Ep 134: Eli Tow, ARF Bashing, and Other Stuff

[00:00:04] Hello, everyone. Welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I'm Ron. And I'm Dave. Oh, what a couple of weeks it's been, huh? It's been rough. It's not had a lot of RC stuff going on for me. Nope, me neither. It's been smoky.

[00:00:24] Yeah, that's across, I don't know, was it the Midwest and the East Coast both?

[00:00:28] I don't know if the East Coast had, but I know Midwest sure did.

[00:00:31] No, Chicago had the worst air quality in the world. I heard that. Was that two days ago? Tuesday or Wednesday. Yeah, that's pretty bad.

[00:00:38] Like, that's impressive, but in a bad way.

[00:00:40] It's like worse than Shanghai? Really?

[00:00:42] It was heavy here. We had a few days of it, three or four days, I think, to where we could actually kind of see it slowly coming in. And it, like today, it just miraculously cleared up because we had tornadoes. Yeah, the tornadoes were like nature's vacuum cleaner. It was nice. But yeah, storms came through today. Yesterday, unfortunately, closed our work down early because we had no power. So I was able to get out of there about one.

[00:01:13] But it just, I'm not a big fan of storms like that. I always get concerned. we have cameras and stuff around the house. So I usually can check and see how well things are doing after a storm. They were down for like a half hour. So, of course, what goes through your mind when you can't get to your camera? Are they still there? Exactly, because I heard a tornado touch down south of Mechanicsburg.

[00:01:37] Well, guess where we live?

[00:01:39] South of Mechanicsburg. But I don't know if that actually happened or not. Luckily, everything came back online. I think we just ran out of power for a little bit. The generator kicked on and then stuff was able to get booted back up. Because all of a sudden I started getting notifications from the cameras saying, hey, another thing to check out.

[00:01:58] And so, of course, I'm on there really quickly trying to look.

[00:02:01] And I saw everything was okay, except we lost one half of a tree. I mean, like it was a main big branch, but it fell away from the house out in the field.

[00:02:12] So you got to log out in the field there somewhere.

[00:02:14] Yeah, I'm going to, I'll have to get that taken down this weekend.

[00:02:18] And I get to go back home to a nice, hot, humid, mosquito-filled house.

[00:02:22] It's not funny. I mean, it's not funny, but it's kind of funny. So Springfield, and this hardly ever happens, is without power. Like 50,000 people, as last I heard, in Springfield were without power.

[00:02:34] They're saying it could be a couple days.

[00:02:35] That's just nuts. Yeah. I mean, like, who would have thought? Like within 20 minutes it was sunny to, here's a tornado.

[00:02:43] I heard him say the D word, derecho, on the way out here. I don't even know what that is. It's some sort of wind phenomenon. I'm not a weather person, but.

[00:02:53] Oh, weird.

[00:02:54] Yeah. It's, so it's not, it's more like a straight line wind thing from what I understand.

[00:02:59] Oh, well, that would kind of make sense to me. Because like when we were, or when I was coming home, all the corn was laying in one direction. Like it was just knocked over whatever direction it was, but it was.

[00:03:12] And I did look at that on the way out here and it was all standing back up. Because I was looking at something. Oh, is it? So I wondered how much of this corn's laid down and none of the fields. I saw a little bit on the edge of one field that was still looking a little beat up, but the rest of it was all standing back up.

[00:03:24] Well, we haven't had rain for like a month. So maybe the rain, after it got knocked down, brought it back up. It was, like I said, a weird day. I'm just glad everything, everything seems to be getting back to normal.

[00:03:38] I've got no damage. There's a bunch of leaves in my yard, but no damage. Yeah. Just sitting without any power.

[00:03:43] Yeah. Tommy, his wife, is the same way, no damage. Same with my mom and dad, no damage. But also without power and just kind of trying to make it through it until the power comes back on. Who knows when that will be. But other than that, it's been okay.

[00:04:04] Yeah.

[00:04:05] I mean, like I said, it just seems like the last few days have had everything kind of

[00:04:10] Yeah, the last two weeks have been kind of, yeah, my wife's had another surgery and ouch. I'm not feeling that great myself. So, it's the last two weeks. I haven't done any flying. Yeah. It's ridiculous. I need to do something.

[00:04:23] Well, I'm glad you made it out and we can do this.

[00:04:25] Yeah. I appreciate that. Appreciate it. Appreciate the air conditioning.

[00:04:28] Well, we have that. That's for sure. And that is never in short supply here. I like it very cold. To Tommy's chagrin.

[00:04:37] He sits down here wrapped up in a blanket like an old man.

[00:04:40] Because he is.

[00:04:41] It's funny.

[00:04:42] What? What? What's that face for? Anyway, so a few things have gone on, actually. Like last weekend, or no, two weekends ago was Eli Toe. I think I talked about going to that in the last episode that it was coming up. I don't.

[00:04:58] I think I did.

[00:05:00] Yeah. But if not, Eli Toe was a couple weekends ago. So, it was actually kind of cool. So, I've never been to a Toe event before. Have you been to one? I have not. Yeah. So, there's a lot of big gliders that get towed up into the air by a lot of big airplanes. So, once again, I've never been to one before. I've never seen an actual Toe in person. Like, I've seen them online and stuff. Yeah. And you kind of try and pick up on what's good, what's bad.

[00:05:31] The nuances of how it all kind of works.

[00:05:35] One of the things that I was not sure about until seeing it in person was, you see these airplanes that, the tow rigs, that have the release on top. And I was always concerned about having it on top because it's like, I don't know why you would put it on top because you don't want it to get caught in the rudder. Like, that was my thing. Like, I don't want… Get caught in the counterbalance. Yeah.

[00:05:58] Or even prevent the rudder from turning if there's too much pressure on it or something from the actual tow rope. But these gliders, and it makes sense now that I saw it, the gliders float a lot better than the tow planes do. So, they're a lot higher. They take off first. They're in the air a lot sooner than the tow planes are. So, they're higher than them. And you don't have to worry about those touching at all. And that was really neat to watch in person. There were…

[00:06:25] Gosh, I couldn't give a count.

[00:06:27] If I had to think, maybe 15 to 20 gliders there. It's pretty good. Give or take.

[00:06:34] For a niche thing. Yeah. And I would say the tow tugs, like the actual just almost constant going up and down. There was two to three of those. And like I said, they just pretty much… There was a tow pilot. And when somebody was ready to go, they'd start it up and go tow them up. They'd go 400 feet. 399.9999 feet. Exactly. Just to the ceiling. Do the release.

[00:07:07] I spent a lot of time at 399.999 feet.

[00:07:10] Well, that's the highest you can… Anyway. So it was kind of cool, though, because like the tow pilot would literally take off, make not even a loop. Like it was just almost straight up, make one circle, got halfway around, and then they were up high enough to be released. He would release them. And then he wouldn't even make a full circle.

