Ep 97: Bob Ferry

[00:00:09] Hello everyone and welcome to the rc plane lab podcast i'm ron i'm tom today we're sitting down with a friend of ours bob ferry tommy you and i have both known bob for a few years now and he has gotten really big into this hobby yeah even though he's a fairly a newcomer

[00:00:27] To it i guess compared i mean he's been in 10 years at least now right since you were at hobby over on yeah it's been at least 10 years ago so that long well i'm sorry i'm wrong about

[00:00:38] That bob tell us a little bit about yourself then we'll kind of get into how you how you started

[00:00:41] Yeah i'm a general contractor and i've been wanting to fly for i went to the hobby shop gonna buy my grandson a train and i seen the airplane hanging up there and i was like man that that's what i want to do and i had one of the guys that that flies he come in he's like well if you don't buy it i'm gonna and that's where it started that's how it started so general

[00:01:03] Contractor here here in the central illinois where we live wife kids yeah wife three kids yeah yeah any of the kids enjoying the hobby no they got their own thing going on got a

[00:01:16] Grandson that was in it for a while though yeah that that was yeah i got a grandson and that was something i was able to do quite a bit cool and until he got a girlfriend sweet well bob thanks for

[00:01:26] Thanks for joining us welcome to the show until he got a girlfriend by the way it happens it happens he'll come back when he gets bored with it he will hopefully a few years when he gets bored with girls if he gets bored but there's more time maybe he'll get married and then he'll never be in the hobby and then maybe he'll come back to the hobby or he'll get married

[00:01:45] And regret it and come back to nothing anyway right excuse me you doing okay i'm great all right so i guess how long ago did you get in because i i guess i'm off on my time frame i thought you were like a few years after i did like what year do you have any idea when you started it was

[00:02:06] It was about 2000 if i'm guessing correctly it would have been 2000 late 2012 because it was fall right when you came in looking for trains yeah and so it was either late 2012 or early 13. it could have been like spring i it's been such a long time ago i don't remember exactly well so that okay so you're

[00:02:24] Like six months behind me is all then yeah because i started father's day in 2012 right yeah okay well

[00:02:31] Yeah yeah bob there we go bob was a was a very loyal customer of ours at the at the shop there when we were doing that and yeah yeah he's there's been no no slowing him down since yeah so he okay when we

[00:02:48] Talked to reggie last time we kind of talked about that being all-encompassing of of his life this hobby bob takes that to another level so well but here's the thing so i'm gonna come to bob's

[00:03:00] Defense here no there it's a good thing some people out there may may think differently but bob flies like when the weather's good bob is flying and he he takes every opportunity and i wish

[00:03:15] I had the time to do that i was not saying it in a negative way when i first started flying i would get up every morning 5 30 i would be out the field before i went to work but no one was there and i'd practice every day until i got good enough to be out there with everybody well see you're

[00:03:29] Probably better at flying than i am honestly because i've gotten so rusty i don't i don't do much

[00:03:36] Especially compared to bob well i don't know i i think i think a lot of it is just being calm and focused and don't get when something doesn't look right don't get excited just stay calm and usually it works out for the better yeah and oh you mean if something's wrong you don't fly

[00:03:51] As opposed to trying to fly i think that's what he's trying to say wow if only somebody else would

[00:03:56] Take that and let me tell you bob is religious about that too if it's not right bob will not fly it and i commend him for that because yeah so many of us oh it'll probably be okay and some of us more than others it's good enough we know who i'm talking about reggie okay it's okay he's not

[00:04:14] Here to defend himself we can say whatever we want to about i'm kidding i'm sorry reggie so okay so about the same time as i i have been in the hobby i guess minus six months you your purchases per day of airplanes has completely well i mean outpaced mine by many purchases per day well it must take that long to get to one but anyway so what everybody wants to know is bob what's your

[00:04:44] Number well i i tried to count them i i believe that i'm at 107. that's 107. awesome so when you go to

[00:04:55] Bob's house you i mean you can't help but to be overwhelmed and just in pure awe and joy of what you

[00:05:04] Are saying not the whole house okay his storage okay is that what you're trying to yeah like i've i've been to bob's house quite a few times and it's not like like you can admit like you would imagine like it's not just airplanes when you walk in but he does a very good job of keeping them contained in their rooms where they where they stay like if if he keeps the doors closed to those rooms you wouldn't

[00:05:26] Even know he was in the hobby honestly yeah it's not seven yeah it's awesome it's it's an addiction it's it's like you i've got to have that one i want this one it's they all when you see

[00:05:37] One differently yeah when you see one you like you you just like it you can't sometimes you can't

[00:05:42] Quantify it you can't say what it is about it but there's just something it's like i want it and

[00:05:46] I like it and i shall own it yeah well let's put it like this i i tried to sell some but it doesn't work for me i i brought your heart when i took three of them to a swap meet and i came back with five so did you come back with the three that you went there with plus two oh yeah yeah

[00:06:05] No i assumed he got rid of three and then i totally get that i was watching i was looking at facebook the other day and i think you might have pointed me in the direction but it was a it was a picture from the decatur swap meet many years ago and i had that was it a katana or whatever that was the one the one you crashed yeah and i did the same thing i took it to the swap meet and brought it right back home and then eventually ron ended up with it but crashed it i i know the i know the feeling i you get attached to them and some of them are easier to

[00:06:36] Let go than than others and some of them you're forced to let go well sometimes it happens it does

[00:06:42] Occasionally of those 107 airplanes how many of them are ready to go fly oh man i would say probably at

[00:06:51] Least 90 95 that is awesome like and and bob you're you're kind of the type to where you don't you don't like having projects laying around you like to have your stuff ready to go and yes and

[00:07:06] Kind of like me you like to for it to look a certain way and i yeah i've built racks in these rooms for these planes and i had one of the guys at the field was like well do you cover them up before you go to bed ah i was like they're your babies yeah he does he doesn't do that by the way i know i

[00:07:27] Can i can you don't you don't tuck everyone in he doesn't tuck them in at night but he takes very good care of them and he likes to for them to look a certain yes likes for them to look nice he doesn't like projects having laying around so yeah i totally get that 90 ready to go at any given time i mean out of 107 that's a pretty high percentage that's it's math like yeah 90 some percent almost

