Ep 95: Jim O’Camb

[00:00:10] Hello, everyone, and welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I'm Ron. I'm Tom. So today we are sitting down with Jim O'Kam. He's our first Zoom-in guest. Jim, how are you doing? Hey, everybody. Happy Saturday.

[00:00:22] Hey, welcome to the show, Jim. Thank you. All right. So, Jim, Tom here. So, like I said, welcome to the show. This is, like I said, or like Ron said, the first time we're using Zoom. So we don't have that nice face-to-face cue that we can get, like we have when our guests are live here in the studio. Is it a studio? It's a studio.

[00:00:41] It's a studio. Yeah.

[00:00:42] So anyway, Jim, if you wouldn't mind, just tell us and the four listeners that listen to our podcast a little bit about yourself.

[00:00:51] Well, he's one of them, so wouldn't that be three others?

[00:00:55] Yeah, we might be down to three now, but we'll see. Hopefully it reaches a few more. Yeah, my name is Jim, Jim O'Kam. I live in Erie, Pennsylvania, right off of Lake Erie. Been in the hobby, really anything RC, but really a focus on airplanes for, boy, as long as I can remember. Started flying stick and tissue planes back when I was probably five or six years old and kind of grew and evolved into RC aircraft, which I fly now.

[00:01:26] Anything really from, oh gosh, stump planes to sail planes to discus launch gliders, you name it. I'll give anything a shot, like building as much as I do flying. And that's how I kind of ended up here. I came across your podcast probably a year, year and a half ago maybe. And listen, I'm apparently one of the other three listeners there, and I listen pretty often and I enjoy it. So I was really excited to be invited on as a guest and hope I don't disappoint anybody listening.

[00:01:58] And by the way, that is the first mention of a discus-launched glider on the show. So congratulations, Jim, that's a first. All right, starting off with a bang.

[00:02:08] Well, teach me what that is then, because is that the one where you just kind of fling it around and you hold on to the wing and throw it?

[00:02:14] Yeah, typically. Typically, there's a little carbon fiber peg installed at the end of the wing. And it's just like the discus competition in the Olympics. You kind of spin around and toss it up into the air. And just the way behind, and I suppose the physics behind it, allows that plane to climb incredibly fast. And it can get up to about 200 feet with really not much effort on the rowers. And then you just take it from there and try to keep it up there as long as possible.

[00:02:43] Yeah, go hunting for thermals.

[00:02:45] So it's a hand-launched airplane then that goes to that height?

[00:02:50] Yeah.

[00:02:51] Okay, we've got to see that. That's kind of cool.

[00:02:53] Okay, so now, Jim, for Ron, you're going to have to send us a video of you launching your discus launch glider.

[00:03:00] Absolutely. All right, I can do that. I can do that. I've heard of those before, but I've never really, I guess, studied them too much or looked into them too much. Is that something you can do anywhere, or do you have to have thermals in order to be able to really enjoy them?

[00:03:13] Oh, heck, you can do it. You can do it in a space the size of a small baseball field. You can really do it anywhere. They're pretty agile planes. You can turn them on a dime. I'm not great at it by any means, so maybe a 30-second to a one-minute flight is pretty solid for me. But, yeah, you don't need a lot of space. You just need the effort and willingness to get out there and try it. But, yeah, it's a blast. It's a lot of fun.

[00:03:40] It does sound like fun. And the fact that you can do it in a baseball field, that's, I mean, who doesn't have a baseball field close by?

[00:03:46] At least the ones that I fly are typically in probably one meter up to maybe one and a half meter wingspan. So, yeah, not a lot of space. And typically you don't land them. If you're decent at the game, you bring them in for a landing right at yourself and you catch it. But that doesn't always happen for myself.

[00:04:10] So, a true glider, though.

[00:04:11] As long as you don't catch it with your teeth.

[00:04:14] A true glider, though, to where it doesn't have any motor or anything on it.

[00:04:17] Right.

[00:04:17] Yep, you are correct.

[00:04:18] Yeah.

[00:04:19] Color me impressed. I'm going to have to look into that.

[00:04:21] Yeah. Oh, great. Now Ron's going to be shopping for something else.

[00:04:25] Hey, we've got to expand a little bit. So, add that to your Toledo list, Ron. Well, that's already covered.

[00:04:29] Well, that's true.

[00:04:30] Under anything I can find.

[00:04:31] Anything I can find. That's exactly right.

[00:04:33] So, Toledo. Actually, this is going to come out after we have been to Toledo. Oh, true. But are you going to be close enough, Jim, to come to Toledo or what's going on with that?

[00:04:41] Yeah, I might make the trip. I've been there quite a few years in the past. It's about three hours from me, so it's not too far down the road. But I have not been there since it's been just a swap meet. So, that kind of intrigues me. And yeah, if I can fit that into my weekend schedule that week, I'll be there. Maybe we'll meet in person.

[00:05:00] Yeah, that'd be awesome, actually.

[00:05:01] Actually, Jim, since I haven't actually been to the Toledo Week Signal Show, like what it was before it became just pretty much a swap meet, can you describe what Toledo used to be? Like, I don't think I can do it justice.

[00:05:16] Yeah. Oh, man. I loved going to it back when it was huge and big and every vendor was there and there was hundreds of vendors to choose from that would be there. Boy, tables, just as far as you could see, I don't know the count, but it had to be several hundred tables that were set up. Easily spend a day, easily spend two days there. There was also a swap meet way back when as well.

[00:05:39] That was typically in a separate room from all the vendors and the new models and new products that you could buy, and not just planes. It really covered everything. I remember some small displays for RC cars, certainly some helicopters. One of the fun events that I enjoyed was one of the nights, I think it was usually on Saturday night, not too far away at the Bowling Green campus.

[00:06:03] They had kind of an indoor, I think it was a football practice facility that they would open up for park flyers and just real smaller planes that you would watch everybody go fly. But all the big names for them, like Horizon Hobby, you name it, everybody was there. Futaba, anybody that you could think of was there. And like I said, it was easy to spend a day, two days or the entire weekend there. If that's your thing, man, you were in heaven.

[00:06:32] Yeah, I think they're actually, I think there's a flying event at this one too.

[00:06:36] It's Friday night.

[00:06:37] Well, it's Friday night.

[00:06:38] Yeah. So they're, they closed down a little bit, I guess, for vendors to eat. If I remember right, it's from five to seven and then seven o'clock is when the flying event starts. I assume it's just in the same convention center. Is that where it used to be held? Was that same convention center then?

[00:06:53] Yeah, if I recall, it was always at that Seagate convention center right downtown. And like I said, they had that offsite kind of a fly in, I guess you would call it at Bowling Green, but, but the show kept shrinking each year. And the last year that I was there when it was actually the weak signals event, they had an indoor flying arena. It was right in the vendor display area and it was small. It was maybe, I don't know, 30 yards by 20 yards.

[00:07:22] It was all caged in, a lot of like UMX size planes, like maybe like 15, 20 inch span, a lot of quads. yeah, it was okay, but it wasn't what it was 10 years ago. That's for sure.

