RC planes ... to full-scale

I've been flying rc stuff for decades. Current favorites are foamies (E-Flite Pitts and T-28 Trojan), but lately I've been getting back into rc conversions of stick-n-tissue models. Her's the latest, a Fokker DR.I, 20" span. Noses on the WWI aircraft are so short that you have to really have to get the weight forward to fend off tail-heaviness. Good therapy for the COVID-19 lockdown!

Lessons learned in rc translate directly to full scale. For instance, we've all run out of charge in the air, and it ingrains a reflexive instinct to point the nose down and attain that best glide!!

IMG_5052.jpg IMG_5049.jpg IMG_5074.jpg
 
"A model that is nose-heavy flies poorly. A model that is tail heavy flies once."

I still remember that advice, given by a fellow flying club member as I was building my first .40 size trainer. It made me very careful to be sure the finished model was within the CG range indicated on the plans.
 
My first R/C in 1973, a Sterling Fledgling with an O.S. Max .35 and a Kraft Sport Series radio:

upload_2020-4-18_18-24-43.jpeg

Later we got into 1/2A models... this is me with a J&J "Eyelash" circa maybe 1975 or 76, a miniature version of their "Eyeball" pattern ship. IIRC it has a Cox .051 in it. Later I took that plane with me to Parks College and flew it off the old airstrip behind the dorms. That's Dad's Ace Whizard, I think, in the background:

upload_2020-4-18_18-29-28.jpeg
 
GaryM said:
" A model that is tail heavy flies once."
Click to expand...

I taught myself to fly C/L, a long and crashy process to get that first lap in. No idea why I persisted with the endless rebuilds. My friend also built a model and couldn't get beyond the launch. Eventually I tried to fly his plane.

Oh dear!

Aft CG, all over the sky. Managed to endure the flight which included an inadvertent double loop, well it did a 1/2 loop itself and I applied up elevator to get back round and it did 2 loops in the blink of an eye, and got it down without damage.

Too much glue, dope, paint.
 
I still actively fly RC. All I fly now is Slope gliders which I build in my laboratory aka my garage. I'm lucky to be able to utilize the wind as my fuel, and no longer come home smelling like Jet A, Castor Oil, or Gasoline after a day of RC flying. I had some good gigs going in the RC world for a while. We were flying helicopters, turbine jets, giant scale aerobatics, giant scale racers, and whatever else had some sort of wing attached to it. At one point I was second in command of a large RC website flying giants. We sold that off, and kind of got out of the hobby for a bit until the sirens song grew strong again, and I started building slope gliders. I have a thing for nostalgia in RC. I own a couple of mint Hobie Hawks, and truly enjoy the vintage side of modeling. Back in the day, when you walked into a hobby store, and you could tell when the kits were freshly stocked because the scent of spruce and balsa with a twist of polyester heat shrink monokote film in the air was strong. Now its all foam : ( except for the builders. Now a days I've been doing lots of vacuum bagging, and molding. fun stuff. PSS (power slope scale) mustang, and spitty, 1978 Hobie Hawk IMG_20190514_161425.jpg IMG_20190516_172711 (1).jpg 20180602_134507.jpg
 
Last edited:
You guys are waking up that old RC bug!

I’ll always be a glider guider even though I gave up the full scale racing awhile ago. The right model (a smallish RTF with a built up balsa wing - HL, Hi-start or electric) could quickly get some $$ out of me.

I’m not a heli guy but I did enjoy playing with the toy ‘copters around the house. Microheli huh? Oh boy.

But a good park flier would do the trick. I will probably pull the trigger on something during the shutdown.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
I prefer slope soaring over powered RC for the simplicity and the sleekness(?) of slope planes. Just launch and fly for however long your RX battery lasts. When I lived in So. Cal there were many sloping venues to choose from, but in So. Oregon not so much. I wouldn’t touch a motor or an engine if there was a decent slope nearby. Still, I enjoy powered RC and building with sticks as it’s an alternative to the slope when it’s all you’ve got.
 
Brad Smith said:
I prefer slope soaring over powered RC for the simplicity and the sleekness(?) of slope planes. Just launch and fly for however long your RX battery lasts. When I lived in So. Cal there were many sloping venues to choose from, but in So. Oregon not so much. I wouldn’t touch a motor or an engine if there was a decent slope nearby. Still, I enjoy powered RC and building with sticks as it’s an alternative to the slope when it’s all you’ve got.
Click to expand...