[00:07:52] I guess a little under anyway so bob was kind enough to give us a list of his he did airplanes

[00:07:59] And i will do my best to not miss any of the 107 that are on here but and bob bob told me that some of these like there may not be 107 names on there because he has duplicates of some of them he has which to me which to me makes sense because we've talked about we we hit this subject over and over the the manufacturers will make something and and then they'll stop making it and if it happens to be something that you really liked why not if you can if you have the means buy multiples of

[00:08:30] That in case something terrible happens down the road you've got a backup so i totally get it and so i'm gonna start so first we have his 30 cc s bach nice airplane we've got the aero works extra 30 50 cc yeah and that's another thing yeah i was i was yeah a lot of bob's airplanes are but are big yeah they're not like awesome 40 size trainers or anything he does not have a lot of electric foamies which i love by the way he's a he's a big balsa guy yeah and most of his stuff

[00:09:01] I would say probably i don't know conservatively 70 of your stuff either has a gas or a nitro motor yeah which i love that also ron so i'm fine with a gas 50 cc dle 55 cc dle sitting on an extra a card an extra 300 he also has an extra 300 l with 100 cc on her which that is a i love that airplane that's the black red and silver one right yeah you would like that one ron absolutely but i would those are my colors all right moving on we got the 50 cc card yak the purple yellow and white one

[00:09:34] Like mine well that's i was gonna say hold on what yeah we've got quite a few i'm not gonna go through all of them quite a few p-51s yes he likes the p-51s the seagull sea fury which he told me needs a new home so if anybody out there is looking for a sea fury that's one that bob probably wouldn't mind letting go we got the oh this is one of my favorite of all of your planes that big the big pits challenger oh yeah the big one with the 150 on it i cannot wait to see that

[00:10:05] Thing in the air what motor is that is that a da da 150 on it yeah that's a great moment and that's

[00:10:11] The one we ran right we ran it at the club event that one day you and i were on yeah it took three

[00:10:16] Of us to hold it back to us so then you've got an 80 cc version of that kind of that same airplane and that's a 3w in it yep 3w80 and the the big 150 cc12 is is covered in that aura cover

[00:10:29] Or oratex or attacks and that is gorgeous it's beautiful they were they were scratched built by

[00:10:34] The same guy really yes no kidding yes so we had a that's right yeah you did tell me a full well full size a big one and then like a model the same one then like is it did they match yes yeah

[00:10:45] That means pretty much the same pretty close quality oh yeah the same build yeah same covering

[00:10:50] Really yes i don't think i realized that that's kind of cool yeah and that one's got the his

[00:10:55] Smaller one's got the 3w 80 on it which is a really good running engine too let's see we've got two 50 cc pits with da's on them and then some recent acquisitions you've got the i think those are great plains pits right yes yeah yeah so nice he's got the monster pits which is actually the goldberg the old goldberg i think it was an r for the blue and yellow one no i'm sorry

[00:11:20] Hold on that's good does this hurt at all because you have one of the pits for so long and i have heard like just back to back to back to back to back five of them right and there's more coming oh sorry five pits so far is that no it doesn't hurt i'm glad how does that make how does that make you feel

[00:11:36] I'm glad he has them okay i'm not i'm not like jealous well maybe a little that's a lot so yeah the goldberg monster pits that's got a 35 ra in it and i'm here to tell you that thing is a rocket it's a super stearman also with a 35 ra in it we got a 40 40 size seaplane oh yeah the linear not on the linear that's an ace sea master i think right it's a yellow one yep that's a good airplane all right and then we've got the oh yeah we've got the the cap 580 we call it the splat

[00:12:09] Splat plane but it's the big one it's the third scale one from great planes that's got 100 cc da

[00:12:15] On it also a fantastic flying airplane i've flown that one and that one flies awesome seagull ultimate

[00:12:22] With the dle 20 yep we got the seagull spitfire with the 20 is that a dle probably 20 cc yep and then okay so we've got the the profile foamy one of the rare foamies in his collection this is i think it's called the flame epp or something like that it's a little 3d foamy airplane he has a precision aerobatics addiction that's a pretty good flying that's a balsa one so credit for that he's got four of these i think they're called taft jets or taft avionics or taft something

[00:12:55] It's a foam 90 millimeter ducted fan t tail with retractable gear he's got four of them four they actually look like they'll fly pretty good i know i've repaired one of them but i we haven't seen one fly yet but we'll change that this summer maybe mini ultra stick dave patrick ultimate that's a beautiful airplane i was with you when you bought that one two world models 40 size ultimates that's one of them you just recently repaired yes and those look really really nice

[00:13:26] Soup now i'm just i'm just listening i'm like gosh now you said the repair i i i bought it like

[00:13:33] That and i repaired yeah yeah i don't want anyone to misunderstand it was repaired because he acquired it in a un-repaired state exactly yeah but he did it he showed us the repair here before i show it looks like new yeah it sure does super stearman super stearman oh that's the big super steering yeah that's got the that hasn't been flown yet right yep yep yep all right we got a p40 here with the dle 55 which one's that is that the warhawk right but is that the hanger nine one yeah yep the

[00:14:07] P40 those are rare actually p47 thunderbolt with a 35 on it by the way the warhawk i have two of them tom of course of course you do one one not in the box and one okay and then dave patrick ultimate i think we i think that one was on here twice it's probably a different one no i think you've only got one yes okay so and that's a pretty airplane too got that one in really good shape two qq extras that's the the foamies right yeah okay then you have a mamba the electric one

[00:14:42] Right because don't they that's the i was gonna say that's the one that he takes off in the span

[00:14:47] Of how long the plane is the green and white one is that the green and white one okay yeah yeah that thing is takes off from the tables yeah it's it's got a little power rate ratio is pretty amazing but that's stock actually isn't it yes they come with that motor yeah so but they they do a big like a 120 cc version of that airplane too don't they i'm surprised one of those isn't on the list yeah yeah yeah he hasn't come across it yet here's another pit it's a umx one umx p51 brushless mustang we've got a micro edf f86 that's probably the umx too park zone p51 the grasshopper which

[00:15:25] Likes that one yep we have a profile s-bock that's got an os-120 on it we got to figure that