[00:07:31] He would kind of come back, arc around to the left to kind of bleed off altitude, go back around to the right, and then just come right down the runway. It was just one circuit. And that was all they would do, just several times. There was even a time where everybody was like ready to go up at once. And there was just a line of gliders. There was probably six or seven of them. Touchdown, snap a new line on. Yeah, just ready to go. It was really kind of cool to watch.

[00:07:56] Neat. Yeah.

[00:07:57] I got to see Ali fly his big glider. He has a Airworld… Is it a… Hold on, I got it written down because I knew I wouldn't remember what it was. It's an Airworld DG600. It's a half scale. Really cool glider that sounds awesome. It's apparently not good to whistle because that means there's some aerodynamic problems problems, but especially when he was doing like full aileron rolls and stuff, the whistle that thing made was just so cool.

[00:08:27] And it's huge. Well, you can imagine a half scale.

[00:08:30] It was just about 30 feet. So, nice big glider. Most of them there I'd say were, I don't know, four to eight meters maybe. So, probably 15 to 25 feet. His was definitely the biggest. There were actually two of those there. One of his buddies had one too.

[00:08:50] I just think about all the storage. Oh, my goodness.

[00:08:54] Yeah. Yeah. But it's worth it, right? Sure. I'll just build a house for my airplane. That's what a garage is for. But, well, they break down quite a bit. Like, gliders break down more than some of these other planes that we have. So, I mean, not, I guess, in that scale, but they break down pretty good. So, you can't complain about it. Yeah, I know.

[00:09:16] He's got to have priorities.

[00:09:18] Exactly. And they should always be airplanes. Let's see. What else was there? Yeah, so, if everything goes according to plan, by next year, especially with Tommy being back and stuff, we will have a big glider to tow and be a part of the event to be able to tow up with the 12-foot Telemaster.

[00:09:46] If you can ever figure out how to get it out of your basement.

[00:09:49] Actually, I kind of like the way it's sitting right now. Like, I posted that picture on Facebook, and it looks really cool because it doesn't fit, obviously, wings all the way up. But I've been working on it. So, I've been doing a few things. I'm not happy. I shouldn't say that. I don't want to be negative. So, it's built good. Not great, but it's built good. It'll suffice. It will work.

[00:10:15] The kind of the shoulder mount where the wings go on to the actual airplane, to the fuselage, there's a lot of play in that. And I want to find a way to, I guess, tighten that up to make less play, like vertical play. Like, I'll have to show you. But there's, when you're trying to put the wings in and stuff, there's probably a good half inch to where you can move the little ears that go into the fuselage. Right. They're smaller than the receiving part in the fuselage.

[00:10:50] So, they will move up and down probably a good half inch. So, they're kind of waiting for the struts to kind of help locate it? Is that? No, it's located by the screws that go into that ear that comes in. So, the ear comes in and then the screw goes through that ear into the receiver. So, you're not, not the receiver, but into the, well, you can see it. Like, help me describe that. You see the screw?

[00:11:12] I don't have my glasses on. Oh, well, never mind.

[00:11:14] So, instead of normal wings where you actually put the wings through the fuselage into the wing itself, like into one of the, the formers to hold it on. Right. This one has ears that comes out from the wing and goes into that piece on the fuselage. And then, in line with the fuselage is how the, the bolt goes through. And they're all disposed to you. And that's how it gets bolted on there. I don't know if I described that well enough. Looking at it, I understand it.

[00:11:50] But I don't know if anybody else will, just from the description. But instead of the bolt going through the side of the fuselage to hold the wing on. It feels vertical. It's going the opposite way, 90 degrees to that, to hold the ears on. And then, yes, the struts do the rest of the, the work to hold it. Like I said, it's probably going to be okay. I'm not concerned about anything coming off during flight. I'm not concerned about any of that.

[00:12:14] I just don't like the way it lines up because the, the wings don't line up nicely with the fuselage. There's a little gappage going on there. And it's, I'm so torn between fixing it or just letting it go. Let it go for this year. That's, that's what I keep telling myself, but it's, it bugs me. We'll see. I mean, I would like to get it flown and maybe I, maybe I won't even like this. Maybe I'm not going to like how it flies and want to get rid of it. Who knows?

[00:12:41] So I guess you're right. We should just get it in the air and see how it works first.

[00:12:44] Yep. Cause there's nothing there that's going to keep it from flying and it's not going to keep it from flying safely.

[00:12:50] Yeah. Like I'm not concerned about. It's all cosmetics. Yes. But having, yeah. I mean like it's pretty much what I got this as an ARF. I mean, it wasn't, it's a, it's a stick built. It was a 90% built. Covered. And because of that, like I had to cut some of the covering off on the ailerons to see how to mount a control horn to it. Like you guys, you and Tommy were pretty sure that it was just a simple screw through it.

[00:13:22] Excuse me, into the aileron, but just to make me feel better, I wanted to see what I was screwing into. So by cutting off a little bit that I'm going to have to patch now, I was able to see that actually is plywood that's doubled up. So it's going to be plenty. I'm so happy to see that you actually cut the bottom of it. I never even thought about cutting the top. That would be a, anyway, I was going to say a Reggie thing, but I don't want to say that to him.

[00:13:47] We didn't say that. No, he wouldn't do that. He'd have you do it. but no, so I'm, I'm getting to be a little bit more okay with the aileron hookup and

[00:13:58] All that on it. So it's, it's got a nice double plate in there. It's going to be plenty strong.

[00:14:03] Yeah.

[00:14:03] I've, the more I see it, the more I'm comfortable with that.

[00:14:06] I just don't like the way the wings go on.

[00:14:09] And I, and it's not that bad.

[00:14:11] It really isn't.

[00:14:13] Not that.

[00:14:13] It's not that great. I was going to say not that good either, but it's, it'll, it'll get fixed. It'll get flown. what was that? There was something else I was going to say. Oh, I also, I don't know if I, I might've talked about it last time. I don't remember when I did this, put a servo on the choke.

[00:14:33] Oh yeah.

[00:14:34] Because I'm lazy and I like that. My big yak had that and I really liked the, the servo operated joke. So I ended up doing that on this one too. It's probably honestly two decent nights of work away from getting done.

[00:14:50] Yeah. It looks pretty much ready to go.

[00:14:52] I have to get some more hardware. Where I plan on going up to Brian's tomorrow. I took Friday off. So I'm going to be going up there. I need to get some more hardware. I kind of going back to some of the things I don't like on this that give me pause. So the struts connect to the wing where the struts connect to the wing inside of the wing. There is a, a T nut or a blind nut. Perfect.

