The Aviation and Maritime Hobbyist

                                 SKY MASTER BAE HAWK. KING TECH 180 turbine-FAST

Watch some formation flying, some 3D and a couple of jets.

Coming to the end,,, I was still waiting for the mail order items from Sig and Dively Models. I had a lot I could do in the meantime. I went ahead and made the carb heater box for the cowl. This was just a box made from styrene plastic, the fine mesh screen and a frame over the screen. I used a fine tip on a soldering iron to make what looked like welds on the frame and added some of the resin screws. I had painted the box and mesh black beforehand and used some silver paint for the frame. I painted the cowl Cub Yellow (Coverite Black Baron) and added some tabs to the heater box so I could glue it to the inside of the cowl.  I then waited a couple of weeks before adding a clear top coat to fuel proof it.   A full size Cub has two cutouts in the wing center section. One is in leading edge back to the spar. The other is a skylight behind the spar going back several feet. The windscreen covers the front cutout. The skylight is a separate piece of plexiglass. These are...

 Going Scale Plane Crazy,,,  Once I got that big Sig Cub home I gave it a complete inspection. The original builder had used top quality components and accessories. Except for the damage to the covering in the nose area the rest of the plane looked good. The builder had done an excellent job covering and painting this aircraft. He had even added pinked tape in all the right locations (ribs, leading and trailing edges, seams, etc.). The wings needed nothing done to them so I set them aside and gave some thought about what I wanted to do to make this plane stand out.   In previous posts I told how I had been buying RC magazines and books. One of the soft cover books was about making large RC planes. I think it was called "Giant Steps" and had lots of information about engines, radios, covering and detailing. The was one chapter about Bob Nelitz and his super detailed 1/3 scale Piper J-3 Cub. There were page size plans of this Cub included in the article. This Cu...

Not enough car, not enough skill!  Having to run in the modified class was a real eye opener. I'd like to say I took the RC world by storm but that didn't happen. The Yokomo Dog fighter kicked my ass! My driving skills were developing but racing against guys who were sponsored by RC car manufacturers was hard. Those team drivers were already top tier. My Hot Shot had every upgrade available and I won many local events but the team drivers had access to parts and accessories not available to the general public. I soon became disillusioned with the cut-throat attitude by those drivers! They were sponsored and paid to win and I just wanted to compete on a level playing field! I decided to go back to planes and just raced my Hot Shot in local events when I needed an ego boost.  I had moved once again, to the Sacramento area, and found a local field that had instructors available to help the novice flier. Because of some vision issues I had almost stopped flying but a friend had...

I have always liked to visit local airports. You never know what might be parked on the ramp. Sometimes you get lucky and find a piece of history! 

Moving on Up,,,  After my first race win I waited around for the awards to be given out. Much to my surprise that award amounted to a picture! But, a wins a win. I was also told that the next time I raced it would be in the modified class. Those new parts I had installed were not OEM stock replacement parts so I would have to complete against other cars that had upgrades also. I had watched the modified races and those cars were beasts! They had replaced the stock electric motor with a hi-performance motor. They used special Ni-Cad racing battery packs. New tires were used along with a host of other parts to improve handling. To be competitive I was going to have to do the same. So back to The Ranch Pit Stop in Pomona as they had all the top performance parts in stock.  Since my first trip to Pomona I had taken notice ofwhat other racers were using for motors. I told the counter guy what I wanted and he asked what car I would be putting it into. When I told him a Hot Shot h...

A Day at the Races-Take 2  With those new parts added to my car it, off to the races I went. I didn't want to go to the Ranch Pit Stop, those guys look really good, so I went to one of the local tracks to try out my car. This time I would be prepared. I had repurposed one of my flight boxes. I would use a Goldberg Handi-Tote to carry the charger, which was pretty big, it would also be able to carry the spare batteries and it had a drawer for tools and spare parts. I figured for tools I would bring what I used to build the car, a couple of screwdrivers, wrenches and ball drivers. For spare parts I made sure I had some of those dogbones with me and a few spare nuts and bolts. Overtime that list would grow but for now that's all I took with me.  I felt much more confident this time at the track. I had an upgraded Hot Shot and a really good charger. I had extra batteries and spare parts. I had some practice time driving at the park. It was time to see what I could do with my Ho...

