big john

Clubmate was on the US National team and Olympic team and was offered a chance to fly one of the early pedal powered airplanes. They didn't bother to teach him how to control it and so he crashed it shortly after take off. They didn't ask him again.

A Greek pro cyclist flew one of them for 3 hours for the record. He also crashed on the beach when he was hit by windshear which broke the tail.

rjones28 

I don't 'figure of 8' my bartape.

#heretic

Mojo31

My son and I built a couple. We would race each other in our best Ferrari vs Porsche way. Its been a while though. This was mine. Ended up making an Audi body as well.

Mojo31

Keep her.

genejockey

Do you use that extra piece of tape they give you?

rjones28 

Sometimes.

big john

They put up some pictures from the coaster brake event yesterday. I found one of the guy I met on Saturday.

big john

Some of them climbing.

big john

bampilot06

So only coaster breaks are allowed? What’s the thought process about this? Not knocking it just want to know why?

ls01

I have a track near me, Slot Mods, if memory serves. A guy I used to work with went there. I think its a membership thing. Big multi laned track. I remember when I was a kid reading about places like that. A book at the library had all the info you could ever want about it. From track construction to companies that you could buy cars from. I think I checked that book out 30 times.

ls01

I lost my first plane that way. Dead reciever battery. I forgot to shut the reciever power off after charging it. I drove to a buddys house in the country to fly it 45 minutes away. The failsafe position was all flight surfaces neutral with a touch of left rudder. But as the engine ran the nose became lighter and lighter. We followed it in a car, as it climbed higher and higher cycling in the sky. It sounded like a mosquito in the bedroom at night.
When it ran out of fuel it was up there, but without the engine sound I couldn't find it. Until it was quite low, coming down like a lawn dart.
I salvaged the tail, a damaged wing. Most of the radio gear.
I didn't try it again for 15 years. I joined a club. Signed up for their flight school. Learned how to fly. Crashed a couple planes. Became an instructor. Taught for a couple years. Had an absolute blast. I dabled in aerobatic competition before I gave it up for my second marriage. (Crashed and burned) took it up again after the economic melt down to take my dad out flying. Now a days we fly Styrofoam planes with electric motors out of China. I have 4 or 5 of those. But we havent been active for a couple years. his health and lack of time on my part.
I have a basement full of stuff, 6 or 8 wood Models. A 1/4 scale Edge540, thats all carbon fiber and foam, I completely scratch built. 75"wingspan, 45cc chainsaw engine, that I converted. It was a lot of fun.
I don't know what to dovwith all of it.. haven't touched it in years.

WhyFi

Oh yeah, one other wrinkle with installing GrippyTack - the perforations don't go edge-to-edge, they're only on one side of the tape, so when you get to the hoods, you need to be aware of any change in orientation or wrap direction to keep the perforation reveal the same.

MoAlpha

They are very good and surprisingly fast.

MoAlpha

We used to race after school at the old five-story Polks hobby store on 5th Ave. Kid heaven and the like will never be seen again.

abshipp 

Thankfully the planes are very strong relative to their weight, and you don't have to deal with the limits of human physiology. I would imagine that most landings of model airplanes if scaled up would seriously injure any occupants Lots of bouncing.

I've only flown little stuff, so by the time the airplane was out of receiver range it was already too far away to see.

Flyaways are a thing with sailplanes, though. Get one hooked up in a really strong thermal and you'll need to say goodbye.

The hobby is so much easier to get in to now, I think. Quality has gone way up and price has gone way down. I remember when LiPo batteries and brushless motors first came out into the hobby world and they were stupid expensive. Now you can go down to a hobby store and pick up a ready to fly 4 channel brushless Pitts S1 for $200 that's even got a gyro inside which compensates for wind gusts and makes the little thing fly like a much larger airplane. It's crazy.