[00:15:31] One out the butterfly the 10 or 15 glow that's the glider that's the one you started with yeah that's that's the first glow that tommy helped me get straightened out that you still have your first

[00:15:41] Plane yes that's awesome isn't that awesome i cannot say that i can't either i don't have my

[00:15:46] First two i yeah i don't have my first i don't know how many but the fact that you still have

[00:15:52] That airplane actually kind of hits me right yeah that was my first glow i still have my first electric as well the the corsair that i bought from that's right that's right i thought you started with

[00:16:04] The with the cub like he did but no it was that corsair the corsair and you still have that one

[00:16:09] Yes i do and also another guy that that was a member of the club bob brad bradford his grandson i worked with him and when bob passed he had a couple planes the addiction which is on there and the t-28 i still have those as well those are my first electrics awesome that's like

[00:16:30] I'm impressed with your memory of remembering where these came from and all that stuff because

[00:16:35] That i have well it's easy to remember when you still have them yeah wow that look you just gave me that's impressively like wow you could give me the same look because i don't have my first one either all right it's a big list moving on so the butterfly okay so we got a sop with pup oh that's the yeah that's a really pretty airplane i can't wait to see that one fly too that's that one yeah e-flight pits s15 s15 e-flight oh pits s1 yeah the e-flight super stearman the e-flight p51

[00:17:10] With the three cell that's the the bigger of the of the e-flight ones i think i also have the the

[00:17:15] Triplane i don't think it's on there okay all right which triplane is that it's the one i i it's is it a is it is it got a gas on it yes yeah okay so that's a balsa usa yeah it's a big

[00:17:29] One it's a pretty good size it is a big one but balsa usa makes a huge one too so i think but

[00:17:36] Yeah nice would that be like quarter scale or something or it's probably 25 percent or maybe

[00:17:42] May not be a quite a 30 percent but it's not small yeah okay so we got two pulse xts 25es one of those new in the box probably yes yep convergence fpv oh that's one of those ones you fly with goggles yeah p47 another electric p47 there's the t28 edge 540 with the sato 100 that's a good flying airplane too revolver with a 91 yeah oh i bet that thing moves it is very fast twist with a 100 on it yep i had one of those briefly brian up at the shop has it now stinson

[00:18:20] Reliant we have a another c plane which c plane is it not the c plane i i might have stuck that on

[00:18:27] There i you might have already mentioned that i had a oh quite you're right yep this is the first issue of the c plane the other one was an escapade 40 size escapade okay okay there we go with a 40 size nitro motor on it ron two ultimates with the os four strokes on them and the world model yeah okay yep a profile 10

[00:18:51] Three-foot wing that's the little bitty plane that real small that yellow one yes i remember that one

[00:18:56] We did something on that one it's a handful oh you've blown it yes yes sweet yeah e-flight optera we were talking about that before the show seagull ultimate in the box nice yeah two extra 300 cardons in the box that's the green and white one right yeah those are really good flying airplanes too the hanger 9 35 cc sized beaver hanger 9 valiant which that one moves out pretty good too as i recall and then you've got a six something extra we're getting there i promise folks we're almost there six something extra we have the guiles monster energy which actually i built that from a

[00:19:30] Midwest gals 202 kit way back in the day originally i built that with a sato 180 and you took the 180 off oh no jason previous owner yeah and then you put a 20 cc on it and made it much better flyer here's another mamba another guiles with the 210 mochi on it yep the orange glow with an os 46

[00:19:49] It's yeah it's it's just a it's a low wing one that i picked up i don't even know who it's just

[00:19:56] One that i picked up for one of the guys i think i know it looks kind of like a goldberg tiger for anybody who's familiar with that it's a low wing sport plane good flying airplane and then a high wing 25 glow trainer type airplane buker jungmeister with a 20 cc on it oh that's the white and red one that we put together for he's got two of those okay sweet one in the box right on all right and then we got a small cap with the os 46 that's the other smaller version of the splat plane yes and then we've got a micro p51 another one cessna 182 the t28 that's this is this the bigger

[00:20:36] T28 you have more than one of the two i i i sold one i sold yeah okay all right and then you've got the sig extra i can't i can never pronounce that sigstra sigstra that's it yes and then we've got an extra 260 with the 180 on it carden yak with the dle 55 that's the one kind of like the one ron has i think we've got that one on there twice unless there's another card jack in there oh there is that's why you do have two of them he does have two of them that's right one with the dle and one

[00:21:09] With the da all right all right the hobby king fidget which i had to ask you about that because i wasn't quite familiar with that but that's just a little small electric foamy yep sport plane hangar 9 p51 with the 46 so that's the the one with the big q on the tail the tail maybe well i've got two of

[00:21:27] The big ones and i've got one's got the 120 golden knight on it mm-hmm and one's got a os 46 on it

[00:21:38] Cool v900 that's the pylon racer thing right yeah so a little bit of everything here small t28 corsair there's your original corsair yes su 29 and then yep and that pretty much rounds out

[00:21:54] The list now on the t28s i i had two of them on there that's because i have one with the fpv camera on it and you could put the goggles on it and get right into the cockpit of it when you fly it so you

[00:22:06] Do fpv then yeah what i've tried that and ron and i've talked about it makes me sick to my stomach i can't do it there's no way i can do it either and that's unfortunate because i think it would be fun it's really cool yeah yeah what so is it what's it feel like to actually feel like you're

[00:22:21] In the cockpit when you're flying it's best to be sitting down when you're doing it the first time i did and have a spotter watch watch you because the first time i did it i put a locator and by the ama you have to have a spotter yeah that's true but we took off out at the field my grandson's sitting there it's just him and i out there and i got the goggles on and i fly down i turn i fly back and and the plane starts to roll and i got the glasses on i really kind of freaked me out and then my grandson was like grandpa i don't see it no more and i'm thinking oh no oh no and i wound

[00:22:52] Up flying behind myself and then i just let down on the throttle but we took the locator finder and i had to walk about three quarters of a mile to find it oh my god we found it it was broke we took some ca and kicker and put it back together and it still goes you'll have to come out to the field and put

[00:23:11] Those on and i let somebody fly if somebody else flies i can probably do it if i open my eyes for about two seconds at a time then close them again i mean it's pretty cool you can see yourself down on

