Ep 116: Terry Dunn

[00:00:04] Hello everyone and welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I’m your host, Tom, I’m Ron and I’m dave, and today we’re here with a special guest, very special guest, Terry Dunn, say hello.

[00:00:22] Special I’m not sure I earned that yet but thank you of course you have you’re special to us like.

[00:00:28] I really feel like I know you better than I do because, like, listening to you guys in your podcast obviously gives you that false sense of what’s what I’m looking for. I don’t want to say friendship, but that the false sense of knowing each other, kind of familiarity. Yeah, yeah, so well. Yeah, we share a lot.

[00:00:45] About ourselves and so yeah I think the extent to which me is pretty accurate to if you actually knew.

[00:00:54] Me. Yeah, well, I feel like I know you well then. Well, and even via email, terry and I have been kind of going back and forth on a subject that we’ve been talking about. So, yeah, which we’ll cover here today. Yeah, I kind of feel a small amount of familiarity also. That’s a hard.

[00:01:10] Word to say it is so that and our little community is so tightly knit anyway we’re far removed from.

[00:01:17] Each other. Yeah, that’s true. It’s amazing how small it is, yeah, and really how nice all the people are, like I’ve. I’ve run into some people that are not what I would call nice, but for the most part it’s a very welcoming and just helpful community. Well, I think you’re gonna. I think.

[00:01:35] You’re gonna find that with any type of thing that you put out there for other people to view or listen to. I was going through the youtube stuff the other night just kind of looking at and seeing how, seeing how our videos were doing, and there’s always, there’s always one comment in there that’s like did that guy really need to say that? Or whatever. And I try, you try, not to let it get under your skin, but sometimes it’s like I’m not going to reply to this because I know I’ll say something. Probably I shouldn’t, but it’s hard sometimes to resist that urge. See it, yeah, I don’t.

[00:02:09] Need to pay attention. I haven’t looked at the youtube stuff for a long time so I don’t know anyway. So welcome to the show, terry, thank you. Yeah, so tell us a little bit about yourself. Like I said before, you obviously host a very popular and probably the biggest RC airplane podcast in the.

[00:02:27] History of the world of which oh no I think that is highly inaccurate but go ahead continue.

[00:02:36] It’s certainly a popular one can we at least agree on that I don’t it feels weird to say that but.

[00:02:43] If you want to use those adjectives, I’ll accept it. See, I, like you, were so humble, I mean, yeah, very unassuming, which is very nice, yeah, but anyway, host of the biggest RC airplane podcast in the world, in the history of the world. And, like I said, I listen all the time and I really do enjoy it. What, first off, I want to ask: how did you guys get started? What made you decide to start a podcast?

[00:03:08] I think this story has been told a few times and of the three of us, that’s myself and then fitz walker and lee ray, my buddies who still live in texas. Those guys, when I lived in lubbock, texas, they lived in houston and they had gone to a swap meet, or maybe it was a swap meet where we all met up, but they had a long drive back and during that drive they were listening to a rc related podcast and I think it was probably the crash cast, oh yeah, and they were talking about what was going on and

[00:03:45] They said our conversations that we have with these things it’s kind of similar to this. I think we could pull it off, and so, of course, none of us knew anything about how to make a podcast at the time, yeah, but they said let’s try it. Then they called me. I said okay and that was it, and we’ve just pushed our way forward with blunt force, trauma, learning the lessons as we went along. And here we are, I think five years later, maybe six. I lost track. Wow, that’s. That’s encouraging to hear.

[00:04:14] Him talk about it that way, because that almost word for word, is exactly how: how we sort of started, yeah, and how we still are, yeah, right, but yeah, that’s a familiar chain of events. Yeah, a familiar.

[00:04:29] Line of how things happen, so that’s probably common for most people. I mean I admit, when we started I had no clue what I’m doing and I’m not that much farther along than I was then, but a little bit I’d.

[00:04:41] Say you’ve we’ve come we’ve come some we’ve come a small distance a small distance yeah so terry.

[00:04:48] You like rc airplanes? We also like rc airplanes. I’m gonna jump right into it. What’s your number? Okay, I’m so curious, like I don’t know why. That’s why I want to start. Wow, this seems so premature. Really, you don’t want to like build up to it or anything, you just want to get right after it. I mean, don’t tell me now, then we’ll work up to it. So how do you start? I’m sorry, that’s what you want. No, no, that’s fine, I’ll, I’ll yield everybody else. So how’d you start off in the hobby? What’d you?

[00:05:16] Do? I’m gonna write it on this piece of paper. I can’t see it. I would be interested in- like I’m always interested to see- what motivated somebody to start flying model airplanes, so I was going to.

[00:05:28] Get to that next but I wanted that you’re okay you’re right we’ll we’ll build it up I’m I’m I.

[00:05:32] Always go for the bull in the china shop. I guess you, you kind of you, you kind of go for the goal first and then make up the rest of us. As you, I would be more interested in hearing first what made terry decided to start flying model airplanes. Okay, I think it’s a pretty.

[00:05:47] Simple story. When I grew up in florida I had several uncles who were pretty young. They were my father’s much younger brothers and my grandfather. All had control line planes and so that was just kind of always around. It was 35 size control line and half a control line. So I just grew up with this kind of familiarity of that stuff and did control line for a little while and that just morphed into rc and at this point the only people who are still into it are myself and one of my uncles. But

[00:06:23] The question for me is: did that familiarity breed a love of aviation stuff? Or was I born with that and that kind of cultivated the activities I was in? I don’t know the answer to that, but basically I’ve always loved airplanes, airplane history and modeling, of course, is the natural extension of that, and so on our show we call it being a lifer, and I can’t think of another way to describe it. It’s hard to imagine ever not being around or somehow involved with model airplanes.

[00:06:58] Yeah I feel that way too whatever shenanigans the faa may come up with to prevent that yeah I don’t.

[00:07:04] Know I still think it’s going to be okay oh you’re talking about the faa’s yeah I thought you were.

[00:07:09] Telling him it’s going to be okay to continue to be a lifer oh no I think we all are I mean that.

[00:07:14] That. Look around, I mean that’s well, yeah, my whole area down here is so. So you said okay. So you, you started with watching control line and that kind of stuff like what, what’s the time frame where?

[00:07:26] You would have flown your first RC airplane. Let’s see, I remember probably around my 12th birthday I received my first RC airplane kit. It was a goldberg junior falcon, which is a half a powered thing, yep, with a orbit three channel radio and strangely, we never flew that. It would have been. A few years later I got a great plains pt-20- excellent- with an airtronics radio and that’s one we actually I built and flew and that was the start. Yeah, and I have to admit that there was a

[00:08:01] Period there during high school when I got into racing 10th scale off-road cars and that kind of dominated my attention for a little while. Sounds a little familiar. Yeah, yeah, and that was in the heyday of the rc10s and the grx2s. Oh yeah, so when was that? Early 90s, when all that was big?

[00:08:20] And then actually in college, I guess I didn’t do much of any of that. I didn’t do cars or airplanes, really- but right out of college I got a job in houston and I brought all my gear with me and suddenly I have a little bit of money and a whole lot of time, and that’s when I started getting back into all this stuff. Yeah, that was the real starting point of it becoming a big deal for me. Yeah, do you still? Do you still occasionally fly a control line? I’m curious. No, I did get a cox pt-19.

[00:08:54] A year or two ago I found one new in box and that was my first control line plane that I had as a kid and probably that’s a similar story for a lot of people in the hobby now. That’s the one and only control line plane I’ve ever flown. Yeah, yeah, wow. So yeah, I found one that had been in an attic forever and had never been flown, so I had to buy it and I can’t bring myself to fly that one. But in reigniting that old flame I did pick up another old control line plane that I am going to fly. So to answer your question, no, I haven’t flown it any control line in several years. A friend of

[00:09:31] Mine had one and probably gosh- I guess it was 10 years ago now- and he let me fly it and that would have been the first time since I was a kid. Yeah, and I’ll admit I felt a little dizzy afterwards, I was.

[00:09:43] Gonna say I wondered how that would be, because I can’t spin around in circles so that would make me nauseous. Felt a lot dizzy, did you? Yeah? Yeah, I can imagine I can’t do it either. It was never an issue.

[00:09:52] As a kid. But that, yeah, one, yeah, I, I that’s a story I hear a lot. Some people they can, they can manage that. They. They work out systems in their brain whatever it is to not get that, that motion. I don’t want to say vertigo, but yeah, the sickness, the I never. As a kid, I was never able to overcome that, so it just always made me puke. Yeah well, that’s the same with like fpv and

[00:10:19] Stuff I can’t do that either because that just makes me like instantaneously nauseous and that lasts.

[00:10:24] All day. Yeah, so, terry. Well, I hope control line is like fpv for me, because my first experience with fpv was very disorienting. I couldn’t, my brain would not reconcile what my eyes were seeing and what my ears were telling me. The ears said it’s over here, but my eyes were saying, no, it’s over here. Yeah, it’s very disorienting once. Yeah, yeah. So after some trial and error I finally figured out how to disconnect those things and after that I was fine. But at first it was an issue and I’m like I don’t

[00:10:55] Know, if I’m built for this so you don’t get sick, then by doing that. No, not, I have not with real fpv, but I flew an fpv simulator and I am good for about five to ten minutes of that, and then I gotta.

