Ep 109: Trevor Furlotte

[00:00:00] Hello everyone, welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I’m Ron and I’m Tom today. I’m sorry. I should ask you this before: how do you say your last name? Fur lot, fur lot, fur lot. Yeah, like a lot of fur trees. Well, I made that mistake before and I forgot to ask somebody and I pronounced his name wrong.

[00:00:17] At the beginning and oopsies which made me very happy. Yeah, yeah, I, I tend to notice that you, you just enjoy when he messes up. Yeah, we delight in each other’s failures. Yeah, for sure, my kind of, my kind of crowd- I was gonna say lots, I will give you lots to delight in. Most friends do so, that’s true.

[00:00:41] Okay, let’s get started. Hello everyone, welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I’m Ron and I’m Tom. Today we’re sitting down and talking with trevor. Oh boy, there we go. We were just talking about this trevor fur lot, is it? No, okay, oh, my god, for a lot it’s okay. So, hi, trevor, how you doing? Oh god, I’m awesome. Yeah, we only give ourselves two takes if we don’t get it on the

[00:01:18] Second one we’re just rolling with it so there you go yeah screw it we’ll do it live.

[00:01:24] So why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself, sure? So, as Ron did a horrible job saying my name is forever for a lot. I’m a school teacher, and soon to be a guidance counselor, in the province of new brunswick, canada. So for those are geographically challenged, that’s a province on the eastern part of the country, the atlantic canadian region. We actually border the state of maine, oh and yeah. So I’m a high school teacher by day and hobbyist by evening and weekend.

[00:01:58] The show has gone international folks yeah our first our first canadian guest well it seems like.

[00:02:04] Airplanes and internet up here I thought you just had bears and stuff so that’s awesome bears and.

[00:02:10] Mountains? Right, we have. We have bears and moose and I enjoy eating both. Nice, perfect. I don’t know, aren’t they kind of gamey? You got to go with a young spring bear. Yeah, it probably depends on how you prepare them. Yeah, sure, okay, it depends on the time of year and where, where the bear is at and what he’s eating and stuff. But the gaminess it. They’re a very fatty animal in the fall and of course meat’s flavor comes from fat. So a bear fat is not like a like a wagyu beef fat. Let’s just put it that way.

[00:02:42] Look at us getting off the tracks but that’s okay because I’m learning something that’s what we do.

[00:02:45] Just anyone who’s listening yeah to the to the podcast knows that’s how we roll there’s no.

[00:02:50] Tracks with airplanes. That’s the problem. Well, that’s true. So a teacher from up in canada? Yeah, yeah, I, I’ll admit I’m one of those geographically challenged. Well, I don’t, I am too like, I don’t know.

[00:03:04] Where all the provinces are and all that but I know where canada is well I know where canada is.

[00:03:08] Like I’m just well it’s like knowing where your hat is it’s on top exactly right exactly oh my god.

[00:03:15] And I have not been drinking. I swear like that’s. Maybe that’s the problem anyway. Yeah, so start yourself out, we’ll sort it out. Yeah, did you just throw a canadian thing at him? Well, I threw the.

[00:03:30] A reference oh wow is that okay then oh yeah no if he does if he doesn’t make the canadian jokes I will.

[00:03:38] Well, that’s good, because I don’t have a lot of them stick, stick with me. So, oh my gosh, airplanes. Yeah, trevor, how’d you get in the hobby like let’s go, let’s go way back?

[00:03:53] Like your first way back yeah your first memory I broke my arm okay let’s start with that yeah that’s.

