Ep 205: Farewells, Finds, and a Free BF‑109

[unknown speaker 00:00:11] Hello, everyone. Welcome to the RC Plane Lab Podcast. I'm Ron. And I'm Dave. Dave is not feeling all that great today, so I think this is going to be a quick one.

[unknown speaker 00:00:21] Hang in there. Hang in there.

[unknown speaker 00:00:23] You hang in there. I can do it. We're going to be okay. You hang in there. You have a puke bucket? Oh, no. I'm a sympathetic puker, so please don't.

[unknown speaker 00:00:31] Oh, the trash can's over there.

[unknown speaker 00:00:32] If you do, I will also. And I don't want to clean it up. I think we're good. I hope so. Because Crystal is usually the puke picker-upper, and I'm a bachelor for the next few days, as she is in Chicago with one of her friends at a dental convention.

[unknown speaker 00:00:48] So, let's not make a mess. We're not. We're not. We're good. Hi, Dave. Hi. How you been?

[unknown speaker 00:00:55] I'm okay. I'm sorry you're not feeling too well.

[unknown speaker 00:00:57] Oh, man. It's not your problem. It's been going around the office.

[unknown speaker 00:01:00] Well, as long as you don't give it to me, it's not my problem.

[unknown speaker 00:01:03] I'm not breathing on you.

[unknown speaker 00:01:05] So, we've got a couple things to talk about. We thought we made it up to a swap meet in St. Charles, Illinois. We also have an announcement, a sad announcement, actually, from Grace and Hoppy. Yeah. And we're also going to announce our BF-109 winner. This 13th Squadron.

[unknown speaker 00:01:22] Mm-hmm.

[unknown speaker 00:01:22] So, you want to start with that? Let's start with that. Have at it. This, you drove the, I don't want to, you flew the plane on this when you drove the boat. You, whatever. I created this monster. There you go.

[unknown speaker 00:01:34] Okay. So, the computer randomizer of all the entries that we got picked Scott Frederick. Congratulations, Scott. Scott, your package is sitting here on the table, all labeled up, ready to go. And as soon as UPS runs by my office to pick stuff up, it'll be on the way to you.

[unknown speaker 00:01:53] So, Scott is out of New York, and hopefully within a couple days of it shipping from here, he will have it and have it built quickly. It should go quick. Congratulations, Scott. So, you also get the 3D printed parts that Daniel printed for it in a separate box. So, we're all set.

[unknown speaker 00:02:11] Yeah. All set. It would not fit in the box.

[unknown speaker 00:02:13] No, we tried. And I didn't. Didn't want to smash anything or break anything or…

[unknown speaker 00:02:17] It's a kit. It's a symbol of your thumb.

[unknown speaker 00:02:20] Yeah, but it's not a repair first.

[unknown speaker 00:02:21] The spinner's in six pieces, but, you know.

[unknown speaker 00:02:23] A little glue.

[unknown speaker 00:02:24] It's all it takes. It's fine.

[unknown speaker 00:02:25] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:02:27] So, thank you, everybody who entered, and hopefully we'll do something like this again one of these days.

[unknown speaker 00:02:32] Yeah. Maybe next time, you will win.

[unknown speaker 00:02:35] Yes.

[unknown speaker 00:02:35] Unless Scott's listening, then this time you did win. But for everybody else, maybe next time, you will win. Scott's out next time. Okay, next. So, let's talk about the sad email.

[unknown speaker 00:02:47] The sad state of the world.

[unknown speaker 00:02:49] That you got from Grayson Hobby, who is closing. You want to read the email you got? Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:02:54] I got this from them, I think, about a week ago, and then they've sent it again to me in the last day or so. Important update from Grayson Hobby was the title of the email. Dear Grayson Hobby family, after more than 20 years serving this incredible community, we have had some difficult news to share. We recently had a potential sale of Grayson Hobby in progress, but unfortunately, the deal has fallen through.

[unknown speaker 00:03:18] And with the changing retail environment and the ongoing challenges facing small specialty businesses, it has become increasingly difficult to operate profitably. After careful consideration, we have made the hard decision to begin liquidating our inventory and assets. This is not a decision we have taken lightly. Grayson Hobby has been more than just a business. It has been a community built around shared passion for rail control aviation and innovation.

[unknown speaker 00:03:41] We are deeply grateful for the support and friendships and loyalty you have shown us over the past two decades. And effectively, immediately, we will be liquidating everything. All fixtures, inventory, equipment, and remaining assets will be available. Serious inquiries only. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for allowing us to be part of your hobby, your projects, and your journeys. For over 20 years, it has truly been an honor. Sincerely, Basil, Grayson Hobby.

[unknown speaker 00:04:07] It's always sad when you hear of a fixture in the business like that, or a fixture in the hobby like that going under.

[unknown speaker 00:04:14] Truly good folks, and it was veteran-owned business.