[00:11:11] Take a break, I start to turn green. Yeah, I can imagine, like I said, even like vr stuff and all that when I do it I can do the stuff, okay, that doesn’t move, but if you’re in a game where it’s walking around or doing something, it just instantly makes me nauseous. Yeah, yeah, me too. It’s sad. Yeah, kind never tried it. I see, I, I love, I would love to get into fpv and trying that, like I just think that.

[00:11:35] Would be so cool- I mean to look at the videos like when they were doing the drone racing, and then they’re doing it with goggles and stuff. That looks like a blast. It does, I mean, it really does- because it satisfies, it checks the boxes, it’s competitive and I’m also flying a model, so it checks. But yeah, there’s no way I could do that. Yeah, so, unfortunately, which is okay.

[00:11:56] Because they’re drones, that it’s still rc and it still can be fun. Yeah, that’s true, but you’re right, this is the RC Plane Lab podcast, so we stick with that. Yep, terry, I want to know: what kind of airplanes do you like most? Oh, I honestly thought you were going to ask him his number again. No, I’m putting. I’m not even going to be the one to ask that. I’m going to let you guys take over for that one whenever. No, but like we do. Balsa, I don’t do much with foam, none of.

[00:12:27] Us actually sitting here do much with foam like what do you like to build with what really kind of.

[00:12:33] Gets you going I’m all electric and that’s something I love it really I do I love electric.

[00:12:43] Okay, it feels kind of: yeah, no, he really does. He’s a huge electric fan. He would have all electric if, if they were, if the bigger ones were cost effective, yes, or more economical, I should.

[00:12:57] Say yeah, and obviously I was involved with nitro engines as a kid, so it’s not that I’m uncomfortable with them or any of that. But that started, like I said, when I started flying again after college and when I moved into texas I was in an apartment, so it’s not really practical to run any nitro stuff there. So I just started experimenting with the electric stuff I had and made it work, had no idea what I was doing and stumbled onto some successes. But this would have been the late 90s, just when

[00:13:29] Electrics were starting to get popular and it wasn’t as much of a lunatic fringe, and so I. To me, it was a good time to get involved with that, and, as a an engineer and a person who likes to tinker, it was a good outlet for me to exercise all those things. And then, as the years went by, it got easier and cheaper to do, and so I’ve just stuck with it, and while I’m, I may get into gas at some point. I haven’t

[00:13:55] Yet oh that was what I was going to ask so no internal combustion engines whatsoever.

[00:14:01] Other than the 049 I talked about a few minutes ago the control line stuff no it’s.

[00:14:07] Anything that I fly regularly is electric I can fully appreciate that like I really can.

[00:14:15] Yeah, I do too, and that’s a very coarse filter because within that all electric it’s stuff that ranges from tiny ultra micro up to I don’t know what my biggest plane is now, but of 10 plus pounds, so it’s a that’s not small broad spectrum. Yeah, yeah, that was going to be my next question.

[00:14:32] Like, how big with electrics do you go? Because I’ve seen some guys that have these electric airplanes that are literally like 170 cc size air or airframes that are running electric motors and batteries.

[00:14:43] To me that’s too big for electric. Yeah, I think that’s well past the threshold of where it makes sense. Yeah, at that point you’re just doing it to do it. I don’t know what that break-even point is where gas is more beneficial, but I don’t know. I don’t particularly have a need for super big airplanes anyway, and I don’t have a trailer for hauling stuff around. So yeah, I fully understand.

[00:15:10] That one? Yeah, that seems to be one of our limb packs also, as this, for right now anyway, is size is we don’t have a way to haul the really big ones, yeah, although you have a really big one down here, Ron.

[00:15:22] And well, I don’t have to worry about flying it because it’s not ready. True, I will cross that bridge when I get to. That’s true to me. I think for going from electric to gas, like gasoline, not nitro, is probably the well and as time goes on, the gasoline engines are getting smaller they are and a lot more reliable. But I would say probably something: the 90 size, like 15 cc gasoline motor, is probably that cut off for me. I’d say anything over 60 size for me is, I would.

[00:15:51] Definitely look at gasoline instead of glow or electric. Yeah, I’m an equal opportunity picker on or I go electric gas glow, it doesn’t matter to me, I’ll do whatever I do. Remember dave you saying something about getting out of all your glow planes? Not, oh, I fly glow a lot less than I do. Pretty much everything I fly anymore is gasoline or electric.

[00:16:10] Yeah, just because I don’t like the mess. Well, the mess and the cost like to me I. I know I keep going back to it, but it’s over 30 bucks for a gallon of nitro fuel. Yeah, and depending on what you’re.

[00:16:21] Flying that can go by very fast. Yes, I’m the odd man out. I’m the one who prefers nitro over I would say I prefer nitro over anything. Yeah, but yeah, I guess my days are numbered right. Eventually it’s going to be to a point where I can’t afford to fly it right. Well, you might be able to get like.

[00:16:37] Three or four minute flights in every two months because of the price of it but a globe plug will.

[00:16:41] Be fifty dollars. Oh yeah, there’s that too. Yeah, they’re already twenty something, aren’t they? I think the last time we went up to dynamic they were, they had come down some, okay, I think they were twelve. Four stroke glow plugs, or just glow for an osf plug was about twelve or thirteen bucks, I think last time, okay they, they had gone up to eighteen. I remember that and I thought they were about.

[00:17:03] Twenty when you bought the card they’ve come down again wow what’s a fox glow plug worth these days.

[00:17:09] Well, if you can find them, because fox doesn’t manufacture stuff anymore. It’s done by macoa, out by out, in california, I think it is, and I think last time I was on their website, I think I.

[00:17:21] Saw them for around 15 bucks or so okay and here’s here’s the scary part I know the part number for that.

[00:17:26] It’s 40602 602. Yeah, I couldn’t remember the last three, but yeah, I knew it was a. You have the tattoo on your phone. Yeah, the barcode. So all right, I may. I was wondering because on the card that’s funny.

[00:17:41] We cut you off. Well, right, no, that’s okay. I got a lot buy of various rc stuff a few months ago and it had a handful of fox glow plugs in there, so I was just curious if there’s any value to.

[00:17:54] Them. Well, I’m sure I’m sure collectors out there, if they’re like in the package and stuff that want to create their vintage hobby shop display, I’m sure there’s guys out there that would pay a premium for those. Absolutely, yeah, interesting, you just got to find them. You have to find them, right? I mean that it the same saying holds true. It’s worth whatever somebody.

[00:18:15] Will pay for it, right, yeah, right. If you’re happy getting what you get for it and they’re happy paying what they pay for it, then, yeah, that’s exactly what it’s worth. Yeah, the next thing I would like to:

[00:18:24] Hear terry talk about is his favorite crash story oh I didn’t think if you if you have a favorite one.

[00:18:30] I would love to hear it. Okay, let me think about that for a second. Okay, it’s all right, I’m going to entertain you with three of them, but only one of them is actually a crash, and it’s more of an anecdote than a story. Okay, I was flying a little asymmetric park flyer that I designed a few years ago, flying it around the field and, I don’t know, I got disoriented, something happened and next thing it’s behind me and headed towards the row of cars, part oops, and I center punched somebody’s.

[00:19:02] Truck door and left a very nice ding in the side of it. Oh right, so it’s actually a funny story. That part is not funny. The funny part is the truck that I hit belonged to my insurance agent.

[00:19:16] No save some paperwork that way awesome that is one oh my that made me giggle it did I didn’t laugh.

[00:19:26] At the time, but years later. Yeah, okay, so that’s the only real crash story, but I have two other interesting stories that are near crashes. So very early when I started flying again, a friend of mine that I worked with he had a glider. I’m trying to remember what it was, but it was like an epp two meter type thing and we would take turns flying it. One of us would pull it up on a tow rope with a pulley. So basically you have one end of the line staked in the ground, you have a pulley that goes.

[00:20:02] Through it and the other end is attached to the plane. So basically you get twice the speed at the airplane. That the person is running with the pulley, oh yeah, and never heard of that and yeah, it works very well. Block and tackle, yeah, yep. So in this example I was, it was my turn to fly and my buddy had the pulley and he starts maybe 50 yards away just because of the length of the line and he starts running and up it goes like it’s on a high start and at that point, at the top of the arc, I realized we

[00:20:33] Had never turned on the receiver, oh, on the airplane. So it is completely free flight at this point. But it comes off the tour line just fine and it circled the field and came down to a beautiful landing better than I could have done.

[00:20:49] See that’s what happens and then immediately following that he said ta-da.

[00:20:54] Right so that’s what happens when you have your surfaces nice and centered well yeah when you have.

[00:20:59] The glider properly set up yes yeah see you were just testing the setup yeah that’s it.

