Ep 218 – Vintage RC, Nitro, and a Few Bean-Field Landings

[0:00] Hello everyone, welcome to the RC Playing Lab podcast. I'm Ron. And I'm Dave. And there is no Tommy today. He couldn't be bothered to join us. I know, he says he's busy and he can't take the time, I guess. Whatever. What a loser. I tell ya. I know. Can't come play with and he can't take the time, I guess. Whatever. What a loser. I tell you. I know. Can't come play with cool kids, huh? I guess not. Episode 218. Hard to believe we're getting up there, huh? Oh, man. I forgot to keep track.

[0:36] So, no pie for this time either, Dave. Thank you. Dave, I found out, doesn't like children. Actually, I shouldn't say Dave doesn't like children because that's not the right wording. Dave abhors children is probably the better term. Silence. It's probably best that I did not use my degree. I know. That's the other thing. So we're coming home from the flying the other day, and I find out that Dave, who, by the way, doesn't like children, has a degree in elementary school teaching.

[1:16] Elementary education. Why? Why? I mean, like, did you like kids at one time? And then when you were a kid, did you like kids? I don't know. I don't know i don't know i don't have any don't want any can't deal with them no i'm sorry i'm not that big of a monster but yeah i am i didn't realize like i guess it never hit me until i watched you when we were recording with her it's just you were so like zoned out, tuned out. You were scrolling Facebook. You were just, you were over it.

[1:49] It was, oh, it was kind of funny. But yeah, I will tolerate a child. That's fine. It's good. But don't have any, don't want them around me. Poor Piper. There is a certain age. I can deal with the older child um you know middle school and up yeah i'm good with but i get it honestly the older the more fun babies are just like boring people try to hand me a baby and it's like get that thing away from me

[2:18] what if it poops on me i haven't puked on so many times. Maybe that's where this stems from. It's like, I got my kid at 16, okay? So, you know, she was 16 when I got her. You were past all of that, so. Well, that wasn't the point of the conversation here, just to talk about how much Dave dislikes children. How much Dave the monster. But it's okay. So you want to talk about nitro? Sure, let's talk about nitro? Sure. Let's talk about nitro. I still got that smell in my room.

[2:50] You're starting to make my point already. No. So just a quick back story in case nobody or in case somebody hasn't followed along. Last year we went to a vintage fly-in, Tommy and I did, and I kind of got the itch to have a nitro plane in my arsenal for this year. Just one. No need for more. So anyway, long story short, time got away from me, kind of forgot about it. We made a trip up to Brian's, found one that I liked, brought it home,

[3:21] went over it, got it to the point where i was ready to take it out to the field and test fly it tune it all that kind of stuff so uh we found out this is a falcon 56 like i said i've had it probably a month month and a half now whatever it was and you and i dave went out to the field last friday because the fly-in was Saturday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, which is the way I operate. Anyway, so went out there, got the motor tuned. Actually, it started up pretty good.

[3:53] Little can be. It runs good. It really does. I had no issues with that motor. Like, honestly, it was, I mean, mean it sounded good it just had no power yeah we flooded it to get started but yeah well that was my first time yeah i think i i turned it over a few too many times with the the carburetor you know with your finger over the carburetor yeah so that's on me i haven't done nitro for a while so comfortable with it but not you know comfortable with it but needed a little

[4:26] bit of a primer like a reminder on how to do this so we got that tuned by we i mean you got that tuned which is super simple yeah i i remember what you were doing so i mean that's something i could have probably handled on my own if i needed to. I had to bring equipment with me that I'm not used to bringing. So here I am lugging in my fuel, glow igniter, fuel pump, spare glow plug, just in case, because I had no clue what the glow plug was like. But anyway, so we got that tuned.

[5:01] Long story short, set it down and tried to taxi out. And the airplane just did not move. Like it did not have enough oomph to really get going. The thrust is lacking. So I went ahead and I'm trying to think what it was. No, I guess I did get it kind of on a higher spot of grass. Yeah. And then it started going. A little bit. Six, seven inches, something like that. And so I used the rudder to turn because that's how you do it. And then I realized the rudder isn't moving.

[5:34] I could not get it to go back and forth. I don't know. This is an old airplane. I don't know the building techniques of yesteryear, I guess. What I saw, that was not normal construction. But it was probably adequate at the time, but that just a single solid piece of, like, pushrod that was soldered in on both ends. There was a piece of brass tube with wire soldered to both ends of it. But the brass tube had the wire inside, and then that wire went to the clevis. Right.

[6:22] So, kind of a weird setup. Yeah. Not ideal. As we could tell so um it was it was like i i looked it over when i got it i checked all the connections checked all that kind of stuff and honestly i did a little pull test on stuff to make sure i'm sure it was working checked it it was the vibration from the engine running, I'm sure. And that's, so that's kind of the issue with getting an airplane that you don't know anything about. You have to go over it much better than apparently I did.

[6:56] Because had that happened in flight, especially with a, if it would have been a different control surface, we would have had a lot more issues. The elevator was set up the same way. Right. And those were, and that was the other thing I wanted to ask you. The way that airplane is set up, originally that was supposed to have the servos on the inside. Right. And long push rods through the fuselage. I'm assuming they didn't want that amount of play in it or something.

[7:20] Can't attest to the thought process for putting those out on the backside. For somebody a long time ago. thing can't attest to the thought process for putting those out on the backside for somebody a long time ago so anyway that they ran them which the spot they're in is a normal spot for electrics for an externally mounted rear mounted servo they're in the right spot i mean it all looks

[7:37] like normal construction not what that was designed as but by modern standards, it's fine. It's okay. So my question that I had before we kind of even did anything with it when I saw it, how concerned do I need to be with all the nitro exhaust, the oil, and all that stuff blowing right on those servos while it's being flown? I did not see a whole lot of exhaust residue collect back there the amount of time that we ran it. It was about four minutes of run time.

[8:08] Yeah, so it was an extraordinary amount, but there was still not a lot building up. I think it's going to be different when you're flying, though. That setup in my book is not ideal, but as little as you're going to fly it, it'll probably be fine. If ever. If ever. We'll see. Yeah, we'll be going to Toledo. Well, so I, no, I do want to get it together. I actually do want to put like a four-stroke out because I think four-strokes sound cool.