[unknown speaker 00:04:16] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:04:17] I've dealt with them quite a bit over the last 15 years for me.

[unknown speaker 00:04:21] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:04:22] I've really liked working with them, although I've never been to their place, because they are down there in Georgia. You guys will be missed. That's too bad. Another one bites the dust. I'm so sorry.

[unknown speaker 00:04:37] Yeah. We need to start buying more stuff.

[unknown speaker 00:04:39] Yeah. Yeah. There you go.

[unknown speaker 00:04:40] That's all it is. Small business stuff. Yep. Well, shall we move on to happier things, then? Please, because I'm going to cry. I guess we can talk about a swap meet. Honestly, I don't have much else to talk about today, so let's talk about a swap meet. Maybe 10 minutes or so, we'll get you out of here so you don't feel gross, and we can move on until next time.

[unknown speaker 00:05:04] Okay.

[unknown speaker 00:05:05] So, we made it up to the St. Charles swap meet, the Fox Valley Arrow. I think it's called Fox Valley Arrow something. Two-handers? Oh, no. I don't have the paper with me. Oh, okay. I did it wrong. But they gave, it was actually nice. When we walked in, they gave us a little pamphlet that had a whole bunch of what they're doing this coming year.

[unknown speaker 00:05:25] It's really a class act.

[unknown speaker 00:05:26] It really is a very nice club. It looks very welcoming. It looks like they have a lot of events going on, too, that might be worth taking a drive up there for a couple of them, perhaps.

[unknown speaker 00:05:34] Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit of a haul, but it's not awful.

[unknown speaker 00:05:37] It's a little over three hours. I mean, it's not, it's doable in a day, as we have found out.

[unknown speaker 00:05:43] We were.

[unknown speaker 00:05:44] I was back by two. I was going to say, I'm trying to think. Yeah, we were back pretty early, so it was a good swap meet. We didn't set up tables or anything, so we were able to go get in, see what we want, and get out. So, parking was not bad, but being at a fairground, there was a little bit more walking that kind of surprised me, the way it was set up.

[unknown speaker 00:06:06] Yeah, and even though we got there somewhat late, but not late, late, the parking lot was full.

[unknown speaker 00:06:11] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:06:12] We still had to wait outside to get in.

[unknown speaker 00:06:13] Yeah, there was a nice line of people waiting to get in at whatever time it started, 8 or 8.30, I don't remember which it was.

[unknown speaker 00:06:19] I think it was 8.30. We got there a quarter after 8 or so.

[unknown speaker 00:06:22] Yeah. We timed it very well, actually. Yeah, it worked out great. Thanks to my dog being a pain in the butt. Well, I'm kind of glad she was, because then we weren't sitting there for that much longer. Yeah. Like, I was kind of surprised, usually they have, they in general, like for swap meets and stuff, it's 8.30 as the door's open, but really they're open at, usually when it's set up for people to walk in that are getting tables.

[unknown speaker 00:06:51] So, I was surprised that it was all locked up and they weren't letting anybody in.

[unknown speaker 00:06:55] It was kind of refreshing to see, actually. So, everybody got a fresh start at the same time.

[unknown speaker 00:06:59] Yeah, that way it wasn't a lot. Well, as we know, some of the better deals and more exciting things you see when you're setting up, when you're selling at a swap meet, is the other stuff coming in. And there's usually a lot of pre-trade going before swap meet actually starts. It's just stuff coming out before you get in. Right. Oh, is that for sale? No, I just bought it. It hadn't even started yet. But no, so what do you think of it?

[unknown speaker 00:07:26] It was actually pretty nice. Good size, a lot of stuff there. Prices were all over the place from very cheap and reasonable to average to, what are you guys thinking?

[unknown speaker 00:07:39] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:07:40] But, I mean, you get that at all of them, but overall the prices were in the reasonable to cheap side.

[unknown speaker 00:07:45] Yeah. Yeah, I thought so too. I thought it was more of a buyer's swap meet. Yeah. So, what did you, do you want to talk about what you got? Why don't you go ahead and start? Well, I picked up two things. Believe it or not, I…

[unknown speaker 00:08:00] You weren't going to buy anything.

[unknown speaker 00:08:01] Well, I was just going to say I didn't buy much. I was kind of proud of myself. But it was two of them that wasn't really on my have-to-buy list, but on my want-to-buy list. So, when I… Okay, so when we first walked in, I saw there was a guy there that had the new eFlight Twin Otter, the bigger with a 1.4 meter, the red one. So, my plan, ever since this one was announced, was to replace my original Twin Otter that I bought for Joan Aul three years ago with the newer one.