[00:04:00] How I got in the hobby of rc. So I broke my arm and on a, on an atv and a honda big red, and my mother had a freak out, made me sell it with the money about my first hobby grade rc. That was at 13.. Fast forward to the age of 16. I walk into a hobby shop. I don’t have a driver’s license yet. There’s not even a help wanted sign in the window and I start yakking. I got the gift to gab and next thing they’ve offered me a job. Nice, so while I’m while I’m working at that hobby shop, my focus is

[00:04:31] Rc cars and off-road racing. But we’ve got it all in there. We’ve got plastics and we’ve got model trains and model airplanes and no one. There was no flying club in our area. No one really knew anything about it. I remember selling a mirage which was like a 550 brushed goldberg kit to a guy I went to school with. I don’t know if that ever got built, but at the back of the store was a carl goldberg super chipmunk and that box would just. I was captivated. Oh, that was my first memory of an RC airplane was seeing that box of that carl goldberg super chipmunk and the planes inverted.

[00:05:05] And there’s- I believe there’s- smoke system coming out of it and I was like you will be mine, oh yes, oh yeah, you will be. Yeah, it took a while. Really good job selling that airplane to thousands of people. I had one, they did, they did. I had one too. We’ll get to that, I’m sure, yeah. So then fast forward to university and I- I’m out of rc because high school happened. So sex, drugs, rock and roll, all that stuff, and who has time for toy cars and planes and stuff? But then I get into university and start.

[00:05:39] Calming down a little bit. And in my second year university I was missing rc. So for christmas I got a bunch of carpet oval stuff. And then I- and ironically I- bought the carpet oval stuff from a guy who was getting out of racing and into flying. Well, two years later I did that switch: I sold the carpet oval stuff and bought the plane stuff, and it was because, like I am all in all the time every waking moment, I just I’m into my hobbies when I’m not working on, like, multiple things on the go same time, and so, anyway, I couldn’t race enough to satisfy myself, right, okay? And when I went to

[00:06:15] The mall talking about exposure for the hobby right. The local club went to the mall and they set up kind of like a booth in the mall. They had their tables set up with airplanes on them and transmitters on display and a flight sim going and the club members were there asking questions. Well, a year later two of my models were on that table. Nice, all in. So I went to a swap, a swap meet, and I picked up- I believe it was a pt-40 with a radio that’s older than you, Tom, and like it wasn’t a craft but it

[00:06:48] Was. It was pretty old and was actually oh, I don’t know. I’m just throwing names out there trying to sound like I know what I’m talking about. That’s what I do. It works, it does. It was I, I think it was a. It was an older Futaba actually. So this flew until the. I never even got out of the training mode with it. There was a plastic clevis on it. The people who were helping me in the beginning didn’t know enough to really do a good pre-flight and sure enough the plastic clevis on the elevator failed and that was the end of that plane. But I mean, I got it for nothing. I, I think I was in.

[00:07:23] The air for 50 bucks, so whatever. Then I ended up picking up a car- goldberg eagle 2- and that first summer I burned more fuel in one summer than most guys were burning in three years. Oh yeah, and even as a university student, like my collection exploded. From 99 to 2002 I ended up with 14 airplanes, and I remember getting this airtronics- computer programmable radio. At the time I was a baller. You could put 10 models in this thing at once, right, yeah? So I found the cheapest compatible receiver.

[00:07:58] And I don’t remember if it was jr or not, it wasn’t aertronics, it was compatible. Remember back in the day like high tech and Futaba would work together, aertronics and something else would work together, but they weren’t all Ron as Ron’s like what. No, I was just like you guys. Just you, you talk, I’m.

[00:08:14] Just gonna sit here and no I know exactly what he’s talking about I know that’s what I mean that’s.

[00:08:17] Yeah, you could take a jr plug and you could plug it into a Futaba receiver. But you couldn’t take a Futaba j plug at that time and plug it into a jr receiver without shaving off the tab. And then the aertronics plugs were just wired completely different, so they wouldn’t plug into anything. So

[00:08:33] Anything. Well, there’s a, there’s a hack to that, and I had to do it recently with a plan I picked up. But so, anyway, I had I had. So I’m a university student living on a student loan and part-time job, but I still managed to have like four- at least four airplanes ready to fly at any time. And then the quick charger came out. Remember this quick field charger? What back in the day, Ron? Yeah, you had to know you were flying the next day. Right, you put your transmitter and your receiver batteries.