[00:23:22] The ground working the sticks yeah well we've so ron and i we've we've flown with our with our gopros on the camera or on the airplanes and that's that's not like fpv obviously but no it's nothing like it but like with with those cameras we can see ourselves after the fact but like wearing the goggles i like you've let me try to fly one of your planes with the goggles and it just i don't know it makes me sick to my stomach the vertigo or whatever it is yeah but yeah it's the same with me even

[00:23:50] Like with the oh what the heck is it called drones no even with the with the vr like the vr headsets and stuff i can't do that for more than five or ten minutes and that's only if it's something not moving when it's when it starts moving in the game and stuff i'm game over oh there you go i like

[00:24:10] That it's almost instantaneous now see when i when i got into it the tommy at when you work for a hammer i bought my first little drone you flew it out the door out into the out of the place and you flew it around and flew it back in and that's what made me want to get one and my grandson and i i was like well okay i something we did a lot together because we went to the hobby shop and we did these drone races and and kind of got used to it and then we we'd be in the house with these little drones flying it'd be one room i'd be in the other and we'd be flying through the house

[00:24:43] That's cool it's pretty cool so what like what size would that have been it's just the tiny it's that tiny whoop yeah i don't remember what yeah but yeah i would rather not like everybody know that

[00:24:54] By the way what well i i for as much as i talk down about drones yeah i used to i used to fly them

[00:25:00] Occasionally well i mean i have what four of them do i mean it's it's not like they're it's not like they're the devil they're okay but they're just not what we prefer i think he was just selling it

[00:25:11] He sold it it worked it did 107 airplanes later yeah that worked see yeah it kept him going for

[00:25:21] Quite a while okay so you have all these airplanes and you have them like everywhere in in your house and stuff which once again but not everywhere like i said before he oh my gosh when i say everywhere i mean when you look in the room when you look in the airplane room it is airplanes yes as i was saying how do you decide which ones you want to fly when you fly that's hard that's really

[00:25:47] Hard it's it takes a while it takes a while to figure out some of the bigger ones depends on i i have the big one i have and it takes somebody else to help me get it outside yeah and it's usually the biplanes are nice if the wings are attached it's not a lot to do i've got the 40 size which is really nice because the wings are on yeah it's a good size i can haul them right out to the put them in and gas them up and go yep see

[00:26:14] I i hear your list and you have a lot of biplanes that is my problem with biplanes is it's twice the wing that you have to deal with store and move yeah not to keep them in one piece yeah some of the wings

[00:26:25] Actually are pretty easy that the the pitch challenger i have the that is really simple a lot of people's like oh biplanes it takes a long time to put them together and the way the guy that built this i mean it it's pretty quick they go together really well yeah yeah yeah if i remember he he

[00:26:42] Built a almost like a like a jig almost that holds the end of the wings exactly where they need to be so they just slide right onto the fuselage and you install a couple bolts and you're off to the other side it's it's really quick actually well i mean like even the the super sky bolt you have

[00:26:59] That was mine that wasn't too bad because the bottom wing goes on with two wing bolts like a normal airplane right and then the top wing has two screws that hold it on to the the center center cabane cabane i didn't know that's what it's called but anyway and then the the struts that go up and down are thumb screws so that's easy to do but that's still like i don't know if i had a ton of those airplanes i would expect to lose the struts the i mean just it's just i could see that

[00:27:27] And by the by the way my just about every one of my planes have wing bags yeah because i'm really well i guess i wouldn't lose them if i had wing bags right right and but that's true when we put the pits together there at the warehouse tommy that was really simple i mean you would think eclipse the way that it was built yeah that went together really yeah it's very simple yeah like

[00:27:48] The manufacturers they do they do the best they can to make it so that you want to fly the airplanes yeah more of their airplanes right so they yeah they i don't think they're these days i don't think they're they're any more or less work than a regular old space walker i'll tell you what you

[00:28:04] Do you buy you buy it wrong i almost did you buy a big trailer you put the wings on at home put the

[00:28:10] Plane in the trailer and you're good to go that's the other thing so bob since he started in this has bought a huge trailer what's what's the size on that one it's a 20 foot 20 foot i think maybe 22 i'm not

[00:28:20] Sure it's probably at least 22 with the v nose yeah it's an enclosed it's a nice trailer it's

[00:28:25] Enough to fit a lot of airplanes it could probably fit about half of bob's collection in

[00:28:30] It at any given time maybe no i i got i've got the racks in there set to adjust the wheel size so

[00:28:38] That way yeah you can wow that's like he puts us to shame like i mean for sure we sit here and we don't have anything to say because bob just has outdone everything he's got the trailer he's got the airplanes he's got everything he's got it he's got warehouses for it yeah it's not just in your

[00:28:58] House i hope my wife don't hear this it's okay bob we say that often we do actually and my wife doesn't listen anymore so we're good yeah lori listens once in a while well i'm not sure if she catches every episode that's okay bob you mentioned what what got you into the hobby you're welcome do you do you remember like obviously you remember like it was yesterday because you're you have a really really great memory i vaguely remember flying that drone

[00:29:31] Periodically and it's funny because that was indeed the idea of flying one of those around the shop for customers was to get them to buy them right if i had known what what where where it would have gone before the next decade yeah i probably would have tried to sell you something maybe a little nicer what does that mean well but i mean like if i had known that that airplanes were going to be his primary thing that that really gets him going i would have tried to sell you an airplane like like the cub that you started with ron yeah

[00:30:05] That was a good airplane to start with what i'm saying like that's what i would have tried but but like i remember vaguely that like you said you were looking kind of for trains and i don't think it was well it may have been that visit but it seemed like you were really kind of not sure what you wanted you just wanted something to play with with the grandson i think at the time yeah yeah so yeah but had i known i would have started you off with a cub for sure or or something similar so it's just it's just funny to me how we remember things like i remember things differently than you

[00:30:39] Do ron and then oh yeah and then i remember like like it was yesterday us tuning that butterfly right there on the steps at the at the shop oh yep and i thought like i would have thought that was your first airplane but that wasn't no it was that corsair and i've completely

