Getting Back into an Old Hobby - R/C Airplanes

Jeff Higgins · 10-28-2017, 03:34 PM

Ah, retirement - I'm finding myself getting back into a number of old hobbies and activities, not the least of which is flying model airplanes.

I actually still have the old "squadron", consisting of a number of aerobatic and sport models, powered primarily by four cycle glow engines. I've gone through the fleet and installed new receivers and new receiver batteries, bringing them up to date with the new 2.4GHz radio technology. I've purchased a new Spectrum 2.4GHz transmitter, replacing all of my old Futaba 72MHz AM, FM, and PCM equipment. I've cleaned 20 year old after run oil (50/50 Marvel Mystery Oil and ATF) out of all of the engines and have fired up all of them. I'm getting excited to fly them again.

But first, I have been flying a new genre of "bind and fly" foam aircraft. These are available in various stages of completion (mine are 100% ready to fly right out of the box). One merely "binds" their receivers to one's transmitter - taking advantage of a 200+ model memory in the transmitter - checks control surface throws, and goes flying. Pretty darn slick. No more need for frequency control at the field or any of that; each transmitter has a GUID, a "globally unique identifier" coded into it to which the receiver gets "bound", forever more only recognizing and responding to its own GUID.

Anyway, my starter fleet consists of UMX brand "park flyers", small foam airplanes I can fly on a baseball or football field with room to spare. Their wingspans are all less than two feet, and the heaviest one weighs maybe four ounces ready to fly. They fly on brushless motors and lipo battery packs, getting five to ten minutes per flight, depending how much throttle one uses.

Here they are. The monoplane is a "Spacewalker", I believe originally designed and flown full scale by Hazel Sig, owner of the famous model company. The bipes are, of course, the ubiquitous Pitts S1 and Waco YMF 5D.

RKDinOKC · RKDinOKC's Garage

Yep, it is a whole different world of park flyers.

There is an IMAA field near me that is more like the olden day. Planes must be 1/4 scale or minimum 6ft wing span.

Jeff Higgins · 10-28-2017, 04:47 PM

My old club is still going strong. I'll rejoin next spring when I'm ready to fly my glow powered birds.

https://mar-c.org

They allow everything but the new jet turbines. I've stopped by several times to check it out, and it looks like they have gone mostly electric. The performance of modern brushless/lipo technology is on an even par with glow or gas power, save for flight time at very high performance. The cleanliness and convenience of it is certainly appealing. That said, the noise and smell of glow power sure is cool.

I'll be flying this one out there next spring, my Carl Goldberg Ultimate Bipe. It's about a 50" span, weighs about seven pounds, and sports an OS 1.08 FSR for power (my only two cycle).

RKDinOKC · RKDinOKC's Garage

Those are cool. Took the hobby by storm when they first came out.

Got rid of all my stuff after moving and 3 years of not having time to fly. Figured when I had time to get back into it all the new R/C stuff would be better anyway.

Sure had fun at our fun-fly competitions. All kinds of crazy events including attaching a styrofoam cup to your plane and precision dropping a water balloon on a target. There was always a touch a go event where you had to touch down in a 5 ft square as many times in a row as you could. 22 was the record. We also had night flys where you had to put lights on your plane. And float flys where you attached pontoons and flew off a local pond. It was a fun club.

We even had a road trip event where you took off at our field and flew your plane to a flying field 25 miles away. Most rode in the back of pickups, so even it a lazy boy in the back of a pickup. You typically had to stop for gas somewhere along the way. Some added extra tanks to their planes. It was timed, but nobody really cared. Just making it to the other flying field was cool enough. Remember one guy taking hours and hours. His plane would barely fly faster than the wind speed that day. He did eventually make it.

Oh yeah. remember one old guy made a plane out of plain old corrugated cardboard.