[unknown speaker 00:08:38] Because it's a little bit bigger, it has more power, it has the, what's it called, the differential thrust on the motor, so it's going to turn better and all that kind of stuff on the pond. And this guy had this thing, and it looked like it might have been flown a couple times. It looked pretty new. I mean, the wheels, it didn't come with floats, it's just on wheels. The wheels were not torn up. I mean, like, usually, you know when it's been landed…

[unknown speaker 00:09:06] You get little chunks.

[unknown speaker 00:09:07] Yeah, hard, or if it's on asphalt or something, you can kind of see the marks on the wheels. Didn't see anything like that, didn't see any grass stains, anything, so it hadn't been flown a lot. And it couldn't have been flown a lot, because they haven't been out that long. So, I got, I think, a very good deal on that. Bind and Fly, I mean, it comes, obviously, with everything I need. It didn't have the box, which I would have liked to have had the box, but it's fine.

[unknown speaker 00:09:33] Yeah, you're not going to be putting it back in the box.

[unknown speaker 00:09:35] Well, that's, my other one is stored in the box, and that's how it's going to be sold when we go to Toledo this year. But, sometimes those are just nicer to keep in the box. Because that, for me, this is, for some reason, a Joan Hall plane. Like, that was the whole reason I bought the original Twin Otter, and that's the only place it has ever flown. I don't think I've flown it off of wheels at all. Well, I've never seen you fly it.

[unknown speaker 00:10:02] So, you've got to trek down a set of floats for this thing? Yeah. But, good news, bad news. It didn't come with floats, but it comes with the mounting hardware and all that kind of stuff built in. So, I mean, I guess I don't have the struts and all that exactly for that. But, after doing some research and stuff, the floats that go, or that are supposed to be used for it, 100 bucks out of stock, back order. They don't know when the next shipment's going to come in.

[unknown speaker 00:10:32] However, the floats that I bought for the Cub, the Hangar 9 Cub, are the exact same floats, just gray. Oh. So, it might look silly on gray floats, but it will work perfectly fine on that. I haven't had a chance to look into yet what mounting hardware, like struts and stuff, I need to get. Because I know I had to buy special ones for the Cub. Perhaps, I'm lucky enough, and it came with the ones that I would need for the Twin Otter.

[unknown speaker 00:10:59] Because I know there was some bent angle iron and bent wire in there.

[unknown speaker 00:11:04] You know how that's not going to work. Maybe. I can be hopeful.

[unknown speaker 00:11:09] And honestly, like, I don't even know how much I'm going to need the rudder, the water rudder, because differential thrust.

[unknown speaker 00:11:17] You really don't need it.

[unknown speaker 00:11:18] So, I don't have to worry about running wires into it and stuff from outside.

[unknown speaker 00:11:21] Maybe not, but not necessary.

[unknown speaker 00:11:23] We'll see. I mean, it'll be fun to play with once I have some time to see if it fits or not. But that was probably my biggest win from that one. Other thing I ended up buying was they had a couple of them there for the same price. But one of them was in really bad shape, and the one I got was in really good shape. Hardly looks like it's ever been flown. The UMX Beast. I don't know if you remember that one from way back when. Mm-hmm. So.

[unknown speaker 00:11:54] Yours was the one with the beat-up box, but the better plane.

[unknown speaker 00:11:58] Well, no. No? The box, for some reason, they cut the back of the box. Oh, that's right.

[unknown speaker 00:12:03] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:12:04] The other box that the other plane was in was literally beat. Like, it looked like somebody ran over it with a car. I mean, you could tell it had gotten wet. By the way, it was just kind of squiggly and whatever else. But this one was in really good shape. The airplane itself was in really good shape. I haven't had a chance to power it up yet because I don't have a battery. Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:12:26] So we'll get that fixed.

[unknown speaker 00:12:27] We'll figure it out. But like I said, there were a lot of planes that I saw. A lot of them I liked. These are the only two I actually bought because I'm trying to be cheap and not buy a lot of stuff.

[unknown speaker 00:12:39] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:12:40] Toledo's coming. Toledo's coming and a lot of other things I have been bleeding myself dry with. So it's okay.

[unknown speaker 00:12:48] Yeah. We'll get there. Eventually. Yeah. And, you know, we had to take one wing off your plane to get it in the truck.

[unknown speaker 00:12:54] Didn't have to, I don't think.

[unknown speaker 00:12:56] But it was safer that way.

[unknown speaker 00:12:58] Yeah. I think we definitely could have fit the ones I got and what you got in there. Mine was one piece, which I've now taken apart. That's funny. Oh, before I forget, we did run into Hank, by the way, from Toledo. I was just going to say, speaking of Toledo.

[unknown speaker 00:13:13] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:13:13] Sorry I took your thunder. Yeah, but got to talk to him again. It's always nice running into him. He's such a good guy. He's bouncing off the balls.

[unknown speaker 00:13:20] He's ready.