[00:07:37] Yeah. Well, that's sad. It is sad. we've, we've talked about it on the show a number of times, that number of, well, just in, in the tools we used to talk about that you can't buy anymore just because these small companies come and go and, the, the economic environment has a lot to do with that. And the fact that you can buy anything now from somewhere else, what I mean?

[00:07:59] Which is unfortunate, but yeah, it used to be in the, in the show's heyday and the same for the Chicago model and the hobby show. I used to go to that one all the time. yeah, just a, just a gradual decline in attendance by the people going to the show and then also a decline in the, companies that were represented at the shows too. It's a shame.

[00:08:19] Well, quit being so depressing. Well, I mean, but I mean, look what it's turned into though.

[00:08:24] Now it's this huge, huge swap meet that everybody can enjoy. There you go. That's a positive spin on that. How about putting a positive, positive spin on that?

[00:08:33] And I did hear, I just, I just actually saw this morning that there's going to be some, some vendors there as part of the swap meet, right? Not selling used planes and such, but selling some new products as well. So maybe it's kind of morphing back to what it once was.

[00:08:46] I'm hoping that that's the case. Yeah. I, I, I saw that too. Do they actually have a list of, of, vendors, I guess sponsors, I think they're called. No, they're called, they're, they're called vendors.

[00:08:56] Yeah. Okay. That's what I was, I was looking at that.

[00:08:58] So yeah, I'm hoping that it's sort of turning the corner and heading back the right direction.

[00:09:03] I want to say there's at least 20 or so that I saw last time I looked, I looked yesterday and there was a couple more that were added. I saw Willy Nillies is on there now. Oh, sweet. He'll be there. Yeah. so yeah, that's, it'll be kind of cool to see all that. Yep.

[00:09:16] Well, hopefully by the time this, airs, we will have already spent our budget on really, really neat stuff.

[00:09:24] We will have actually.

[00:09:26] All right. So Jim, before I, before we break into the, into the questions that, that we try to ask all of our guests, I have to comment on your workspace. You were kind enough to send us pictures of your, of your workspace. And I got to tell you, I am super jealous.

[00:09:42] Now I've seen the pictures too. And I kind of think they're staged. There is no way you can use that sander on carpet and not have a mess. Like no matter what I do, I always create such a, just dust that goes everywhere. I don't know what you've done, but that, that is gorgeous. Yeah. It's a really beautiful shop.

[00:10:04] Oh, thank you. Thank you. It's, so we, we just moved into this house about a year and a half, maybe two years ago. And that was my one ask, that when we moved in that, that I had a workshop, I had been without one for about eight or nine years or so. And was doing like a lot of folks do working at the kitchen table, building stuff and making a mess out there.

[00:10:24] And, so we moved in here and that was, that was priority one for me getting that set up and man, I just love it. It's a, it doubles as my work office. So I'm down there probably a good eight to 10 hours a day.

[00:10:37] Oh, okay. So that's also your workspace, your workspace. It is work from home. I would love to work around my airplanes. Wouldn't that be awesome. Just take a break and look at an airplane,

[00:10:49] Keep you entertained and going all day. That's awesome.

[00:10:52] You're a hundred percent correct. And it really does. It's, it's really awesome. I mean, I just, I absolutely love it. I love what I do for, for a living. I, I can tell you, I sell, sell medical supplies and, and vaccines for a, for a large, medical distributor, but I love what I do, but just to add that aspect to it is, man, it's, it's wonderful. I just love being down there. It's super, and I, I do, it's a, you're right.

[00:11:17] There is a large sander right there and, it is carpet, but I just, I use a shop back a lot.

[00:11:24] Well, Ron, Ron is, is always quick to, to point out the details. And it's, it's funny how that caught his eye, but the, the number of, airplanes and the cleanliness of the, of the workbench is, is what got my eye. I'm just super jealous.

[00:11:41] So my shop is an atrocious mess as it always is. Like, it feels like no matter what I do, if I walk away for, because so my shop that I actually do like woodworking and that kind of stuff and not hobby related is in another outbuilding. And it's like, no matter what I do, it does not stay clean. And that just like, I'm floored by how nice your setup is. That's, that's all I'm going to say.

[00:12:03] Yeah, Jim, if it's okay with you, maybe we'll, we'll share one of those photos on our, on our page. So folks can maybe see what, what we're, what we're talking about and maybe what they can aspire to, to have their shop look like maybe.

[00:12:19] By all means, you're welcome to.

[00:12:21] Right. Thank you. Yeah, we'll, we'll do that. We'll put that out there. So the other three listeners can see it.

[00:12:26] You're starting to hurt my feelings. There's more than three. There's like seven. I'm just teasing.

[00:12:30] I'm just, there's like, nice.

[00:12:33] So, okay. All right. Here we go. What everybody comes here to, to know the answer to is the question of what's your number?

[00:12:41] Yeah, my number. So it, I had to do some math and do some count for that one. Cause I never really thought of that before. I think my wife has asked me that before, but, you always round down with that one. Absolutely. Cause they seem to keep coming out of the basement somehow. No, but yeah, I came up with a number of 24 and,

[00:13:03] Respectable. Yeah.

[00:13:04] Yeah. Thanks. I can break that down a little bit. 18 are fully ready to go and they're ready to fly. Just have to charge a battery. two are ARFs that are still in the box and four kits are down there that are, that are ready to build. So, so going back to the Toledo thing, my queue is not that large, so it could be a productive trip.

[00:13:29] I like the sound of that. Yes. Yeah. So I'm, you were kind enough to also to send us a list of, of your, with your number kind of broken down and I'm going through the list, looking at the airplanes that, that I might like to have someday. yeah. So I'm, I'm seeing, I mean, a lot of, a lot of electric here.

[00:13:49] Yep. A hundred percent electric. yeah, never, never really tried the gas. one kind of a funny story back probably when I was like 19 or 20, I worked with a person and, we, it was around Christmas time and we decided to buy each other Christmas gifts for just a random reason. We weren't dating anyone and we were just feeling kind of down. So we decided to just make a list and give it to one another and we'd go out and buy each other Christmas gifts.

[00:14:17] So my list happened to be the first RC plane I ever, I ever owned, I guess. And it was a SIG cadet senior and, and that was gas powered. So I got that, I built that, but never flew it. So, I don't really recall what I did with that, but I never did fly it. I just kind of stumbled with the whole gas aspect of it. but yeah, since then it's been a hundred percent electric.

[00:14:41] Yeah. That's very, it's a very good way to do it. The nitro is just so dirty. It's so smelly. Okay. It smells good. Actually, I guess I'll, I'll give you that, but it's just, it's, it's a pain. I have, I have seen many times we've been out of the field and you have been tinkering with a nitro engine that you could not get to run. And I don't have to deal with that with electric.

[00:15:03] So I'm not saying it can't be frustrating. It can be frustrating, but usually, excuse me, usually, once I have successfully tuned said engine, I'm way happier for doing it.

[00:15:17] So there, but I, I see the process of getting there when you're not way happier.