[8:32] Yeah, a four-stroke is going to send the exhaust, you can point your exhaust up or straight down or whatever you need to do to get it away from that. I don't think it's that big a deal. Plus a four-stroke will have less exhaust anyway. It fires every other time around, so less fuel goes through it. I guess that's true. Yeah, so that'll be a good thing to do. So I've got to find a four-stroke. Maybe I can find something next year at Toledo.

[8:58] So what would a—like, I know how I'm going to fix this. What would a normal push rod setup look like in a plane of that vintage? Like, when that was new, what's a normal way of setting things up, I guess? The servos we've mounted on rails inside the fuselage under the wing with either a solid wood push rod with thin wire going outside or a Sullivan style tube and tube, whichever you prefer. I can't remember how Goldberg set that one up, but I have a feeling

[9:34] based on other Goldberg kits I've built, um, that it was a solid wood pushrod with a wire bound to it. Yeah. I had a couple of airplanes that were set up that way that were obviously older. Um, so with the way it's set up now, what would you do to fix that? Uh, the runs are a little long for the two 56 wire unsupported. So I would either

[10:00] a put a solid piece of wire from the servo to the clevis and possibly either put a support in the middle of it or bump it up to a 440 thickness wire, just something a little heavier duty. Because the runs are a little long to be unsupported. What are they, eight inches or so, you think? Maybe a little longer. Maybe a little bit longer than that. So that was my thought, going with a bigger pushrod, like a 440 size or something like that,

[10:27] with a clevis on one side, and then probably, honestly, just like a Z-bed on the other. I have a bunch of those that I can cut down to the right length and make work. Generally, 256 is more than adequate for that size of airplane, but because of the long unsupported run yeah 440 might be doable or just put a standoff support it halfway through so i do i i've seen in the past the solder on connectors i mean that used to be a thing yeah

[11:01] how were those set up then instead of the the style, turnbuckle thing on the end, was it just soldered on? It's a solder on ferrule. To a single, just on a single end then, or? Yeah. You would use one piece of wire from the servo to three, four inches short of. With like a Z-bend on that end then? Yeah. Or you could use, there are various different ways you can do it, but Z-bend is the simplest, easiest, most reliable.

[11:30] And then you would solder the brass ferrule onto the end that had the threads, either 256 or 440. And so was that a fairly common failure point? If you didn't know how to solder well, yes, it could be. If you solder properly and use silver solder instead of electrical solder, which everybody seemed to use, it's perfectly acceptable. And I've got large aircraft myself to this day that still have solder on ferrules. And so the silver solder etches into the metal, right?

[12:01] of solder on ferrules. And so the silver solder etches into the metal, right? It's stronger than the electrical solder, and you use an acid to clean it, so it gets a little better bite. A little bitey. Yeah. Big thing is you've got to remember to clean all that acid off, otherwise your push rust rusts. Yeah. Give it a good scrubbing, and I usually,

[12:27] if I go nuts with the acid, I'll make sure to drop some baking soda on it to neutralize it and then give it another bath so with the way mine is set up would you think of putting some sort of uh deflector or cover over the front of the servo i would probably start with a deflector on the muffler first and see if that gets it away far enough. But if you're going to go four stroke, it's going to be a moot point anyway. You think it's really just going to disappear?

[12:51] Like the issue is going to be not even worth thinking about? It's an issue, yeah. Okay. Especially with a four stroke. If you kept with the two stroke, I would try a deflector first. And if that didn't work, then build some sort of exhaust jacket for the servo. Yeah, see, I was thinking even 3D printing something that would just be like a, I don't even know how to describe it, but like a half moon shape thing that just covered it. Like a giant plastic spoon.

[13:21] Yeah, something like that would be fine. Giant plastic spoon. Yeah, something like that would be fine.

[13:32] So, yeah, and like I said, from what we saw, it doesn't look like that plane has probably ever been actually flown. Doesn't look like it's flown. I don't know. I don't know. That's the problem when you buy a used airplane, especially an old one like that. You don't know the history. You don't know who built it. You don't know how long it sat.

[13:44] You don't know how well it was built. There can be a lot of things hiding that you cannot't know the history you don't know who built it you don't know how long it sat you don't know how well it was built so and there can be a lot of things hiding that you cannot see right like joints that are no longer glued and that kind of stuff they passed the pull test but right but for a plane like that though that's not the end of the world no like the covering is going

[14:01] to hold joints together in the wing. It's not a high performance. That would be a completely different. And if you snap Rolex Falcon 56, you're doing better than I can because they don't like to do that. I don't think I would plan on doing that. But yeah. And I just I know from the past that nitro is more or is harder. Nitro and gas is harder on the whole airplane. Yeah. Vibrations and then the oil and yeah. It all takes its toll after a while. They have a limited lifespan.

[14:32] Yeah, so we did not have any luck getting that flown. So obviously I didn't take anything to fly with me at the vintage fly-in. But we will try and get this one done flown and ready for next year like i actually working out and all that kind of stuff i got to the point where i was getting excited over nitro airplane which is weird um it looks kind of cool you know it's not like a it's almost like a face only a mother could love kind of thing you know yeah every now and then you have those

[15:03] airplanes that if somebody else had it, you'd be like, ah, whatever. But then when it's yours, it's like, oh, that's kind of cool. So, yeah, we will revisit that and try and get it taken care of. If we get a new motor on that, it'll be fine. Yeah. What size do I need? What do I need to look for? Oh. what size do I need? What do I need to look for? Oh, I bet Tommy's got a 65 laying around somewhere that would work. Okay. I'll beg, borrow and steal for it. Yeah. He's got something. Um,

[15:40] I've got a small four stroke at home, but I think it's too small. I don't think you'd be in the same situation that it'd sound cool but just don't move yeah you would rev like crazy it would it taxi wide open well that's something to where i definitely want something powerful enough for grass because a lot of the times when i fly that one it would be on a grass runway right and there's i know there's different types of grass runways.