[00:15:20] That's how it should be, except where the blind nut goes in the way they have it mounted. Some reason, somehow it's flat on half of it. And then right past where the hole is, like literally right on the edge of the hole where the blind nut goes in, is a angle, is the, tri-stock. So to fix that, they actually bent the ear on the blind nut.

[00:15:49] So you got a little less surface area spreading out the load.

[00:15:52] Well, the only problem with that, that I have found too, is when you go to put the screw in, like when it, it's hard to describe because they bent that to where it's hard to get a screw started in it now. Like by bending that ear, it messed up the threads on the inside.

[00:16:12] It messed up the business beginning threads.

[00:16:13] Right. And I'm not, I'm just not comfortable with that either. So I might have to try to run a tap in it. No, I haven't tried to tap it.

[00:16:21] Yeah. Run a new tap through it and see if we can clean up those threads.

[00:16:24] Oh, in the net itself? Yeah. I never thought of that. That's a good idea. Okay. I will do that and see if that helps. I see. I'm glad I talk about stuff. That's good. That'll be first on my list, but I'm going to get new, I want to get shorter bolts. For some reason, the bolts that go in there are like, they're four millimeter bolts, but they're, I mean, they've got to be a good two and a half inches long and I probably

[00:16:47] Don't need more than an inch even. I don't want to say they need to be three quarters of an inch max.

[00:16:51] Exactly. So I'm going to get new into those. I know I can just cut them, but then I don't have as much because they're shoulder bolts and I don't want the shoulders on them. I just want actual all thread or as much as I can on something shorter. And I'll probably end up taking a grinder and grind the first threads off in an angle. Have you ever done that?

[00:17:08] Oh yeah. I always make them look like they've been in a pencil sharpener.

[00:17:11] Yeah, exactly. It'd make them thread easier.

[00:17:13] Oh yeah. It makes your life so much easier.

[00:17:14] And I figured that would help that also, but I never, like I said, I never thought about running a tap through that. I got to do that. Yeah. So that's, that's where I am on that.

[00:17:22] And then I always run those screws through a die as well.

[00:17:25] Really? Yeah. Never thought of that.

[00:17:27] I always clean up all my threads.

[00:17:28] Really? Yep. You mean after you do the… After I taper them? See, I don't run through a die, but I run them…

[00:17:34] Actually, I've even found brand new bolts that don't have really great threads in them. So I'll take them and just run them. Something I'm going to use like that a lot, wing bolts, the landing gear bolts, something that's in and out a lot. I will clean up threads on both ends before I even use them.

[00:17:50] I never thought of that. You shouldn't have to do that. You shouldn't have to. I think that's why I've never thought about it.

[00:17:55] That's why a lot of hardware comes from China and tolerances are a little off. It also is really helpful with nylon wing bolts. It kind of helps clean them up and they go in and out so much easier.

[00:18:07] I could see that. Yeah. I like… Yeah. I like the nylon bolts, but…

[00:18:12] And that's just because the nylon swells with humidity.

[00:18:15] Oh, I never thought of that either. I'm learning so much on this episode. I'm liking this. That's good conversations. Speaking, you're talking about bad hardware and stuff. So I got… And I'm not sure if I'm going to say this right. We talked about the Cree Cree, the Cry Cry, whatever you want to call it that I got.

[00:18:35] The little French microplane.

[00:18:37] Right. I was very excited and I couldn't not start putting that together. So it's an ARF. It's the first ARF I've ever had that I… Would you call it a not-name brand?

[00:18:54] It's a… Yeah, it's an off-brand.

[00:18:57] It's a… It's from World Models, which… I have mixed emotions on this ARF. But first off… And… Understandable. You have to know what you're doing to put one of these together. This would not be an ARF to start off with.

[00:19:16] This is a builder's ARF.

[00:19:17] Right. Like for Lori, this would not have been a good starting ARF for her because the instructions that I got for it leave a lot to be desired. When it talks about… Well, the very first thing it says to do, by the way, on the instructions on this thing, are to glue the hinges or glue the ailerons and stuff, the hinges on the ailerons. Makes sense. No big deal. So I'm looking at it, and it shows that you have to epoxy pin hinges in.

[00:19:48] Pin hinges are great.

[00:19:49] I'm like, well, that's weird. This is small. Why would they have pin hinges on it? Because it looks like the Robart-style pin hinge,? And so then I got looking at the actual airplane that I had. Well, it doesn't have pin hinges. It has the good old-fashioned CA hinges that are, well, they leave a lot to be desired to. I mean, like they just, they're kind of cruddy little hinges. So it says nothing about CA glue. It says nothing about how to install those.

[00:20:20] It just shows a picture of using two-part epoxy to epoxy the hinges on. Somebody that doesn't know what they're doing. Good luck with that. Well, you're not going to notice a difference. I mean, like, if you're looking at the picture, you can tell if what you're looking for. But not knowing what you're looking for, you're going to see, oh, it's a hinge. Here's the epoxy it says to do. Let's mix it up and put it on there and call it quits.

[00:20:44] And you're going to frig that up.

[00:20:46] Yeah, it's going to be a disaster.

[00:20:47] So I was not happy with that. But secondly, the box, the instructions all say that it's a six-channel, four-servo airplane. It takes four servos. Makes sense to me. Two on the ailerons, one on the rotor, one on the elevator. Right?

[00:21:06] Yes.

[00:21:08] So I went ahead before I even took the box apart, and I ordered the servos I was going to need, put an order in through Horizon, bought those, bought a couple other servos for the telemaster and some extras to have on hand. And got everything together, and I'm getting ready to put it together and go to put the first servo in. It's not a standard-sized servo. I assumed 40-size airplane. I don't even know what you'd call that. It's a 70-inch wingspan.

[00:21:35] Yeah.

[00:21:36] So it's not huge. It's not a microplane by any means. But it does not take standard-sized servos.

[00:21:41] It takes…

[00:21:42] Minis. Miniservos. So luckily, I had some of those on hand already from the, let's just say, the not-progressing airplane kit that I've been building of the Electro Streak. So I'm going to use the servos from that. But then I get to the part in there where it doesn't even tell you how to put the gear in and stuff. Okay, so I'm putting the gear on this airplane. And then I see that you're supposed to put a… Wait, which one's smaller, micro or mini?

[00:22:12] The micros are the small ones.

[00:22:13] Okay. You're supposed to put the micro servo. So it takes many servos for anywhere else. And then micro servos, if those are the small ones, it takes one of those for the front steering wheel.

[00:22:25] Yeah, I can see that holding up really well, by the way.

[00:22:27] I know. Like, we'll see how it goes. But four servos is what it says on the box and in the manual. That's a fifth servo. There is no way to hook it up. There's no way to route it. There's no way to do anything to get the steering servo hooked up to the rudder servo.