[00:30:56] Forgotten about that see where i learned how to fly i i wound up buying from that shop i bought the phoenix flight simulator yeah and the controller and i went home and practiced and practiced on the computer yeah and then with those phone planes i had i went out to fly them and i couldn't wait and once i got it in the air i couldn't wait to get it on the ground like the guys are going oh don't land it don't land it fly it and i said i don't want to see if i can land

[00:31:22] It yeah and yep yeah for me it's still more fun i think to just take off and land than it is to fly around yeah because landings can be beautiful if done right right and they're very

[00:31:34] It just makes you feel good about yourself and that's like one of the things i like to do the most is just take off and land touching goes it's one of my favorite things to do with the

[00:31:45] Planes all planes are different though i mean some of them will float in some of them you got

[00:31:50] To fly man that's right yeah and you've learned that over the years yes you've developed a pretty good technique you fly them all the way down to the runway yeah which is a great technique instead of chopping the throttle and letting them float down and get about five or six landings on the yeah exactly yeah ounces yeah so i i mentioned that if i could go back in time i would i've started you off on a a different path so to speak if you knew like if you could go back 10 years when you first got in knowing everything about the hobby that now would you have done

[00:32:24] Anything differently no i don't think so yeah i i mean i love it i yeah i really enjoy flying and and yeah a lot of people are like man isn't that expensive not really not once you learn how to fly

[00:32:37] Yeah it doesn't have to be 107 airplanes though that well but i mean like you don't have to go out

[00:32:43] And buy 100 airplanes that's true yeah you can enjoy the hobby yes with much for much less than

[00:32:50] That you have one airplane and a couple batteries or nitro fuel whatever yeah you can you can very easily do it but speaking of bad do how many batteries you have no but but i can't imagine

[00:33:04] Yeah tom knows a lot about the battery honestly though bob doesn't have like a lot of electric airplanes i mean he's got a few but i know but i've seen large yeah his his collection is gas or nitro

[00:33:15] But i've still seen like the ammo cans of batteries he brings to the field when he comes out for a day and that puts me to shame when he just brings like one airplane that's electric to fly and then the

[00:33:25] Rest are nitro or gas well he likes to fly so he flies a lot flies a lot more than i do well both of us put together probably and he's got more planes than both of us together oh yeah so if you had known bob that you were gonna have well let me ask let me ask that in a different way did you think that when you started in the hobby you would end up at a point where you'd have this many airplanes no no yeah that seems to be the the overwhelming response from anybody we ask that question to

[00:33:55] Well i i had a little help with that because in my job in the winter time i pushed snow and stuff and i became friends with paul at the hobby shop and i would i would take in-store credit for clearing the lot oh that's brilliant yeah and then i would that way and then they had the ebay part and a friend of mine worked in the ebay and he's like hey bob got some planes here you gotta come and check them out and oh that's brilliant yeah it's all about how

[00:34:21] Exactly yeah yeah well and a follow-up to that question though that we never we never extrapolated out so where we were 10 years ago to now where do we think we'll be in 10 years

[00:34:34] From now oh man yeah what do you think about i have no room to put in any i mean 214 no that's scary

[00:34:43] I mean that doesn't that sort of logically follow i mean 107 at 10 years should be 214 at 20 years that's a lot of them it is a lot of them so bob without without divulging too much

[00:34:57] Information where do you store all these airplanes a lot of them at home yeah i like to keep them in the controlled environment where you control the temperature so it doesn't mess with the ball so it doesn't mess with the covering or i like it to look nice when i get it to the field and i i see those planes that no one takes out there and i was like i want that one and

[00:35:19] And just just just trying to take care of them i i know you get that many planes you get hanging rash and now that that hurts yeah just moving around them where you've dense something or you yes tom you fixed we've all done it yeah i mean yeah we have put a you

[00:35:34] Know put a propeller tip through a piece of covering in the wing yeah yeah i mean we've all we've all

[00:35:39] Done that and that turtle deck yeah yeah or had someone crush a turtle deck for you now see that's what got me to get the trailer because i was holding i had the 50 cc in the back of my truck i had my flight box back there and i had i went to turn my flight box fell over and poked a hole in my plane that's like oh no i can't have that no i got to do something different yep so a 20 foot trailer

[00:36:03] Comes to mind i mean that's that's awesome that's that's maybe when you have big airplanes

[00:36:10] Like requires it requires a big trailer yeah i mean so you obviously you you fly with the club we talked about the same club that we fly at yeah which is nice but you also fly other locations mostly the foamies and just and you fly with reggie yeah which is always entertaining to us because you always well i shouldn't say too much because reggie might be listening but occasionally we get gouge or we get information on stuff before reggie is willing to

[00:36:42] Divulge it to us which i appreciate i do too i don't know how to word that more nicely but

[00:36:49] There's been a few things you're right reggie has not told us that we have found out about from

[00:36:54] Other sources yeah and we appreciate that but so what's it like so obviously we don't get to fly with reggie as often as you do what is what is a typical day of flying with reggie out at the church

[00:37:07] What is that like hey bob you only brought one plane yeah so reggie takes 18 airplanes with him every time he flies yeah he sets up might be exaggerating a little bit yeah he sets up and kind of looks like capitol airport around his truck yeah

[00:37:24] Well he means business like when he goes to fly he wants to fly everything he has which by the way so i set a goal for myself for this summer i want to fly every airplane i have that's ready to fly or that can be flown at least once and ron i think was kind of waffling on that he thought maybe reggie said he would he he was going to try that as well and we know what reggie's number is we had him on the show with a number like yours do you think that would be a something that you'd be able

[00:37:57] To do in the summertime no no i would like to i would i thought about that when i heard you say that i would like to be able to fly the ones i haven't flown yet and i've flown most of them yeah no i think i think that's a reasonable but then then as well as i do there's the ones that you really like and you like how they fly and it's like it's like well that was that's gonna go we're gonna take maybe one of these other ones that i haven't flown and yeah we had the breakfast last year and that 80 80 cc i got out there early out of the field and i put everything

[00:38:30] Together and something didn't seem right and one of the guys about the challenger yes the smaller one yep yeah the 80 cc and one of the guys was like go ahead and fly and i was like i just don't feel good about it so keeping that mind if you don't feel comfortable don't do it don't let other people talk you into doing it yeah because that's when usually something happens well he left and went down to the breakfast and i went through it and i figured out what was wrong and i flew it just with me and my grandson there and it was beautiful they all watched from the breakfast place and it was