[16:05] There's some that are nice and smooth, and then there's some that are divoted. And there's different types of grass. Some grass is really draggy. Yeah. I mean, it can still be cut short at the same height that everybody else, but it's just draggy grass. I don't know if it's thinner or thicker or, I mean. Yeah. And I know, talking to Daniel too, because he had the Robin Hood 25 size, I think he said, right? Yeah, 20 or 25. I can't remember what size. The small Robin Hood.

[16:31] That we, or that he took to the fly-in. He thought that because the wheels were smaller, or I mean, sorry, they were a bigger diameter, but they were skinnier, that the bigger diameter was going to help go through the grass. But the skinniness is what was pulling them up. It wasn't actually able to ride on top of the grass. It kind of went down and made it more difficult. Yeah, that thing was fun to get off the ground. Yeah. So anyway, you took some stuff when we went out there,

[17:00] and I watched you fly as I couldn't. I took a rad jet. I don't know, because it was just easy to grab on the way out the door. Yeah. And it's just a blast to fly. And then I had the little UMX Ultrix. So I took two batteries for that, one for me, one for Ron. Of course, Ron got to do the trim flight on it because every time I fly it, it's out of trim. And it changed trim during flight. Yeah. I mean, like, I just don't understand that. The one I have does not do that.

[17:31] Mine was used, and I have a feeling it's got some sort of small issue with the controller board. Well, it must be because it was like elevator trim was changing, which means it's not a servo. Right. Because it's two separate servos, obviously, that control each side on that. So it was weird. I don't know. I've just flown it that way for so long, I don't even really notice it. Yeah. And then that was my first time using whatever radio you have. Oh, the FreeSky X20RS. So.

[18:03] Yeah, that's a little different too. I will preface this by saying I'm not used to it. If I was used to it, what I say next might be different. Right. But I do not like it at all. No. I ended up flying a Spectrum radio this last weekend for the first time in a long time. It feels really bad to me. Yeah. So I can understand it feels really bad to you. Yeah. The Free Sky is a wider radio and I keep my sticks really short because I got short thumbs. Yeah.

[18:38] So wider, shorter, and much more tension on the sticks. That's what I'm not used to. And I've always flown my reels with a lot of tension on the sticks. Yeah. Yeah.'m not used to. And I've always flown my Rios with a lot of tension on the sticks. So yeah, I can see where you would not be happy with my radio. I, when I got my IX20, I took all the tension off of the left stick. So, cause I hated when it clicked. It had the, you know, the throttle had the little click thing.

[19:01] I took all the tension off to where there's no click on it and I can just smoothly move it wherever I want. And I, I've got just tons of tension on everything. Yeah. I felt like I was fighting that thing the whole time. And I think that's probably because the radios I bought back in the eighties were set up that way and I just got used to it. And whenever I buy a new radio, if it's not tight enough, I get in there and tweak the screws. Did you have to tighten that one up?

[19:25] No, that one actually came that way. Interesting. Now, that one does have the pivoting gimbals, and I want to try that, but I'm kind of scared to because I've always had 90 degree, but they can actually rotate. I think it's 15 degrees. Why would you do that? Because if you look at your thumb, it doesn't track in a straight line. It pivots around the joint on your wrist. Oh, man. That would be difficult, though. And I'm thinking about just tweaking it just a couple degrees.

[19:57] Like two degrees every time. Yeah. Because it's a neat idea, and I want to experience it. But I've flown 90-degree sticks for 40 years. I was going to say 30 years, so you just made yourself older than me. Yeah. Or than I was going to, I mean. Yeah. That's funny. Yeah, I'm up there. Yeah, so that, I don't know. It's an interesting radio. I can see where the width is really going to be different for you. Cause that is a, that's a huge difference. The spectrum is so much narrower. It just,

[20:31] once again, this is because I'm used to it, I think, but it feels better in the hand and it's probably whatever you use is what you get used to. Because honestly, I like the feeling of mine now, like the 20, which is bigger than Tommy's 14. I really don't like the feeling of his but he loves his right more than he likes mine so i i have found a plus side to having the free sky being a wider radio it balances on my leg real well okay so when i'm hand launching

[21:00] things or whatever i can actually just lay it on my thigh because I sit on the bench. Yeah. Whereas a narrower radio, I've tried that with Daniel's radio, the older one before he got Free Sky. It would just fall off. That was not a doable thing, but it's wide enough. It sits there nicely. So that makes my life a little easier. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It's just whatever you get used to. Like I said, I used to to my dx9 was fine i loved

[21:25] my dx9 for the longest time um but now that i've flown this other one for a little over a year just going back to the dx or spectrum size just it's like this doesn't feel good anymore yeah feels off i get it so i mean it's whatever you get used to and we adapt and i'm not used to that so but yeah i got to fly your altrix it was fun but it was a handful yeah i don't know why it's always had a trim i need to look into that but

[21:57] once again i just fly it like that and don't pay attention yeah i get it but anyway that was that night yeah yep that was it and then we turned around the next day and headed up north and i just went for a ride yeah it was i was a passenger princess the whole time and that was about it offered you aircraft you didn't want anything i know no i don't i know i'm good i i saw what you did with your own aircraft so i didn't want to be the one to add to that.

[22:31] Let's just say, we'll get to it in a little bit, but three of the four landings Dave made with one of his airplanes were not even in, like, I can't even say they weren't on the runway. They weren't even in the cut area. They were off field. Off, like like way off. But anyway, we'll get to that. That was fun. I will say that was probably the highlight of my day. Yeah. Watching Dave say, we're doing it again until I hit the field. Yeah, that was pretty much it. That is exactly what I heard.

[22:57] And then as soon as you said that, I was walking by Daniel. I heard Daniel say, easy enough for him to say, he's not the one going to get him. I didn't ask anybody to go get it. I just let you know. No, I know. I Daniel. I heard Daniel say, easy enough for him to say he's not the one going to get him. I didn't ask anybody to go get it. I just let you know. No, I know. I know. I know. But still. It was becoming very frustrating for me. Yeah. It's like, I'm not a great pilot. I'm decent.

[23:20] Hitting this field, at least, should not be a problem. No, no, not at all. No. What did that end? So you were just over half good landings, like on the field landings. Yeah. Between both or all three airplanes, right? Yeah. The cut came in beautifully. No bounce, no skip, no nothing. Right. But you just can't handle the other. Anyway, well, sorry. So let's talk about this. This is the first time you and Daniel came to this event.