[00:22:48] On the plus side, they've got to direct the connections you're going to be able to get.

[00:22:52] Yeah, it's only about three inches, two or three inches that's going to be going through there. So that part is good. But I just would have liked to have known more before I started. So I could have had all the parts. Like, I don't have the parts and pieces to put it together now. Like, once again, I have to get another servo when I go up to Brian's tomorrow. Which I think is on my list now. Now that I say that, I don't remember. I'm going to have to make it.

[00:23:16] Find your shopping list. So the other thing, and this is what got me thinking about this when you said the hardware is bad. The hardware in this is terrible. Like, even if you're going, like, using the metal screws going into wood, granted it's been wood that I put the screw in, took it out, and then put some CA glue in, you strip out the screwdrivers. Yeah. Or the, yeah, the head on it. I just, I can't believe how cheap some of this stuff is. It's like it's made from aluminum.

[00:23:50] It just, it's, it's so bad.

[00:23:52] Yeah, I had one years ago that, I swear, all the hardware was mishardened. I mean, just sheer right off.

[00:24:00] Yeah, I just can't. I mean, I don't even know what you're supposed to do with some of those.

[00:24:03] I look at 90% of the time, I just chuck everything that's in there and replace it with what I know works.

[00:24:08] See, I need to get a good enough supply of extras to do that. Like, I do that most of the time with servo screws when they come with the Phillips head screw.

[00:24:21] Yeah, I just am so in love with those 256.

[00:24:24] I know, they're so easy. So that's what I use, the ball drive. I, you can use your, your driver on it and stuff.

[00:24:29] I use them on hatches and cowls and I use them on everything.

[00:24:33] Yeah, they're cheap and very good screws. So I don't even use like a washer built in. Yeah. I, I think last time I bought a thousand of them just to have them. Cause you go, I mean, think about it. One servo is four screws. So you go through them pretty quickly, but I don't know. I mean, like I said, this, this, this RF just leaves a lot to be desired.

[00:24:55] Like fitting, even parts fitting where the rudder or the vertical, the vertical stabilizer is supposed to go into the actual fuselage. It doesn't fit. Yeah. They haven't opened that up enough. No. And of course it's all covered up to it. So for me to trim away, I'm going to have to be very careful and cut some way so I can actually get it to sit down.

[00:25:13] Don't cut too deep. You don't want to dig into the lower structure.

[00:25:15] I know that's the other problem too. So it's going to be a pretty delicate thing. Cause you don't want to take away any of the structure to it. Cause that's kind of an important part. I mean, you want that to be as strong as possible. So who knows? That's something else to work on, but I'm still, I think I love different airplanes. That's my, that's my thing. Like you don't see those very often. I've never seen one in a moment.

[00:25:39] And I'm into weird and that's right up my alley.

[00:25:42] And that kind of gets it into what we're going to be talking about with you too, is the RF bashing because it's neat. Like I like different things, but I'm also less inclined to go to the length that you go to.

[00:25:56] I just can't stand to have anything that looks like something somebody else has.

[00:26:00] I know. And that's, I love, like your Ultrix is different. Like all of your airplanes.

[00:26:05] I will have to say, I did think about painting the mini Ultrix.

[00:26:09] Yeah.

[00:26:09] I haven't. I've left it alone. I don't want to add any weight to it.

[00:26:12] So far. I know. Give it the winter. We'll see what it's like in the spring.

[00:26:16] Yeah. It'll be different. That's, yeah. But right now it is still in the stock stickers.

[00:26:22] Yeah. For now. For now. For now. Well, you see, you're going to have to do something different when the three of us get back and Tommy's out there too. You don't want your plane to look like ours. No.

[00:26:31] Because you get them all close together there and they all look alike.

[00:26:36] And they all crash the same when you're trying to pull out at the last minute. Last thing I want to talk about before we get into your RF bashing. So I'm trying something new also. And I have ordered an assassin wing from Crash Test Hobbies. Do you have any experience with wings?

[00:26:54] Actually, I do. I own a FMA Direct Razor. If you want to talk about stuff that's old.

[00:26:59] I don't know what that is. So what is that?

[00:27:01] It is a flying wing. It is made from the EPP foam when it first came around.

[00:27:07] Okay.

[00:27:07] It was designed for a Speed 400 and a six-cell NICAD pack. I think they were what? AE cells? I can't remember. It's been so long. But I love it. In fact, I just had it out flying not too long ago. Did you really? I've got a box of Speed 400 motors. But I would really like to convert that over to a brushless setup.

[00:27:26] Yeah. Well, the brushless setup for those are cheap. Like, I just ordered one tonight for… Because it's designed, I think, to run… Like, if you don't want it to be the Speed Freak, all that kind of stuff. Which I don't yet. Like, after a while, maybe. But it's made to run on a 2212 motor. Is that right? Doesn't sound right. But I think that's right. That sounds about right. And you can get that. The Speed Controller… What did I buy? I bought that.

[00:27:54] The Speed Controller, the prop hub, and two propellers was $21 on eBay.

[00:28:00] I was going to say, usually that type of stuff is about $30.

[00:28:02] Yeah. Well, they have the kits that come with the servos, too. I'm okay not getting those, because I actually want some decent servos for these. The little bit I've looked up on these, they said to use a Metal Gear servo. So I'll probably use a name-brand servo for that.

[00:28:16] I love my little Chroner 959s. Which, that reminds me, I need to…

[00:28:20] Give me that pencil, if you don't mind. I don't think I have one here. I need to make a note on that one, too, that I need to get some of those servos at Brian's. Or something like them.

[00:28:30] Yeah. The rub with the razor is, it needs to be an in-runner motor instead of an out-runner. Because the way it mounts to the fuselage. It actually has a plastic-molded trough. Really? That it's… You put double-sided tape on it, and then a zip tie. And that's what holds the motor in. And it's a really slick setup, and I don't really want to go messing with making a mount and so forth. So I need to find an in-runner.

[00:28:55] What battery do you use for it?

[00:28:58] I've been flying it with a three-cell 1800. Oh, okay.

[00:29:04] Well, because… So, once again, I've not… All my 2200s went kaplooey. Really? Yeah. All of them?

[00:29:10] Yeah, I went to replace them, and all I could find was 1800s, and, well, that's what I have.

[00:29:16] See, I've got four 2200s of the G2. Actually, I take that back. Three G2 2200s, and then one G1. So that's what I'm hoping to be able to use.

[00:29:27] I don't really know as much difference between the 1800 and the 2200s. It works.

[00:29:32] About the same.

[00:29:33] Yeah, and they're a little bit lighter, so…

[00:29:35] Yeah. Oh. Well, yeah, I can see that. But I already have the 22s, so that's why…

[00:29:41] Oh, and I'd prefer a 22.