[00:38:58] Awesome yeah yeah i mean how many times have i mean let's be honest how many times have we pushed reggie hey reggie you should i really i mean good friends yeah we probably shouldn't do that but he we rip each other he caves i mean he sometimes he he takes that chance and yeah shame on us for provoking him but at the same time if you're not comfortable flying it don't fly it all right

[00:39:25] Figure figure out what's going on first we was out the field one day and it was pretty windy and i had the valiant out there and he had one of his planes and he's like hey hey let's let's fly are you going to take that up and i was like well i don't know man it's pretty windy so i got it out on the runway and the wind was blowing the back end around and i the rudder i couldn't i was like nope not flying it and i've seen a lot of stuff happen to where guys mess up planes because you got guys in the background going hey go ahead take it up take it up and

[00:39:56] Yep yep and you and you got to do a flight check on everything you got to check if your ailerons are hooked up if you're going the right way or yeah ron ron and i preach that all the time yes that's pre-flight pre-flight pre-flight yeah and and check your battery check the load on your battery checking your battery may not be enough you put a load on it and that's right absolutely if they zero

[00:40:15] Out pretty quick then it's not yep it's not a good thing to fly it's not worth flying with if the

[00:40:20] Battery is not not right yeah for sure so the next question do you fly with a do you have a certain group of people that you like to fly with for you it's it's mostly whoever happens to be at the field when you're flying because you fly a lot yeah which so i mean do you have a certain group of people that you prefer to fly with or yeah and you don't have to like these guys right here with me but yeah no honestly fun yeah but

[00:40:49] We don't make it out as often as we should right but when you're out there with all these guys the

[00:40:53] Best thing to do is stand back and watch them and you'll see who you want to fly with like i know and i want to pull my airplane back because this guy's got he's a little shaky on his landings and right sure and i think i think when you fly with someone that you're

[00:41:09] Familiar flying with then there's a certain amount of trust and that sort of puts everybody at ease so you can be working on your plane in the pit and not have to worry about watching the skies to make sure yeah what i'm saying something's not coming your way so yeah i think that's getting getting a group of friends that you're comfortable flying with i think promotes more flying oh i agree that makes sense what i'm saying yeah i think the best thing to do is

[00:41:35] Is kind of watch and see who you want to fly with no you don't i mean it's there's some when i the butterfly for example when i first went out there when i first started flying one of the guys had one just like it and i watched him fly i was like wow this guy can help me trim this and he's like i was like hey you want can you fly this he's like oh yeah yeah i can fly that and i i said would you fly it and he said you sure and i said yeah so he takes off and flies right into the pole out there oh my god he's like man it's not even a kit no more

[00:42:09] But no he just he destroyed the wings and tell me you help me get another set of wings on it yeah

[00:42:14] Yeah bob's always good about having other people fly his airplanes like he will offer it

[00:42:20] Oh he's very generous yeah yeah for sure and you are too though i mean to me anyway it depends on

[00:42:26] The person yeah absolutely yeah but i yeah i don't know it's weird i always offer there must be

[00:42:32] Something wrong with my airplanes why because i offer my airplanes to you guys to fly all the time and nobody ever flies them well of course not why i don't fly other people's airplanes

[00:42:44] Yeah i i i tell you what my my grandson him and i we flew it was the whole idea of getting into it and he had one of the guys out there gave him a plane well i he's like grandpa grandpa let's fly this get it in the air and and i i was like okay okay so i trying to get my stuff and do his stuff for him and and i didn't do a flight check not like i should have yeah so put the battery in there and it was somebody launched it and the elevator is backwards so when i took off i slammed it into the ground he's standing there crying he's like

[00:43:17] What'd you do that for and i was like that was the last time i flew anybody's plane oh no don't

[00:43:22] Want to fly your plane i gotcha yeah i even even if you see like let's take for example my yellow stick which you flew before you gave it to me and then i've flown it for a couple of years three or four years now fly is awesome but you still won't fly it even when i offer it to you that's your plane but you offer your planes all the time to me so why is that why is that different i

[00:43:43] Don't understand it's an unfair double standard that i completely understand yeah yeah so like i

[00:43:48] Get if you're comfortable like i want someone else to to experience how great this airplane flies it's not about yeah there's been times when anybody or anything like that it's just man i'm having such a good time flying this bob check this out and check how much fun this is but you won't

[00:44:03] Fly just like this flat plane tommy is like you took it up he goes oh man this flies great it's like here you want to fly it i was like no go ahead you're good i'm filming and i got i got heckled about that from reggie oh of course yeah and that is a good flying airplane and that's your plane

[00:44:18] Even yeah yeah not mine at all like i don't even think i had any skin in the gap like i don't did i even work on it up to that point i don't think i did i think you just showed up and yeah

[00:44:27] You helped me with you helped me with the receiver and lining everything out anyway but i i've taken it a few times by myself yeah you've flown it now yeah and it is a great flying airplane hopefully

[00:44:38] Someday i end up with that airplane i'm just saying all right so let's move on to something else do you have do you have a favorite crash story that you like to tell well like we all have our favorite whatever the scenario is do you have a favorite story well i'm a crash story of

[00:44:58] Your own not of watching ready yeah yeah we all well we have one of those two but yeah it goes back

[00:45:04] When i first started okay now it was a a 50 cc plane and it was like i said i was going out to the field every morning before i'd go to work and i would swing by and pick one of my employees and he'd go i didn't check i checked the battery but i didn't put a load on the battery okay and it was i think it was a lipo battery maybe okay and i got the plane started and and where our pits are there and the tree line is at the west end of the field yep i started it up and

[00:45:40] Checked everything looked good and i took off and it was so nice and then it's like oh i haven't got anything what's going on and it just went and went and went and i had to get my truck and drive to the other end of the field it was something that on the other side of the tree line yeah oh my gosh

[00:45:54] That's a that's a three-quarter mile yeah yeah more yeah half to three quarters maybe yeah that's a good one good way always yeah so the battery the battery yeah yeah which ironically enough a half to three-quarters of a mile away is how far reggie flies his 40 size planes and that was that was like