[23:51] The nice thing this year that I think saved you also was it was last year when Tommy and I went up, it was corn. Right. And it was tall corn. So at least this year, the field that the field is cut out of, the bean field, you know, whatever, was beans this year. Yeah, it was surrounded by beans. Beans are tall still, by the way. I think it made it much more comfortable as well, too. If that was corn, we wouldn't have any airflow. Yeah, it would have been a little bit hotter.

[24:19] So, yeah, what were your thoughts? What were your impressions on a first time being there? Extremely nice field. Very small, but very nice. Concrete, I don't think I've ever walked on concrete anywhere. You mean around the pit area? Around the pits, yeah. Yeah, very nice. They've got a nice pit structure there with their storage, and they were cooking out of like a garage bay of it i don't know how to

[24:46] explain that i know but was it a garage it was a storage shed that had a garage door on it that was connected to their i want to call it an awning because it's not really an awning but it's the over overhang yeah very nice very nice field Very nice field. Very nice people. Middle of nowhere. There's nothing around, which is good. There's nothing hit. Usually how I like it. There are some power lines, what, half mile away?

[25:17] No, I don't think they're that far. I would say probably 1,000 feet. They're out there far enough. They're not an issue. And they've got orange balls on them, which is nice. Norris Port-A-Potty. Mm-hmm. out there far enough they're not an issue and they've got orange balls on them which is nice um noise porta potty um it's like a tardis when i walked in there because it's a if i'm used to the ones at our field where it's just a normal like even the uh handicapped ones

[25:39] it's wide this one was a handicapped one but you walked in and it went back like 10 feet i mean it was it had an ante room exactly it was so so deep so long i've never seen one quite that big like i was taking it back when i opened up i was like what the where's the rest of like seriously you live in here no kidding uh if so the facilities are great um nice people field is a little short um i don't know what their actual measurements are.

[26:07] So put it in perspective. The Holmes Airport we fly in here has 600 feet of mowed runway. Right. And thousands of feet of overrun. Right. Which there is nothing at the end you have to worry about. Eli Field is 800-foot runway, and it's got 200 feet on either end or so, I would say. This one is a 250-foot-long runway with probably 150-ish foot overrun on either end, you think? Maybe a little bit more? I was going to say probably a little bit less overrun. A little less? Yeah.

[26:43] Those beans were really close when you took them because I don't have brakes on any of my aircraft and touching down on the asphalt road. I would say probably a little bit less overrun. A little less? Yeah. Those beans were really close when you took them, because I don't have brakes on any of my aircraft, and touching down on the asphalt would run them out. The beans were coming up fast. Okay. So it's certainly doable. Not a problem whatsoever.

[27:00] But if you're used to, you know, we've got thousands of feet. Yeah. We don't have to be exact. Yeah. A place like this would teach you to be a better pilot if this is where you had to land all the time especially something high performance and there's corn where you have to drop in like last year yeah beans you could stretch it in it's no problem yeah with my jet there's still times i i get a little leery of landing at eli with all that overrun, and there's plenty of room, but still.

[27:27] I can't imagine something like that there. Yeah, I would be really nervous flying a jet in and out of there. Yep. They have a smooth runway, though. It is very nice. It's pool table smooth. Yep. Too smooth. There's nothing to slow you down. Yeah. Great for takeoffs. Yeah, except for if you're me but i mean i wasn't going to bring it up but you did tend to like to for some reason take off parallel or no perpendicular like you started off parallel to the runway then you just like

[27:58] turn 90 degrees and off you went yeah um my problem, the one I hurt things on, was the Blue Max. The wind was quartering to almost crosswind. It kind of bounced back and forth throughout the day. It wasn't awful, but there was a good quartering crosswind. As the day went on, the wind got higher. This was later in the day with the Blue Max, which trackcle gear, which I don't fly a lot of track gear. Most of my stuff is tail dragger.

[28:32] Anyway, I was feeling froggy with it and just hit the throttle hard and didn't roll it up smooth and slow like I should have. And just before takeoff, I got smacked by a good crosswind. I corrected with the rudder. This is where I should have made an adjustment on the radio beforehand or used it. I usually fly my rudder with just full rates all the time. I don't generally just never turn rudder down. But on asphalt with the trike gear, it reacted a little heavily.

[29:06] A little quicker than you're used to? On grass, it would have been fine. But because it gripped immediately in turn, I ended up making a left turn and it dropped the right wing. Right wing hit the asphalt, which ground a little chunk off the bottom of my wingtip. No big deal. But when it hit, it swerved the aircraft hard back to the right, and it ended up flipping the aircraft, and I broke a propeller. But it flipped it into the grass, which was a plus,

[29:36] so no other damage to the aircraft whatsoever. It just broke a propeller. Big deal. Was it broken, or was it just shaved down? Yeah, it took about a half inch off each tip yeah i mean it didn't like crack or break or quite frankly it was probably balanced i haven't thrown on a balancer yet i kept it just to throw it on just to see but i bet it i bet it's darn close of course you did yeah i just it's going to go in the trash once i throw it on the balancer i

[30:01] just want to see how close it shaved it down. Yeah. So luckily I had a whole bag of 10-6 propellers. Those are easy to come around or come from. So threw one of those on when I un-flew it. And I don't know if I'll ever repair the wingtip or not because it just ground the covering off the plywood tip plate. It's character now. Yeah. I know it's mine now yeah um but that was that was my fault i should have either went to the

[30:33] one of the lower rates i have in the system or added much more expo to it because i don't fly expo for the most part on my rudder um so that bit me that's a small rudder, too. So, I mean, it's not like it's got a lot of control. Right. It was more the steering, the steering wheel. Yeah, no, I mean, I get it. But, like, when you're flying and stuff, there really is no reason to have any X-Bow built in. It needs a lot of throw. Yeah. And I don't fly off asphalt.

[31:01] I think, man, it's been a long time since I've flown off asphalt. Yeah. Especially something with a nose wheel. That was probably back in the 80s the last time I flew something with a nose wheel off asphalt. Really? Yeah. Okay. It's been a while. You should get used to it again. I probably should. At least for next year. Yeah. Or dial in some Ex least for next year. Yeah. Or dial in some Expo on the steering. Yeah. That was the big bad boo-boo for the day.