[unknown speaker 00:13:21] He is. Sometimes it's hard to follow the conversation with him because he is very excited and likes to jump from thing to thing. But, yeah, his excitement is infectious. And I'm looking forward to Toledo again to see him. And he, of course, reminded me, because I had forgotten when we went to Joan Hall last year, I had taken my glider to get rid of, because he was setting up a little swap meet and reminded me of how he didn't think he was going to be able to sell that.

[unknown speaker 00:13:49] But somebody actually bought it. It's gone. I didn't think he was going to be able to sell that either, to be honest.

[unknown speaker 00:13:54] But somebody actually bought it.

[unknown speaker 00:13:55] That's how good he is.

[unknown speaker 00:13:55] Yeah. For a good price. Yeah. Surprisingly. I mean, I'll sell Frigideers in Alaska.

[unknown speaker 00:14:03] But, yeah. So we'll have to talk to him again. We'll probably try and get him on to talk about the Toledo show. They've got some exciting changes coming up for this year. They're doing things a little bit differently. So it will be interesting to hear straight from him what they are doing. Some interesting folks coming.

[unknown speaker 00:14:19] Mm-hmm.

[unknown speaker 00:14:20] We're good.

[unknown speaker 00:14:20] Mm-hmm. Can't wait. Coming up soon.

[unknown speaker 00:14:23] Be here before you know it.

[unknown speaker 00:14:24] We have got to figure out what we're doing room-wise.

[unknown speaker 00:14:26] We do. I will leave that up to you and Daniel.

[unknown speaker 00:14:30] Okay. What else you got? Anything else? That is all. It's a light day. Light day. So, yeah. I went not particularly looking for anything. I've always got my eye out for a Radiant XL. Never have found one. And I've actually ran across one and somebody snagged it up just before I got to it. Anyway, not thinking about anything. I went to go get a, found a small four-stroke for Daniel. Daniel's always wanting small four-strokes.

[unknown speaker 00:14:55] And this is the first time I've ever had this happen to me at a swap meet ever. Some guy just come running up and pushed me out of the way and bought it right in front of me. It's so rude. I have never seen that ever.

[unknown speaker 00:15:07] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:15:08] But, you know, everybody's different.

[unknown speaker 00:15:10] I guess he wanted it more than you. I was reaching for it and I got shoulder checked.

[unknown speaker 00:15:16] I was like, eh, just knock the guy on crutches over. That's fine. Whatever. So, Daniel did not get a small four-stroke.

[unknown speaker 00:15:22] He should have fallen over and flailed and just thrown a pity party and been like, I wanted that.

[unknown speaker 00:15:27] Yeah. We'll let her go.

[unknown speaker 00:15:29] Daniel got other stuff anyway. And he wasn't even there.

[unknown speaker 00:15:32] He wasn't even there. Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:15:33] He had to work. Shopping by proxy.

[unknown speaker 00:15:36] I ran across a fairly, well, let's just put it this way, nasty looking Sig Wonder. You did.

[unknown speaker 00:15:45] Like, so we made several passes around because I don't care how many times you walk around a swap meet, you're always going to see something new as you make another pass because you just can't.

[unknown speaker 00:15:56] People move tables around and you just don't see things.

[unknown speaker 00:15:59] You just can't mentally take everything, or at least I can't, take everything in. Like, you walk around, you look at things on the table, and then we had to make another lap and I had to really remind myself, look down. Look under the tables. Look behind the tables. Like, they have stuff everywhere. And the plane you're talking about, I saw two or three times that we walked by. And I was like, oh, cool. That's in bad shape.

[unknown speaker 00:16:21] It was, I don't want to touch it. Gross. Gross.

[unknown speaker 00:16:24] Yes. And you have an affinity for those airplanes.

[unknown speaker 00:16:28] Yeah. I love my little Sig Wonder. It just got done rebuilding it. It's ready for a test flight after a rebuild. So it is good to go. Love my Sig Wonder. Saw it sitting there, and it had a piece of tape on it that said $25. I was like, oh, my gosh. It's like, how bad is this thing? So I pick it up and start probing it. And he goes, you know, you got to take it home for you. Would you give me $20 for it? And it's like, I can't leave this thing.

[unknown speaker 00:16:55] And it had a motor in it and possibly servos. And it's like, I can't leave this thing sitting on the table for $20. I can strip it, recover it, because it didn't look broken. I mean, the five seconds that I broke it. Okay, $20. So I took that and took it home, wanting to have a shot, because it was dirty.

[unknown speaker 00:17:19] It was really dirty.

[unknown speaker 00:17:23] So Friday night, no, Saturday night, I started messing with it, took the motor off of it. It had an engine on it. It was an OSCZ. If anybody knows what a CZ is, it's a car motor. And it was locked up, tight on a drum. And it looked like it had literally been just taken off a dirt car and bolted to the nose of this airplane. Of course, it went along the rest of the dirt and grime that was on this airplane anyway. So it was kind of a theme.