[00:21:05] So another very similar story is much more recent. This was at the neat fair two years ago which, if you’re not familiar, that’s an electric event up in new york that’s for electric aircraft only. I had an airplane of the hansa brandenberg w29, which is a unique world war one model that I’m sure you’ve seen it. But it’s a two-place airplane. It’s got the pilot in front and then a cockpit in the back where the rear gunner sits. But what’s unique about it is that it didn’t have a vertical stabilizer on top of the

[00:21:36] Fuselage. It’s all beneath and that’s so that the rear gunner wouldn’t shoot it off. Yep, so we had a project where probably 15 of us built these things on site made out of sheet, depron and other things and very nice looking models. And was it my maiden flight? It might have been my maiden flight. It was built with floats, so we were flying off the pond there at this field and, yeah, it was a lot of fun. A nice, easy flying park flyer and I’m maybe one or two minutes into this flight and all of a sudden,

[00:22:10] It’s not responding, and maybe 30 seconds of wiggling sticks and trying to figure out what’s going on. I looked down and figured out that my transmitter had died completely. Oh, I had not only neglected to charge the transmitter battery, but I had turned off all the alarms that were me. I’m about to be a dummy.

[00:22:29] And I’m not sure what I did right that day, but the bank that I was in and the power setting I- we were videotaping it at the time, so we have exact time footage here for three minutes. That airplane flew in a circle above the pond, anywhere ranging from like 30 feet high up to 100 feet high, and stayed on station above us and then at some point during that three minutes I’m just standing in the room like slack jog watching it, waiting for it to hit a tree, waiting for, yeah, yeah, somebody else.

[00:23:01] Came along that said, I grabbed my transmitter and started putting a battery in it and it’s on a collision course to a tree at the moment. He gets the battery in, powers up the transmitter and gets connection. No, brings it down and lands it. That’s awesome, it’s all pretty good, unbelievable. Except that there’s video footage. Yeah, if, if you go to the rc roundtable youtube channel, we have video proof. Yeah, we have all of that documented. That’s awesome. I will have to do that because that is worth watching, yeah, for sure. Yeah, and it’s hard to in words describe the tension of the moment.

[00:23:37] Oh sure relief at the end yeah but yeah it was just crazy all right I think we’ve all we all have felt.

[00:23:43] That pucker factor where you’re just like I don’t know what to do now and yeah so you mentioned.

[00:23:50] The transmitter wasn’t what is your radio of choice I’m curious another strange question there.

[00:23:57] Because I write magazine articles, reviews, I have to have a variety of transmitters, because back in the day when hobbyco was still a thing, if you’re reviewing a hobbyco airplane, they wanted a Futaba radio system. Of course, if you’re reviewing horizon plane, they want a spectrum system- yep. So my two main transmitters are- you guys will appreciate this- an ix12- nice, yep. And then I also have a Futaba- what’s the prefix on that? Sg 14. So the 14 channel, Futaba. I don’t know. Futaba me either. Yeah,

[00:24:31] So I use that in a lot of things too, okay, and I also have a few high-tech transmitters that I like nice. So, yeah, I’m basically. I don’t really have any favorites, but a little bit of everything, yeah. Now, the ones that I don’t have are the new things like the, the radio master and the what’s the tyrannous. A lot of people seem to like those, but I haven’t dabbled in them yet. Yeah, I, I can’t get into.

[00:25:01] Open source stuff yet because it seems like there’s a lot more that goes into it and I just want something.

[00:25:05] Simple that works right. I like to tinker, but I don’t like to tinker with programming, electronics and stuff. So yeah, I need something that’s fairly simple and easy for my small brain to understand.

[00:25:18] Right, and if there’s anything that I don’t like about my spectrum ix12, it’s that I think all of the android stuff that it’s equipped with is kind of lost on me. Yeah, me too. Just I never take advantage.

[00:25:30] Of it? I don’t either. Yeah, but what I like about it though. I get what you’re saying, because, yeah, there’s more radio there than I will ever use. But there are a lot of nice features with it for, like, setting pictures for your airplanes. That is so easy: just hook it straight up to your computer and just drag photos on over. I just do that with bluetooth on my. Okay, well, you can do that way too, but you can’t do that with, like a dx8 or different right, different radios like that. But there

[00:26:01] Are some things that get taken or that you have to get used to when you go over the android based stuff, like I always thought. When you first got your ix12, tommy, I thought it was so weird that you would turn your radio on once for the day, yeah, and you wouldn’t turn it off, and it took like

[00:26:17] Three or four minutes to turn on and get everything booted up and stuff or 12 to 15 depending not.

[00:26:22] Anymore. Well, sometimes. But yeah, I mean it’s just a completely different like type of transmitter when you go to a computer- one like that- than what I was used to before I got mine. So I appreciate all.

[00:26:33] The, all the functionality of the airware app, or the transmitter, or the transmitting app, if you want to call it that. Yeah, I like all the programming features. I like the ease of like the touch screen is amazing. But yeah, I’m with terry, I could do without the android stuff. Yeah, I can see that. So anyway, but it’s yeah okay. So, terry, do you like to build? I mean, you mentioned, you mentioned putting together your own, your own foamies, but I mean, do you, do you enjoy building? Yes and no. Okay, the

[00:27:06] Simple answer is: I like building kits, whether it’s foam or balsa, and typically about 75 into it. I don’t like building kits. Yes, I always start out excited by it and I always finish relieved that I’m finally.

[00:27:22] Finished. I think, honestly, the- I think, the majority of people who build kits or scratch, build or whatever- I think you’ll find that a lot of us feel that way, because I know exactly what you’re saying. I’ll get started on a project and all excited and oh look, I’m putting pieces together. And then you get to that one point: whatever it is- sanding, shaping, a cowl, covering, covering, whatever it is- you get to that point and you’re just kind of done, yeah, and just wish it was done.

[00:27:51] And wish it was over. I totally get it. Yeah, I like to build until I get that covering stage and I wish that was over so that could get to the detailing stage. Yeah, right, yeah, there’s always.

[00:28:02] That one point and it’s different for everybody. But there’s that one thing about building that, that you hate, and when you get to it you’re just like a dislike. I don’t like the word.

[00:28:11] Hate that you dislike immensely perhaps okay I’m trying to get piper to stop saying hate but you.

[00:28:16] Would rather do something else instead of whatever this step is absolutely so and that’s why if you.

[00:28:21] Look around here there’s plenty of airplanes at like the same stage where it’s time to be sanded.

[00:28:26] That. I don’t want to do that. So I get what’s they, what’s that they say about? Once you have an airplane framed up, it’s 75 down, 75 to go, right, yeah, and that makes sense. I get absolutely the.

[00:28:39] Framing is the fun part because you see this, this airplane coming together out of sticks. Pretty much it’s just goes together usually pretty quickly. Yeah, and it’s fun speaking of sticks.

[00:28:49] Which- which, by the way, stick- happens to be my favorite airplane. Terry, do you have a favorite airplane? I thought you’re gonna ask him if he had a stick. Well, he should. I think everybody should.

[00:29:00] The answer to that one is I have to think no, I don’t think I have a stick at the moment, but I know some have passed through my hands through the years. Okay, and a favorite airplane?

[00:29:12] Is a moving target yes nope I get that yep it depends on the day and it depends on what.

[00:29:20] Plane I’m flying understood right yeah your favorite plane of the day I get it yeah or more.

[00:29:28] Like week or usually when there’s a new airplane that’s working out well, that’s fun. It’s like shoes: your shoes are great until they start to get old. Then you get a new pair of shoes like, oh, this is shiny, and so it’s kind of like that. But then you go back to the old shoes and you’re.

[00:29:43] Like my gosh these are so comfortable I love these kind of like going back to an old plane.

[00:29:49] Yeah, I guess there’s some of that too. Yeah, I never. I never don’t enjoy flying my stick like it’s always. It’s always fun to fly it. Yeah, I don’t know, everybody should have a stick, I think.

[00:30:02] And I think the reason I’ve kind of given up on I almost I’ve given up- why I’ve put mine off so much right now is I wasn’t thinking I built dihedral into the wings. Ever since you call I know, but ever since you called me out on that and said you should have done it flat, I just want to take a saw.

[00:30:17] To the middle of it. No, don’t do that, just build another wing. They’re easy. Well, they are. It’s such a simple. Yeah, I don’t know. So aside, okay, so maybe not your favorite plane. Do you have a plane?

[00:30:28] That you, that’s like your go-to even. That’s a weird question, so I know I’m strange and not having a go-to answer for that, but I tend to have models that are hot and cold, like even.

[00:30:45] If it’s like five or six, these are the five or six that I’m into now and I fly them, and then I just kind of morph into another five or six after that. Yeah, I get that. So there are some that I tend to fly more than others and I like strange airplanes. Okay, yeah, and more specifically, I’ve been into asymmetric airplanes for a while, and it started out more as a curiosity of how the heck do these things work and how can I design something that looks funny and still flies weird. So I’ve made a whole series of single motor and twin motor asymmetric planes, and I think there’s probably always at least

[00:31:21] One of those with me when I go to the field yeah so I’ve always wanted to do one of those doniers.

[00:31:28] I can’t remember the name of it but the world war ii german asymmetrical okay you might be.

[00:31:34] Thinking of the blom and voss bv-141. Yeah, yeah, so that was the inspiration for the first one that I did. It was a combination of that bv-141 and the rutan boomerang, kind of the basic ideas of those morphed into a, an rc model, and it gets lots of strange looks and lots of comments but it flies like

[00:31:59] A pretty normal airplane well you did the yin yang right was that one was yes okay yep yeah that’s.