[00:29:42] I'm wanting this to work. And from what some of the people have said on Discord, 2200s will work fine on that. But even though, like, if you read the stuff on the website on that Crash Test Hobbies, it says, like, 1300. But, I'll double the size of the battery. I like big batteries anyway. We haven't noticed. But, no, like I said, I'm excited. I know Tommy bought one of these when we were at Joe and All.

[00:30:07] He didn't have a lot of luck launching it, and we did not have a lot of time after we got back to actually spend a day at the field and kind of learn the toss.

[00:30:16] It's kind of like an underhanded frisbee toss without the spin.

[00:30:20] Well, that sounds simple, doesn't it? I mean, there's… And that's the other thing. You talk to five different guys about it, and they're going to tell you five different ways they like to do it, which is fine.

[00:30:30] My razor's got a little bit of a belly, so you just grab it and chuck it like any other fuselaged airplane.

[00:30:36] Oh, really? See, that… Like with these, I've not seen anybody do it that way. They always grab the very tip of a wing. And like you're talking about, you just kind of go and fling it out, but you've got to get it flung at the right, whatever, to get it done. I've never done it. I've never launched a wing. I've never had one.

[00:30:54] It's just a practice thing, but the things are so darn tough, you can bang them around a little bit until you figure it out.

[00:30:59] A lot bit. So that's what we'll be figuring out. They seem to be popular. Like I said, at Joe and All, they had a bunch of them flying. And a lot of the night wings, like they get together and do 10 or 12 of them up at one time after it got dark. And hopefully we'll be able to do that next year.

[00:31:16] Yeah, sounds cool.

[00:31:16] And you'll have to bring yours when you come with us to Joe and All next year also.

[00:31:19] Yeah, okay, fine.

[00:31:20] I'm going to be pushing you. By the way, Reggie said he's going. I don't necessarily believe him, but… Reggie says a lot of stuff. He does. And then he changes his mind. Oh, I didn't mean to. But anyway, so he says he's coming. I mean, I hope he makes it. I got room in my trailer.

[00:31:35] We can put him up in the trailer.

[00:31:36] Oh, really? Yeah. Well, he was talking about that. I told him, if Tommy and I rent the same trailer we rented last year, honestly, two people in that is enough. Like there's not enough room for any other airplanes, not enough room really for anybody to sleep comfortably. It was nice for each of us to have our own separate space because I had the front little bed and then he had the rest of it at night. And we just kind of were able to…

[00:32:01] I mean, we're good friends, but it's nice to be away every now and then. And you just wouldn't have that with somebody else in that trailer. Mine can theoretically sleep nine.

[00:32:14] Yeah, and you've seen my trailer. I said theoretically.

[00:32:17] That's a lot of spooning. It'll sleep five very comfortably. Oh, okay. Well then, yeah. Because he was asking that. He's like, do I need to rent a camper? And I told him probably so. So, like, I wasn't going to offer yours or anything.

[00:32:32] Or he can just live in his truck.

[00:32:34] Yeah, and that's the other thing he said, too. Maybe I'll just bring a tent or maybe I'll just sleep in the truck. I don't know. I'm not comfortable doing that because I'm kind of, I don't want to say diva, but I like to be comfortable. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean.

[00:32:46] And the man lives on the road in that truck all the time anyway.

[00:32:49] And, see, that's why I told him. I was like, I don't know what your comfort level is, how you are okay doing things and living. If you're fine camping on your truck, then do it.

[00:32:58] But maybe, yeah.

[00:33:00] Maybe he'll stay with you and that'll be the impetus that makes him actually go. Yeah. Having a place to stay.

[00:33:06] It'll be fun.

[00:33:06] It would. We'll have to camp next to each other. We've got plenty of room. That'll be awesome. Like, I'm not going to talk about it every single episode, but I'm really looking forward to it. Like, I'm ready to go back. It's just one of those things. It's one of those things. One of those things. Is that all I got? I think that's all I wanted to talk about. So now, Dave, it's all on you. Let's talk about ARF bashing. And we're not putting them down.

[00:33:32] Not bashing ARFs. Oh, I had no clue what you're talking about. This is coming from a builder. I'm a builder. So, back in the day, people were putting together ARFs.

[00:33:43] You were the crotchety old man saying, that's not a real airplane.

[00:33:47] Build your own darn airplane.

[00:33:48] Yeah.

[00:33:49] Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, I've ARF bashed a lot of these airplanes, and I've actually put more time in some of these airplanes than I would have if I've actually built them from scratch. Just changing things out. And it's so hard to pass up some of these subjects that are out here that are built so nice. The ARF has come so far, so far from the early days. But the problem is, they build 10,000 of them, and every single one of them looks exactly the same.

[00:34:21] Just, I can't have the same thing that somebody else has got.

[00:34:25] I've got to be unique.

[00:34:27] Like, I don't know what's wrong in my brain, but there's something wrong.

[00:34:31] I don't think that's wrong. If you have the ability to do that, and that's what you like, that's what the hobby is about. Yeah.

[00:34:38] And to me, I get a real kick out of the finishing side of things. I like sticking stick A and stick B together. I hate covering, but I love the final end, where you get to start playing with the details and the paint and the stickers and all that fun details. Yeah. And so that's where I'm kind of getting the kick out of it, redoing these ARFs. And you've got to decide what your skill level is and what's your end result that you want.

[00:35:06] It could be something as simple as slapping on a couple new stickers and say, it's different. It is. It's yours. It doesn't look like anything else out there. A lot of them, like my Ulrich 600, it's just a paint job. Nothing was changed on the airplane. It's all stock underneath there. It's just a new paint job. And it doesn't look anything like the original. So that's a lot of fun to me because it just doesn't match everybody else.

[00:35:33] Or you can go off the deep end and completely restructure one, like I'm doing currently with this quasi Skywarden project, where you change a lot of things. The basic structure of the airplane is staying the same, but there's changes. There's add-on parts. There's beefing things up, lightening things up. In the case of the Piper Pawnee slash Skywarden project, finding a bunch of factory errors that needed to be repaired.

[00:36:05] That was all that chipped out, yeah, the vertical shear webs, yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah, those were all from the factory. Those were scary, actually. I'm really glad that airplane had a strut for the wing because I don't think it would have held up otherwise. Yeah. So you've just kind of got to get an idea of what you want out of the project and what your skill level is and to push yourself just a little bit. So have you ever redone anything?

[00:36:38] No. Like I really know. Like the only thing I've, I will fix things that are broken, but I have never had an airplane. And this is where we're a little different. You're more the builder than I am. I tend to buy an airplane I think I like. And then if I don't like it, instead of going through all the hassle, I will just get rid of it and get something else.

[00:37:02] You'll just pop it out for something different.