[00:09:04] On charge the night before they trickle charge at like 0.3 Of an amp or something. Anyway, it’s slow. Yeah, well, I had a buddy who was you never knew when he was available. When he’d call he’d be. I think he just kept his stuff plugged in 24, 7, I don’t know. But he called that I’m going to the field, you’re coming. So if I wasn’t working or in class I would drive out to the field. And this hobby co quick field charger took 45 minutes to charge, and so did my drive to the field. It was great. I’d plug it in this to the cigarette lighter, yeah, and, and by the time I arrived at the field my stuff was ready. So

[00:09:40] Perfect that was hey you were that was big time yeah you could be ready at 45 minutes notice.

[00:09:45] Right yeah oh man so the year that you walked into the hobby shop and got your job what.

[00:09:54] Year was that I would have been 91 I believe okay yeah so gold sticker era you probably know what I’m.

[00:10:02] Talking about. Then, yep, on the back of the transfers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, same, we had a another. Another ronda is clueless, by the way, when I. When I say stuff like that, now I know what you’re talking about, because we’ve talked about it on one of the other episodes. But yeah, it’s, it’s. It’s funny to me because I’ve been in it such a long time. It’s easy to forget that not everybody has been in it as long as I have, and so when I say those types of things, sometimes you get a look like: what the heck is this guy talking? Gold sticker, what are you talking about? What’s this old guy talking about? Yeah, yeah.

[00:10:32] It’s not just old guys. Okay, maybe it is anyway. So I discovered the podcast like within a couple of days of getting back into flying and immediately I’m so sorry about that. Hey, my podcast invented that joke. Oh sorry, I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes every. Every time a listener would say, oh, I listen, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. So, but what was really cool, and I mean, I pestered the heck of you.

[00:11:02] Guys, in the beginning, every time I was like it felt like I was emailing three times an episode when you guys would say something I could relate to. But and then Ron was like dude, we have a discord, this stop, go to the discord. I didn’t want to come off like that, it was. It was pretty obvious, I think.

[00:11:19] You could share this with everyone I think it’s awesome that he was able to pick up on that Ron.

[00:11:24] I did well how else do you do I mean spread the love so everybody can talk to you it’s awesome it’s.

[00:11:30] Perfect. I love it so, but what was cool about those, those initial episodes when I started listening, was you got. You got Tom, who’s just a few years older than I am, and Ron, who’s just a few years younger than I am, and so Ron is- is talking about new things I need to learn about, and Tom is talking about stuff that I remember from back in the day. So it was like the old and the new blended together while I’m trying to come in with my old knowledge and learn the new stuff. And what do you mean? Airplanes are made out of packing material. When did that happen? Yeah, oh man. So we don’t do that too.

[00:12:02] Much though around here yeah something new yeah exactly right so yeah so 91 is when that.

[00:12:12] Started okay so you brought up age then what year were you born 74. Oh let’s see so yeah Tom was I.

[00:12:19] Don’t even remember. Well, Tom was like 43, I think. I was born in 81. I was born in 1970, so see, I’m just kind of smack dab right in the middle. Right in the middle, see. Yeah, oh, if looks could kill.

[00:12:34] I’m sure I’m sorry yeah do you guys want to talk about what I was into when I was flying the first.

[00:12:41] Time. Yeah, we can do both. Like I want to hear the difference, because you got out of the hobby for quite a while, right? Yeah, so like, how long were you when he went to school? Yeah, when he was, yeah, but like how long were you out between, like I didn’t know if he, like he went to school and then came back a couple years later and then it’s been like, what’s the span of I quit? I start? It was almost exactly 20.

[00:13:01] Years. I graduated in june of or april. Yeah, probably graduated anyway. I graduated in 2002 and I sold off a bunch of stuff and brought home with me my eagle 2, my super chipmunk.