Plus with the 2.4Ghz stuff you don't have to worry about someone not checking the channel board and wrecking you when they turn their transmitter on.

ls01

Like with most things, somes better somes not. I love the 2.4 stuff. But I dislike the modern servos, they dont center very well. I miss the rechargeable radio gear.. putting alkaline batteries in my gear makes it feel like a cheap toy..
I was an early adopter of Futabas 9c radio when they introduced it. It was over $1k 6 months after I got mine. Still have it. Its outdated now.
I miss the professionalism that came with the old stuff. Its pretty chaotic at the field now. Its hard to instruct when there's 6 or more planes up and no one flys the pattern.
Nice that it's cheap though. I've spread my fair share of airframes out all over the field. I was 40' up in a tree trying to get one of my dads planes down in '16, I was sore for a week after that. 52 is too old to be climbing trees.
EDIT: The lower price is a double edge sword too. When prices were high you really had to want to do this. You paid attention to detail. Its different when it's just a couple of bux... people don't care as much. And it regulated itself. There are soooo many people at the field anymore its hard to get a spot on the flight line.

ls01

Mojo
I've purchased quite a few things from pbk. Most times it's ok. Clothing sizes are/can be a bit sketchy. I bought some gloves that the black dye in the"leather" wasn't set, 3 pairs. It leaches onto my white bar tape. Most shorts/bibs have been good. Parts are excellent. I get a lot of my tyres from them. Delivery times haven't been to bad 3 weeksish or so most times.

BillyD

I got into the cars a bunch of years ago. Built up a buggy from a scratch kit and did some racing. I loved it so much I built another car for my son even though he had no interest in it. In fact currently I get the urge at times to get another one just for the challenge of building. Never got into the airplanes, but got into the helicopters a little bit before quads took over the scene.

Nowadays I'm fascinated by the quad drones, love the technology. I have a small DJI now and have my eyes on a larger one with longer battery life. I've found RC fascinating since day one.

Mojo31

Maybe only MoAlpha will appreciate (I know wut wont ), but I also built a RC sailboat. Started as a kit, but did a bunch of upgrades.

All the RC stuff is fun to play with, but I tend to lose interest after a while.

Velo Vol 

Snobs.

WhyFi

There's a park near us, with a little man-made lake, where people with RC boats will regularly gather. Mostly motor-powered, but a couple sail boats. The kids love to watch the boats when we go for walks down there. For a time, the boy was saving for an RC swamp boat, but he may have forgotten about that... he'll probably remember in the spring.

Mojo31

Full size swamp boats are a lot of fun. My wife grew up in southern Louisiana. When we go down there to see her friends, we almost always end up on a swamp boat or deck boat cruising the bayous.

She went to school with some of the McIlhenny kids (Tobasco family).

abshipp 

Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well. My old transmitter was a Futaba T6XA . Funny you mention the dry cell batteries, I happen to love being able to run my Tx off of 4x AA instead of the old 6 or 8 cell NiCd packs that were in my Futaba. My new Tx is the ubiquitous Spektrum DX6i. I love how light it is, and not having a fragile telescoping antenna is so handy. My old Futaba's aerial has had a bend to it ever since a guy smacked it with his glider one time when I was slope soaring in Kansas

I very rarely flew at an actual field. I got in to the hobby right when the electric park flyer stuff started taking off. I really like how with most of my airplanes I could fly them pretty much wherever.

My dad was really in to control line stunt flying but it never really clicked with me, and dealing with nitro engines was always a big pain. The one nitro airplane I have is a profile 3D based around a .46 engine, but I only ever flew that when I lived with my parents out in rural north Texas. I've thought about converting it to electric thinking that if it's less of a pain to get going I would fly it more, but I just know that would be a bigger project than I think it would be.

I'm also not up to date with the new regulations. Nowadays you have to register any airplane heavier than like half a pound, and I think any airplane you register has to have some kind of transponder in it or will soon have to. That to me is really stupid. Especially for line-of-sight flying.

I always liked the idea of RC cars, but never had a track nearby and I think just bashing around could get boring after a while. I think the little 1:12 scale carpet cars are so cool

Multirotors are growing on me. I never got in to helicopters, but the idea of a 5" racing quad is sounding more and more fun. Not really into the photography side of the hobby, personally, but I like what other people do with it

My dad had a RC sailboat for a long time. Fiberglass hull, and the trigger on his radio would adjust the length of the mainsheet. I never really had a chance to learn how to sail it.

phrantic09

Ive had good luck

At my top weight (190) I was 15%, I’ll probably be below 10 at 175

The place nearby makes a mean Sicilian. They also make what they call “grandma’s tomato pie” which is square pan pizza w/ cheese over the dough, sauce, the. Fresh mozz and basil on top. It’s delightful.