[00:37:04] Yeah. so your Skywarden thing, that's, you actually do things, whereas I think of things and then move on. So when I first saw the Skywarden come out, obviously it looks just like the, the E-Flight air tractor. Because that's what it is. Exactly. And I have one of them. I love it. It flies great. And at first I was like, that's what I want to do. I want to switch this over. I'm going to repaint it. I'm going to do all that kind of stuff.

[00:37:32] And how far I got on that? I haven't. Because. You got into the planning stages. So you're step one. That's all the farther it's going to make it. Like, see, and I know that looks like every other E-Flight air tractor, but I like the looks of it. I like how it flies. And I don't.

[00:37:53] You don't want to mess with it.

[00:37:54] I want to mess with that enough to where I don't want to have to go through and do all that work to change it out.

[00:37:59] So that is one of the downsides to ARF bashing is typically they're going to end up a little bit heavier than the factory piece.

[00:38:08] Mm-hmm.

[00:38:08] Because you add weight. You through paint and add on details and so forth.

[00:38:14] Well, but what you're doing, and that's kind of what brought this conversation up, is you're ARF bashing your Hangar 9 Pawnee. Is that what it was? Hangar 9 Pawnee.

[00:38:22] Yeah.

[00:38:22] The older one. That you got in Toledo. Toledo. Right. Was the, was, when you bought it, was that the goal?

[00:38:30] Yes, that was the goal. I saw it sitting there. It's going, I need an Air Warden. And, this is currently, there's nobody really making an Air Tractor.

[00:38:40] Yeah. So this is close. And that's close enough to where you're not going to be able to tell, especially with everything you're doing with it. So walk us through, you have an airplane that you want to change, that you want to make your own. What, like for this project especially, what are you doing to it? Okay. It's not as simple, by the way. Sorry, I'm not to cut you off. It's not as simple as just peeling, covering off, put a different scheme on it, and calling it done.

[00:39:06] Right. This one's adding additional parts added. It's, I've added some under, underwing, hard points for stores. And then I've scratch built, some rocket pods to put underneath of it. and I've also bought a, off the shelf bomb drops mechanism. so it's got plastic 250 pound bombs that can be released from the inner stores. And the outer stores are actually using, the same release mechanism.

[00:39:33] They're just not hooked to a servo, because if I were to take and drop my rocket pods, they would just shatter upon impact. that's being done, to give it a little bit more of a scale look. I'm building, scratch building, sensor pod to put underneath the chin of the aircraft to make it look like the, the laser designator and the sensors. and just little add-ons like that. and then, of course, a new paint scheme.

[00:39:58] Just completely changing the color on it. I've actually added a operating strobe light that goes on top of the canopy. just little somewhat scale details, even though they're not truly scale, because this airplane doesn't exist in real life. It's just a stand way to heck off scale version of what might be.

[00:40:20] So, the Skywarden, then, that is a knockoff, or not a knockoff, but that is an actual air tractor?

[00:40:27] That is a version of the air tractor AT-802.

[00:40:30] Okay. And so Pawnee is a completely different company, but for those of us like me, they look a lot alike.

[00:40:37] They look the part.

[00:40:38] Yeah. Okay.

[00:40:40] So, it's sort of like a stunt double.

[00:40:45] Close enough for 10 foot away work. Yeah.

[00:40:47] Yeah. Another one I've done a long time ago, is I got an old Habiko Avastar and converted it to look like a, what is that thing?

[00:40:58] The, oh, my mind just went blank. That's the reason I can't, I'm asking you, because my blank mind. And I'm looking right at it, I'm, the pilotist, PC6.

[00:41:06] Yeah, the, the, the, the, the, yeah, the PC6, from, the movie Drop Zone. I don't know that one. The pink flamingo, Wesley Snipes, back in the day. just kind of converted it to look like that, put the functional strut landing gear on it, changed the shape of the tail, put flaps on it, just completely changed the Habiko Avastar. So you took your standard basic trainer and turned it into something more fun.

[00:41:33] But the shape of that's a little bit different, though.

[00:41:36] It is, but it's.

[00:41:37] But close enough?

[00:41:38] It's stand 50 foot away.

[00:41:42] And it's, it's good enough?

[00:41:43] Yeah. Pilatus Porter, that's it. Porter.

[00:41:46] Oh, okay. PC6, Porter, but yeah. so with your air tractor, or with your Skywarden, you're actually, you, you put hard mounts on it, you said, to where you can drop bombs off of it? Correct. So, how, how do you do that as in, do you cover it first and then attach your hard points?

[00:42:07] No, because hard mounting points had to be built into the wing to support the weight and the load from the ordnance. so I had to put little plywood plates inside the wing. So this thing has been stripped down to bare wood just before it was ever covered. plywood plates were put inside the wing and hardware attached. There's blind nuts and, and servo mounts and all kinds of fun stuff inside there. That, it took more engineering to make two bomb releases.

[00:42:36] And so how are you doing that?

[00:42:38] That is done through two servos. And I'm keeping it a six channel airplane. So it needs five because it's got flaps and re, and flaps and all that normal four channel stuff.

[00:42:48] Mm-hmm.

[00:42:49] So on channel six, I've got it set up on a three-way switch. So you sent the center of the switch, everything's attached, fine and dandy. Push the switch forward, you drop one, you pull the switch back, it drops the other one. So one of the servos is actually mounted upside down inside the wing.

[00:43:07] Okay.

[00:43:08] So that you can get the differential movement.

[00:43:10] Well, that's kind of interesting.

[00:43:11] So you're not going to go salvo both bombs at the same time. You get two shots. One.

[00:43:16] So why are you wanting to keep it a six channel?

[00:43:18] Because I don't want to have to spend the money for a seven channel because I'm cheap.

[00:43:22] I might have an extra like AR8000 or something you can have and you could even do more then.

[00:43:26] Oh, I know, I know.

[00:43:28] Okay.

[00:43:28] That's also part of the fun is doing things on the cheap.

[00:43:31] Yeah, well. And or coming up with a unique way of doing things.

[00:43:34] Unique way of doing things I can understand. But see, that's where you and I think differently too because to me that's a constraint that I would rather not have to put on myself.

[00:43:47] You would just like to go the straight route.

[00:43:49] Right. Like give me an extra button, an extra knob to do every little thing I want so I can control it all separately. And that's like this stupid, the telemaster here has a 20 channel receiver in it. I'm going to use seven, maybe.

[00:44:04] Well, you got it. You got it.

[00:44:05] And that's kind of the thing. Like I like to always go over on receivers so I'm not constrained later if I change something.

[00:44:12] I've also got it set up so I can cycle through the strobe light settings on six channels by using the flap channel. How like? So I've got it set up so that, and I haven't actually proven this works, but it will. It will.

[00:44:29] It will. If it doesn't first, it will.