[00:13:21] And my carl goldberg extra 300 that I bought off of one of my mentors when I was flying there in frederickton where I went to university, and I bought it to restore it and refinish it. It needed to be recovered. I don’t know why, but he covered it in like a fabric covering. Have you ever seen an extra? You see patty flying through the air and now extra covered in fabric. What is that? That’s a cub thing, right? So that was all going to come off and it’s going to get monaco. And I picked up a sato 124 when I got home. I’m brand new to the career of teaching and there’s no club.

[00:13:57] Around stuff, so, yeah, so I sold it off and this. That was it. In 2013, though, I picked up a polecat and a dx5e, and so it had gone from 2002 to 2013, and I tried this polecat. The polecat, for those that don’t know, is a umx. They didn’t even call them umx then. They just called them park zone ultra micro. This predates as AS3X, this predates safe, and it was too much for me. I flew it twice, and

[00:14:31] I crashed it twice and the second time I crashed it I damaged it. I ordered the replacement parts and was doing a little bit of reading on rc groups and it talked about needing a special glue and I was like nuts to this. I put it sat in the box, the transmitter went back in the box, the e-flight charger that charged four 1s batteries at a time, that all went back in the box. So when I got back into flying recently I got that- one of the, the, the guy who got me back on flying, and that’s cool story too. He repaired it and we flew it successfully not long ago, but it was initially.

[00:15:08] Basically Ron it was 20 years I flew again for the first time may 1st 2022 well since yeah.

[00:15:18] So you’ve got like three weeks in right now from when we’re recording yeah awesome yeah it’s.

[00:15:25] Gotten out of control quickly. It always does. It does, yeah, it can. It’s funny how it sneaks up on you too. Yeah, like when we ask your number, like how many airplanes you have, it will shock you. Like it won’t shock us because we know, like because it’s they accumulate and it’s like they reproduce in the rafters when you’re not watching, but, like the to the person who is admitting their number, it’s always a shock to them when they finally see that number. I didn’t know I had that many. Yeah, when did I absolutely? How did this happen? Yeah, and then you go on sprees where you

[00:15:58] Just yeah there just seems to be months at a time where all you do is buy airplanes like Ron lately.

[00:16:03] I, I have been. I mean it’s yesterday. My buddy, my buddy red, stopped by. He was a racer who I’ve gotten into flying. He, he said: congratulations, a week has gone by, you haven’t bought a plane. I’m not sure, I’m not sure we should celebrate that, right? Yeah, okay, are you all right? Right? My wife came up to the man cave this afternoon. She said: this looks like an airplane daycare. What’s, what’s happening? All these, all these little baby foam planes on the ground look like they’re on a mat.

[00:16:34] Having a nap or something. Oh, that’s so funny, yeah, yeah, I know the feeling like looking around here it’s the same thing. Yeah, this well, but I don’t know. Yours is more like an er, I think. Oh, wow, are.

[00:16:49] There triage between different? Yeah, because you’ve got the a10 over here that’s been in that condition for a while. You’ve got the, the big lazy b over there and I mean you go and it looks like an er. It looks like they’re in various stages of resuscitation. I’m just gonna let you go and see.

[00:17:07] How long you can go on about how lazy I’ve been I get it oh don’t worry when he’s done it’s my turn.

[00:17:14] All right have at it I’m just gonna sit here.

[00:17:18] No, I’ll go easy this time. All right, so trevor, like so we’ve got the back story, so we know how long you’ve been in the hobby and so you said you meant you touched on a something that was you said was really good story about somebody getting you. The guy that got you back in right, so his name is.

[00:17:37] Russ and he’s my high school history teacher and you’re a high school history teacher, my high school history, so that’s a ways back. Yeah, graduated in 94, so he was. He’s just a phenomenal guy and

[00:17:55] Super smart, super nerdy into anything that has to do with tech, like he was the guy that ran the av club back in high school, which I was not a part of, and he’s a bit of a musician, and so we- we run this indoor rc track in the winter time. Well, he showed up randomly out of the blue and he and he took some video and stuff and he’s like trevor, for some reason I seem to think you used to fly, so I must have told him this once upon a time. Maybe he told me because he so he was my high school history teacher.