[00:15:22] You do, you do focus on the negative run.

[00:15:24] I do not.

[00:15:26] Gosh. So a lot of the E-flight UMX stuff, those are actually fun to fly. yeah, that you've got the Radian there. That's a, that's a pretty fast glider. If I recall.

[00:15:36] Oh yeah, it'll, it'll get around. I have the UMX version and I have the night Radian version. yeah, they're both pretty relaxing. Just kind of fun to pull out on a calm day and see how long you can keep it up in the sky. Those are, those are nice. I enjoy sailplanes. That was, that's kind of what I started with. That was my very first plane was a sailplane. And, they've just kind of stuck. I like the relaxing aspect of it.

[00:15:59] All of mine are rudder and elevator controlled. No ailerons even on, on any of the sailplanes. Oh, except the Conscendo. The Conscendo has, ailerons. But other than that, yeah. Other than that, all my sailplanes are just rudder and elevator.

[00:16:15] Yeah. So I'll quickly go down the list here real quick. So if like Conscendo, you already mentioned that one, a Goldberg sophisticated lady that goes back a ways, the hobby zone, super cub, a Dyna flight butterfly also goes back a ways. I used to have one of those, believe it or not. Steven's arrow square one. What's that?

[00:16:34] Steven's arrow. They're, I would say a pretty small company. They're usually in Toledo. it's a father and his very young son. He's probably 12 or 13 years old. Usually man, the boots and, gosh, they have maybe 30, maybe 40 planes on their website. I think they're, I think it's Steven's arrow.com. Don't quote me on that one, but, yeah, some really unique planes. All of them are laser cut. you have to build them. They're all kids.

[00:17:02] And this one, the square one is they refer to it as a motor glider. So it's about a 40 inch span, about a seven to 10 ounce all up weight. that's with the battery.

[00:17:13] Oh, wow.

[00:17:13] Yeah, just a real slow going, super easy to build plane that you can just glide around forever.

[00:17:20] So they're, they're, Steven's arrow. Those are kits.

[00:17:23] Yeah. All kits. I don't think many minutes that's ARF for, or prebuilt, nothing foam, all balsa, really impressive engineering on them. really great designs, really unique designs that you just, nobody else makes ones like, like they do. Not that I've seen anyways.

[00:17:41] I see that's up my alley. I'm going to have to check them out because I get, I don't want to say sick and tired, but you see the same thing over and over and over again. I like unique airplanes. That's what draws me to certain airplanes that you just, you see this in one spot and it's like, okay, well, I can want to buy that one then. So yeah, that's awesome. I'm going to have to check them out.

[00:17:59] Yeah. We'll definitely, give that a visit. Hope, maybe they'll be at the, at the show.

[00:18:04] Yeah.

[00:18:05] There may be there last time I was there and, boy, great customer service, super friendly at the booth, had a ton of planes for sale. real nice company that I like, I like supporting a lot. Awesome.

[00:18:17] All right. So moving on, we've got a great planes yardstick. Everybody probably knows what that is. E-flight PT 17, the P 51 from E-flight. you've got one of those new timbers. How do you like that thing?

[00:18:28] Oh, the timber is great. The UMX. my brother has a full size timber equally fun. They're just, man, they're simple to fly. If you, if you want them to be, you can just put it in safe mode and boy, anybody can do that, but then you flip it off safe mode and that thing will do anything you want. And it's just charge the battery and go. It, those are a blast.

[00:18:49] That was like a great design and great idea by, I guess, horizon or E-flight, whoever actually designed the plane, but hats off to them. Great plane.

[00:18:59] Cool. so we've got a UMX GB. Is that the red and white one?

[00:19:03] Yeah, exactly. Yep. A little, flying, I don't know a lot of names for it.

[00:19:07] A flying engine.

[00:19:08] That thing's a handful. Even, even with safe mode and everything, that thing is, boy, that, that's been in a tree or two, too.

[00:19:18] Okay.

[00:19:21] Well, we're getting to that. But that one, man, that, that's just. a challenge to fly every single time.

[00:19:28] Well, I don't like to hear that because I currently have, a 40, nitro size, GB on the table, getting ready to fly. So hopefully, I don't have that kind of. Oh, don't tell me that. all right. So moving on here, we've got the UMX Yak. Ron, you have one of those.

[00:19:47] I do not. Oh, wait. Yeah, I do. I just got the, the profile one. Is that the one you're talking about? Yep. That's what this is. Yeah.

[00:19:55] Oh, the profile.

[00:19:56] That's the, that's the SU-26.

[00:19:58] Oh, that's right. That's a SU-Coin, not a Yak.

[00:20:00] Sorry.

[00:20:00] My bad. night radian, the radian UMX, night vapor. Ron, you have a version of that, right? I just have the, I have the mini vapor. I don't have a night one.

[00:20:11] I can't. Yeah.

[00:20:12] Oh, another Steven's Arrow, Newport. What is tune scale? What does that mean?

[00:20:18] So tune scale. I don't know how they define that, but it's, boy, it's almost like a comical looking airplane. It's, it's based on, in this case, the 1911 Newport. It's based on that. But, they add some really neat touches that, that make it look comical.

[00:20:36] So, okay. So the, so they exaggerate the proportions and make it look like a cartoon. I got you. Okay.

[00:20:42] Exactly. They add a little, cutout for the pilot that's in there, which, which makes it a lot of fun looking at that one. And they're, they're really small. they use all the electronics from the small UMX planes from, Horizon. So all of those electronics go into that plane and they're, gosh, maybe, maybe a 15 inch span at best. So it's for dead calm or indoor flying. They weigh probably three ounces or less. but a really fun kit to build even over the weekend.

[00:21:14] Maybe stretch it out to a week if you'd like, but yeah, I enjoy those. I've built a few of those over the, over the years.

[00:21:20] It sounds cool. We'll have to check those out too, Ron. -huh. Okay. Hobby Express, Miss Butterfly Jr. E-Flight elusive 2.2 meter sailplane. Yeah. I'm seeing a theme, Great Plains Fandango kit and a ready to fly version.

[00:21:37] Yeah. I've built that Fandango probably about four times now. crashed it twice. So that's a hard one to fly for me anyways. That's a doozy.

[00:21:49] Is that anything like the, the, the Tango? Remember the Tango? I think Hurrah or maybe it was a Hangar 9 did a Tango. And we called it, here anyway, we called it the Wango Tango because you couldn't, when it was on the ground, it was really extremely difficult to handle. But once it was in the air, it wasn't so bad. Okay. But that was, what you're describing reminds me of that airplane.

[00:22:09] Got it. Okay.

[00:22:10] So a GWS Slow Stick. We've talked about those. a Stevens Aero Stick. So they apparently do their own version of a stick. Sky Bench Mini Olympic II. I guess, I'm guessing that's a glider.