[00:44:31] I've got it set up so that up on the switch is flaps up. First position down is my flaps for my normal position. I don't typically, I find a flap position I usually like to use for everything and I don't adjust it from there. Normally I have two flap positions set up on my radios, but I only use one. So I'm going to use that first position as the takeoff slash landing flap that I would normally use.

[00:44:54] And then through the flap setting menu, limit it when I pull the switch to the third position that the flaps don't move any further. Just have them match the first position. So that's as far as they'll move. But that other channel, it'll see a change in pulse and change the light pattern on the strobe light. Up to the fact I can even turn it off. You have to cycle through like, I think, five settings.

[00:45:20] That's kind of cool. So, okay, you have the strobe light on top, you said. Yeah. Are you doing any lights in the wings?

[00:45:26] I am not, no. Oh, that's sad. I'm just wimping out on that. You had it apart. I know I had it apart. It was so easy.

[00:45:34] I think that's one thing that, and it's so funny because I used to be all about Balsa airplanes, which I still am. Like, I like them. But some of these new foamies that they're coming out with, like the Twimber, I really like the fact that it's so easy. Like, for me, it's lazy. I'm lazy. But I like all the lights and strobes and stuff on it. It makes a big difference.

[00:46:02] It does, especially if you fly in the evenings, or I don't know if anybody flies that early in the morning.

[00:46:09] I'm sleeping then. But, like, even the air tractor I have, the eFlight one that has the lights on it, it is, they're just enough to help you with orientation to where it's one less thing to, I don't want to say worry about, but one less thing to have on your mind.

[00:46:24] Yeah, it just helps keep your brain on track.

[00:46:26] Yeah, and so I kind of like that.

[00:46:30] Yeah, and they're neat.

[00:46:31] And they're, like, built into almost every foamy now, just because they're so simple to run a couple wires out, and it works great.

[00:46:38] Yeah, and the only reason I changed the strobe on this one is because that one molded into the canopy looks so bad. So, I just happened to run across this. Lights were really not on my mind when I was coming up with a plan for this one. And that's part of it. You've got to come up with a plan with what you're going to do. I mean, if I had planned from the get-go to put lights in it, it would have been super easy to do.

[00:46:59] Yeah, but you're kind of past that point.

[00:47:01] I'm past that point with the wings covered now. I'm kind of stuck.

[00:47:03] Yeah, you don't want to go back and change mine later to add stuff. What, when, okay, so you added hard points for the bomb drop and all that. What else have you had to add or subtract to change it over and make it the way you want it to be? Like you said something about the radar reflector thing on the front.

[00:47:24] Yeah, the little sensor pod on the front just had to come up away, kind of scratch build things. Think about things I had laying around the house. It's like, what can I make that out of? it's just, it doesn't have the exact scale because this is not a scale airplane. This is just a representation of. So it's like, what have I got laying around the house that I can convert into this or that?

[00:47:44] It's actually some leftover parts from my workbench caddy that I got from Volta USA.

[00:47:51] That's a great use for them then.

[00:47:52] Yeah, they had these little circular cutouts. And of course, I don't throw anything away. So those and then my craft business, we use these little wooden beads that are about inch and a half in diameter. It's like, huh, that looks about right. And I had one that I had misdrilled. It's like, huh, I wonder.

[00:48:10] Yep. Misdrilled. Like I would, if I misdrilled something, I would throw it away. I guess that's the difference. I just, I don't keep all of that kind of stuff. And that's the reason I can't move in my house because I'm a pack rat.

[00:48:22] Well, yeah, I've been there, huh?

[00:48:24] Yeah, you've seen it. It's a builder's paradise, though. Like I will give you that. It is, everything you need is there.

[00:48:33] Yeah, you spend more time trying to find stuff.

[00:48:35] Yeah.

[00:48:35] Sometimes I've actually just given up and just like order on Amazon because it's easier than trying to find it, even though I know I've got it somewhere.

[00:48:42] There's many things I have like five of because of that. Oh, there it is. Tape measures is one of them. I don't know how many of those I bought just because they're everywhere, scattered throughout. But anyway. So you do that.

[00:48:56] Let's see. I had a lot of repairs to it. The tail wheel was busted on it. The main landing gear was broken. The weld was broken on it. So I took and wrapped and resoldered that. A lot of little things like that. Just go through and make it nicer. And then, of course, it's then taping off the canopy and repainting it. That's where good quality materials come in. You can't skimp on certain things. And masking tape is one of those.

[00:49:22] I know a lot of people like the 3M fine line tape. I myself, eh, so-so on it. It's okay. I, years ago, started using the Tamiya tape. From the plastic modeler side of things. It's not horribly expensive. It's not cheap. But it's not horribly expensive. And I just find that I get a perfect line every time with that stuff. It's so easy to work with. It's got the right amount of tack. It doesn't pull off the paint underneath of it. Love the Tamiya masking tape.

[00:49:48] Can you still get that? Yes, you can. I just ordered three new rolls this week. Nice. From where? Amazon. Oh.

[00:49:55] I should do that also then. So I have stuff. Yeah.

[00:49:58] And it comes, it actually comes in new sizes I didn't know about. Before it was 6, 10, and 18 millimeter. And apparently they got 2 millimeter now. So I'm going to have to get myself some of that. That's tiny.

[00:50:10] I've got some 1 millimeter stuff from them. The flexible fine line stuff. And it's great for certain really tight curves and so forth. But I don't like using it a lot because it does, it's just a little harder to work with. This yellow stuff is just great.

[00:50:26] Okay.

[00:50:27] But I'm going to have to get some of the 2 millimeter. I just didn't order it last time.

[00:50:31] Well, you should have. I should have. But it's Amazon. You can always do more.

[00:50:35] I'll just throw it on order to get free shipping down the road.

[00:50:38] Oh, you don't have Prime?

[00:50:39] No, I don't have Prime.

[00:50:41] Well, if you ever need anything, let me know. No, we do.

[00:50:42] Yeah, my brother does it too.

[00:50:44] Oh, okay. It's just we order so much stuff off there because it's so much easier than going to the store or trying to find it. Yeah. Once again, it goes back to me being lazy. Like I don't want to have to go anywhere if I can just get it at home.

[00:50:57] Another thing is the Tamayo tape is usually being able to find at any hobby shop that stocks plastic models, especially. They should have the Tamayo tape.

[00:51:08] Well, okay. Well, I'm going to Brian's tomorrow, so I'll put that on my list to look for there also. Gotcha. Good stuff. So, tool of the week on that. Oh, so hold on. Hold on. Hold on. We can actually do this. Are you ready? Got it.

[00:51:21] It's time for our Seaplane Labs tool of the week.

[00:51:28] Tamayo tape. We have not done that.

[00:51:29] Tamayo masking tape.