[00:46:11] That was like one of the ones that really really kind of hurt my feelings i'm sure i didn't i didn't share that with nobody i was like yeah but then i had out the field it probably was last year a couple years ago i got another guy that i fly with and he called me up said hey you want to go flying i was like well it's pretty windy out and he goes oh come on you chicken and i was like no i'll meet you out there so we went out there and there we go and i had the corn the corn was up so on the corn really there's a lot of turbulence over the top of the corner and i thought i had plenty of ground speed and i was moving

[00:46:42] Along and i got it right at the corn it slammed it down the ground he's like i don't think i would you tell me before yeah yeah no good aren't you the one that told me to come out here and fly and then he flew one time was like oh i'm done i'm not flying anymore but yeah that's that's the

[00:46:58] Problem with the corn out there is when it gets high you get you really getting a feeling of oh there's not a lot of wind here even though a little higher yeah and feet in the air there is yeah and it's just i don't know false sense of security thinking you're okay yeah you're really not yeah it

[00:47:13] Rolls across the top of the corn yeah and just like yeah bob's saying even like so yeah you're protected in between the the stands of corn and like you said you get above the corn but then there's that like transition zone where the where the wind is coming over the top of the corn and then it dives down and creates these weird eddy corners right across the runway that you just can't see them and yeah if it's a windy day and the corn is up i unless the wind is right out of the west or east yes right down the runway then you're usually pretty okay but if there's any kind of a

[00:47:46] Crosswind or crosswind well i remember the time i i don't remember bob you've been out there with us too when we had the the little cyclone thing that just came out of nowhere yes i was yeah yeah you could just watch it come across the corn and then you could see exactly where it went across because it was picking up some leaves and stuff coming across the field and went right behind us and it's

[00:48:04] Like what where did that come from like those weird currents that yeah come across the corn so glad i wasn't flying through that yeah so this next question i know the answer to this one but i'm going to ask it anyway do you like going to swap meets bob yeah oh man like who doesn't right like if you're into rc airplanes and you don't enjoy going to swap meets well you're silly yeah there's something wrong with you that the swap meets are so much fun and not just because you can buy stuff but just to like if you've been in the hobby a while you can kind of reminisce when you see something

[00:48:36] Older or you see something that hasn't been available for a while or if you haven't been in the

[00:48:40] Hobby you can see things that you didn't even know were out there yeah that too like that's

[00:48:45] That's kind of what i like yeah yeah and good practice if you see something there that you like you better get it because you you go by and you think man that looks nice that looks nice and you go by two or three times before it it's gone yeah that's where tommy and i are completely

[00:48:57] Opposite yeah i ron and i differ on that see i'm i'm a weight kind of a guy because let's be honest like i don't have 107 airplanes but i've got enough like three or four like i don't need another airplane right like not really so if i see an airplane i like it's like well i'll let this one if it's still here when i leave then maybe it was meant to be i don't get it i don't like feel that need to get it before see i think that's the difference like bob and i are

[00:49:28] Probably closer in the fact that when we see that we've both been bitten in the long run where if we've waited too long it's gone so you buy it now see but that's what i'm saying like you fall in love at first sight okay i see well and if i mean that is awesome i want it now the dave patrick

[00:49:44] Ultimate i looked at that i was like yeah that's really nice that's really nice but the longer i waited and everybody kept on passing it up and then my buddy was like hey are you going

[00:49:53] To get that that's nice price kept getting lower exactly yeah it got down there yeah i feel like you got a really good like i love that airplane yeah and we ran that one yes at the at the warehouse and man what a good looking airplane that is it's a biplane by the way yeah one of like 25 i don't know bob do you prefer building and tinkering or do you prefer fly like which of the two do you enjoy

[00:50:19] More well i don't mind a little bit of covering but as far as gets getting into a little bit of covering fixing making the clean and nice i'm not i'm a contractor so i want to leave that at work but the building part yeah i can do a little patch or what have you or i just want to take it to the field and i want to look nice yep so you prefer like of the two you would prefer to fly yes and build yeah so any interest in like building a kit or or anything like that no not the patience i mean that's yeah and then with where am i going to

[00:50:54] Do that that's a really that's a really good point yeah that's yeah but but yeah and i i know i know when you build like tom does when you do you you've got stuff is it isn't nothing's gonna happen real quick yeah you're gonna work on something for a while there's only so much you can do and you gotta you gotta wait and wait and wait and that's hard for me

[00:51:17] Yeah i get that i do too yeah that's why i usually work on more than one thing at a time

[00:51:21] Yeah and i've noticed as i've gotten older i've gotten more patient some people it's the opposite they're patient when they're young but then when they get older they become less patient so when i was a noob is that the proper term i guess and the hobby way back when i didn't like to build either like i i couldn't stand sitting there waiting for something because i just wanted to go fly it right yeah but as i've gotten older it's kind of gone the other way i actually prefer to to build rather than fly i mean i'm not saying i don't

[00:51:52] Like flying i'm just saying it's but it's it's weird how that changes over time maybe that'll change

[00:51:57] For you bob yeah well i've seen you do you helped me with some of my stuff and i i kind of i tried to watch closely and just like those wires on that pitch i was i was going to take them to you and heaven i was like i can probably do this you can do that and i did and turned out really nice

[00:52:11] It turned out really nice so see there you go see you're i'll turn you into a builder yet yeah slowly it's okay do you do you prefer balsa planes or foam planes balsa oh that a boy yes

[00:52:23] That almost didn't need to be asked i mean i knew the answer to that too but the batteries too that's that's another whole story because when you got the phone in a balsa plane when you run out of fuel you got enough airspeed you can bring that baby down when you're in a foam plane your battery goes out it's going to come down its own and it won't be the same yeah it depends on

[00:52:44] The on the type of airplane it is you still have a little bit of glide time with some of them but that's why you set a timer yeah and you don't have to worry about that which like i said with battery it's it's cool because how long it's going to last and you don't have to worry about it dying whereas with nitro that dirty old nitro you do well unless unless the cell goes dead unexpectedly and then you have how often does that happen well it happens not often at all but it happens but then it's a spectacular fireball that comes down but then when you got a good tuner at

[00:53:17] The field see you don't have to worry about that but is he a good tuner though i mean