[00:22:22] That is. That's a kind of a new company, Rejuvenated. It's, a company called Sky Bench. The owner, I believe, is Scott Black. unbelievably friendly guy. great customer service. He'll be at Toledo this year, actually. One of the vendors there. the Olympic was a kit from, I want to say the eighties, early eighties, maybe. And I, I believe that Scott bought the company just recently. And now he's reproducing all these kits in laser cut form.

[00:22:53] And this is the mini version of the original Olympic. The original Olympic was a two meter sailplane. This is maybe one and a half meters, give or take. And, it's a kit, no power in it. So you would use a high start to get it up in the air. I think that's going to be next on the bench as soon as we get the, the shop back up.

[00:23:12] Cool. it is building season. we got a Sig Rascal, which, which size is that one?

[00:23:19] It's the 400 motor size. It's an older kit. it's probably about another 40 inch type wingspan on that one. Pretty small.

[00:23:30] Yeah. It should be a good flying airplane.

[00:23:31] Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is real fast, real zippy. Yeah. Fun to fly.

[00:23:35] Yeah. Reggie, Reggie likes the, the rascals. All right. We got a Sig Demozel. Okay. I'm familiar with that one. e-flight expert VTOL. Have you, have you been successful in flying that one?

[00:23:47] Yeah, it's weird. It's just one of those, I don't know. It's a flying triangle and it's, I don't know. It's bizarre. It was on sale for like 20 bucks at the local hobby shop. I grabbed it and had a battery that fit. So we run with it. Yeah. It's cool. It's something different. That's all.

[00:24:03] It definitely is different. I, the ones I've seen, I shouldn't say fly. The ones I've seen attempted to fly, when they're in the air, they're actually kind of a challenge to, for orientation. For me anyway, they were a little bit of a challenge.

[00:24:16] Well, you're getting old too. So it's kind of hard to see things far away.

[00:24:20] Jim's right behind me, Ron. So you be careful.

[00:24:23] But he's behind you. So it's okay.

[00:24:26] And then, and then we have a laser arts QF two, DLG. That's discus launch glider.

[00:24:34] Look at me learning. I put that together too.

[00:24:37] All right. Well, that's a good list. very respectable. I'm, I, I will admit that I am a little disappointed that there's no nitro or gas on there, but that's okay.

[00:24:47] I am not.

[00:24:48] There's a lot of balsa on there, which is thumbs up. Thumbs up for me. Yeah, for sure.

[00:24:52] Thank you. Yeah. So when, when did you get in the hobby? How did you start?

[00:24:57] Well, like I said, I got in into it with sticking tissue and the rubber powered models. I was probably five or six years old. My uncle Joe got me into it. a lot of folks in my family were into it. a lot of uncles back then, my uncle Joe, my uncle Ted and my uncle Howard, they were all into small airplanes, large airplanes. My uncle Howard flew, trainers in the military. We taught pilots how to fly back in, just after world war two.

[00:25:25] So, so a lot of folks were, were involved in that. so I started with these little stick and tissue models, was a member of our local, I think it was called the flying aces club back when I was that age and used to go to those meetings with my uncle Joe and just awesome memories of that. And just, man, I just loved it. Just for whatever reason, fascinated by being able to build something that can fly.

[00:25:50] And I just thought, and I still do think that that's just one of the coolest things there is. And I just love it. So started with those. And, probably in my teenager years, I moved more to RC cars and, and things like that. I thought that was pretty neat, but always kept building the planes. And then probably in my mid to late twenties or so, and I'm 52, 51 now, I'm sorry. probably in my mid to late twenties, I, I started to get back into the RC stuff.

[00:26:18] Or I started to get into the RC stuff and just haven't looked back yet. I just love it. Just, it's my thing. And it's, it's the thing that I do to relax and forget about everything else and still fascinated by it and still love it.

[00:26:32] And, and I couldn't agree with you more. There's the, in my opinion, there's, there's not much out there that's cooler or neater or more awesomer than, than putting an airplane together or building a kit or whatever. And then watching that thing fly. I mean, that's, I, I, I couldn't agree with you more.

[00:26:51] I just, I love it when I, when I do that. And even at my age now, I mean, I've been doing this for 20 or 30 years. When you finish that kit and you go out there and you fly it and you watch it flying up in the air, your, your heart's beaten and you're so nervous. You're going to crash the thing, but you're so proud of what you just accomplished and did. I just will always think that's one of the coolest things there is. And I love it.

[00:27:14] Yeah. And that's, and that's really awesome that, that you had family, to sort of help you get started, which I think might be a first for the show too. Like all the rest of us got, kind of introduced to the hobby either on our own or my case by a neighbor or whatever, but having, having that a family influence. So does your family still, participate with you? Any of your family?

[00:27:35] So all those uncles that I just met, that I just mentioned, they've all passed away. They were, they were a bit older. my brother, he's involved with it a little bit. He has a few of the, he flight foam airplanes and he'll come over to the house and we'll fly those here and there, but yeah, for the most part, it's, it's just me and that's fine.

[00:27:54] I try to pass it on to my son and, and I have a stepson also, and I would love to see them get involved in it, but yeah, not right now.

[00:28:02] It's, it's so, it's so difficult. Like there's not a lot of people that I have met that have been able to pass it on to their kids.

[00:28:09] Yeah.

[00:28:09] It's just, I don't know what makes it so difficult for, and maybe it's because whatever dad does is never cool. Like I understand that because you're around it so much. So it's not like a, I don't know, but it's been unsuccessful too.

[00:28:22] I, I tried to get my kids. Yeah.

[00:28:25] I, that's a fairly common, as have I, it's been terrible. Yeah. It's awesome. I'll try with Piper a little harder. We'll see how that goes. Well, she has the right hand. I know.

[00:28:35] I'll add something about one of my uncles that I, that I mentioned there was my uncle Ted. He, he lived across the street from us as I was growing up and I guess it was maybe about 20 years ago. So I was visiting my, my mom and my dad and he called me over to his house and, and I walked over there and he said, I wanted to show you something. And I knew he was, I knew he enjoyed airplanes and I knew he built some models here and there.

[00:28:59] Well, he brought me down to his basement and he was building in his basement. This was not a big house by any means. It was your, a very average ranch house. And he took me down in the basement and wouldn't it, he had, I think it's a 1928 Pete and pole full scale airplane that he had started in his basement, in the basement, in his basement. He had the wing fully built and this took up almost the entire length of his house.

[00:29:26] And he said, don't tell anybody, especially Nancy. That was his wife.

[00:29:32] So was that not thought through? Like, how do you get it out? Yeah.

[00:29:35] That's what I was wondering.

[00:29:36] I have no idea what his thinking was. I have, I couldn't even guess, but man, I just thought that was, that was one of the neatest things I ever saw. And, and probably one of the most difficult secrets to, I would think, keep from everybody. Oh, but he never did finish it. I think he, he sold it to somebody in Kentucky. and how they got that out of the basement, I, that's a great question. I have no idea.

[00:30:03] That's kind of amazing.

[00:30:04] Well, I mean, it is a home built airplane.

[00:30:07] I mean, we don't have to build it in the home.

[00:30:09] Well, yeah, I suppose.