[00:51:30] We have not done that for so long.

[00:51:32] You forget the buttons there.

[00:51:33] That's so exciting. No, I know it's there, and it keeps yelling, push me, but I'm like, I have no reason to. Yeah, it's just really good stuff.

[00:51:39] Like I said, the 3M stuff is good, too, but that's just my preference.

[00:51:43] Yeah.

[00:51:44] If you're doing a lot of ARF bashing, another thing that you might want to look into is getting a vinyl cutter of some sort. That just opens up so many avenues of different designs that you can do, just changing decals or sometimes even making just paint masks.

[00:51:59] Yeah. I've got a vinyl cutter. I use it a lot.

[00:52:01] Yeah. I've got my Silhouette, and I use it constantly. It's paid for itself many, many times. I even lettered a truck for a guy. I am never lettering in another truck in my life. That's funny.

[00:52:12] I mean, they have so many uses. I just enjoy having that ability to do it. It's so quick and easy. Yeah.

[00:52:20] And the software is not hard to learn. Depending on what you have, yeah. Yeah. I agree. My Silhouette stuff is super easy.

[00:52:27] Yeah. I don't have that, but mine's an old, old version of an older version of something else. This still has to be ran on Windows XP. Oh, wow. So there's that. I have to have one computer that has nothing on it but that for Windows XP. And that's okay. I probably should try and upgrade sometime, but this still works, so no reason. If it works, don't mess with it. And then I don't have to learn new software and all that kind of stuff, too.

[00:52:56] So go back to your masking off tape or masking and all that stuff off to paint. What kind of paint do you use?

[00:53:03] It's going to vary depending on what I'm doing. Currently, with the current Air Warden project, it's all Rust-Oleum.

[00:53:11] So, like, airbrush stuff or just? Spray can.

[00:53:14] Really? Rattle can? Rattle canning it. Because I'm not painting anything all that difficult at this point. I'm not doing any shading or camouflage or anything like that. This was just turning the cowl from white to gray and the canopy from turquoise to gray.

[00:53:31] So there's no, okay.

[00:53:32] And then struts from white to gray. So very simple, easy stuff. So this is all just getting rattle canned. I do have my airbrush, and I use it extensively. But in this case, the rattle can is quick, simple, and it's doing the job.

[00:53:46] And it matches good enough?

[00:53:47] It surprisingly matches the china coat that I got from eBay perfectly. Really? Yeah, it was amazing. Now, Rust-Oleum actually has a lot of colors.

[00:54:00] Huh. You wouldn't think that many in gray, though. Like, gray you would think is, eh, gray.

[00:54:06] Yeah. Obviously, it's not a 100% perfect match to the covering I've got, but it's darn close. For what you're doing. For what I'm doing, I'm perfect. And I'm a bit picky on these things. And it's good enough for me. It's, like, good enough.

[00:54:20] And so you'll do a couple light coats, and then do you finish it with anything?

[00:54:25] It depends. The ordinance, I did do with a flat coat to take the shine off of it. But the rest of it, I am leaving. And the way I spray it, I kind of get a semi-gloss finish. It's not that super high shine because I kind of missed the last coat instead of putting on a super heavy wet coat. So it does flatten up the paint a little bit, and it matches the luster of the monocoat. And I'm going to call it monocoat.

[00:54:50] It's good enough, yeah.

[00:54:52] It matches the luster fairly close. Although, in my opinion, it probably ought to be really dead flat. But because this is a glow-powered airplane, I kind of want a little bit shinier finish so it's much easier to get the goo off the airplane.

[00:55:08] Yeah, to clean. Because we know how dirty Nitro is.

[00:55:10] And I've had dead flat painted airplanes with glow before, and it's just a total pain in the butt.

[00:55:16] Yeah, it seems like stuff gets stuck to them a lot easier. Yeah. And that's just normal flat paint. I mean.

[00:55:21] So, and it will have flat paint on it. The anti-glare panel on the top of the cowl, it'll be flat black.

[00:55:27] Yeah.

[00:55:28] Just add some texture. Visual interest.

[00:55:32] So, how close are you to being finished with it? Like, what else do you have to do?

[00:55:36] All the building is done. I just have to cover the fuselage at this point. Oh. So, maybe a couple weeks, depending on what's going around the house.

[00:55:48] How busy you get with stuff. Cool. And I lost my train of thought. There was something else I was going to ask you about it. Oh, you said you made ordinances for it. Correct. Out of?

[00:55:59] The rocket pods are PVC pipe. I was actually looking for a cardboard tube. And I couldn't find one that I liked without paying a fortune for it. Whatever. I had some PVC laying around. So, it's a little heavier than I'd like. But it is what it is. The rockets themselves are the caps off of ink pens.

[00:56:22] Oh, so small. Yeah. I'm going to have to see this to get the actual.

[00:56:28] I've got 14 headless ink pens at home. So, if you need any springs.

[00:56:34] We know where to go. Yeah. Oh, that's funny.

[00:56:37] But that's why you just kind of look at the different things and think, that kind of looks like, I bet I could use that.

[00:56:43] That shape is close enough. Yeah. Make it work.

[00:56:46] So, I did that. I cut a couple. And, of course, I do build a lot of stuff out of styrene. And so, I cut a couple of end caps out of styrene to put on the end of my PVC pipe. And then glued my pen caps on the end. One end and the other end to simulate the ends of the rockets. I just used a vinyl cutter to cut out seven circles in the correct order. Or just shape. Honeycomb shape.

[00:57:07] What I'm talking about. Oh, I think I know what you mean. Yeah.

[00:57:10] Yeah, and just slap that on the end. And that gives it a little texture to look the part.

[00:57:16] And it's great.

[00:57:18] That's cool. Can't wait to see it fly. Yeah. Anything else you want to talk about on ARF bashing?

[00:57:25] Just do you.

[00:57:27] I like that. Just do whatever makes you happy. Yeah. I mean, if you don't want to do it, don't do it. But if you do, don't be scared.

[00:57:33] Yeah. And you're not going to mess it up. Most ARFs, if you screw something up, you can order a replacement part.

[00:57:38] True. As long as they're new enough.

[00:57:41] As long as they're new enough. Which means they're six weeks old or less.

[00:57:44] Yeah, they cycle through them pretty quick. Oh, cool. Well, anything else you want to talk about or you already get off here?

[00:57:50] I think I'm about done. How about you?

[00:57:53] I'm spent. It's been not very long, but long enough to where I've had my say with everything.

[00:57:59] Okay.

[00:58:01] Well, you want to take it out or you want me to? You go right ahead.

[00:58:05] I'm out of practice on this.

[00:58:06] So am I. But anyway, thank you everybody for listening. Until next time, I'm Ron. And I'm Dave. Good night. Good night.

[00:58:13] 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 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.