[00:53:22] Because i feel like i've seen a lot of dead six with with tommy flying on his own place yeah but on mine what which one are you talking about the telemaster no that was that's a no no no i understand that was

[00:53:36] One i was trying to think there's what oh maybe that was one of reggie's airplanes you were flying i don't remember i've seen you dead stick one like several times in a row

[00:53:46] Well i did stick that new one of mine that one i got at the swami the little yellow one maybe that's one was that more than once though no i only flew it the once yeah okay because it dead sticked on me so i didn't fly it again i didn't feel like tinkering with it the rest of the day because i was mad at it did you get that fixed yet no no so bob nitro gasoline or electric what's your preference do you have one gasoline you like the gasoline yeah that's great no i like i like the gasoline stuff too it's just unfortunate it's it's down in the 40 size they don't make a gasser

[00:54:17] That's really reliable yeah right easier to run down in that size but as soon as they do yeah yeah

[00:54:23] It'll be gas for me too eventually the bigger planes i like the motor that the actual yeah the low planes are nice i mean but the you can't beat the sound right exactly yeah and you

[00:54:38] Know the gasoline it's less mess obviously so and a lot cheaper well i don't know these days the price

[00:54:44] Of gas still a lot cheaper we don't we don't even know what nitro is right now not right now we don't

[00:54:49] I'm afraid to look honestly but luckily i kind of stocked up on nitro when when it was still reasonable no still 35 a gallon no 32 well no i bought that ys 2020 blend which i can run in all my satos also down at the hobby shop in st louis that time i remember i bought like four gallons oh i wasn't with you on that one i forgot no but how much was that though i want to say it was like 29 i think i paid 29 for it okay so which is it's not great no not for a gallon but anyway that's

[00:55:23] Okay so bob of your airplanes i think i know the answer to this one too but so do you like tricycle type landing gear or like our tail draggers or no gear or no gear tail draggers yes there's just something about a tail dragger it's classic yeah conventional there seems to

[00:55:47] Be a lot cooler airplanes that are tail draggers than there are tricycle or standard gear

[00:55:53] But also the tracks tricycle gear is okay but when you when you're flying that that elevator you got to get good ground speed to take off that tail is going to come up you need to keep it on the ground and then you just know when to take it up yeah yeah and for me the

[00:56:11] Tricycle adds complexity yeah what i mean because now you got to have the steerable nose wheels so you have to have a push rod off your rudder or a separate i mean just it adds extra weight i'd rather just do away with the nose gear and put a tail a tail wheel on it and call it good i don't blame you so yeah most of mine are tail draggers yep bob do you have a favorite airplane yeah

[00:56:35] I've learned that you don't have favorites all of them are my favorites but it's like when you

[00:56:42] Ask about your kids you have a favorite kid really they're all my favorite yes but you don't want to

[00:56:47] Say it to hurt okay so how about this do you have an airplane that that's like your go-to like when you when you only have a few minutes to prepare or or you're going to go fly the next day or whatever and do you have an airplane that you it's just all reliable yeah it was a stick that you built for me which one is that it's the it's a 60 size great planes big stick 60 okay i remember that version yeah yeah which we're gonna we're gonna see if we can find you another one but yeah i i get that because man sticks fly awesome yes i mean they are they do i've still never flown one what you've got

[00:57:23] I'm working on it give me time well you could have if you just fly mine i won't do that offer it to you gosh darn it moving on bob do you got anything you're working on right now no i i i've i've got a

[00:57:40] The os profile on the sbox that keeps on blowing the muffler off and i i haven't figured out why that is we're gonna we're gonna figure that out so that's that's about everything else i think i've got it under control i've the spitfire that we ran and we couldn't get anything out high end i i hope i've got that figured out to where you could help me tune the high end to see

[00:58:04] Yeah yep yeah i remember what what did you find on that i forgot well when i went to

[00:58:11] Change the fuel tubes in the tank i pulled the tube i was going to pull the pull the gas line off the outside and that the tube come apart like it was probably could have been sucking air from the

[00:58:22] Plastic tube yeah it wasn't a tight connection on the on the line going into the tank i remember now yep yeah so if you fix that i bet that fixes that and then that'll be an easy yeah i've got a few of

[00:58:33] That that i want to run that that pits that i just got and we ran one of them but yeah to run the

[00:58:40] Other one and and the spitfire and cool so i mean i'm not going to issue the challenge right i'm not going to try to say hey you should fly everything you have this summer that's flyable but do you have any like any plans or or any kind of goals for the for the next flying season yeah i want to try to fly

[00:59:00] I want to try to fly my big one the big the the guy i bought it from he built both the challengers and he was like fly the small one first so i did that i did a fine job so that was pretty much saying that i even fly this yeah you're good to go yeah everyone yep so that's that that would be one goal for this summer then yeah the big the big challenge i'll have to have one you

[00:59:20] Guys come by help me get it on my house we'd be happy to yeah so the bigger they are we've said this before the easier they fly oh yes but the harder it is to fly them because you just you just don't want to see anything happen to them oh because you're nervous yeah yeah like like mentally mentally difficult to fly as opposed to how hard it actually is there you go back to checking everything check everything battery right everything it's still that unseen thing that has happened to all of us that no matter how much you check something is going to happen and that's the that's the part

[00:59:54] I don't like yeah no i get that and the bigger they are the more spectacular the crash is so there's that and the more bags you need

[01:00:08] Oh that is true anyway well anything else you guys want to talk about or

[01:00:12] We're about ready to get out of here no bob do you want to give a shout out to anybody or

[01:00:16] Anything like that before we sign off sangamon valley rc flyers i hope you listen to it there we go all right there you go i am the safety guy this year so no flying over the pits no flying over the roads and we know who i'm talking about there all right so there's your there's your warning

[01:00:34] Who we're talking to yeah so no flying over the road and yeah don't fly over the pits

[01:00:40] Yep yep that's all i got yeah all right me too well bob thanks for stopping by thanks for having

[01:00:45] Me we'll have to do it again sometime yeah thanks for thanks for agreeing to talk to us

[01:00:50] On the show it's been nice cool thank you all right until next time i'm ron i'm tom and i'm bob

[01:00:54] Goodbye goodbye 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