[00:32:04] A later version. That’s the twin motor. Thank you, yeah, because that was in model aviation it was, and I that really looked cool. Yeah, and of all the things I’ve I’ve seen in model aviation, that was probably the one that I actually thought about building. I mean because thought about, well, I really did like, I was like, well, what would it take to? He makes terry made it look easy to put together and it looks like it’s a blast to fly. Yeah, it is, and it’s really more of a

[00:32:34] Concept than a specific model, just having one tractor right on one side and a pusher on the other side. You could apply that to whatever airframe you have laying around. That, really the basic layout, is the only novel thing about it. Yeah, well, I dig it. I think it’s cool. Yeah, yeah, a lot of fun, and that’s one of those. Just it gets a lot of comments and a lot of sideways looks, but once you get in the

[00:32:58] Air. It’s pretty normal. So, terry, you’ve written. You’ve written a lot of stuff for our model aviation. Obviously we’ve. I don’t read every episode that I or every issue that I get, but I try to do. You, do you have like the range is a huge range, right? Do you have a favorite topic that you like? Obviously I know that a lot about servos and selection and all that stuff because of the stuff that we’ve gone back and forth on. But do you have like a favorite topic that you like to write about? Or do you find that you’re really good at writing about this as opposed to that? But

[00:33:33] I’ll do this because somebody asked me what I’m saying does that make sense there’s been.

[00:33:38] A few of those that I did, just because the editor needs somebody to write about this certain thing. I think there’s an article I did on glue one time that, oh, it was torture from beginning to end, like watching glue dry right. And radio reviews- same thing. What the heck can you say unique about a radio system? Yeah, turn it on. It makes the servos wiggle. Blah, blah, blah. But most of the model reviews that are right. I’m genuinely interested and excited to fly this airplane. Okay, just I don’t.

[00:34:11] Know every airplane is new and interesting to me and I don’t think I ever get bored of that. Yeah, most of what I write now is a column. I’m currently the electrics columnist for the magazine, so I have something every other month related to that. But even that’s a pretty broad spectrum and I don’t know, I never seem to run out of things that are interesting, that either people write in and ask about, or something that I’ve discovered and want to share. Yeah, and it seems like there’s always

[00:34:44] Something new and interesting to learn and when I learn something my way of being excited about it is.

[00:34:51] To write it and share it. Yeah, and we all appreciate that absolutely, because that’s how we learn it too, right? Exactly, so I was gonna. You were talking about being the electric guy and that kind of stuff. I want to talk about batteries really quick and kind of see where we are if we’re on the same in the same boat, like: what’s your biggest battery and at what point do you not want a battery bigger than?

[00:35:11] That. Does that make sense? It does, but I don’t know if I really have an answer to that question. I mean, my biggest one’s easy, I think it’s a success- 5000, and I’ve got a couple of those but other parts asking about what’s the largest battery I would be comfortable with. I don’t know. I don’t particularly see a limit because I have so many batteries now that are in kind of the same general area. I try to be diligent with them and I take care of them, all that. But if ever there were an incident,

[00:35:45] Where one of them went off. There’s going to be a small nuclear explosion in wisconsin, yeah, so I don’t particularly think it’s going to matter if I limit myself on what the largest battery is and being the

[00:35:57] Nitro guy of the group I can honestly tell you that the battery that they terrify me and I have no.

[00:36:05] Reasonable basis for that observation, but they do. They terrify me and I have a couple of the six, six s, five thousands for that and I am like paranoid that these things are going to go off. So I take all these extra precautions that probably nobody else does. I have the metal box to put them in. The metal box sits in the fridge and the fridge is downstairs and the doors it’s just. They terrify me because of the, the stored energy that is in this and the capability for destruction.

[00:36:34] That they possess I think being terrified is the correct response to those batteries it is an.

[00:36:39] Incredible amount of energy. Yeah, yeah, you need to respect it and that way you don’t get too comfortable and have something happen. Yeah, like, personally, the biggest battery I have right now is only a 4s 5200. I, for some reason I’m fighting moving up to the six cell 5000s because like, first off, the price on those batteries is ridiculous to me. And like, okay, so my goal is to eventually get into actual turbines, which I know I’m going to have to go with some sort of edf, like 90 millimeter edf or

[00:37:14] Something like that to get into it. What, why is that as a transition? Yeah, it’s like how that works mine well, but it’s not the same. I don’t like to fly other people’s planes, but what I’m saying is what? What is kind of keeping me away from that is the batteries that I would have to buy, and you can’t just have one for a plane like that, because you go out to the field and fly for three minutes because your battery is 150 bucks. You need several, I would say four or five easily, to at least make it.

[00:37:44] A decent day out there so yeah right and you’re gonna have to get the good ones with the high.

[00:37:49] Discharge rate as well. Exactly, yep, yeah, so that’s. That’s kind of where I would say, is my stopping point on batteries at this point and I, just I, I have to make that leap, but I just I’m having a problem.

[00:38:00] Doing it once you do it’s no big deal my I don’t feel any different about my six cells it’s.

[00:38:05] The money that gets me. I mean the my forest batteries I spent 50 bucks a piece on and that hurt, but I don’t know why. Battery- I don’t like spending money on batteries. Planes I’ll spend, yeah, whatever I need to, but the batteries for it. To me that’s just like that’s not the fun side of things. That’s a necessity. That is not shiny and interesting. Yeah, well, I’m thinking of the people I know.

[00:38:28] Who fly turbines, and it would be a small subset of them who also fly large edf’s. So I don’t know that a large edf is necessarily a transition that you have to go through. Really, I would agree with.

[00:38:43] That honestly is it like a graduation point though you don’t think kind of learning how an actual edf.

[00:38:48] Flies, the characteristics and all that. There’s not that much difference. It’s just an airplane. You got to realize that the thrust comes out of the back, so when you jam on the throttle you don’t have that instant air blast over your elevator to fix problems. Yeah, that’s the only thing you gotta.

[00:39:00] Keep in mind, although now some with thrust vectoring, they get the same and that does effect. Yeah, I would not start off with that, because that would be what I’m saying is like if you, if you started with the, a proper first turbine powered airplane, turbine powered airplane, whatever you want. I’ve heard about ways. Yeah, I don’t. I agree, I don’t think you necessarily have to transition with a foamy edf first, like I mean, which saves you from buying batteries, right, that saves.

[00:39:34] Me a bunch of money yeah that’s closer to turbine money so I don’t know well I think the difference.

[00:39:41] Is not so much the speed, it’s the complexity that you’re trying to get used to and you want to manage the landing gear and the air brakes and the flaps and all those things. Yeah, I think there’s a lot of models that give you that opportunity without big, expensive batteries. I agree, you need a warbird.

[00:39:57] Anyway, I don’t in your collection. You need a warbird which has flaps and retracts. There you go, see, and you have to manage your airspeed with those, because they don’t fly like a trainer. They have high wing loading, which a lot of these jets have also. So I mean, there you go, you’re killing two birds with one stone. You get yourself a warbird. There’s your transition, and it better be at least gas powered, if not nitro powered. It wouldn’t be like I’m just teasing, I know, by the way, I don’t.

[00:40:27] Know what made me think the other day I was looking at videos online I saw the ov-10 neat when are you.

[00:40:31] Getting one oh I can’t afford that airplane okay you’re talking about the horizon yeah no I can’t afford.

[00:40:37] That okay and I have no way to transport it that breaks down that’s small that is not going to fit in the.

[00:40:43] Back of my little anyway absolutely it will all right terry I’m gonna ask it because Ron said he.

[00:40:49] Wasn’t gonna ask what’s your number. Okay, this number is written in chalk. Ask me again tomorrow it’s going to be different. I understand, but I counted right before we came online and counting only an airplane that I could grab, charge a battery and fly today, and the number was 38..

[00:41:11] Very nice respectable yeah that’s very respectable and it’s not crazy that is close to my number he’s.

[00:41:18] Got a few more than me, yeah. Yeah, are those mostly? Well, they’re all electric, but are they, would you say, the majority of those are foam. Or get our nitro or, I’m sorry, foam or balsa nitro brain it’s.

[00:41:31] Probably a 50: 50 mix. Nice, I like it, yeah, so one of the things that I’m into is upgrading older airplanes. The stuff that I get at swap meets- oh, okay, a lot of it that interests me are the early electrics stuff that was out in the mid 90s and late 90s, and most of that was balsa, yeah, and what I found back then with brush motors and nycads. You really had to design an airplane properly because it wasn’t going to fly on power, and so when you take those airframes that are very well designed and you put in

[00:42:02] A modern power system where you triple the power and reduce the weight by half yeah it’s really something.

[00:42:07] Special, a lot of fun, yeah, a little sporty. Speaking of those older electric airplanes, do you have any experience with the electro streak though? Great planes, one yes and no. I have had some in and out of.

[00:42:19] My hanger, okay, and we’ve had some sort of sidebar conversations about that shiny yes, which I think is an electricity electro streak clone. Yeah, so I think performance wise it’s very similar yeah.

[00:42:32] After looking at them closely, I agree with you with your assessment. They look very similar. Yeah, but what kind of experience are you referring to? Well, because I was trying to sort of key in on our conversation earlier, but via email, but I was hoping you would have like some tips, or maybe I think what he’s saying is find one. He wants to either build one or purchase.

[00:42:57] One so I think he was curious as to whether or not you had information on that yeah is that right.

[00:43:02] Yeah thanks okay Ron’s always so good at getting right to the point right but you can.