[00:30:11] Like I've got problems getting some of the airplanes out of the basement here, like going around corners and stuff.

[00:30:15] I can't imagine a full size. Yeah.

[00:30:17] Wow. That's, that's funny. so do you belong to like a flying club or anything like that? Or is it just all off of your, your home property?

[00:30:25] Yeah, I don't, for a short time. boy, and I can't even think of the name of the club that's close here. I think it's the flying Eagles. I might be wrong on that one, but yeah, I belong to them for a short time. And, just never got really involved with it. probably for the past 20 or 30 years, we, we had a couple local fields that, that I would usually go to, that were, kind of quiet and set apart from things.

[00:30:50] But again, we moved into this house about a year and a half, two years ago now. And man, fortunate enough that we have about 13 acres that's dead flat and it's all mowed. And I kind of carved a little runway into the backyard just by lowering the grass a little bit there. So, so now we just come right out the back and, and fly here whenever we want. And it's, it's perfect. It's, it's just awesome.

[00:31:14] Yeah. See, that's kind of how it is here too. We have enough room for small airplanes, nothing, I'd say 40 size and below. So I wouldn't go with anything bigger, like 40 size.

[00:31:24] Although you did rat me out on the episode with Reggie about flying your larger than 40 size biplane off the road. Thanks very much.

[00:31:32] Well, that's not, okay. Yeah. You'll have to catch that one. That was, we were talking about bad places to fly and Tommy kind of, we, but it's nice

[00:31:39] To have, it's nice to, I'm going to change the subject.

[00:31:41] So let's, let's explain because he hasn't heard it yet. So long story short, it was my birthday, like nine years ago now. and my, what was that? What airplane was that? Why can I not remember?

[00:31:52] Super Skybolt?

[00:31:53] The Super Skybolt, gasoline powered, 15 CC little gas powered airplane. Tommy decided to fly off of the highway.

[00:32:04] At someone's request.

[00:32:08] And, but anyway, so he flew it off of the highway and that was, that's probably the biggest plane that's been flown here, but off my grass runway, 40 size or below is kind of what I stick with. And the reason we belong to a club, really is convenience for flying the bigger stuff. Yeah. If it, if it was the fact where I had more room here or, didn't have a bunch of trees around or live by a farm to where it was all open land. Yeah.

[00:32:35] I probably wouldn't belong to a field either, to be honest with you.

[00:32:39] Yeah. I'll beat the convenience. I'll say that.

[00:32:41] Yeah. It's so nice just to walk outside. You can do that of an evening. You don't have to load the car up. You don't have to, make sure I brought everything with me. Right.

[00:32:51] Well, and especially electrics. I mean, that's the, that's the one of the beauties of electric is you just charge battery and throw it in there and walk outside and give it a toss and off you go. So that's pretty cool.

[00:33:01] So I've got to ask to try and make Tommy feel a little bit better. Do you have any interest or any thoughts of trying in the future a nitro airplane?

[00:33:10] So no, I don't really good for you. Good answer.

[00:33:16] And that doesn't hurt my feelings at all. I'm just saying.

[00:33:19] Yeah. I'm going to hold my ground on that one. I have a couple of nitro, RC cars and those are fine. but, but you're right. I mean, they're just finicky. They're, they're on the ground, so there's not going to be any bad things happen. And if that motor stalls, but yeah, it's going to stall up in the air and I'm going to lose that plane and I know I am, well, I'm just going to stick with, I will, I will defend

[00:33:44] Nitro airplane motors a little bit. so I've had nitro cars too, and they are a lot more difficult to tune and tune right than it is for a nitro airplane.

[00:33:55] Yeah, I think so. I've, I've had, I've had all of it and, yeah, I would say that an airplane is a little more forgiving on, on the needle settings than a nitro car. Yeah, they, but I agree with Jim, an engine that's not tuned well on the ground is not near as much of a risk as one that's not tuned perfectly, in the air. So I get it. I really do. And I don't fault anyone for not wanting to do nitro. I'm just old. I'm old school.

[00:34:23] That's how I learned. I learned from like right off the bat how to tune them and, and maybe not correctly, but I learned, over time. If it works. And it's just, it's just, to each their own. And I certainly don't fault anyone for going electric because man, they are super convenient.

[00:34:39] Well, see, like with, with the electrics, the, the size of airplanes, Jim, that you have, those are perfect airplanes size wise for batteries. Like if you get too much bigger than that, it's, it gets to be, I don't want to say a pain because electric isn't a pain, but it gets to me or to be more in depth if you get too big with a battery and all that kind of stuff.

[00:35:02] Well, and I'll be honest, like those big, the really big, like six cell, 8,000 milliamp or whatever it is, those batteries scare me. I mean, they really do. They have so much potential energy in them that if, if you don't handle them just right, if that goes off, I mean, it's taken your whole house with it.

[00:35:21] Well, let's not be a little overdramatic on that. It can, but if you treat them well, they don't just go off on their own. That's true. So they're, they're very safe if handled properly.

[00:35:32] Hey, Jim, I meant to ask you when you started flying, did you think you would end up with 24 airplanes at one time?

[00:35:38] No, those first, I don't know, five to 10 years of getting into RC, I had typically one airplane at a time and I flew that until it crashed and then I would buy another one and, and I would replace it and I was not very good at flying at all those first few years. So I never thought I'd turn into this at all, not at all.

[00:36:00] And that, that happens when you start out. I mean, it's hard to, it's hard to get it sometimes, but once you get it, it's just, it's so satisfying.

[00:36:09] I'll be honest, I mean, I, I wasn't able to fly a plane with ailerons probably for the first, I don't know, 10 years that I got into RC, I stuck with rudder and elevator. I kept it super simple and I still crashed for some of those things. but now I'm, I'm good. I can, I can handle pretty much whatever plane is up there. it might not be beautiful, the flight, but I'm probably not going to crash due to pilots. So that's where I wanted to be the whole time.

[00:36:39] And I think that's where I am now. And so I'm, I'm pretty content with that, but yeah, never thought I would be at 24 ish airplane, not even close.

[00:36:48] Yeah. Well, I get that. I like, I ask myself sometimes where, how did I get here? Like, why do I have all these? And then I started looking at him. It's like, well, I don't want to sell that one. I like this one because of this. And then I look at another one. It's like, well, I can't get rid of that one because I like it because of that.

[00:37:06] Or, well, they're all cool.

[00:37:07] Yeah, they really are.

[00:37:08] I mean, like they all have their own special neatness about them and that's why you bought them in the first place, right? Yeah, absolutely. Something to read to them.

[00:37:18] And it's probably something that no one else would really understand other than maybe yourself who actually went out and bought those for whatever reason. And, and maybe like, folks like us, you guys and myself, and we kind of understand that, but yeah, for the most part, folks don't understand why you would have 24 airplanes when they all kind of do the same thing.

[00:37:40] But that's very true. I mean, they, they do kind of do the same thing, but they don't. And that's, that's the problem. But they do it in different ways. Right. Yeah. You get the same result, but it's a little bit different path getting to it. And they, I mean, they all fly their own way and they're all just, they're fun little toys to play with.