John Rogers · 10-28-2017, 06:51 PM

I went into a hobby shop a month or so ago to get some small brass tubing to split a short length to sit on top of a muzzle loader sight. I looked at the planes and things sure have changed from the park flyers like you to a huge P51 ARF Mustang. I looked at the control line planes and there were no balsa kits, all are ARF even George Aldridge's Nobler stunt plane! The engines were amazing too as they even had a 9 cylinder radial engine! Last planes I flew were in 1964 just before I went into the Navy, way different back then!

cstreit · cstreit's Garage

I've got an attic full of nitro powered planes with old radios...

Used to have to travel an hour to fly them back when I was into it. Now there's a field 1/2 mile from my house but all my equipment is too old. I'll have to start over at some point. Really enjoyed it.

I really do like the idea of the electric stuff. No fuel - not stalling engines, no tuning, no winter prep and preservation...

My favorites were my Extra 300S, but it was a ***** to land. Tip stalled easily. Had to bring it in at nearly 1/3 throttle. I also had a Great Planes Ultimate Bipe that was a hoot. 4 stroke engine, sounded cool....

I love the park flyers. No fuss. Just grab one and go. Have fun!

SCadaddle · 10-28-2017, 08:59 PM

I've been flying RC models for the past 42 years, the first 40 with my father. Now that he is in an assisted living facility and nearly blind at age 97, the hobby has lost its luster. I've got more RC airplanes and related stuff now in my home that I feel like I am living amongst it. I never did buy in to the 2.4 ghz radio systems, still flying and will fly 72 MHz until the end. Some of my Land Surveying equipment uses 2.4 ghz long range blue tooth radios to communicate, and quite often during a days work they will lose their "pairing" and have to reconnect on the fly. It is aggravating. Enough so to say you can keep the 2.4 stuff for model aircraft.

Jeff Higgins · 10-28-2017, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCadaddle

I've been flying RC models for the past 42 years, the first 40 with my father. Now that he is in an assisted living facility and nearly blind at age 97, the hobby has lost its luster. I've got more RC airplanes and related stuff now in my home that I feel like I am living amongst it. I never did buy in to the 2.4 ghz radio systems, still flying and will fly 72 MHz until the end. Some of my Land Surveying equipment uses 2.4 ghz long range blue tooth radios to communicate, and quite often during a days work they will lose their "pairing" and have to reconnect on the fly. It is aggravating. Enough so to say you can keep the 2.4 stuff for model aircraft.

Interesting comments on the 2.4GHz stuff. I still have all of my 72MHz equipment, and my old club still allows its use. Would I be better off sticking with the 72MHz equipment for the bigger models? I've read of no issues with the new 2.4GHz equipment, but I've only been back into this for a very, very short while. I've not seen anyone using 72MHz in my few trips to the club field, which means I would likely have it all to myself. It would also seem to indicate that they are not having any trouble with the 2.4GHz stuff. So, hmmm - what should I do? I can go either way.

Ferraripete · Ferraripete's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

My old club is still going strong. I'll rejoin next spring when I'm ready to fly my glow powered birds.

https://mar-c.org

They allow everything but the new jet turbines. I've stopped by several times to check it out, and it looks like they have gone mostly electric. The performance of modern brushless/lipo technology is on an even par with glow or gas power, save for flight time at very high performance. The cleanliness and convenience of it is certainly appealing. That said, the noise and smell of glow power sure is cool.

I'll be flying this one out there next spring, my Carl Goldberg Ultimate Bipe. It's about a 50" span, weighs about seven pounds, and sports an OS 1.08 FSR for power (my only two cycle).

Beautiful plane Jeff. Enjoy that!!

berettafan · 01:40 AM

Love this stuff. Did electrics for a few years then got out after struggling with a low wing sport plane and saw the hobby becoming exponentially more expensive. Favorite plane was my 6’ wingspan Electro Telemaster. ARF kit. Balsa framed. So easy to fly. I mounted a AA powered point and shoot digital camera under it and she flew fine!

Found the foamies challenging in any wind because they were so light. But you could get the plane itself for next to nothing.

For light and variable days I had a plane called a Slow Stick. Literally an aluminum square rod with a big foam wing, no ailerons. Could fly that out of my garage. I saw videos where guys would attach ribbons to the tails and have dog fights trying to cut the ribbon with their props.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looking back this was in 2006.