[00:43:08] Probably find plans somewhere. I forget who designed it, oh, shame on me, but it used to be a great planes kit and they had a few different variations of it, including an ARF with a blow molded fuselage. Yeah, you may get lucky and find one of those. Okay, one time I walked into a hobby shop and there was one that had been framed up and covered but never finished, and I took that home for 20 bucks. Nice, yeah, yeah, that’s the kind of deal. Yeah, well, of course I’ll tear the.

[00:43:39] Covering because I want to lit a lot like yours right yeah so anyway and but like anything.

[00:43:46] That was sold by tower hobbies. They’re shoved in attics and basements all around the country, sure, so they’re not terribly rare. Yeah, I think. If you look hard enough, maybe put a wanted ad out there on rc groups or facebook classifieds. That’s a good idea. Yep, you might. We keep, we keep looking.

[00:44:03] Up at our buddy brian’s place up in leonore and I’ve not seen one come in there yet so speaking of.

[00:44:09] That have you been there yet terry I have not I can’t wait for you to see that place yeah from what.

[00:44:14] You’ve described it sounds like my kind of joint yeah oh yeah every nook and cranny is filled in by.

[00:44:19] Some sort of airplane, and it is. It is- I mean, yeah, that’s no joke- like and it’s, and it’s only getting more packed. Like the longer we sit here, yeah, like it seems like every time we go up there’s less and less space to turn around. There’s airplanes everywhere and it just makes us smile.

[00:44:36] Makes us happy yeah so you moved to wisconsin from new york right so I was in texas for.

[00:44:48] What was it? Well, I was in houston for 16 years out of college, then I was in lubbock, texas, for four years, then in buffalo for five years. We just left buffalo for green bay and, if I have anything to say about it, I’m never moving again. Yeah, ever. It’s not fun. I don’t enjoy it either, especially with fragile little toy airplanes. Yes, and 38 of them. Yeah, well, no, well, I have, there’s an asterisk there. 38 Is the number that’s ready to go. Yeah, I understand there’s an embarrassing number of.

[00:45:20] Other projects in all stages. I understand completely and we will drop it because, yep, I’m not gonna. Yeah, yeah, we won’t talk about that. I said embarrassing, it’s really not.

[00:45:32] Embarrassing. Those are the fun things, the possibilities of all that. Oh yeah, it’s hard to get rid of them- it really is, because there’s that someday in the back of your brain. Yes, of course I’m trying to get to that. Yeah, yeah, and stupid me I. I am a pack rat, but unfortunately every now and then I find a use for a thing I’ve been keeping around forever, so it only justifies my pack rat.

[00:45:56] Tendencies. Yeah, I’m the same way. I have a what I call my shop, but it’s an outbuilding that is just stuff to the brim, with stuff to be used later, which I always find a use for something that I have out there, and it’s one of those things. The more you kind of walk or work around and doing,

[00:46:15] Excuse me, I don’t want to say weird things, but different projects that are kind of off the wall. That’s when you need those weird things that you didn’t throw away before and that’s why I’m glad I.

[00:46:25] Didn’t. Yeah, it’s a good philosophy. Yeah, pays off in dividends later. So the other asterisk escrow is too on. That is I moved, I guess, two months ago now, and there’s a lot of stuff still in boxes. So there’s perhaps some ultra micro stuff or other things that got glossed over because of the

[00:46:44] Chaos that you don’t remember, yeah, but I think 38 is a good round number, so do you okay? So we have started keeping a list of our airplanes to kind of keep an eye on what we have. Like I have a bad memory so I also have on that list, like what battery it takes and all that kind of stuff. Do you do anything like that, or can you just remember everything you have? Oh no, it’s impossible to remember.

[00:47:10] And actually one of the articles I wrote not too long ago is a idea where I made these.

[00:47:19] They’re like placards that you could. I made a template that’s in word. You can fill in all the information like what’s the radio that it uses, what’s the memory slot, what battery does it use, where’s the CG, which switch does the landing gear or the flaps, and what’s the? What are things I need to remember about takeoff or landing, or funny behaviors, and so all those reference type things. I’ll print one for each model and then laminate it, and amazon sells these lamination pouches.

[00:47:50] For id badges. So perfect size for that, like a two by four or three by five, something like that, and it’s already got the slot built into it for a lanyard. But I put a number 64 rubber band through that slot and I can put it around the propeller or some other part of the airplane. Oh yeah, and so I have a reference there and it goes around the propeller most of the time when I go to fly it. It goes around the handle of the transmitter and so that’s my way of keeping the basic notes for most of my

[00:48:20] Airplanes. That’s a really, really good system. It is a good idea. Yeah, I like that. It sure beats my spreadsheet on my phone because that I always forget to update or look at before I go to the field. Well,

[00:48:30] I update but I just it’s that would be nice because it’s actually on the airplane so when you go to get.

[00:48:35] It, you don’t have to look up stuff. Yeah, that’s a good idea, right, and since it’s laminated, when I’m at the field, if I have to fix something I can leave squawks on, I can write on there with a sharpie, yeah, and then when I get home just wipe it off with alcohol. Yeah, to fix it. I like that. So it’s proven.

[00:48:49] To be pretty handy huh that’s why I like conversations you pick up on a lot of stuff that.

[00:48:54] I never thought of before. Yeah, that’s. I think that article might be in the online version of the magazine. If I find it, I’ll send you a link. Oh, okay, awesome, perfect, I’d appreciate that.

[00:49:05] Cool. So is that a? Is that an excel product or a microsoft product? I mean, did you design that like in excel, or is it just something you? Oh, it’s a word document. Okay, all right, it’s just a table.

[00:49:18] Size for those little lamination patches, and I think I had its size. So on one sheet of eight and a half by eleven paper you get six of the different things. You just cut it up. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, I’m.

[00:49:31] Probably gonna. I’m probably gonna use that I might, because, yeah, I’m gonna steal your idea. That’s genius, see. But see now with what we have on our spreadsheet. We have that information already.

[00:49:42] Though, so it’s easier to do. True, it’s just cut and paste. Yeah, and I would be lying if I said that I have one of those for every model. I totally get more popular ones I do, but some of the more.

[00:49:54] Obscure ones I haven’t gotten around to yet. Yeah well, and probably some of the older ones are probably not bound to the ix12 or the vitaba or whichever. So some of that information you may not even.

[00:50:04] Have yeah so right I like it so with the move to wisconsin have you found a new club yet.

[00:50:11] I have. There is a club here in green bay and I have joined them and been out to the field a couple times now. So, yeah, good deal. What, like? How big of a club is it? Oh, I don’t know, if I had to guess I’d say it’s around 40 members, but I might be completely wrong there. Yeah, that seems to be.

[00:50:30] About normal. I think that’s a good size club. Active members, you would say, or just 40 members total, I think. Active because there’s difference, right, because, oh, yeah, our club- I forget what the, what the roster is, but as far as active members- is probably less than 20.. Yeah, I was gonna say I think.

[00:50:45] The last time, and it’s been several years, the last time I saw the roster like out the field, there was like 80 members, yeah, of which, yeah, you go out there you might catch 20 people, yeah, like in a in a normal rotation so, and it’s just one of those things. Unfortunately, that’s. That’s just how things.

[00:51:01] Are going and I’ve, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, I’ve been kind of a gypsy the last few years, moving from place to place but and all those moves, rc is kind of the stabilizing force for me. I get to this new city. There’s a club there. You go into the club and bada, bing, it’s already people. You like we started the show with, you feel like you already know people, you’ve got that common bond and it’s just easy to acclimate when you’ve got that, that precedent already set. Yeah, the

[00:51:29] Camaraderie that comes with having a common background. Yep, sure you go in and you speak the same language already. Yeah, with these little toys that are like so cool, right? They really.

[00:51:41] Are so, terry, I’m going to touch on the servo conversation, so selecting servos for airplanes. I mean, you ask 10 different people, you’re going to get 10 different opinions right, but you’ve put what I consider a fair amount of work into boiling it down and like. So, like, what I really want to know is: how much time did you actually spend on putting that information together? Well, and what I’m talking about is: but you did all the research, you read, all that you went out online to actually figure out.

[00:52:16] Well is there a formula so like how long like because it’s actually really useful information right.

[00:52:23] Well I think you’re giving me credit for something somebody else did well am I thought you said I.

[00:52:31] Thought you sent me the spreadsheet in our to our rc plan lab email am I mistaken.

[00:52:37] If I sent you a spreadsheet- and this was a few months ago, so, yeah, it’s been a while- this would have been pre-move. It’s not one that I generated, but it would have been one that I found okay, and

[00:52:47] I’m not even sure that I found it okay. Well, it was like a two or three-way or maybe even a three or four-way conversation, because I know the question was asked by someone and I thought I thought you.

[00:52:58] Were the one that answered that, my apologies. Yeah, I remember being part of the conversation and I remember the general answer was: oh okay, it’s starting to come back to me. The rust is shaking off. I had asked a few people that friends in the hobby- if they knew of articles that would explain basically what’s the logical scientific strategy for choosing a servo for a specific application, and the initial response was that no, such an article had never been written.

[00:53:30] And then at some point I found an old, I think, model airplane news article that covered it with some basic strategies, but not necessarily formulas. Right gosh, I’ll have to bring up those.