[00:18:29] And then he became a colleague, okay. So possibly he was telling me about a drone one day, I don’t know how it happened. He, he, he had this vague memory that I told him I used to fly airplanes. Okay, so I said, yeah, absolutely. So he shows me this video on his phone of him flying a umx night vapor inside one of our local schools theater. So there he is on the stage flying this night vapor around the seats and up and down the aisles and stuff. Well, a week later I was in that same theater with him flying my own.

[00:19:04] Yeah, with a night vapor. Yep, with my own night vapor. That’s awesome, and yeah, and then it wasn’t long after that. What do I get? So I thought I used to fly some pretty cool models back in the day. Yeah, I had some biplanes and I had the extra and the ultra sports 60, which we have to talk about. That, yes, yes story. Yeah, I want to hit that one. So I thought I’m not going to make the same mistake I did with the polecat. I overestimated my skills and crashed it. So what I’m?

[00:19:38] Going to start from. It’s been 20 years, I’m starting from scratch, so I bought an apprentice right with all the ridiculous technologies that are now including these packing- yeah, packing material planes, and so I flew. I flew outdoors for the first time on may 1st and my first flight was 100 safe mode and my second flight was intermediate. My third flight, I turned that, turned it all off, yeah.

[00:20:07] It hasn’t come back on since right so what do you so like apparently like us you think the safe mode.

[00:20:12] Has its place. It does have a place, like. It depends on whether or not you- yeah, it’s not something you’re going to use forever, right, exactly right, I mean, but some people do. The guy like I mean, god bless them, russ hasn’t progressed. He’s got, he’s got- some beautiful models. I can talk crap because he doesn’t listen. He’s got some beautiful models. He’s too afraid to fly, yeah, yeah, and because he- he, Ron- has a couple of those man, yeah, but Ron knows how to fly and Ron doesn’t rely on safe mode.

[00:20:45] It’s good to have the don’t fly in the dirt button, don’t get me wrong. Like I did use it one time on my first flight with the apprentice and I’ve- I don’t know russ- is convinced that I would have recovered on my own. But I didn’t need to find out. I had my finger riding that switch and boom, I pulled the trigger on it. Next thing the plane is straight and level. But I’ve never used it since right, and I mean things got. Things got progressed really quick. Like a couple of days later I was flying a carving a park zone carbon cub and then I bought the e-flight ultimate 2 and now I’m

[00:21:20] Boring holes in the sky with that thing that’s a so much fun well but you also weren’t starting.

[00:21:25] From scratch. So I mean, like you have flown before so you kind of knew, yeah, it was. It was kind of just getting back in the saddle and trying to remember and bringing all that muscle memory back. So if you had never flown before, you would have probably flown with safe, maybe a little longer, maybe. I

[00:21:40] Would think so we’re gonna see how. Yeah I got, I got reg into it. He races with me now. He bought a timber x but we kind of said, put that on the shelf for a little while, even if it is in safe mode. And russ donated an aeroscope that’s been crashed more times than Reggie has crashed- not possible. It took him and his wife three trips to recover all the parts after one particular crash. Like this thing. That’s impressive. It is impressive and what like. So comparing the aeroscope and

[00:22:11] The apprentice. The apprentice in safe mode flies around better, but when you go into expert mode, that aeroscope- I’m doing outside loops with an aeroscope. Who does that? Like? Well, I guess I do, but I’m sure other thousands of other people do too, but I had no idea it was so capable. Yeah, it will do I, it will exceed my, my skills. I’m sure it’ll win more capable hands. It’ll do even more neat stuff. But I’m I’m doing snap rolls and, like I said, I’m flying around doing figure eight inverted with it and

[00:22:42] Outside loops and russ is looking at it going it’s never done that before.

[00:22:49] So are you sure it’s designed to do that? That’s right. So did you mean to do that? Yeah so. And then I picked up two cubs, followed me home one day, so I gave one of those to reg. So we’ll see how reg progresses, learn, having never flown, starting off on safe mode. And then I got another guy I raced with, but in his case, though, you’re gonna love this Tom. We got him a four channel nitro powered trainer, like it’s 1999, right, that’s how he’s gonna start buddy box and the whole nine.