In for a Penny,,  After getting home with my broken Hot Shot I brushed off the dirt and went right to work. I removed the old steering knuckles and bearings from the front arms of the car along with the ball links. Taking a good look at those plastic arms I wondered if there was an upgrade available for them? It also seemed that most of the cars at the track had dual shocks, hmmm , I thought to myself "Maybe I should go to that hobby shop I'd heard about in Pomona and see what was available before going any further". So off to Pomona I went.  That hobby shop was called "The Ranch Pit Stop". It was one of the top spots for R/C racers. It had a Road track and an Off-Road track. That hobby shop had everything. They carried all the stock replacement and hop up parts then available. Many of these aftermarket parts were from small time manufacturers. They had stuff you would not find anywhere else. I stepped up and talked to the counter guy and told him I had a Hot...

A day at the races,,, With my Hot Shot rebuilt and ready to go I asked around the hobby shops what would be a good track to visit. There were a lot of Off-Road tracks popping up everywhere. There were outdoors tracks on private property, many times associated with an adjacent hobby shop. Some cities had even allowed R/C off-road courses to be set up in their parks! The track I heard about the most was located in Costa Mesa. It was an indoor track with a drivers stand, work tables with electrical power for charging and even had a parts shop on site. That sounded good! I grabbed my car, transmitter, battery pack and charger and headed for Costa Mesa.  The track was in an old warehouse. There might have been two separate tracks available to race on, I really don't remember. I think there was a two dollar fee to get in. I do remember that it was big. The track(s) had straightaways and lots of turns and jumps. This was going to be fun! I put my car on the track and took a place on th...

Broken but not Defeated,,, With my Hot Shot tore apart and the receiver removed I took it and the transmitter back to where I bought them. "Frank's Hobby Shop" was at that time a really nice store. About half of the store was for model train enthusiasts and the other half had plastic model kits and R/C planes, cars and a few boats. As noted earlier they had engines and R/C radios on display in the case near the cash register. They also carried all the building supplies and accessories needed to complete a project. It was a well stocked store. I went in and laid my transmitter and receiver on the case. I spoke with "Tony" (he was the owners son) and told him what had happened with my car at the park. How it took off as soon as I switched it on and didn't respond to the transmitter at all. I told him it had worked fine in the few minutes I drove it around in my yard. He took this all in and then went and and got a battery pack and a couple of servos. He plug...

New challenges,, First R/C Car Since finishing that P-51 I had taken a break from airplane building and wanted to try something new. The R/C Car crowd had been around since the 60's. I had some slot-cars when I was young but being able to actually steer a car was want we kids all wanted to do. R/C let you do that. The R/C Cars looked like race cars with glow fuel engines. The were raced on courses set up in parking lots and sometimes indoors. Indoor carpet was put down as bare concrete floors were just too slick. There were special tires and tire "goop" (it made the tires sticky) people would use on bare floors and that helped but control was still an issue and the tires and goop made a mess of those floors. Carpet improved the traction and made real racing possible.  Outdoors or indoors those racecourses might be as simple as straightaways and a few turns or elaborate layouts like a LeMans track. The cars were fast but temperamental and noisy and you had to build t...

Stepping into Scale  This is what greeted you upon first opening the box. Lots and lots of wood!  This would be the first R/C Scale plane I had ever built. Scale model planes come in several variations. There is "True Scale" which is an exact miniature version of a specific full size plane. These planes copy the outline of the plane, wings and tail group. The paint scheme and markings along with panels lines, rivets, access doors and all the other features of the the full size plane are duplicated. These planes win contests and are very complex and difficult to build and fly. Next is "Semi-Scale" they are not exact copies. The differences may be subtle but are noticeable to the trained eye. They often look much like the originals but some changes to the airframe, wing and tail group are made to make the plane easier to build and fly. These planes often have much of the additional detailing done as on a "True Scale" plane and you end up with a very go...