[00:37:58] Jim, you mentioned, you mentioned that, that when you started out, you, you said yourself, and so don't hold it against me, you said you didn't fly very well. So does that, that means you, you crashed a bit. I'm, I'm assuming, do you have any one crash story that you like to tell your buddies?

[00:38:14] So there's one that comes up and it's between me and my brother. It comes up. I don't know a couple of times a year, give or take I had, I had bought him his first RC airplane. I think it was a wedding gift for actually being in my wedding. So I bought him a model and it was an ARF. So he just had to kind of get it put together and install a radio. And I had one also at the same time, it was my first one.

[00:38:40] It was, I think it was the thunder tiger wind star and it was an electric two meters sail plane. it flew with a giant NICAB brick of a battery and it was, man, if that thing ever got over 50 feet in the air, that was, that was a pretty good day. It was just way too heavy and just did not fly well. But, but we were flying one day at a field and he had taken his up. He brought his down. He landed. He was probably 20 or 30 yards away from us, left his plane there.

[00:39:11] It was my turn. We would kind of alternate flying and trying to catch a paranormal. So he left his plane there. I took mine off and I flew around for maybe two or three minutes and was bringing it in for a landing with no possible way that I could hit his plane being where it was 30 yards away, man. My plane was drawn to his like a magnet and it just crashed right into it and, took both of the bars out, sliced his right in half. And mine was just damaged beyond repair.

[00:39:43] And I, I couldn't do that today. I couldn't get a smaller, 30 yards away of a hundred bucks was on the line for it.

[00:39:51] It's surprisingly difficult to intentionally fly into, and when they're flying, I'm talking about like to fly into another airplane. We've tried it. Like we have these little foamy F-22s that we've tried it with, and it's not as easy as it sounds.

[00:40:05] No.

[00:40:06] So you were able to, you were able to take out two planes with one, with one whack and, probably couldn't repeat it again. Yeah, that's it. That's a good story. And one being stationary.

[00:40:15] The look on his face was priceless when he saw it.

[00:40:20] I can imagine. That was a fun ride.

[00:40:23] Yeah. That was good stuff. I've lost a few, of course, like, probably anybody has. As we've mentioned trees before us, plus quite a few in trees. And I had one that just, I don't know what happened. The radio lost signal or something went awry and it just kept going in a direction that, that I didn't want it to go. And I have no idea where that plane ended up, but it's, it's, it's been a little while since I've lost a plane due to a crash. So knock on wood.

[00:40:49] It's funny. You should mention that still flying. Yeah. It's still flying somewhere. It caught a thermal and yeah, now it's, now it's somewhere in space. I don't know.

[00:41:02] Wow. so, okay. So we talked about your list of airplanes. yeah. What is, what's the one airplane you always go to? Like, okay, this is the one I fly most because, and why?

[00:41:16] Hmm. probably my favorite airplane that I have is that Carl Goldberg sophisticated lady that, that sail plane, two meter, just use a high start to launch it, no electric power or anything. Just love that one. That was, one of my first airplanes, that I had built way back when, and I probably built it, I guess this is my third go around on it. Just love the looks of it. it flies great. If you can catch a thermal, you could have it up there for an hour.

[00:41:45] So that, that's probably the prettiest plane that I have. The, the Conscendo from E-Flight, that's probably one that I grabbed, I would say pretty often. in fact, I just flew that the other night. First time I've been able to fly and probably about six months with the winter that we had. And so that was the first one that came out this year. And that, that's great. That's just a fun zippy flyer that, you can do some basic aerobatics with it and it's relatively fast.

[00:42:13] So it's, it's pretty cool to see up there, but I'll tell you my favorite plane. And this seems goofy, but it's, it's probably that great planes yardstick. It's, I don't know. It's a 35 inch park flyer. It's just a stick with a wing on it. super simple design. One of the first like electric type planes that was a, like a park flyer that came out probably 30 years ago, 20 years ago, maybe. I don't know why, but that one is just stuck with me.

[00:42:41] And I, I've built that one twice. It's an ARF the way you get it. I found it on eBay a few years ago and, brought that one back to life. And, I don't know why that one is so much fun to me, but it really is. I love the looks of it and it's easy to fly. So I can hand the radio to, to, to my son or my stepson and they can fly it around. And I don't know, that's just a blast. And that's what it's all about. It's fun.

[00:43:07] I don't care if it's like a jet or fully aerobatic or a fully scale airplane. It's just whatever you have fun with. And man, that's the one that I have a ton of fun with. It's a blast.

[00:43:18] Yeah. Sometimes the slower ones are more relaxing and more enjoyable. Mm-hmm.

[00:43:22] Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'm not opposed to grabbing a chair and sitting down while I'm flying and just watch it buzz around. I mean, that's, that's fine.

[00:43:32] I have never sat down when, when I was at the controls.

[00:43:37] Hmm. Never?

[00:43:38] No.

[00:43:39] I don't think I have either. Well, I've sat on the table before and flown from the table.

[00:43:42] Have you? Yeah. See, I don't, I don't think I've ever done that. Yep. Maybe I should bring a chair out there. It might be more fun.

[00:43:48] Yeah. Maybe.

[00:43:48] Do you guys ever fly sailplanes? Any at all?

[00:43:51] I'm going to say not yet.

[00:43:54] Yeah. So I've, I've flown, Dave, mostly Dave Taylor's, here and there. And, I, I'm intrigued by them. but I, being a nitro guy, I like that noise, so usually I, I prefer to have something with a propeller on and making noise, but, but, no, I, I was going to

[00:44:14] Say, Dave's are all powered, right?

[00:44:16] Not all of them. I think he's got a couple of them that he, that he hand launches and I've never seen

[00:44:20] Those and however all that works, but we should use the telemaster as a tow plane and get ourselves that horsepower. Yeah. We, I think that's a great idea.

[00:44:30] Yeah, absolutely. I'll put a tow hook on it.

[00:44:32] I know it's coming up. I'm going to have to try that sometime. I mean, it's another part of the hobby. I've not been in. I don't know anything about it and it would be sound, I mean, it sounds fun. It'd be something cool to try.

[00:44:44] And there's a little bit of a, and correct me if I'm wrong, Jim, but there's a little bit of a challenge, when you're flying a glider too, because you're out there trying to, you want to try to make your flight as, as long as you can, cause who probably get bored with one to two minute flights at a time. So you go out there and you challenge yourself to find a thermal and then that sort of teaches you about air currents and things like that.

[00:45:04] And, once you kind of get into groove, what you're looking for on every, on any given day that you're flying, your gliders.

[00:45:11] Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And, with an electric motor assisted sailplane, it makes that a lot easier because if you don't catch that thermal, you just hit the throttle and you climb back up. But when you have those, like the sophisticated lady or this mini Olympic two that I'm getting ready to build, when those don't have that electric motor in there and you're fully relying on those thermals. yeah, it's definitely a challenge.