[00:53:44] Old emails and see where we left off. Man, I mean, that was so long ago, it was a while ago, but I just remember that like hey, wait, we went really deep into the, into the weeds and then at the end we sort of discovered: oh well, yeah, standard servo is good for good for this size sport type airplane. So that it’s so the servo manufacturers: they’re, they’re marketing their servos correctly. It’s just that maybe we’re not using them correctly. Does that make sense?

[00:54:18] Yeah, and there’s probably a lot of that and I would, in my experience, I think, most people over servo than under servo, right, but exactly, I’ve seen other examples. Yeah, and now, while you were talking, I pulled up one of the old emails, the person who asked the question was Ron struss, somebody who listens to both our podcasts, so he posed that question to you and I right, but yeah, and you and

[00:54:45] You had the answer because I had, like my, my answer. I think I’m not exactly, it’s been a while ago, but I think my answer was basically like: well, refer to the manufacturer’s recommendations, look in the manual for the airplane that’ll tell you what, what the torque requirements are, or speed requirements or whatever, and then match that up to the servo manufacturers specifications. And then, and then you- I thought you provided the in-depth detail as far as a servo selection and theory, and I mean it went. It went very deep. Okay, we’ll have to dig through the old

[00:55:20] Emails and see where it turned out, but I want to say it in the end I still feel like there was a lot of, because it feels good it was part of the answer. Yeah, and I honestly that’s what I do most of the time. Like a lot of my models. They get an h, a high-tech hs-55, because that’s what I put on airplanes- the size- and they’ve always worked so right. Why wouldn’t it now? Yep, yeah, go with what right, and if it’s particularly fast, maybe I’ll consider a higher torque servo or something else.

[00:55:54] But right, yeah, it’s just. Yeah, the article. The article went into to control surface loading and how that changed with airspeed. I mean it was like a this in-depth thing that was really interesting reading, only to come to the conclusion at the end is: yeah, just put in the standard servo, don’t over, don’t.

[00:56:13] Over servo it. Yeah, yeah, all right, right, was this the one where the author of that article had made a jig that he mounted on a pickup truck? Exactly, measure, that’s okay. Yeah, yeah, and I, yeah, and I think.

[00:56:26] You found that article actually and submitted that as part of the conversation, but it was just interesting and I thought maybe we could talk about it, but my memory is sorry to disappoint. No, that’s okay, my memory is failing also and I’m maybe I’ll prepare better next.

[00:56:43] Time? Yeah, but as often as that decision is made on a daily basis, it is a relatively undocumented thing. It’s a really is a black art that you just do it because either the manual says to do it or right, like I said, I, I’ve done it on the last 50, so of course it’s going to work. Sure, and the problem

[00:57:04] Is you ask five feet or five different people what they would use you get five different answers.

[00:57:08] Yeah so yeah you want to go to an overpowered servo situation I was supplied with a high-tech 645 mg.

[00:57:14] For a throttle servo on a repair job oh that’s a little overkill a little bit I don’t know servos and I.

[00:57:21] Even know that. Well, dave, you have to overcome the, the drag and the linkage, because not everybody sets up their throttle servo. I kept digging through the bag of stuff. He.

[00:57:30] Brought me it’s like where’s your throttle servo oh yeah it’s it’s that one that’s in there it’s like.

[00:57:34] You sent me a 645 yeah okay I’ll put it in there wow and often the right servo was the.

[00:57:42] One you have yeah that’s where I’m at that’s kind of where I am too like I don’t know I like cheaper.

[00:57:49] Servos, but I don’t want to get bit so well. It’s interesting you say that because to me the bigger question that should be asked is: do I go name brand or do I go amazon slash hobby king? Well,

[00:58:01] We sort of learned our lesson with amazon servos. I feel like we learned a lesson. I do too. We did we. We chose some amazon standard size servos that were rated well, that were yeah, they had good reviews and they would not well. Of the six that I bought, five of them would not center of the.

[00:58:18] Eight that I bought. Eight of them would not center. Yeah, so lesson learned. Yeah, yeah, and they were different brands, like we bought different brands too because we wanted to try something different, but I think they were all. They had different labels. But I’m, yes, they really sure they were the exact same servos. But what’s your thought on that one terry on the park flyer side stuff?

[00:58:39] I’m a little bit more flexible on it, like if I don’t usually buy the no-name cheapo stuff, but because I do a lot of swap meets and things like that, I still get a bunch of them in my hands and that’s fine, I’ll use them and in my experience they’re either good when I get them or they’re dead when I get them. I haven’t seen much difference in them dying sooner than the name brand servos, but there’s just a higher percentage of dead ones on arrival. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and at that size, the risk of

[00:59:13] Going bad is much lower than on a larger airplane that’s using a standard size sir yeah so I’m often.

[00:59:19] Willing to take that risk. Sure, yeah, see, and that’s where I kind of am like: okay. So we were talking about the big yak I have before I’m in the. Okay, tommy always makes funny for this. I left it out in my trailer. I built a small trailer a long time ago, wasn’t sealed very well, it sat outside for a few years and had a little bit of water damage. So where I am now is trying to decide how do I want to bring this back to being able to be flown. What servos do I want to use, as in the ones that are?

[00:59:51] In the jr 87 11s are great servos, but horizon doesn’t actually work on them anymore, so they won’t check them out, they won’t go over them for me, which sucks, by the way. And so now I’m trying to figure: do I stick with those- that, yes, I can bench test them and see if they work, which they do- do I trust those? Or do I spend two 250 bucks on each servo when I need eight of them? I wonder what diagnostics would they do on that anyway. Well, I had to send one in a while ago. This had been

[01:00:24] Several years ago. Obviously, when they worked on them and whatever diagnostics they ran, they figured out something was wrong with I think it was the board, if I remember right. But they ended up just replacing all of the internals for me for nothing. No charge, nothing. Oh, that’s nice yeah.

[01:00:40] I’m kind of curious too. Do they put it on an oscilloscope and run it through a range of motion? Yeah, I don’t, yeah, I wouldn’t know. Well, like how would you? I would be interested in knowing what they actually do to a servo. That would be a good question. We should ask sometime. We will someday.

[01:00:56] One of these days. Well, for me, I’m typically I’m gonna put a server on a servo tester and if it centers and if it doesn’t slip when I put resistance against it, it’s, it’s good to go see. That’s, that’s what.

[01:01:10] Tommy’s told me too that’s kind of how he does it and then he trusts them but man I just.

[01:01:15] I have a hard time doing that yeah but then again I’m not using 200 servos.

[01:01:19] So right, that’s a whole other. Well, I’ve never bought those, so those were used when I bought them. Because, yeah, the thought of spending that much money on single servo just makes me a little nauseous too for a toy that’s getting flung around in the air, right well. But I mean, do you need that?

[01:01:35] Much servo? I don’t know. It’s not like I’m flying. This goes back to that whole theory of how much servo is enough. You don’t 3d it. No, it’s not a 3d really. It’s not a 3d airplane. I don’t think it would be capable. So you’re not going to be putting the sort of loads like swinging a huge, huge control surface from full deflection one way to full deflection. You’re not going to be flying that way. So do you need that much servo? I don’t know. Would a high tech maybe 79 or whatever they are, 79, 85, whatever, for that are a hundred dollars less, would that suffice? I think it would.

[01:02:06] Probably so I mean anyway that’s the hill to cross when we get there exactly.

[01:02:10] Jerry, you said a couple things, though that have piqued my interest. Really quick, I want to bring up swap meets. Do you enjoy swap meets? Then I take it as much as we do. I do, yeah, I really do, and I’m.

[01:02:21] Lucky that I tend to be after the stuff that nobody else bats an eye on yeah could you like.

[01:02:27] The old dusty rex. Yeah, that’s kind of how tommy is too, me too. He goes in for the old nitro engines that like I look at it, I’m like, oh, that’s, it looks like every other one. He’s like, no, this is special, this one was made from 19. Blah, blah, blah. To blah, blah, blah. I mean that’s what you do. I mean you dork out and I do, it’s awesome. But it makes no sense to me. No, I get it, but yeah and so that’s kind of the cool thing. When you go to places like that where people literally go just to clean out their closets, their attics, and you can find a lot of. That’s the kind of stuff.

[01:03:01] I like to look for. Yeah, yeah, that’s the kind of stuff you want to put in your closet exactly. You have to be careful not to geek out in front of them. Yeah, and that’s that’s hard to do sometimes, especially when I see something really, really unique or something that I’ve maybe had when I in my youth. And here’s another one: it’s hard sometimes not to get excited.

[01:03:22] That’s. That’s where I fail. I mean, like when, when we went to ohio, you do a quick walkthrough to kind of see what’s there, right, I am terrible at that because I see something and I want to take it with me then because it might be gone later. Yeah, I mean, there’s always that risk it.

[01:03:40] Might you when you come back. It might be gone, but valid strategy. Yeah, yeah, I don’t know, but that’s also a good strategy not to go home with a car full of stuff, which we did, and that was awesome.

[01:03:52] And that was fun. I’m happy with that. I enjoy standing in the parking garage watching you guys figure out how to get that in there. Hey, we did. Yeah, we did. That was I couldn’t see out.

