New Plane(s)!
Since I had sold my plane and made some money on the deal it was time to look for another one. Most hobby shops had bulletin boards that listed upcoming R/C events. Pattern (aerobatic) and Scale competitions were very popular as were what is called a Fun Fly. With Pattern and Scale your plane and your performance was judged on multiple criteria. For Pattern these include noise, weight and size and your ability to fly the "Pattern". Scale R/C planes are judged on how close they replicate the full sized plane. To get a high score you need to duplicate every detail on the way down to rivets and brake lines and fly it in a prototypical manner. These contests often serve as qualifiers for regional, national or international competitions. A Fun Fly is a low key get together with no flight or aircraft judging. A Fun Fly can be for any type of plane or be genre specific. Scale, Jet or Warbirds are just some of the Fun Fly events that are available. All these events are almost always open to the public and are a very enjoyable way to spend the day.
What I noticed about these events is that they often had a swap meet or auction. Flyers would bring kits, planes and equipment they no longer used or wanted and sell or auction it off. There was lots of merchandise available. Kits that had never been opened or started but never finished. Maybe they owner lost interest in that plane or it was beyond their building abilities. Some of the finished planes would be flyable and some needed repairs made. Engines and radio equipment along with accessories would also be available. If you knew what to look for you could find some real bargains at these events. I had been to several of these events and swap meets/auctions but never bought anything. Now with no plane I decided to go to the next event and see if something caught my eye.
Mile Square Park hosted many of these events so it wasn't long until I found myself back at the park. This was the premier R/C facility at that time and drew a lot of spectators. The swap meets held there would have more for sale than most hobby shops. I bought a kit and a couple of planes. One plane had a engine and radio and was flyable as is. The other one had an engine but no radio and needed some repairs. The best part was I had only spent about $150.00 of the $400.00 I had made from selling my SIG KOMANDER!
Looking over my purchases at home I decided that the plane with the engine and radio would be a good place to start. Even though it was ready to fly the original builder didn't do a very good job finishing or covering it. I thought it could use a face lift. I stripped off the covering, checked all the glue joints and re-glued where needed. The builder of this plane had not sanded the edges anywhere. I sanded the airframe and wing (on the patio!) and rounded off all those edges. I recovered it all in white MonoKote with red trim. The engine needed a good cleaning. It was a K&B .61 with a lot of baked on gunk. I picked up some kind of cleaner and went to work with a toothbrush. After much scrubbing that engine was looking pretty good. The radio was a Futaba so I charged it up and worked the sticks around listening for any servo buzz. I range checked it and all seemed fine. This plane was done and looked really good!
Next I tackled the plane needing repairs. The stab was loose and the wing had a some busted ribs and the covering was torn. I stripped off all the covering again and started to fix those broken ribs. I carefully removed one of them and traced its shape onto some balsa and made a couple of new ribs. I slid one up next to the remaining broken rib and clamped them together. A few drops of superglue and that one was done. I slid the other new rib onto the wing spar, worked it into place and zapped it with glue. Time to sand everything smooth and prepared to cover another wing and fuselage. The stab wasn't broken just loose so when I stripped off the covering I also removed the stab but left it covered. The stab was blue so I went with a red wing and a white fuselage. I only had to buy the red MonoKote as I still had enough white left from the other plane. This plane had a OS Engine and it looked almost new. Since this plane had no radio installed there was nothing left to do. Plane #2 was also done.
The kit was a Goldberg Tiger. It had been started but only the tail had been built. Goldberg kits also came with most of the accessories you would need. This company made kits and sold many accessories under the Goldberg name. It was a wood kit with many parts but they all were very nicely made. The fuselage parts had tabs that slid into cutouts. You would assemble the fuselage and wrap rubber bands around it to hold everything in place. You would then use Goldberg Super Jet which was a hobby grade superglue they sold and put a drop of glue where needed. With all the building I had been doing this plane also went together quickly. I soon had a bare airframe. I decided to leave this one uncovered for the time being as it looked so nice in its bare bones.