[00:45:34] And to be able to keep one of those up, that's not power assisted. If you can keep that up for a half hour or an hour, well, number one, that's why you need a chair. And number two, it's just a, it's just a great feeling to, you're just riding, riding the clouds and riding the wind up there. And man, that's awesome. That's, that's relaxing and it's fun. And it's, again, I'll use that same phrase. It's just really cool to see that up there.

[00:46:00] I agree. So is it, is it pretty easy to get them to land where you want them to land then?

[00:46:05] No, no, gosh, no.

[00:46:06] Oh, okay. Refer back to my…

[00:46:09] I appreciate your honesty.

[00:46:11] Yeah. It's, it's kind of like a dead stick where you never had a motor to begin with. So yeah, that would be…

[00:46:19] Yeah. And you get one shot and you get one shot at it. So yeah, that's, that's it right there. So a long runway is, is a great thing. And, I'm much better at it now than I was five years ago or 10 years ago, but always will be a challenge.

[00:46:34] I think for me, anyways, a long runway and a pair of hiking boots.

[00:46:39] So Jim, you mentioned you got an Olympic on the, on the build table. What do you have anything else that you're working on right now?

[00:46:45] Well, I just, I just finished, this one is, this one is fun. It's, made by a company. I think it was called, hobby express. They're no longer in business. It's called a butterfly. And this happens to be a mini butterfly version. my wife bought this one for me. I follow a group on, on Facebook, that's called the Balsa model aircraft builders page. And, apparently I had commented, somebody had posted a picture about that particular plane.

[00:47:15] And I had commented about that, that, that I had owned that a while back a long time ago and just really enjoyed the build on that and flew great. And in one of my moves, it, it got damaged. And so I no longer had that. And my wife, as she was shopping for birthday gifts for me, came across that on Facebook. She was doing a little, little Facebook stocking for my birthday gifts. And, she saw that and she found one on eBay.

[00:47:40] So she grabbed it and I would, I'm, I put that it's ready to fly and it, and it truly is, but, but it's still on the bench. It hasn't been flown yet. So it's, it's, it's next up, but that was, yeah, that was a great plane to build about a 40 inch powered electric plane. I would consider probably a park flyer, super easy to fly. Nice build, a lot of fun, real happy with how it turned out.

[00:48:04] And, yeah, that was my most recent one is that, is that, so it's a butterfly. Is that designed based off the old, craft air kit? I don't know if you're one of those, is that craft air and yeah, craft air and then

[00:48:18] Totally different from that. It's, unbelievably simple build. I've never seen this before, before for the wings, you put in a traditional main spar on it and then for the top of the rib in the instruction booklet, they just ask you to crack the one eighth inch square balsa stick over that main spar to create the air. But it's, it's, it's an elongated triangle airfoil.

[00:48:47] I'm not sure what technically that would be referred to, but it's, it's a very bizarre shape, but super easy to build, a lot of fun to build. And from my collection anyways, was a really great slow flyer and I can't wait to get this one up in the air. We will as, as soon as weather permits.

[00:49:04] Yeah. We used to, we used to build airfoils like that when we were building airplanes out of the corrugated plastic way back when. So I'm familiar with what you're talking about. Pretty, pretty neat, pretty neat idea. So do you prefer to build or fly, Jim?

[00:49:18] Oh boy. probably build, probably build. I, everything I've ever built, I've flown once at least, so it's, it's, I got, you have to fly it once you build it. So you have to do that. but man, I, yeah, I love the building process and I'm unbelievably slow at it on purpose.

[00:49:38] Well, that's okay. Yeah.

[00:49:39] No intention of rushing through the process. I love the process. So yeah, unbelievably slow and just enjoying my time in the shop and I'll watch a movie or whatever it may be during that process. And it's just a way to get away and do the thing I love. That's it.

[00:49:56] Yeah. And with a shop like that, why wouldn't you want to spend time in it?

[00:49:59] Right. There you go.

[00:50:02] So I wanted to ask you too, really quick. So you're all electric. What are your thoughts on like name brand electric gear versus the Amazon stuff?

[00:50:12] Hmm. so that's probably my weakness. the electronics aspect of it. I'm, I'll play dumb on that one. I, I'm not good at picking up the motors. I'm not good picking up the speed controls and I'm going to go to whatever website or whatever source that I can find that makes that process the easiest for me. So I don't care if it's a $5 motor versus a $50 motor, whatever makes it easy for me to install and what works in my application is what I'm going to go with.

[00:50:43] I've had great luck with all of them. I don't, I don't see much of a difference really in, especially for what I fly in performance. I mean, it doesn't make much of a difference on a 10 ounce all up weight little motor glider. It's not going to make a lot of difference for me. So whatever is easiest for me to purchase is pretty much where I'm at with that one.

[00:51:04] Yeah. Ron and I are both shaking our heads in agreement. Absolutely.

[00:51:07] Like there, there's so many people that are, well, like, Reggie, he, we, he will be on, by the time this comes out, we'll have his episode out again. And we were talking to him and he only buys name brand electronics. And I just, I, I can't, I can't get on board with that just for some of the prices, the price differences based on some of the Amazon stuff. It's, you're 10 times more expensive for the same comparable thing.

[00:51:31] And I don't see, I don't see anything making me want to spend the extra money on it. There's no quality difference discernibly that I can see.

[00:51:40] And there's no appearance difference for that type of item either. I mean, the motor is typically under the cowl and hidden. The speed control is tucked away. Now the radio equipment, that one, I'm not going to skimp on that one. I'm going to, I'm going to stick. Well, I use spectrum, all the spectrum products and the spectrum radio.

[00:51:58] I'm going to stay with that because I feel that although I have no experience with that as far as a glitch or a fail, but maybe that's because I'm sticking with the brand name, but I'm going to stay with spectrum on that end.

[00:52:10] Yeah. And I, I agree with you a hundred percent. Ron and I have, experimented recently with, with Amazon cheapo standard size servos and just terrible luck.

[00:52:21] So they all went back.

[00:52:22] Yeah. he sent his back. I sent mine back. I've already spent the credit actually. batteries for the chipmunk, but, but yeah, I, I agree with you a hundred percent when it comes to the radio gear, especially the receivers. I, I am not going to, I'm not going to skimp there.

[00:52:38] It depends on the plane. I still think each, each plane has a, if you're talking about a profile foamy that you don't really care about, I don't care if I lose it because I have a $10 receiver and as opposed to a $50 receiver in it. But for anything of, of value, either emotional value or, monetary value, then yeah, I, I spend the money on the better ones.

[00:53:01] Yeah.

[00:53:02] So what, like what, what, what radio do you fly with? You said spectrum, but what, what, what?

[00:53:10] Yeah, I have the DX eight. I think it's the generation two right now. okay. Really interested in upgrading that and going, making the next step. But yeah, I, well, I can't avoid seeing everything online where people are having issues with it along the way. So I don't know if that's my next step. I think I'm kind of waiting for something else to come out, but it'll likely still be spectrum. Cause I really liked what I have now, but we'll see what they come out with.