[unknown speaker 00:17:52] Or maybe it wasn't from a car, and that was just how the airplane was, all dirty.

[unknown speaker 00:17:57] Anyway, it was nasty, but it was locked up. But I threw some WD-40 in it, and it kicked over. It's like, oh, okay, it's free. This can be cleaned up and salvaged. Then I got looking at it, the needle valve. It's a car engine. Needle valve was sticking straight up, literally less than an eighth of an inch behind the propeller.

[unknown speaker 00:18:19] Nice.

[unknown speaker 00:18:20] You're not tuning that without a Band-Aid. So the thought of actually using this engine went right out the window, because I ain't tuning it.

[unknown speaker 00:18:30] Yeah. Not going to lie, even where they're supposed to be and an inch or an inch and a half away still scares me. Yeah, they're tight.

[unknown speaker 00:18:37] And the little 15s, there's not much room.

[unknown speaker 00:18:39] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:18:39] And I think this was probably a 10 or a 12, but strangely enough, it's not marked. It just says CZ on it. So that one was immediately just junked. I wasn't even going to mess with it from there. As soon as I realized that it was impossible to tune it without bleeding. So I started digging around in my pile of garbage. And I had an ASP-15 that I bought at Toledo last year. I think I paid $10 for it. And it's a nearly new engine. And it had some missing bolts and nuts on it.

[unknown speaker 00:19:09] So I ended up fixing that. But the engine itself is basically brand new. So slapped that on there. Didn't even have to redrill the mounts, the exact mount. Had to space it away from the firewall and ate them an inch. It was too close. Pulled all the decals that were off of it. And they were a mix of homemade decals with AMA and the guy's number and his name on it. And some of the stock SIG wonder decals, it was just a mishmash. And they were dirty, grimy, not good looking.

[unknown speaker 00:19:42] So I went and pulled all those off of it. Started digging around on the inside of the airplane. It had one servo in it. It had an aileron servo in it. One single servo. This airplane, by the way, is brand new. It has never flown. Really? Yeah. They still had the holes in the firewall for the fuel lines. They were covered over. It never opened up. Same with the throttle cable linkage. It's had servos in it, but it's never been flown. It's brand new.

[unknown speaker 00:20:12] Never had a motor actually hooked up. Right.

[unknown speaker 00:20:15] So nice. The one aileron servo, it was an old Cirrus or something like that. It's like, eh, no. And it got ripped out and tossed off to the side. And I've got a bag of miscellaneous servos. I just dug three out of there. One for the throttle, one for the elevator, and one for the ailerons.

[unknown speaker 00:20:34] So did you throw that servo away?

[unknown speaker 00:20:36] I haven't. Of course you haven't. I've got a plan for it. What? A dummy airplane to test radio setups in the FreeSky system. So basically just a dummy stick airplane that I've got all these different servos. So I've got.

[unknown speaker 00:20:51] Okay.

[unknown speaker 00:20:52] I'm collecting junk servos just to make a demo plane. Like not anything that's going to fly. It's never going to fly. It's going to be basically popsicle sticks.

[unknown speaker 00:21:01] Okay. Of course you do.

[unknown speaker 00:21:04] UNKNOWN: Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:21:04] So I got plans for that. Of course you do. And then about half a gallon of acetone later, because it had a ton of overspray on it. Overspray from. paint, I guess.

[unknown speaker 00:21:18] Like, was it painted or was it just in the vicinity of somebody?

[unknown speaker 00:21:21] In the vicinity of somebody painting.

[unknown speaker 00:21:22] Okay. Maybe it was in a garage or hanging up or something like that then.

[unknown speaker 00:21:26] Yeah. I'm thinking barn as much dirt as it was on it.

[unknown speaker 00:21:29] No, not a nice garage. Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:21:31] A dirt floor garage. But it's fine. but a little bit of acetone. I found one hole in the covering. I'll take it back. There's two holes. There was one underneath one of the stickers. So I had to. That's probably why there was a sticker there. That's exactly. And the sticker didn't make sense where it was. So yeah, that's why it was there. Now it does. patched those. I just happened to have exact match covering laying around. Of course you did. Of course I do. Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:21:58] That I was actually using at the time. I didn't even have to go scrounging for it. It was on my workbench. so I patched those little holes, cleaned it up, and, it is a gorgeous little airplane. It's ready to fly. Daniel needs to put a receiver and a receiver battery in it. It's good to go. Nice.

[unknown speaker 00:22:15] So you're not afraid to touch it anymore.

[unknown speaker 00:22:17] No, not afraid to touch it anymore. No need to have rubber gloves.

[unknown speaker 00:22:21] It, yeah. It was grody. It was grody.

[unknown speaker 00:22:25] But, yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:22:26] I'm glad to hear that didn't go on the inside then.

[unknown speaker 00:22:29] UNKNOWN: Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:22:29] It was perfectly clean on the inside.