[01:04:00] The back window, but that’s okay what you’re talking about. Toledo, yeah, have you been to that one? I have not, so now that it’s kind of reborn, I really need to get there. Well, we should go next.

[01:04:11] Year so if you I’m just gonna warn you if you go and you run into guys he was gonna answer I said.

[01:04:17] We should go next year. I was trying to set a date, okay, oh well, as you asked, I was bringing up a, a browser, to see how far away it is, because, oh yeah, I’m not sure how much of a drive that is it’s.

[01:04:28] Probably not the same. Probably for you, is it? Maybe even less for you? For you what? I don’t remember what we are, we were at what? Nine ish. Does that sound right? No, it was six and a half. I was gonna say

[01:04:39] I thought it was under seven all right but yeah for him he’s gonna have to come down then over.

[01:04:44] Oh yeah he’ll probably have to go through chicago well I got seven hours and ten minutes.

[01:04:49] Oh there you go oh yeah fast boat or an airplane.

[01:04:54] That would make it a lot quicker it’s not that much further than us no so what I was going to say.

[01:05:01] Was. I’m going to warn you, terry, that if you go and you run into folks that have been there for the old toledo show, when it was the weak signals show, they will all tell you: well, it’s not what it was, but for us it was our first time being there and we had a blast. Oh, absolutely yeah. So now, granted, there weren’t as many manufacturers there doing their displays and trying to sell their stuff, but I still had a very good time when I was there. So, yeah, I had that same.

[01:05:30] Experience. I’ve been to both of the ama expos. When there were ama expos- okay, the one in new york and then the one near la- and I heard the same thing both times. Well, back in the 90s, you right couldn’t even stand in here, yeah, and yeah, I had sympathy with them for that, but I was still having a great time. So, yeah, I appreciate what’s still there, while recognizing that yeah,

[01:05:52] Maybe it was more back then. Yeah, well, from what I understood, back then with the toledo shows, it was more of a vendor showcase and less of a swap meet, whereas now it’s more, less on the vendor side of things, and there’s just so much stuff there swap meet wise, and that’s what I was going for. So, yeah,

[01:06:10] I was okay with that- yeah, me too, so- and I guess it had to go in that direction, because really the internet takes care of all the new product releases now, right, yeah, it’s kind of sad.

[01:06:20] But that’s kind of how things happen. Yeah, it’s instantaneous knowledge now, I mean as soon as something comes out, because you have an email, right, somebody’s telling you: hey, this is our.

[01:06:31] New yeah product that just came out yeah back when back well yeah I’m not I’m not gonna go down that.

[01:06:36] Road like I don’t even know what swap meets are around wisconsin is there anything big up there.

[01:06:42] I don’t know what’s big. So far I’ve been to an event in fond du lac, which is a little bit south of oshkosh, and that was a very big event. I was really surprised- that was about a month ago- lots of big warbirds and other stuff there. I didn’t participate in that, but I did go there and spectate and take some pictures and so I’m hoping to go back to that one next year as a participant. And most recently I went to a swap meet in oshkosh and it was on the grounds of the eaa museum there. Oh cool, yeah, they’ve got sort.

[01:07:14] Of a pavilion off to the side of the museum and nice little swap meet there I picked up a sailboat.

[01:07:22] Okay, yeah, well, rc sailboat, to be clear, sure that’s. Actually. I don’t discriminate. I went to rc for some. I did too. Yeah, right, so, and the house that I’m at now in wisconsin, we’re on a small lake. I don’t know, I don’t have a gauge for lake size, but I would guess it’s a couple acres, so a little small size thing, and so of course I need more rc boats to. Well, of course, right, what else have I been to? Actually, I went to a buddy of mine, lee ray from the show. He likes to haunt the online auctions.

[01:07:56] And he came across- I’ve heard of that state. Yeah, he came across an estate that was actually in wisconsin, not too far from me, that was just chock full of rc stuff. So he got me tuned into that and there was some stuff that he wanted and he’s like, if you’re willing to go get it, then I’m going to bid on this stuff and then when we meet up- meet up at oshkosh next summer- we’ll hand it off. And so he bid on some stuff and got it. And at the same time I bid on some stuff and I got some really neat things: the rare 90s and early 2000s electrics that I like. There was some of that in there and a big stash of

[01:08:32] Depron foam. Oh. So, yeah, hard to get stuff, yeah, yeah. So yeah, that’s another rc adventure I’ve been on. Since I’ve been here, oh, I went to another event in beloit, which I guess is near madison. So yeah, I’ve kind of, since I’ve been here, I’ve really tried to dive in and get involved with the stuff going on around here and just experience what there is to experience, because there is very much a building season and a flying season. Oh, yeah, yeah, trying to use every minute of

[01:09:06] Flying season that I can yeah I think we’re about done with our flying season now by the way.

[01:09:11] Tonight is supposed to be 25 degrees yeah I hate to hear that because I only have a few left on the.

[01:09:16] Spreadsheet to fly. Yeah, I’ve given up I’m not going to, but there’s like it’s been so windy lately. It really like it’s been ridiculous. Yeah, we’ve had like 25- 30 mile an hour winds here. I don’t know what’s.

[01:09:26] Going on with it disgusting to 30 yesterday was it yeah so going into building season what.

[01:09:32] Do you got on the bench? That’s a good question. So I mentioned that I just picked up some stuff at estate sale and swap meet. So I do kind of make a mental list of this is what’s coming next, and then this one’s after that, and then a new project comes in, a shiny new thing that somehow it jumps to the front of the line or what often happens is like: oh, this will, this will just take a minute. I’ll tighten these screws and swap the prop and all that. And then once you dig into it, you’re like, oh well, maybe I can do this and tweak it this way and it becomes a bigger deal. So to answer your,

[01:10:07] Question: one of the things that I picked up at that estate sale was an auto gyro and it had been flown and crashed and I’m making repairs on that. So I want to get that one airworthy, I would assume, to fly in the springtime. And also I’ve had this kit for an eindecker, a 100 inch wingspan eindecker.

[01:10:32] That was made by sr batteries dave just raised his eyebrows yeah that’s that’s the nice language yeah.

[01:10:40] Yeah, at the time it was a very sought after kit. They used a lot of carbon fiber, and late it was when stuff was first starting to be laser cut and anyway I’d managed to find one of those at an estate sale even when I still lived in houston. So I’ve been sitting on this thing for a long time, moving it from place to place to place. Yeah, so I really want to get that built and that one might be the transition from electric to gas. Yeah, I’m not sure yet it’s designed for electric, but a lot.

[01:11:11] Of people ended up going with like a 20 cc gasser on there. A lot is another 23s in those. Yeah, yeah, and I’ve got a Ryobi 26 cc, a weed whacker engine that had been converted to an RC airplane engine, so I- this may be the one that makes me pull the trigger on that- that would see. Yeah, that would be. That would be a.

[01:11:32] Great transition airplane to gas yeah and I’ve seen a lot of those they all fly very nicely.

[01:11:38] Yeah, I’ve never heard anybody say anything bad about right kit as a build or as a flying model, so I’m excited for it. It’s a 100 inch span with a- I forget what the cord is like- 14 inch. It’s a side of the way, yeah, yeah, yeah, and but it does break down. I think each wing panel comes off and so then you’ve got a, a big fuselage and then some fairly bulky wing panels. But I can still transport it. I drive a ford flex. It’ll still fit in that. Oh yeah, no problem. Oh yeah, I actually like those.

[01:12:08] That’s a lot of room in there for what they are the ford flight yeah kind of a boxy.

[01:12:13] Thing but people think volvo station wagons are cool too so I think there’s some people do yeah.

[01:12:22] I would drive a station wagon if, if they were popular still, yeah, I could see doing that. Actually I’d be able to fit more stuff in it. What’s that? I would do a vista cruiser, yeah.

[01:12:33] The family truckster yeah there you go yeah I actually drove a minivan for several years and you.

[01:12:40] Could pile a whole bunch of airplanes in a minivan. There is no shame in driving a minivan, especially if you’re in the in the model airplane hobby. I actually was gonna buy a minivan before I bought the car that I have now, just because, like the dodge, the chrysler minivans- yeah, with the stow and go, they’re nice, those seats go flat and you can literally fit an.

[01:13:02] Eight-foot piece of it’s still a minivan well yeah but that’s all I can say it’s just cannot bring.

[01:13:07] Myself to drive a minivan it’s an excellent airplane transportation vehicle and they get no.

[01:13:12] Matter how practical they are they’re still a minivan these guys what are the women at the flying.

[01:13:18] Field think they would think I am so cool all none of them so I drive a four-wheel drive minivan known.

[01:13:25] As an expedition but I can’t afford to drive an expedition that way too much gas but so but that’s.

[01:13:33] What I’m just.

[01:13:37] Nothing okay anyway yeah I know you guys are in illinois we are specifically where we are almost.

[01:13:45] Right, smack dab in the middle, we are springfield, illinois. Actually I’m just east of springfield, but nobody knows mechanicsburg, so I say springfield because we’re about. Well, I’m about 15 minutes.

[01:13:57] East of that so we’re 100 miles from st louis and 200 from chicago that’s what I was gonna say.

[01:14:04] We’re about three hours from chicago and two hours from st louis or so right okay so chicago’s.

[01:14:11] Our midway point I’m just over three hours from there okay yep so yeah we should find a swap meet.