[00:53:39] Well, if you're interested in my perspective, I own an IX 12, excuse me. And I graduated from a gen one DX eight. If I had it to do all over again, I would just buy the DX 18 or the DX 20 or whatever that are up to now. I like the IX 12. I really do, but it's too smart for me, honestly. And I don't like the fact that, it's, it's, and when I say glitchy, I don't mean glitchy as far as the, the radio link performance.

[00:54:09] I'm talking the, the menus and the, and the waiting for it to boot up. And sometimes it, the, the software sort of hangs up at certain places, not the same place every time either. So that gets to me, an old guy that's not very patient, gets frustrating to me.

[00:54:27] So if you don't like that sort of issue and you like the thing to just turn on when you turn the switch on and work without having to go through all those menus, maybe the NX or the DX series might be, might be a better option. If I had it to do all over again, I would, I would go that route, but that's just me.

[00:54:44] Well, there's ironic since he's the one, Tom is the one that pushed me to get the IX-12.

[00:54:50] I did not push you into getting the IX-12. You bought that all on your own.

[00:54:54] When I was looking at that one, you're like, oh, mine's great. There's nothing wrong with it. It's perfect. You're going to love it. Yeah. Now the truth comes out.

[00:55:01] Well, I'm not saying it's a bad radio. I'm just saying for me, you're, you're tech savvy. I'm not.

[00:55:07] Well, here's what I can compare that to. Have you ever used a modern computer and then for some reason had to go use a, a 10 year old computer to where you're used to things opening, quickly, you open an internet browser, it comes right up.

[00:55:23] And then you go to this old computer and you go to open the same thing and you wait 10 seconds and then it appears it does the same thing, but there's a little bit of a delay in the software because the processor is not nearly as powerful as it should be. That is how I see the IX-12.

[00:55:41] Okay.

[00:55:41] Now when I'm in, kind of like you were saying, when I'm in the actual software, the airware software, I've never had a problem with actually controlling an airplane.

[00:55:54] Oh, right. Me either.

[00:55:55] It does get laggy sometimes when you're trying to go from screen to screen. Now you shouldn't be able to do this on a transmitter, but if you're trying to watch YouTube videos, which you can do on the IX-12, there's a little lag on that too, but it works fine. Speakers work fine. It's like using an old computer or an old cell phone. I guess that's another way to look at it. Like an outdated Galaxy S4 as opposed to the new one.

[00:56:21] That's a good analogy. That's a, that's exactly very accurate how I would, should have described it.

[00:56:27] Yeah. I mean, that's, that's just kind of how I look at it.

[00:56:29] The capability of the radio is, I mean, no question, the radio is smarter than me. Like it can do so many things. Like I am just scratching the surface of the capability of this radio.

[00:56:40] So anyway, if you're looking for input, there you go, Jim.

[00:56:43] Yeah. No, good. That was good.

[00:56:45] So Jim, do you got any big plans coming up? Like we're, we've been talking about this Toledo show that like Ron said, by the time this comes out, we will have already gone. But do you have any big plans coming up RC related in your future?

[00:57:01] I don't really. I'm just going to, I got to get my workshop back in order. I don't know if we, I think we may have mentioned that. Maybe that was off air, but.

[00:57:09] No, that was beforehand. So what, what, what happened to your, what happened to your shop?

[00:57:14] Yeah, so about three or four weeks ago, we had about, give or take three feet of snow on the ground. And one Friday, the temperature hit about 65 and we got about an inch of rain. And yeah, the basement just kind of filled up with some water. So the shop is a bit under construction right now as we replace the carpeting. Nothing was damaged as far as any of any of my equipment or really very little furniture.

[00:57:39] Only a few pieces were damaged, but yeah, we got to get that back in order. So that's, that's on my to-do list right there. And that'll be done in the next few weeks. And once that happens, then we'll wrap up some, some loose ends on some projects and start some new ones. And then really just get out there and start flying some more when the weather breaks. And I can't wait.

[00:57:58] Yeah. Yeah. That will be awesome.

[00:58:00] We're looking forward to that too. We've had like the tease of warm weather hit, but the warm weather has been accompanied with either rain or high winds. High winds. Yeah. And that's been.

[00:58:10] And that's what I have right now. I'm sitting by a window here and it's probably about 65 degrees, but unbelievably windy and it's raining. So that's a no-go for me.

[00:58:20] Yeah. We had, we had 74 yesterday, I think. Yeah. And then today is what? 53?

[00:58:27] Yeah. Yeah. It was.

[00:58:29] Maybe that was the day before.

[00:58:29] No, actually it was, it was 37 this morning when I, when we started our run. Ouch.

[00:58:34] Yeah. See, that's why I don't.

[00:58:35] And windy.

[00:58:36] That's why I don't run. And also rainy, by the way. Yeah. So, yeah. Not good flying weather. No, not really. But it's coming. No, that's when you pull out the simulator.

[00:58:43] I was just getting ready to say that. It's good simulator weather. Yep.

[00:58:46] There you go. There you go. You got to keep your skills intact. That's right. So.

[00:58:52] Yep, exactly.

[00:58:54] Well, Jim, this has been kind of fun. Is there anything else that you want to talk about or feel we should cover?

[00:59:00] No, I think that was awesome. This is my first time on a podcast, my first time meeting you guys and both. I'll give a thumbs up. That was awesome. All right. Cool.

[00:59:09] Well, we'd like to hear that. Hopefully, hopefully we'll, we will have seen you in Toledo. Maybe. Hopefully that'd be pretty cool. Hopefully, Ron and I will see all four of our listeners in Toledo. That'd be, I'll have my RC plane lab swag on and Ron might also.

[00:59:25] So, so yeah, you, you have our, our text or a cell number from the, the one that we give out the A18 blah, blah, blah. I don't have it memorized.

[00:59:34] 1-8-3-5-1-9-8-4-6.

[00:59:36] Good for you. That's impressive.

[00:59:38] I just happened to have it right here.

[00:59:40] Oh, wow. Anyway. So yeah, if you make it like we are going to be there Friday all day, and Saturday also. So text us and we'll, we'll meet up somewhere if we don't run into each other otherwise.

[00:59:51] Yeah. Jim, thanks for, thanks for agreeing to be on the show. it's been, it's been actually really a lot of fun.

[00:59:57] Yeah. I like getting this.

[00:59:58] It really did. It doesn't seem like it was been an hour.

[01:00:02] Yeah. It's crazy.

[01:00:03] Again, thanks, Jim. We appreciate it. and then, yeah, if you see us in Toledo, make sure you come over and say hi.

[01:00:10] All right. All right. We'll do. Take care of fellas. All right. You betcha. Until next time, I'm Ron. And I'm Tom. You can say it, Jim.

[01:00:18] Oh yeah. I'm Jim. Hey. All right. Thanks for listening.

[01:00:22] All right. Bye-bye. Good night.

[01:00:23] We hope you enjoyed this episode of the RC Plane Lab podcast. For topic suggestions, to ask questions, or to give any feedback, connect with us at rcplanelab.com or email us direct at either 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.