[unknown speaker 00:22:31] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:22:31] $20. I just couldn't let the little guy sit on the counter for $20. No. It's gone. And Daniel gave me $20 for that. Minus motor. So I'm out $10. But you know what? Don't care.

[unknown speaker 00:22:46] It doesn't matter amongst friends and family, right? It doesn't matter at all.

[unknown speaker 00:22:49] I just got a new plane stand from Daniel. So, yeah, it all works out.

[unknown speaker 00:22:53] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:22:53] He gave me one, too. How nice.

[unknown speaker 00:22:55] They look good. They do. I love this 3D printer. Yeah. I have a little 3D printer jealousy going on.

[unknown speaker 00:23:03] so I also took and found an additional Blade MCX twin rotor helicopter. That's right. I knew you got something else, but I could not remember what it was. Yeah. It was sitting on the counter.

[unknown speaker 00:23:15] Basically, it was in the shadows of something else. You couldn't even see it. Yeah. It's because they're small.

[unknown speaker 00:23:20] And he had $20 on that. And I was like, well, there's $20 worth of parts here, plus the helicopter. So, I bought it for the parts. I don't need a third one, because I own three of these things, or did own three of them. and I've paid roughly $20 for all of them. So, apparently, that's the going rate for used MCXs. so Daniel got a Blade MCX on the freebie. Because I kept the parts, and I actually didn't keep all the parts. I gave him some of the parts.

[unknown speaker 00:23:53] I gave him the Blade MCX, and I got some parts out of the deal. Nice. He's the winner of this whole thing. Yeah. and then I did buy something for myself. I've been looking for a Flyzone or FMS or Hobby, excuse me, Tower Hobbies beaver. They're all the same. They just keep repackaging it, repainting it, different names on it. It's the same beaver. I've been looking for one on floats. found one up in Wisconsin. never made the deal on it. I just, it was on floats.

[unknown speaker 00:24:26] It's, but pricing, and it just didn't work out.

[unknown speaker 00:24:29] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:24:31] so I ended up buying this one on the super cheap for 50 bucks. Nice job. It's a little beat up. Nothing major. The wheels were probably on. I did not have any floats for it. but you'll like this. I found the floats for it, and all the parts are $35. Ha! Of course. Nice. Unfortunately, they're also out of stock until March. Who knows when? Yeah. Well, that's not fun. It says March. March is coming up soon. So hopefully they're not lying to us, and they'll show up.

[unknown speaker 00:25:02] But yeah, $35 for a set of floats. Eh, I can do that. Yeah. it was a little bit rough shape. Not bad. all the paint on these beavers, for some reason, it fades really bad. It's sun bleaches. Every one of them I've seen.

[unknown speaker 00:25:15] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:25:15] Daniel's is the burgundy one, and it's, it's super faded, except for you flip it over, and it's nice, dark on the bottom.

[unknown speaker 00:25:22] Yeah. Um. That's how you can tell if it's up or down when you're flying.

[unknown speaker 00:25:26] This was the orange, orange and white and black one. there were a lot of dings in the black. The white actually looked really good, and the orange was also faded.

[unknown speaker 00:25:35] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:25:35] so this one's going to get a strip and repaint. I've already got a scheme chosen for it, so it'll get, it'll get a redo. I've just got to finish your Cub, which is almost done. It was, I was trying to have it done for tonight, but it didn't happen. Your Cub, by the way.

[unknown speaker 00:25:51] UNKNOWN: Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:25:52] Well.

[unknown speaker 00:25:52] You're not working on it for me.

[unknown speaker 00:25:53] Your previous Cub. Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:25:56] I don't want to feel like Reggie. I'm not giving you things to work on for me, so.

[unknown speaker 00:26:00] That's your airplane. and then I've got to do that F-16 I got in Wisconsin. And then the Beaver will be up for a redo. But it's flyable now. I went through and straightened it out, put a receiver in it. it's ready to fly. It's just not pretty. Yeah. A little rough, but it's good to go. It's flyable. What was wrong with the wheels, by the way? it was missing a bolt. Okay. Or excuse me, a nut. Okay.

[unknown speaker 00:26:24] and they'd been sitting on the wheels for a while, and they were flat spotted really bad. I'm going to actually junk them and put a different set of wheels on it, but it's sitting on the wheels it came with right now.

[unknown speaker 00:26:35] Okay. Well, because I know when we picked it up, the wheel was just like flippy floppy.

[unknown speaker 00:26:39] Flippy floppy. Yeah. The bolts weren't tight. and it was missing a nut on each one to secure it to the axle. Okay. Or the axle to them.

[unknown speaker 00:26:47] Understood.

[unknown speaker 00:26:48] Under carriage.

[unknown speaker 00:26:49] So, of course, it's going to be flippy floppy then. Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:26:52] And they ate into the foam around it, but.

[unknown speaker 00:26:54] I was going to ask if they flew it that way, which it seems as though.