[31:33] The others were non-issues, but not pretty, and I'll let you start it. Well, I didn't quite want to get into all that stuff yet. Okay, we can pass. But I did want to ask, like, with the flying and stuff being pretty much a nitro flying is what it was, what airplanes were there that you kind of thought were neat that you don't see often? A lot of super sports stuff. You see those all the time, though though but i think i saw several super

[32:05] sportsters and several i could not identify um there's a sig space walker yeah there was a space walker with a very nice paint scheme i liked it looked like kind of a pre-war paint scheme i liked that one um there was a spook there which was a 1940s. Yeah, that was interesting. I think he said that was, and I hope I'm not wrong, but I think he said that airplane, that actual airplane, not the plans, but that airframe was from the 1940s.

[32:40] He had another plane there that was a little bit smaller that was from the 50s. And looked pretty much the same. I think he recovered everything. Like, he had another plane there that was a little bit smaller that was from the fifties. And looked pretty much the same. I think he recovered everything. Like he obviously restored them. Yeah. That's definitely not the original covering. It's long gone. Um, but from what I understood, like I said, I hope I'm not wrong.

[32:58] If so, somebody might be able to correct me. I thought those were original planes from the forties and fifties that he had restored and they looked very good. Very pretty. Very period correct. He actually flew one, the bigger of the two. You said it was called a Spook? That was a Spook, yeah. Yeah, he flew that one. And he has bigger parts than I do because I would not have done that in the wind with three channel and with

[33:26] the weird radio setup he had. And he was flying a original single stick radio. I haven't seen a single stick since the late eighties. Yeah. Well, it was converted over. It was 2.4. It was 2.4, but yeah, the, the flying style of the old craft radio was pretty unique. Like I said, the old craft radio is pretty unique. Like I said, you just don't see single sticks. Yeah. Um, and there were a couple of guys there that were on the, uh, old AM radio, 72 megahertz. They were still 72 megahertz.

[33:54] Yeah. Uh, so a lot of neat stuff. Um, a little smaller event than I hear from last year, but there was another large competing event near. yeah, the one that we didn't end up making it to, Streeter. So I will say my favorite airplane, and this is because I am super biased, somebody had a Sig Cavalier, and I'm pretty sure he said that he built it last winter. Maybe it was winter before, but anyway.

[34:22] He said he liked to try and build one or two a year and that was one of his more recent builds um man it makes me want another cavalier so bad but unfortunately i checked again and you can't get them online outer zone got plans actually i have no they don't by the way but i have from the first kit I built, I still have the original set of plans for it. Won't have the wing ribs on it. Is that a straight wing? No. It's got a little dihedral to it. But I need... No, is it tapered though?

[34:59] Yeah. I mean, it's got a little... Yeah. Yeah, if it was a straight wing, you could just use your base rib. But, yeah, they generally don't put all the ribs on the plans. I'm going to have to look at it just to be sure. Because, I mean, yeah, you're probably right, but that's too bad. Oh, well, maybe you can get one made. We'll see. But I would like to do that sometime. Not like I actually would because I have other projects that need to get done.

[35:23] If you look around around you can point them all out there's nothing around here that needs done but anyway i always the cavalier has a soft spot in my heart because it's the first airplane i bought that was nitro and it's the first airplane i built so i kind of like it you got a lot involved so where the goldberg cub is mine is that yeah those are good airplanes, too. Yep. Took one with me last weekend. I know. Well, we can go back to that now if you want to talk.

[35:49] So what else did you fly? I did have the, as we said, the Goldberg Cub with the Navy paint scheme on it. So it's not yellow. Nope. You know, I've owned a lot of Cubs over the years. I'm not a single yellow one. Well, this one matched the sky pretty good too so yeah this one blue max is the worst that thing yeah but at least it has some yellow on it if it's coming straight at you there's nothing to see

[36:17] oh really yeah it just disappears yeah i have a heck of a time i need to put a yellow stripe on the leading edge or something that's the way you like it, though. Impossible to see. I can do the grays. I have no problem with grays. It's blues that I have trouble with. Yeah.

[36:39] I actually noticed, I think I need to go get my eyes checked again because I'm having more issues seeing the planes at distance than I am used to. And I haven't flown much this year to prompt myself to have to go do it yet. Yeah. We were comparing numbers on the way back. It's pathetic. I have more flights than Ron. A lot more. I think, what am I, like 50? That's nothing. Yeah, and I'm in the 70s. It's pathetic. Which is pathetic for me, but I mean. Yeah. But for Ron, yeah. I know.

[37:04] I know. Rub it in. I get it. What's up? Goldberg cub navy scheme anyone um great flying airplane 91 four-stroke in it sounds good looks good uh-huh uh it was starting to get a little too bouncy for it but overall it flew really well um and then i also took my Wonder, which was crashed a week ago with the aileron servo locked up in it and left me in a 45-degree bank all the way to the ground from about 250 feet up. Well, that is a very tank-like airplane then. It's built like a tank, yeah.

[37:44] Very tough little bird bird and that bird is oh my goodness i've had that thing 30 years really it's been i've had that that airframe for a long time it's on a second covering job um just i love flying it yeah it looks like a tiger yeah it's got tiger stripes it's orange and tiger um it's got eyeballs when it's running the eyebrows vibrate it's hilarious um anyway i've had that one for a really long time i've flown it quite a bit it's on its third or fourth radio now and second covering

[38:19] and still got the little fox 15 in it for some reason another little fox 15 is not revving up like it used to i don't know what's going on with it. I don't know if it's just wearing out or got some sort of blockage in the car. I need to tear it apart and take a look at it. There's something not quite right with it because it used to really scream, and now it just flies the airplane. It didn't sound like it was spooling all the way up. Yeah, something's not right.

[38:40] I'm beginning to wonder if it's just getting low on compression because it's got a lot of run time on it. Yeah. I'm sure you'll have that's just getting low on compression because it's got a lot of run time on it. Yeah. I'm sure you'll have that torn apart this winter and rebuilt and fixed. Yeah, we bought some OS-15s at Toledo, so. Or just switch it out. Or just might switch out the little Fox, but I think it's the only Fox 15 ever that runs right. I mean, it does seem to run well.