[01:14:18] Or something in chicago absolutely yeah there’s I would think that’d be something wouldn’t they say.

[01:14:22] Charles is really active up there I bet they got something yep so yeah that’d be fun or like I said.

[01:14:29] If you ever make it a little bit farther south to brian’s right I think that’s a four hour drive.

[01:14:33] For me. I know I looked it up. Yeah, a little bit more. Yeah, a little bit more, well, a lot, almost double actually, or over double, for what it would take us. Yeah, it takes us about an hour and 45 to an hour.

[01:14:45] Or two hours right yeah with the trailer it takes me right at two hours so are you taking.

[01:14:51] I get to chicago every now and then so I need to figure out a way to extend the chicago stay and.

[01:14:56] Myself a round robin. Yes, yeah, I’m telling you will. You will not be disappointed. Yeah, like, if you like swap meets, you will love brian’s place. Yeah, and, like I said, seriously, if you make it down that,

[01:15:07] Way, let us know we’ll make a trip up, and yeah, for sure it’d be awesome to go there. Oh yeah, I always buy something when I’m there. You never know what you’re gonna walk out with. That’s true, right, yeah.

[01:15:16] And I realized not long after moving up here that I’m just a little bit south of balsa usa about an.

[01:15:21] Hour south so you’re not far from marinette are you oh I thought they were eau claire marinette oh okay.

[01:15:29] Yeah I think technically they’re michigan but upper peninsula which I’m only just now figuring all that out.

[01:15:36] Right, the youpers, yeah, up north, as they say up north, yep, pier de nord, yeah, it just came from up there. I had a weekend trip up in three lakes, wisconsin, so I’m kind of, oh, I don’t know where that is. So you do know where eagle river is, not a clue, okay. So eagle river is how about appleton? Where that’s at? Yes, that’s just a little bit south of me, okay. So well, if appleton is a little bit south of you, then three lakes is probably directly, I would say, west from you.

[01:16:09] Okay so appleton’s about 45 minutes south southwest of me oh okay yeah I’m looking.

[01:16:15] On a map here. But, yeah, all right. So you were in my neighborhood roughly, yeah, within a couple hundred miles probably, but anyway, like closer than that. But I love wisconsin. Yeah, it’s, it’s beautiful country, it’s.

[01:16:28] Been years since I’ve been up there actually yeah we went up and vacationed up there probably 10 15.

[01:16:33] Years ago and yeah it was very nice yeah all right yeah and the two months I’ve been here I really.

[01:16:38] Like it so what made you decide to go there as opposed to anywhere else well that sounded.

[01:16:45] Bad, but that’s not right. It sounded terrible. Without getting into too much detail, it’s the same thing that persuaded us to move from houston to lubbock, lubbock to buffalo and then buffalo to green bay. It’s my wife chasing her career goals and dreams. Oh, okay, yeah, I think we’re settled here for now, knocking on wood, yeah, but yeah, because you don’t want to move again. Yeah, right, right, and no sane person would. Yeah, right, but I do have a question for you guys, so I mentioned that now I’m a little bit north of.

[01:17:19] Oshkosh, and that’s something I’ve never been to, and now that I’m here, actually I moved here right after the eaa event this year, so I’m planning to go next year. Is that something that you guys have done?

[01:17:32] Or regularly do, have never done it and I really would like to. Yeah, it’s actually. Yeah, I- I don’t think any of the three of us have been to air venture, been very, very close, but, yeah, never actually made it. I know Reggie goes every year, yeah, and we’re actually, we, we were kind of toying with the notion of making a big trip up there for next year’s, next year’s show and I, I would really like to make that happen. Yeah, I mean, I’m looking at my compatriots here. I think that would be a

[01:18:03] Really good experience and I think it would be worth taking all of this up there and doing a show from there. I think it’d be really cool. Maybe I could see I’m trying to get Ron outside of his comfort zone. Yeah, he is. I want to take like he’s pushing. We’ve taken the show on the road exactly one time in the well, well, two over two years that we’ve been doing this. Now that was toledo. Well, no, no, I couldn’t even convince him to do that. We took the stuff with us and we didn’t end up recording. No,

[01:18:30] We there was something we didn’t have time we tried to but there was something going on that we didn’t.

[01:18:34] Have a chance to set up. I don’t know what it was. At any rate, the only sure, the only one we’ve done is that brian’s and I’m. I really think that it would be a lot of, it would be a hoot to take the show on the road to an event or to oshkosh, and actually record an episode, or even heck. Okay, broadcast it live. I think it would. I think, oh yeah, we do celebrate with live. I think all five would work fine. All five of our listeners might enjoy that. Okay, and I, for your benefit, I just

[01:19:05] Brought this up on maps. It’s a little over five hours for you guys to get up there and with a few twists and turns you could probably detour through Dynamic Balsa. Well, absolutely, of course you need.

[01:19:18] More motivation on the way home. Well, I, let’s be clear, I don’t need any more motivation, like I really want to go up there and I really want to take a show up there and but yeah, a side trip to, like you said, a couple of twists and turns with a, with a detour to dynamic balsas, like that’s.

[01:19:34] Kind of a given yeah I could see when is that by the way when is first week in august yeah.

[01:19:40] Oh, yeah, that’s, and usually up in wisconsin the weather is beautiful. It doesn’t get hot like up there, like it does down here. The humidity is I don’t know. I’m not like here. I mean, yeah, they may have had a few days in the 90s this year, but nowhere near the heat and humidity that we get down here, nor the, nor the stretches of time. I believe you. I’m just saying no, I’m, I would. If we want to do that, I’m in, like I would do that. Yeah, so, terry, I think we’re going to try to make that happen. Okay, good,

[01:20:08] So if somehow we’re all complete losers and we don’t find a meeting point between now and air.

[01:20:14] Venture, then that’s our backup plan. There we go. Yep, by that time, that should be our what third time meeting, or something like that. Right, I would hope so. Yeah, we’re so close now, it’s like we’re just.

[01:20:23] Driving across the street. Right, let me tell you that drive up 39 up to leonore does not get any easier. I’m just saying no, you’re right, it’s kind of boring. Boring stretch of road, yeah, I agree, but the destination is worth it. So, terry, this has been fun. I really enjoyed this. I can’t speak for everybody, but I really appreciate your input to the model aviation magazine I read. Like I said, I don’t read every episode or every issue, but when I see that it’s, that it’s.

[01:20:58] Written by you. I always, I always read it so and now I get to say I talked to this guy. Yeah, but anyway, I just wanted to say that I appreciate your input to that, to that magazine.

[01:21:10] Yeah, well, thanks. I appreciate the feedback and for anybody- anybody who’s listening and has ever considered writing an article of their own. There’s no magic to it. If you have an idea about something, shoot off an email to the editor. They’ll probably want you to write it. They are often starved for.

[01:21:28] Content, and there I have no special qualifications for this. I just one day said: hey, can I write an article about this? And they said: sure, so that’s as difficult as it is to get involved with writing.

[01:21:41] For the magazine. Yeah, well, obviously you have a. You have a very good mastery of the english language, which is something I lack, so but I’m sure if they’re, if they have decent editors.

[01:21:52] They can make it happen for just about anybody. Yeah, yeah, I would say so. I think the most important part is a good idea that you’re willing to share cool. Outside of that, they can pull together.

[01:22:07] The resources the good idea is the hard part sometimes though I mean I don’t know there’s a lot.

[01:22:14] Of times they just come to you, right? Yeah, I guess sometimes. Sometimes you’re probably terry, I’m talking to you. You’re probably sitting at the bench one day. You’re like somebody ought to talk about. Oh well, this is a good idea I should talk about. Maybe I’m not somebody, maybe I’m not somebody. I seem to know a lot about this. I’m just saying I don’t know if the thought of claiming

[01:22:37] Expertise on something ever crosses my mind because, like I mentioned before, mostly the things I write about are things that I knew nothing about but piqued my interest, so I decided to dig into it and learn about it. Okay, so usually when I write about something I’m regurgitating what I learned from other people. Every now and then it’s something that I kind of did the science on my own and did experiments and figured things out, but usually it’s I’m just the messenger. Well, that’s right, but you’re

[01:23:04] Assembling the message from sometimes a cluttered, maybe non-organized, come pile of information that you present in a manner that’s easy to digest. I agree, I hope you’re correct. Well, I think I mean, all the stuff I’ve read makes perfect sense to me. So, and like I said, I

[01:23:25] Enjoy your input so all right well thank you a very nice end to a very fun show yeah we’re.

[01:23:32] Definitely gonna have to work out a time and meet at brian’s because I terry I think you’ll love it.

[01:23:36] Yeah terry thank you very much for being on it was a blast I’ll give you the last word anything.

[01:23:42] You want to say thank you for inviting me that’s it this was fun to do even if it did.

[01:23:49] Take weeks to pull together yeah that’s that’s on my that’s on me all right yeah people get.

[01:23:55] Sick that’s okay yeah I’m glad we were all able to pull it together and get here on the same night.

[01:24:00] And chat about the stuff we love. Yeah, yeah, well, I appreciate it. Then, until next time. I’m Ron, I’m Tom, I’m dave and I’m terry. All right, good night. Good night, everybody. We hope you enjoyed this.

[01:24:12] 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.