Life once more intervenes,,,
Since I had sold my plane and made some money on the deal it was time to look for another one. Most hobby shops had bulletin boards that listed upcoming R/C events. Pattern (aerobatic) and Scale competitions were very popular as were what is called a Fun Fly. With Pattern and Scale your plane and your performance was judged on multiple criteria. For Pattern these include noise, weight and size and your ability to fly the "Pattern". Scale R/C planes are judged on how close they replicate the full sized plane. To get a high score you need to duplicate every detail on the way down to rivets and brake lines and fly it in a prototypical manner. These contests often serve as qualifiers for regional, national or international competitions. A Fun Fly is a low key get together with no flight or aircraft judging. A Fun Fly can be for any type of plane or be genre specific. Scale, Jet or Warbirds are just some of the Fun Fly events that are available. All these events are almost always open to the public and are a very enjoyable way to spend the day.
What I noticed about these events is that they often had a swap meet or auction. Flyers would bring kits, planes and equipment they no longer used or wanted and sell or auction it off. There was lots of merchandise available. Kits that had never been opened or started but never finished. Maybe they owner lost interest in that plane or it was beyond their building abilities. Some of the finished planes would be flyable and some needed repairs made. Engines and radio equipment along with accessories would also be available. If you knew what to look for you could find some real bargains at these events. I had been to several of these events and swap meets/auctions but never bought anything. Now with no plane I decided to go to the next event and see if something caught my eye.
Mile Square Park hosted many of these events so it wasn't long until I found myself back at the park. This was the premier R/C facility at that time and drew a lot of spectators. The swap meets held there would have more for sale than most hobby shops. I bought a kit and a couple of planes. One plane had a engine and radio and was flyable as is. The other one had an engine but no radio and needed some repairs. The best part was I had only spent about $150.00 of the $400.00 I had made from selling my SIG KOMANDER!
Looking over my purchases at home I decided that the plane with the engine and radio would be a good place to start. Even though it was ready to fly the original builder didn't do a very good job finishing or covering it. I thought it could use a face lift. I stripped off the covering, checked all the glue joints and re-glued where needed. The builder of this plane had not sanded the edges anywhere. I sanded the airframe and wing (on the patio!) and rounded off all those edges. I recovered it all in white MonoKote with red trim. The engine needed a good cleaning. It was a K&B .61 with a lot of baked on gunk. I picked up some kind of cleaner and went to work with a toothbrush. After much scrubbing that engine was looking pretty good. The radio was a Futaba so I charged it up and worked the sticks around listening for any servo buzz. I range checked it and all seemed fine. This plane was done and looked really good!
Next I tackled the plane needing repairs. The stab was loose and the wing had a some busted ribs and the covering was torn. I stripped off all the covering again and started to fix those broken ribs. I carefully removed one of them and traced its shape onto some balsa and made a couple of new ribs. I slid one up next to the remaining broken rib and clamped them together. A few drops of superglue and that one was done. I slid the other new rib onto the wing spar, worked it into place and zapped it with glue. Time to sand everything smooth and prepared to cover another wing and fuselage. The stab wasn't broken just loose so when I stripped off the covering I also removed the stab but left it covered. The stab was blue so I went with a red wing and a white fuselage. I only had to buy the red MonoKote as I still had enough white left from the other plane. This plane had a OS Engine and it looked almost new. Since this plane had no radio installed there was nothing left to do. Plane #2 was also done.
The kit was a Goldberg Tiger. It had been started but only the tail had been built. Goldberg kits also came with most of the accessories you would need. This company made kits and sold many accessories under the Goldberg name. It was a wood kit with many parts but they all were very nicely made. The fuselage parts had tabs that slid into cutouts. You would assemble the fuselage and wrap rubber bands around it to hold everything in place. You would then use Goldberg Super Jet which was a hobby grade superglue they sold and put a drop of glue where needed. With all the building I had been doing this plane also went together quickly. I soon had a bare airframe. I decided to leave this one uncovered for the time being as it looked so nice in its bare bones.
Life once more intervenes,,,
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