[39:01] It does. It likes to bite, so be careful. Yeah. That motor's bit me more than anything. Well, that plane's bit you more than anything, too. Yeah. I had some issues with it. So the first time you were up flying, like, I really wasn't paying much attention. There was other things going on I was kind of watching. And then all of a sudden I just heard, oh! And so I looked up. And then Dave is standing there with his transmitter. And there's no airplane in the air.

[39:32] There's no airplane that I can see on the ground. And I don't know exactly what happened, but it was in the beans. Yeah, it was in the beans. For the first time that day. That was the first flight. That was my first flight of the day. For the first time that day. That was the first flight. That was my first flight of the day. So with the Wonder gas motor, you want to make sure to kill it before you touch down. Just easier on the props that way.

[40:03] And for some reason or another, I was coming in on approach, went to pull the switch to kill the, because I don't kill it until I know I've made the field. I went and went to go pull the kill switch. And somehow or another, I missed the switch. And so real quickly, I looked down to see why I had missed the switch. Because it's a new radio and you're not used to it. Yeah. I don't know. My just dumb finger i just missed um and then

[40:27] as soon as i glanced back up the plane had dropped out of the glide scope and dropped into the fifth row of beans instead of sliding across where it should have been just because i looked down and had a little downtram in it i hit a little gust too i don't know but so it ended up like five rows in straight level no issues whatsoever. It came back with a piece of bean stuck in the tail, and that was it. Uh-huh. So cleaned that up, went through, and I'd ran out of trim on it, too.

[40:57] So I went back and readjusted the trim. That's right, yep. So for the second flight later in the day, went to fly it. Yep. So for the second flight later in the day, went to fly it. Because the motor's not spooling up like it has been, I probably leaned on it a little too hard. I think it just overheated and it died and it died in a bad position. And it landed on the opposite end of the field about three to five rows in. That was number two. And at that point I would have been done

[41:27] I'd be like okay I understand then Dave decided nope third time is a charm I'm going to land this thing on the field third flight flying around did great went to come in don't know I'm getting old i guess and i ended up clipping the last row of beans and it thumped into the last at right at the edge of the field so i just depth perception issues totally my fault on that one i blew it yeah i mean honestly you

[42:00] were nowhere near the runway nowhere near the runway. Nowhere near the runway. No. But. Nowhere near the side, like where you were trying to land either. Yeah. Depth perception just went out the window at that point. So that's when Dave said, nah, third time's not a charm. Let's go for number four. We will land this thing on the field. And I'm glad number four worked because I don't know how many more times Daniel had it in him to go. Go fetch it.

[42:26] Fetch that airplane. I would have went and got it number four was a perfect flight and landed exactly where I wanted it so yay yay yay for Dave it was just one of those comedy of errors with this airplane it's like I'm a better pilot than this one of them was was truly my fault yeah the other three were the other two were comedy errors. Anyway, the wonder survives with zero issues. That's impressive. It's a tough little bird. Mm-hmm.

[42:55] One of my little crash landings out in the beans put a crease in the servo hatch in the tail. It's just soft balsa. So just shrink that out. Yeah. I'll probably inject a little water in it and swell up the fibers. It's just soft balsa. So just shrink that out. Yeah. I'll probably inject a little water in it and swell up the fibers. It'll be fine. That was the only damage for the day. Good old Dave. Fourth time's the charm. On the easiest airplane I've got to fly. I mean, should have been.

[43:21] Should have been. Dead sticks are dead sticks, and it just put me in a bad position. I was trying to make it back to the field. I get that. Yeah. I do. But one, you just doinked it, and you missed completely. I just missed. I missed bad. And everybody's watching, and I think even somebody said to you, well, maybe the third time, and you're like, this was the third time. We're going for number four. Right. It was getting so frustrating.

[43:46] Daniel said you need to recover that, by the way, in yellow and green, since it likes to try and harvest the field like a John Deere. A little John Deere, yeah. Yeah, we'll see when he gets his done. See, he said that to you and tried to blame that on me. I'm not the one that said that, though. He is. And he's not here to defend himself so he's way bigger than you he is but i might be able to take him running wise probably probably

[44:12] not actually that would be terrible to see anyway we just had a little blast with it daniel had his little robin hood out there um he was having trouble with that um that plane sounds really good though i really really really really really like that airplane it's a little asp30 it runs good it does have a little thing that bothers me that the idle mixture setting is completely closed and that's where it runs

[44:37] beautifully so it's got an air leak somewhere obviously but because it runs so well i ain't screwing around with it yeah no kidding um flies great runs good uh he was just having trouble every time he would get in the grass he would dump over um and he's never flown on asphalt so yeah four stroke lots of torque asphalt tail dragger skinny Skinny wheels. Yep. Yeah. Did he, did you take that off for him? I took that off for him finally. Okay. I even had a hard time.

[45:11] It made a 90 degree right turn on me. That's what I mean. I saw you do that multiple times. Yeah. So. Actually, that's only the second time I've flown an airplane. I did a test flight on it and that flight, so. But it flies so good once it's airborne. Yeah. And he landed it with no problems. It's a good-looking plane. I like that one. Really needs to say U.S. Mail on the side instead of GSA 40 or whatever it says. I don't know what it says on it. He didn't build that, though.

[45:37] No, that's a Toledo special. Yeah. We got that and the motor both at Toledo. Super cheap. Same year or different year? Same year. Same year. Same year. Okay. He bought the airplane, and then we went searching for a motor. A guy wanted like $200 for an OS, $30. I was like, seems a little high. A little high. Well, it's a collector's item. It's new. It's never been used. I was like, well, that's great, but. We're not collecting. We're not collecting. We're going to beat it. Yeah.

