Wasting time building some models

Tim Hancock · 03-21-2011, 05:43 AM

I was heavily into RC airplanes in the early 90's with an old buddy.... He typically bought the kits/materials and I would design/build them. He moved away and I strarted building real airplanes.

Fast forward to now.... He moved back and we are getting back into RC... He and one of his employees bought some indoor electric slow flyers (Vapors) this past winter and I jumped onto the bandwagon with an E-flite Extra 300 Micro 3D. Now with spring in the air, I started building the three of us some durable cheap nitro 3D airplanes based roughly on plans I found on the internet.

I got one in the air to test yesterday in a 15 mph wind and it flys awesome!

Just need to finish assembling two more and load em up with stickers! Just what I needed... another time draining hobby.

mossguy · 03-21-2011, 05:57 AM

Very interesting! More pics, please.

Tom

Tim Hancock · 03-21-2011, 05:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NotaBRG

Wow, very cool! Is that a coke bottle for the fuel tank?

Yeah.... it is kind of a joke because when the three of us get together we all three drink Vodka and Diet Cokes. I have been peeling and saving labels from our favorite cheap vodka bottles and will be sticking them on the airplanes.

A side benefit is that the Diet Coke bottles are free.... I have some old store bought tanks left over from my early RC days, but none of them matched and the stopper plugs were all rotten. Back in the day when building scratch built funfly competition planes I always used tiny lightweight hotel shampoo bottles for fuel tanks..... pretty simple to drill two holes in the lid then shove a couple silicone hoses in them then shove in the clunk and pressure tube fittings inside of those creating a tight fit.... no leaks and no screws to mess with.

Tim Hancock · 03-21-2011, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mossguy

Very interesting! More pics, please.

Tom

I will take some more when they are all three done as well as some video of them thrashing around. The beauty of these coroplast/aluminum/UHMW built turds is that they will survive a beating..... great for learning low/slow 3D type flying.

mossguy · 03-21-2011, 06:11 AM

Thanks Tim. Your model brings back memories of U-control stunt flying in the late '40's early 50's.

crustychief · crustychief's Garage

That is a pretty cool looking " sorta-stick-sorta-duraplane" I made a couple of coroplast planes a while ago, they were fun.

My current project..

Tim Hancock · 03-21-2011, 08:15 AM

That looks nice Chief.... I still have a similar sized Goldberg XTRA300 w/ a SuperTigre 90 on it, an OS .61 powered F14 w/ retracts and a few other "pretty" Balsa planes hanging in my shop. These new "plastic" planes I am building are strictly for beating the hell out of low and slow!

My buddy and I learned to fly RC with coroplast Airplane Factory Airmadillos when we first started out 20 years ago...... these new designs are similar in durability, but will fly at ridiculously low airspeeds in high alpha flight and will hover at 1/2 throttle with an OS .46.

tcar · 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crustychief

That is a pretty cool looking " sorta-stick-sorta-duraplane" I made a couple of coroplast planes a while ago, they were fun.

My current project..

A beech Beech?

Actually a balsa Beech, it looks like.

Beech wings... and fuse... and nose.

Seahawk · 03-21-2011, 01:30 PM

Yet another reason to hate you Tim.

mikester · 03-21-2011, 01:50 PM

Lately I've been trying out electric jets...it's dangerous...Jets get expensive real fast...

RWebb · RWebb's Garage

wow!

next, make one with a WiFi cam on it...

cgarr · cgarr's Garage

I need to get back into this!!!! I just dug out my old scratch built duster I built almost 40 years ago. It was a 6 channel complete with a powder duster box and flaps. I had an OS 40 in it which I still have. This thing was a blast to fly!