So you never got into hand launch? I didn’t either but desperately wanted to. Yes slope soaring is the easiest but just like full scale soaring it can get, well, repetitive. I love searching for, finding and climbing in thermals. I remember my very first thermal flying a rubber powered AMA Delta Dart. I got it trimmed just right and was making nice consistent flights off my front stoop. Then on one flight, as the motor ran down, the darn thing just kept circling and climbing. We ran to the back yard but it was just getting higher. Tracked it across a vacant lot and finally got it back a quarter mile downwind. WOW, I was hooked.

Oh if I could get back some of the time I spent hooking thermals with paper airplanes in high school.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
Bill Watson said:
So you never got into hand launch? I didn’t either but desperately wanted to. Yes slope soaring is the easiest but just like full scale soaring it can get, well, repetitive. I love searching for, finding and climbing in thermals. I remember my very first thermal flying a rubber powered AMA Delta Dart. I got it trimmed just right and was making nice consistent flights off my front stoop. Then on one flight, as the motor ran down, the darn thing just kept circling and climbing. We ran to the back yard but it was just getting higher. Tracked it across a vacant lot and finally got it back a quarter mile downwind. WOW, I was hooked.
Oh if I could get back some of the time I spent hooking thermals with paper airplanes in high school.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...

I learned to fly and thermal with a HOB 2x6. I’ve never tried hand launch or discus launch but might take it up as there are plenty of fields and schools around to launch from. Someday soon I’ll give it a try.
 
DLG is a blast, as you learn to focus on being smooth, and recognizing subtle air changes. Coordinated slow flight, changing wing camber, and coring of thermals is a blast. Too much fun with an 8 oz. glider. Just remember like womens underware, the less there is, the more it costs. Lighter DLG stuff is ridiculously expensive.
 
Peter Ha said:
My Albatross
Click to expand...

Nice.

Here’s my Albatros Triplane. Published in the December 2006 issue of Flying Scale Models.

a6199eba1a3fe7bd8981bf78a25fbb80.plist
 
Another slope guy here. Been flying R/C on and off since the mid '70's, haven't fun-flown a model with a motor in years. Mostly scratch PSS stuff, and I like non-traditional subjects.

A buddy launching one of mine at Cajon Pass. It flies every bit as bad as you'd expect.
IMG_3847.jpg

Nauga,
whose ugly goes all the way to the bone
 
Why hadn't I ever thought of building an E-2 sailplane...Oh yea. that reason. :D Very cool though!
 
nauga said:
Another slope guy here. Been flying R/C on and off since the mid '70's, haven't fun-flown a model with a motor in years. Mostly scratch PSS stuff, and I like non-traditional subjects.

A buddy launching one of mine at Cajon Pass. It flies every bit as bad as you'd expect.
View attachment 84924

Nauga,
whose ugly goes all the way to the bone
Click to expand...
What? A Hawkeye? :)
If I had Nauga skills, I would have a clever tag line about living in the mole hole ...
 
I build ugly planes that fly great. I was surprised how well my LEG Mustang flew, just wish I had the skills to make it beautiful but it's just not in my DNA. There are builders and there are flyers...and occasionally both!
Much respect to those that can put the time and effort to build PSS ships that are beautiful and fly great.
 
Last edited:
Built em as a kid. RC was mostly gliders with a little .049 rubber banded to the top for flatland launches if no ridge was around.
 
Jeremy Billeaudeaux said:
Still passable, Theres some run off damage where it runs into a drainage, but its stable.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the pics. Sites and roads like this and Vincent and Parker are good examples of why I'm not too worried about getting snagged for not having "Drone ID" ;)

Nauga,
got lead?
 
Is Fermin still open or have the "bird people" shut it down?
 
Fermin is on the DL. Its hit or miss, and I don't think it was the bird folks (in June/July yes) but rather a new ranger who was enforcing the model airplanes in park ordinance. Guys got some guff there for flying. I do know guys will go out there still, and fly for about an hour or so, as to hopefully not have an interaction with Mr. Ranger. That place is the most incredible lift anywhere. I have a couple of 80 oz sleds I have for that place.
 
nauga said:
And a landing pattern that will make diamonds. ;)

Nauga,
and the overhead approach
Click to expand...


The overhead, left pattern avoid the palm trees at about 185 mph , not to far back to get sucked into the rotor on the back of the hill, cross 4 lanes of traffic, and land without hitting the fence... yup thats the one.
 