[46:05] It just happened to... I don't know. A guy had a box of motors laying around, and this little ASP30 was in it. It looked reasonable, and the price was like 15, 20 bucks. It's like, okay. I mean, that's honestly the cost of a glow plug at this point. If it's garbage, it's garbage, and it runs beautifully. Yeah. It wasn't garbage. Yeah. Like I said, it must have an air leak somewhere, but since it works, don't mess with it. Yeah. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[46:32] And then he had his brand new super hot set he bought used, which I'm thinking it's a brand new airplane. I don't think it's ever flown. But it's so old. Did you see the throttle servo on that? Yeah. It's ancient. It had the old three-pin am fataba stuff in it yeah it had like the servos that are twice the size of a normal one at this point and that's what he's using on uh still using that throttle he did change the others out which i was talking

[46:57] excuse me i was talking to him about that too he said he used the servos that we got at Toledo. Yeah. I threw all those away that I got. Yeah. Because they were just garbage. Yeah. I don't remember what the... Lesson learned. They were brand new. They were like... Yeah. Diatomaxes or something. No MPIs. All the MPIs. Yeah. And it was the same thing. He was having issues with him. Because I noticed when after he flew, he kind of came up to where we were, you know, with the airplane

[47:26] before he walked up, turned it off, you know, stopped the motor and stuff. Then I think it was the rudder was just, I mean, it was, it was a quarter inch back and forth, just moving back and forth, moving back and forth. He couldn't find center. And so that's when I said something about needing to put a new, uh, serve one there. He's like, they're new. They're the ones we got in Toledo. Like, oh yeah, I tried that thing too. They're the ones we got in Toledo. Like, oh, yeah.

[47:46] I tried that thing, too, and I ended up throwing them in the garbage. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I've had MPI servos before. They're not the best things ever, but they were serviceable. And you guys had horrible luck with them. Now he's got one, especially. Did he change four or just two? He changed everything except for the throttle. Okay. So he put four of them in there. Yeah. Then, yeah. It's just one of those things.

[48:11] I don't know if you get one bad one every now and then, but I was probably the one that got. You got the whole. A couple bad ones and I didn't trust any of them. So. Right. So yeah, he just needs to yank that rudder servo out and stick something else in there. Yeah. But I mean, it looked like it flew pretty good. He enjoyed it. It looks like a little Cybertruck. I kind of like it. Yeah, it's kind of angular. Mm-hmm. The landing gear on it's really soft.

[48:35] I don't know if that's the factory hot gear or not. It's bent aluminum, and it's just very easy to bend by hand. And if he dorks it in at all, it's just going to flatten. Yeah. So he's got a bunch of different aluminum plate gear. We'll find something that's going to be a little stronger. That was rigged forward weirdly also. Yeah. For some reason, I don't think that's the factory gear. It just doesn't look right.

[49:00] I did notice, though, like my takeaway from that whole weekend, or not weekend, but the whole flying was, yeah, nitro smells good. Nitro sucks to clean up. Yeah, I had to go home and clean my radio because fingerprints and droplets, you know, just from the air. Everywhere. Yeah. Droplets, you know, just from the air. Everywhere. Yeah.

[49:33] And his, so that hot city had, I mean, he picked that up and you could just see like the oil on the bottom was just dripping from where it had pooled. And then when he went to a different angle, it just literally was running off of it. It's like, oh my goodness. Super Tiger 61. They're thirsty. Yeah. The more you drink, the more oil there is. More byproduct. Plus he had the mac flow through on it which sounds cool but what was that it's a muffler do you see the hole all the way through it

[49:50] maybe i didn't pay attention yeah the back flow throughs um look like your standard tubular muffler except for the front is not closed it's open there's a hole that runs all the way through and i i guess the theory i don't it accelerates the exhaust gases and pulls them out i don't know we ran a lot of mac flow throughs back in the day uh some places outlawed them because they were so noisy so he likes it then

[50:16] so he likes it the louder the better for him they always work really well in the engine so i guess the flow through part did something for it. Yeah. I'd like to get my hand on a flow-through, but you don't see them very often. They're around, don't get me wrong. Well, he just got one. Yeah, he just got one. And I've seen one or two at Toledo. I probably ought to have snagged them.

[50:44] Yeah, if you think you'll ever use them, because at this point, you never know when you're going to see one again. Yeah. And on the right engine setup, just right, they make this really cool glug, glug, glug, glug, glug noise at idle when you're coming in. They're just very nostalgic for me. Nice. I don't have the nostalgia thing on that, so. My nostalgia is electric. Oh. Well, anything else you want to say on that subject or want to move on? I think we had a lot of fun. It was good.

[51:10] I agree. I've got all the dirty rags in my shop now. My shop smells like castor oil. I bet the back of your truck does also. And that and dead moths. They were bad this year. But every time I go out in the truck, I'm pulling dead moths out of the bed of the truck. I'm thinking we should have a good time next year with Tommy being back and going to it and stuff. That's the plan now, at least. It'd be corn. Yeah, but that's what he's used to there, so it'll be okay.

[51:38] He won't notice any difference. Nope. We can brag about how nice it was this year. And I've got plenty of other nitrous stuff to resurrect. There you go. Nice. Yeah. Tinder, something extra. Aerostar. I didn't know you had a something extra. Yeah. It actually matches the Wonder. Exact same paint scheme. Really? Yeah. What size is that? 40 size. I got a Super Tiger 45, 46 in it. Cool. I'm sure the motor 45, 46 in it. Cool.

[52:07] I'm sure the motor's locked up because it hasn't been ran in 20 years, but... It's easy to deal with. Easy to fix. Motor's almost black. It's got so much castor oil on it. Cool. All right. Well, shall we move on to... Just want to touch quickly on a couple of new airplanes. Absolutely. Nothing in depth. just a couple minutes. So start Dave, cause you have two and I have one. I got two and they're both from Skynetic.