[unknown speaker 00:26:57] Apparently it has been flown that way. no big deal. It's not a big deal. Easily fixed. I've, I've got the axles tightened and it's sitting on the wheels properly right now. It's actually off the wheels. So hopefully they'll unflat spot, but I don't see that happening. Like I said, I'm going to toss those wheels anyway.

[unknown speaker 00:27:14] Wheels are a dime a dozen.

[unknown speaker 00:27:15] Yeah. Actually brand new ones for it are like five bucks. So. Well, that's not bad either.

[unknown speaker 00:27:21] But I don't want those wheels anyway. Are you going to go bush wheels or what are you doing?

[unknown speaker 00:27:25] no, it's going to be more of a scale, scale wheel.

[unknown speaker 00:27:30] And so are you repainting this whole plane like as a copy of a real beaver?

[unknown speaker 00:27:37] Copy of a real beaver. U S Navy. I'll also toss it back and forth the U S army version, but I'm thinking the Navy's going to win. Cause I already own the paint.

[unknown speaker 00:27:50] That goes a long way.

[unknown speaker 00:27:52] Let me do a lot of Navy stuff lately. I don't know why. Yeah. Air force family. So I'm going to get shot if I keep this up.

[unknown speaker 00:27:58] Hey, all the same team, right? Supposedly. Cool. Well, that's, that's good. I'm glad you have some more projects now. So I've got a beaver waiting on the floats. No hurry on those. What's wingspan on that one. I don't remember. It was bigger.

[unknown speaker 00:28:11] it's actually the same as Daniel's. really? Yeah. They're exactly the same. I don't know. It's 1400, something like that.

[unknown speaker 00:28:21] So did he have a smaller one that he got rid of?

[unknown speaker 00:28:24] Nope. Why was I thinking his was smaller? I don't know. But when I actually started looking up parts for this one, I realized it's the exact same plane.

[unknown speaker 00:28:34] Oh, okay. I don't know.

[unknown speaker 00:28:37] I guess I can't keep it. Just a different paint scheme. Cool. Maybe mine looks bigger and it's white instead of dark burgundy. Excuse me. Sorry. So we all bought Canadian animals. I got a beaver and you got an otter. And they're going to be fun planes. I'm looking forward to them.

[unknown speaker 00:28:55] I'm looking forward to the weather starting to cooperate. We've had a couple of days that would have been good, but the day of the week was not good. If you know what I mean?

[unknown speaker 00:29:03] Yeah. Reggie called me Sunday night. Wanted to know if I want to go flying. And it's like, no, it's time for bed. It's like, no.

[unknown speaker 00:29:13] Plus we know he flies all his planes in the dark. So yeah, it's got nav lights. It's plenty of plenty to see.

[unknown speaker 00:29:20] Yeah. It's not lit up. It's just got nav lights. Yeah. It's good. Gosh, it's a viper. You know, no big deal.

[unknown speaker 00:29:26] Oh, it's gone.

[unknown speaker 00:29:27] I can't tell the wheels are up or down. Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:29:30] We've.

[unknown speaker 00:29:31] Yeah. Anyway. Thank you, Reggie. I appreciate it. Appreciate the offer, but I was way too tired. Tired and doing laundry and no.

[unknown speaker 00:29:40] Getting ready for the week. Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:29:43] Oh my gosh.

[unknown speaker 00:29:44] Anything else you want to talk about? Are we done?

[unknown speaker 00:29:48] Oh man. I wish I had more to talk about, but all I've been doing is working on that cub and sleeping.

[unknown speaker 00:29:55] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:29:57] It happens. Yeah. It happens.

[unknown speaker 00:30:00] I've been spending every waking possible moment out in the shop, working on the CNC machine, trying to get that all transferred over. So that has been, that has been my mental drain and what I've been working on. So.

[unknown speaker 00:30:14] I got something else. Good. It's not airplane related, but kind of. So I took the truck to the car wash Friday night after work. so we'd have something nice and clean to drive to Chicago and the car wash ripped the brake light off the back of my cab. So I'm halfway through the car wash and I hear smack against the back window. And then all of a sudden it's just, it's just swinging and banging. And it's like, please don't break the window. Please don't break the window.

[unknown speaker 00:30:44] So the thunders are apparently notorious for breaking the antennas in car washes. So I took the antenna off before I went through.

[unknown speaker 00:30:50] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:30:51] Was not thinking anything about the, third brake light and it damn near comes through the rear window. And then how did you fix that day for our trip? it was unplugged and black vinyl put on the roof of the truck to block off the hole to keep the water out much better than duct tape. Yeah. It actually looks halfway decent.

[unknown speaker 00:31:12] I mean, it looks the part. Yeah. It's a black truck.

[unknown speaker 00:31:15] So it blends pretty quick unless you go looking.