Kent Wien said:
I was lucky to be surrounded by aviation in Alaska. But I was too young to fly, so at age 9 I started flying R/C gliders and shortly after airplanes. By the 7th grade I built and flew a Cricket R/C helicopter. I continued to fly models while training in the real thing. The knowledge the hobby gave me was invaluable.

R/C helis helped tremendously when learning to hover a Robinson.

That R/C addiction led to becoming an airline pilot although just yesterday I bought an R/C Husky, so I’m still addicted. The hobby is so much less expensive than in the 70s and the selection and technology is far better.

Every pilot should learn to fly R/C! It’s a blast!
Click to expand...
I've flown for over 50 years the real stuff and thank God I never crashed. I've gotten into R/C flying and I have spent months constructing a plane and I crash and destroy it in 7 seconds. Total R/C plane crashes and loss, total 12! But now I'm getting better. How did I think because I could fly real planes, complex and all, that I could fly R/C? Doesn't work that way, right?
 
David F.Soom said:
I've flown for over 50 years the real stuff and thank God I never crashed. I've gotten into R/C flying and I have spent months constructing a plane and I crash and destroy it in 7 seconds. Total R/C plane crashes and loss, total 12! But now I'm getting better. How did I think because I could fly real planes, complex and all, that I could fly R/C? Doesn't work that way, right?
Click to expand...
A friend of mine has a big 33% gasser edge 540 I've been thinking about buying... I keep remembering all the RC planes I've smashed into the ground and how bad it would hurt to smash close to $1k into the ground. It sure is fun though
 
David F.Soom said:
I've flown for over 50 years the real stuff and thank God I never crashed. I've gotten into R/C flying and I have spent months constructing a plane and I crash and destroy it in 7 seconds. Total R/C plane crashes and loss, total 12! But now I'm getting better. How did I think because I could fly real planes, complex and all, that I could fly R/C? Doesn't work that way, right?
Click to expand...

It doesn't work that way, right.
 
G-Man said:
At the risk of repeating myself: this whole thread is just chock-full of awesome and terrific!
Click to expand...

I would of thought this topic was explored in past?
 
With ready to fly self recovery rc airplanes these days anyone can teach them self’s to fly. Long live the days taking months building a kit and smashing it up on first flight. It’s great time to be in this hobby.
 
I started as a kid in the 90's flying line control planes. I loved taking apart those cox .049 engines and putting them back together. Then as a senior in high school I bought a used balsa gasser plane. While in the military I had a few friends that flew RC and that made things fun. We would hang streamers off the back and dog fight. Was a blast, but blazing through balsa planes was getting expensive. So then I stared building many many planes our of sign board and used this site for all the inspiration...https://spadtothebone.net/ built those planes until I got into full scale, I still have the itch for RC but but have never got back into it.
 
So I just took delivery of an ELF; an RC DLG (Radio Controlled Discus Launched Glider). A very finely built, almost ready to fly, hand launch glider that is launched using this ‘discus’ method, something I’ve never seen except in YouTube videos. Still waiting for some radio bits and pieces to be delivered.

Soaring flight has always attracted me. After being trained in RC powered flight back in the early proportional days, I migrated to gliders. Tried hand towing, ridge soaring and finally hi-starts. Played around with hand launch free flight gliders. Then after training in full scale power, gliders took over again and I gained my PPG before my PPL. After owning and racing 2 sailplanes, I came back to power flying again with a Maule to get my tailwheel chops and then to a RV10 to get my building and maintaining chops, just like RC.

I’ve said all this before here but after a get-out-of-house-and fly somewhere mission to play a round of golf, I realize I still see the skies through a glider pilot’s eyes. After takeoff I monitor the convection level. At 11:00am it’s blue skies and light thermals to about 2,000’. I know as heating continues the thermals will grow to 6-7k. Cruising down to N. Myrtle at 6500’ things are perfectly smooth but I already know that my return after 4:00 will be choppy unless I climb above 7k on the way back. There were occasional cumulus at 7k but I decided to stay at 5500 for more favorable winds and a shorter climb. Choppy it was and I was tempted to dolphin fly the thermals instead of doing the very inefficient straight and level... but a constant altitude is safer for traffic avoidance and easier for ATC to manage.

The ELF was on my doorstep when I got home and I began to dream of exploring the ‘micro thermals’ that RC DLGers chase. Too small and too low for a full scale glider to work just has a fully developed mature thermal is too strong and high for an RC glider to work.

Soaring birds work the entire band of lift from dozens of feet off the ground to cloud base and beyond. I really love sharing the skies with those guys and look forward to joining them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top