[52:34] Uh, the first one I'm looking at is the Skynetic micro T33 shooting star, 30 millimeter EDF, uh, with gyro. Um, it's a little four, 30 millimeter EDF with gyro. It's a little four cell, 30 millimeter. It uses a, I can't read. I got to get new glasses. My distance vision is fine. It's my bifocals that are just jacked. 300 milliamp 4S pack. So it's a little micro pack which by the way is included they include one which is really nice it's got the little AS3X style gyro in it stabilized

[53:19] and then off it's a good-looking airframe. Once again, it's got a painted canopy, people. Come on. That's just taking the easy way out. Makes it a no for Dave, at least for right now. It is a sharp-looking airplane at a distance, I imagine. I wouldn't complain too much. What can I say about a Micro T33? I mean, there's no assembly really. It goes together good. Pricing, I think, is personally a little high, but considering it does come with a receiver and a battery and a charger,

[54:00] and I'm sure it's one of those USB chuck-in-the-trash-can chargers, charger and i'm sure it's one of those usb chuck it in the trash can chargers but uh looking for 205 for the transmitter ready and 215 ready to fly so i can't imagine what you get ten dollar wise for a ten dollar transmitter kind of makes me a little skeptical but overall it's a good looking paint scheme. It's in silver. Yay. I do like it. Maybe down

[54:30] the road. We'll see. Maybe. What do you got? So FreeWing has the F-35C Lightning II, super scale, 110 millimeter EDF. Big boy. It is big. It is expensive. $989 plug and play. That does come with a gyro, just not the receiver. And it runs on 12S power system. A lot of battery. So two 6S5000s per flight. A couple hundred plus bucks just in batteries per flight. Yeah. It's big, though. It's one of the bigger ones that are actually the biggest one I've seen.

[55:12] It's actually the biggest airplane free wing has made. I don't remember. Do I have the... Yeah, so it is a 52.8-inch wingspan, 1340 millimeters for the friends to the north. 63.7 inches long, 1618 millimeters. So it's a big bird. But at the same time, $1,000. For foam. For a foam airplane. I don't know. I mean, it's cool. It looks good. It's free wing, you know, it's decent. Right. But it's just these prices are creeping up ever so slowly.

[55:49] It's like we're the frog in boiling water that we don't notice the water is boiling because we were putting it in when it was cold. Yeah. So. Yeah. It's like every time something new comes out, it's like, oh. Yeah. So looking at my little Skynetic again, this is very cool. Something that I've, there's not much available in this type of airplane. This is the P-12E Pursuit biplane from the 1930s. Not much interwar aircraft available and ready to fly stuff.

[56:26] We're looking at 1,100 millimeter, so that's a 43.3-inch wingspan, which sounds a little small, but it is a biplane. A biplane. So it's not as small as it sounds. Too many wings. Too many wings. And it's plug-and-play, so supply your own receiver. Pricing on it is $289, which sounds like a lot for an 11-millimeter airplane. It's got some nice scale details to it, though. It really does. It looks nice. Still looks like foam, though. Yeah.

[57:04] It's got a full lighting system in it, which something like this, I really wouldn't care about a lighting system. But, yeah, it's nice to have the nav lights, I guess. I agree. The cowl and engine look really nice. I haven't really seen any close up, but all the distance shots, it looks really good. It's got the scale dummy engine on it. It's got a nice dummy engine on it it's got a nice nice paint scheme on it it's got the olive drab fuse with yellow wings yellow tail and uh the red

[57:31] and white rudder stripes um just just classic interwar colors looks great designed to run on 2200 4s batteries um you could fly it nice and scale on that battery, or if you want to go rip it up, it will do so as well. So really not a bad-looking airplane. I really want one of these. And I tell you, if Fred didn't bankrupt me this last week, I was really close to ordering it. Well, that's too bad. Darn dog. Shall we cover what Fred did? You can do it quick if you want.

[58:15] Fred, my Labrador retriever slash dumbass friend, he has the itchies. So he's been on Apoquel pretty much his entire life. Assuming that's an anti-itch medicine. It's an anti-itch medicine, which costs me about $106 a month. So Fred's not cheap to keep. Plus he eats everything. And that's what got him in trouble. I came home from work i had stopped at the veterinary office and bought a brand a 30-day supply of epic well um normally i

[58:52] buy that on 90 day which in this case i really didn't because with my wife's passing i'm still trying to figure out my budget and i didn't really want to spend that much money not knowing exactly what my budget was. So I opted for the 30-day. And at this point, I'm really glad I did. I came home. I put the meds on the counter. I let the dogs out, let them go do their thing.

[59:19] I brought them back in to feed them, but then realized I needed to go to the restroom and was gone for about five minutes. And in the five minutes that I had not fed Fred, he decided to help himself. He counter-surfed and ate the entire bottle of meds. So he ate 30 tablets of Apoquel, which even at his weight, which is 93 pounds, is a fatal dose. Called the vet. They said, well, take him to the emergency vet. We're closed. Okay. So I took him to the emergency vet.

[59:46] They immediately took him away from me, made them puke, and then they did all kinds of things. They force fed them charcoal and all the things you do for poison control. They had me call the poison control, which was an $89 phone call. Yeah. Poison control cost. Didn't know that. Yeah. So that was $89 phone call. Yeah. Poison control cost. Didn't know that. Yeah. So that was $89. At least it is in veterinary world. I don't know what the people is,

[1:00:12] but never had to call him cause I haven't done anything stupid like that. Um, they ended up keeping him overnight and luckily Fred is perfectly fine. He's back to his normal butthead self. Um, but my wallet is about $3,000 short. That's airplane money, Dave. Yeah. That was my 60 day emergency funds gone. So I better not have an emergency for 60 days. I mean, I found you a used jet you could have bought for that money. Way less than that money. Way less than that money.

[1:00:47] A third of that money. Anyway. Anyway, I love Fred. He's worth it, but you think he'd be grateful? No. Not at all. Not at all. He doesn't know. I got Fred back. He's fine. I still have to buy another $106 bottle of pills, so that's $212 worth of Batacol this month. Boy, I could itch for a couple days. I get paid Friday. He'll be fine. He'll be fine. All right. Anything else be good? I'm good. I'm tired. Me too. Let's end this stuff. You want to take it?

[1:01:24] You want me? Have it. You go. this stuff. You want to take it? You want me? Have it. You go, Dave. Come on, this is yours. Take us out. Take us out. Thank you for listening to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I'm Dave. I'm Ron. Good job, Dave. Until next time, good night. Good night. We hope you enjoyed this episode of the RC Plane Lab podcast. For topic suggestions, to ask questions or to give any feedback, connect with us at rcplanelab.com or email us direct at either

[1:01:53] ron at rcplanelab.com or tom at rcplanelab.com. You can also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, may your landings be gentle.