[unknown speaker 00:31:18] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:31:18] Park should be here.

[unknown speaker 00:31:19] Well, when this comes out, so we'll get a fix this weekend. So I draw back to that is I have to drop the roof liner or the headliner. Headliner. Yeah. So that'll kind of suck, but especially doing it by myself, but it is what it is.

[unknown speaker 00:31:32] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:31:33] Well, if you need help, come on out.

[unknown speaker 00:31:34] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:31:35] We'll do it. I'll see how bad it is. If it fights too much, I'll come out.

[unknown speaker 00:31:38] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:31:39] I need somebody really just to hold it on the outside. Yeah. Hold it in. Yeah. You can always tape it. It's got long studs, so I'm hoping they'll be long enough to reach in and reach.

[unknown speaker 00:31:50] Get some bite on it.

[unknown speaker 00:31:53] Okay. Well, I'm looking around. I don't see anything else. That's making me think I have started.

[unknown speaker 00:31:59] I see. I have a little pile over there of stuff getting ready for Toledo.

[unknown speaker 00:32:03] Have you ever flown that thing? Uh-huh. Okay. I've never seen it.

[unknown speaker 00:32:07] Yeah. I've flown it a few times. I mean, so this is the Jim Rourke e-flight extra 330. That's one of the things coming to Toledo with us this year. Yeah. It flies great, actually. But I just, I will get rid of that one so I have room for others, and I have others like that.

[unknown speaker 00:32:27] So you've got another extra or something around here.

[unknown speaker 00:32:29] I've got the, is it Flex? Yeah, the Flex Innovations 60 size extra something or another.

[unknown speaker 00:32:36] I like that extra six something or another.

[unknown speaker 00:32:38] I don't remember what it is. I don't even remember where it is, to be honest with you.

[unknown speaker 00:32:42] It's not around here anymore. So I like the Sig something extra. Something extra.

[unknown speaker 00:32:49] But, actually, I guess that's the only one in that pile that's going. Okay. The rest of them are staying. But, yeah. So that one's, yeah. We just have a lot to do before we go there. That's going to have to come higher on my list of priorities to get rid of some stuff.

[unknown speaker 00:33:06] Yeah, I've got to start rummaging through the garage and see what I need to get rid of.

[unknown speaker 00:33:09] Every time I walk out into the garage and I see things hanging up, I'm like, okay, that can go, that can go, that can go, that can go. The next day, I'm like, I don't know if I want to get rid of that.

[unknown speaker 00:33:20] The next day, I'm like, yeah, that can go. I was looking at my GWS A10. I haven't flown that thing in five years. And I was thinking, okay, yeah, that can go. But then again, I'm only going to be able to get like 20 bucks out of it. And we all have one. So it's like, do I really want to get rid of it and only get 20 bucks out of it?

[unknown speaker 00:33:39] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:33:39] You know, so it's probably just going to stay hanging on my wall.

[unknown speaker 00:33:42] I absolutely would. I mean, I wouldn't get rid of it if I were you.

[unknown speaker 00:33:45] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:33:46] Because honestly, if you did, I was going to buy it.

[unknown speaker 00:33:48] I'd say one of these days. So I don't have to worry about finishing mine.

[unknown speaker 00:33:51] Ah, Dave, it's just so fun to not finish projects. I do it so well.

[unknown speaker 00:33:55] I built that thing for you like three years ago. No, you didn't finish though. But I didn't finish it. No. Because you need to paint it.

[unknown speaker 00:34:02] Oh, that's right. Yeah, that was on me.

[unknown speaker 00:34:04] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:34:07] Mechanically, it's good to go. No, there's still. It's not finished finished.

[unknown speaker 00:34:11] I thought I put the servos and everything in it.

[unknown speaker 00:34:13] Mm-mm. I don't remember what. There was something else. All right. It was probably something very simple. But it wasn't just paint.

[unknown speaker 00:34:19] Basically, it's to the point where it has to be painted before you do anything else.

[unknown speaker 00:34:22] Yeah.

[unknown speaker 00:34:24] I mean, does it have to be?

[unknown speaker 00:34:25] I mean, it could just probably fly like that.

[unknown speaker 00:34:27] Oh, I mean, you could fly it like that. It's going to look gross, but.

[unknown speaker 00:34:30] Well, at least fly it once.

[unknown speaker 00:34:32] Anyway, whatever. Whatever.

[unknown speaker 00:34:34] Okay. I'm done. Let's get off here so you can go to bed. Sounds good. Well, thank you. I think this is the shortest episode we've ever done. But it's been fun. Until next time, I'm Ron. And I'm Dave. Good night. Good night.

[unknown speaker 00:34:50] We hope you enjoyed this episode of the RC Plane Lab podcast. For topic suggestions, to ask questions, or to give anything back, 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. Bye-bye.

[unknown speaker 00:35:18] UNKNOWN: Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.