RKDinOKC · RKDinOKC's Garage

For a couple of years our club had a club plane. It was a $15 kit and you had to use a cheap Fox 40 for the motor. There were 30 members that participated. We had races, skill event, streamer dog fights, etc. It was 72mhz days and everyone even worked the the local hobby shop to get different crystals so everyone could fly at once. Sounded like a swarm of mad bees when everyone raced at once. It was kaos@ By the end of the summer almost everyone's plane was batttered and patched. The last even was a trash can bash. If you could crash the plane into a barrel trash can in the middle of the field the club gave you a new $15 kit for the next season. Then they started changing the rules to make the planes faster and started losing participants. After a couple of years It got down the using Quickie 500 rules and there were only 3 participants so the club quit having the events. Too bad, it was really fun with everyone having basically the same plane.

SCadaddle · 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Interesting comments on the 2.4GHz stuff. I still have all of my 72MHz equipment, and my old club still allows its use. Would I be better off sticking with the 72MHz equipment for the bigger models? I've read of no issues with the new 2.4GHz equipment, but I've only been back into this for a very, very short while. I've not seen anyone using 72MHz in my few trips to the club field, which means I would likely have it all to myself. It would also seem to indicate that they are not having any trouble with the 2.4GHz stuff. So, hmmm - what should I do? I can go either way.

Your FM 72 MHz gear, narrow banded since 1991, is absolutely fine to use these days. The FCC "slot" is still dedicated to RC use. I witnessed the early days of the Spektrum 2.4 ghz radios and the number of crashes that resulted from those that stepped up to "the bleeding edge" of technology in our hobby. Nowadays, virtually everyone is using 2.4 ghz so the old 72 MHz band is wide open. In 42 years I was never "shot down" by another pilot turning on a radio of the same frequency as mine, I did shoot down one other pilot that forgot to put his frequency clip on the frequency board. That was his problem. In the end days of 72 MHz, my opinion is that the best of the best of the stuff was the JR7202 transmitter with the JR "Scan Select" synthesized receivers. You could program up to 20 models with different frequencies on the transmitter and the receivers could be programmed with the push of a very small button to "pair up" with the 72 MHz frequency to match the one selected on the transmitter. Second to the JR "Scan Select" receivers would be the Berg receivers. The Berg 4 that is in a hard case, almost like an insect in a block of amber, and the swappable crystal, was a great little receiver. The Berg 7 was very nice as well. All the Berg receivers were compatible with Futaba or JR as far as the positive/negative "shift".... I even tested one with an ancient Kraft 7C and it worked fine with that transmitter! The last swap meet I attended I picked up 6 of the JR Scan Select receivers for $30 for the lot.

Bottom line, I wouldn't trash my old 72 MHz gear to "upgrade" to the new cheaply built 2.4 ghz stuff.....especially the garbage you'll find on Hobby King or the sorts.

As for a "club racing league", several years ago, when Sig Manufacturing were still getting ARF models from Herr Engineering, one of our clubs selected the Herr "Little Extra" as the model and spec'd the AP Hornet 09 and APC prop as the power. We had 6 or 7 that would compete in a pylon race type event with a LeMans start. It was a blast. I removed a head shim from my engine to bump up the compression and I was hard to catch. One fellow crashed his and sent it off to my Dad for "repairs". Dad rebuilt his wing and recovered it in top secret fashion down at his office. I found it, picked it up, looked at it, looked at the end of the wing and realized my own Dad had sanded down the profile of the ribs to make a much thinner wing than stock. I exclaimed "You dirty dog! Cheating against your own SON!"

Here is a smoking deal on the Berg 7 receivers. $25 for a receiver and $4 for a crystal. Click on the "crystals" tab to find more than channel 11 and they are a whopping $4.

http://www.castlecreations.com/en/clearance-items

Baz · Baz's Garage

Never did RC......just control line planes and this was back in the 60's. The .049 baby bee engine and kits we assembled. This was the last plane I built...."Big Otto".....