learning some of the
relatively new 3D maneuvers.
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