[00:23:21] Yards. Good for him. Does he race nitro also? Yes, okay, some, there’s a correlation there, right? I mean, because I, yeah, I’ve noticed that guys that start flying, if they’ve been racing nitro they generally sort of stick with that theme, and if they’ve only raced electric, then they usually stick with.

[00:23:38] Electric if you can, if you can deal with nitro, and nitro is not bad, like if you learned it on a car. Going to an airplane is easy because airplanes- yeah, airplanes are so I mean, they’re not as exact as a car is, because you don’t need that power right away and there’s, there’s so much more forgiving.

[00:23:53] Now they are. Yeah, I thought the nature, I mean you. You, it’s been said on the show before, and I agree with it, that nitro buggies are a little more finicky than nitro airplanes as far as holding a tune and stuff. Yeah, when I got into racing, nitro a friend of mine that I race with is like oh good, you used to fly nitro airplanes, you can help me tune my engine. I’m like I don’t think it’s the same man, but I mean like there are guys out there don’t understand what their needles do, that they control the flow of fuel, not air, and right, so anyway, yeah, yeah. So do you fly with a club out there, trevor? No, we don’t have.

[00:24:28] A club in this region just like before oh and I like I’m back you should start one well.

[00:24:35] Eventually. Maybe we’re actually no, for real. We’ve got two places to fly where we can’t necessarily maybe bring on. We’re all we’re. We’re pulling a Reggie in a couple of places and so we don’t want to draw too much attention to ourselves. Yeah, I’ll tell you what it is like. There was a pay. It’s a mill town and the paper mill is gone and there’s nothing left but where the paper mill once stood. But it’s, it’s far enough from the town and we fly with our back to the town, facing the ocean and the appalachian mountains. It’s a beautiful spot and it’s got to be- I don’t know- 400 yard.

[00:25:12] Road that was used for trucks to get from one side of the mill to the other, so I went in there with a gas-powered leaf blower, cleaned off our paved runway, so now we have an asphalt runway that’s awesome to use. Yeah, yeah, are we trespassing? I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer. I just know that there’s a hole in the fence and so that’s where we fly. You didn’t put the hole there, did you? Yeah, no, we don’t want to know, officer, it was like that when I got here. I swear: yeah, the other spot is the high school.

[00:25:43] Soccer field oh okay oh yeah that’s great for smaller things yeah especially yeah well smaller things.

[00:25:49] That’s that’s where I remade into my ultra sport okay well I mean what it’s whatever we.

[00:25:56] Can get away with I guess yeah well here’s it’s canada it’s like different like everything’s like.

[00:26:00] Left-handed up there or something I don’t know right, and as long as the moose doesn’t cross the field. Exactly hey, I, I’ve actually chased a moose off a playground once during recess. That’s a true story. That’s a true story, canada. Yeah see, we just worry about deer here, so I can’t imagine.

[00:26:16] Yeah, well, moose are like deer, but they’re like four times the size, right? Well, yeah, I mean like they will really mess your car. Hey, I’m gonna ask a really stupid question. So here in the united states we have the ama, right, we have the official sanctioning insurance. Does canada

[00:26:33] Have something similar. Yeah, of course we got mac model aeronautics association of canada, oh okay, and they don’t have any lobbying power, like the ama does I mean? It’s just, I mean you got 335 million people, we have 35 million people, right? So we? We just don’t have the political will or entities or lobby groups, different political system, so sure, ama gets told by the transport.

[00:27:03] Canada who does all the flight rules. This is how it’s going to be, and go tell your members: yeah, we say yes, if it pleases the crown, we will. Yeah, okay, okay, that would be yeah, yeah, so, yeah. So I mean, go ahead. They do all the same stuff. They do the promotion of the hobby. They list all the fields. They tell you how to make your field sanctioned and registered. They provide us for their liability insurance. It’s the same exact thing as the ama, without the political power or governing lobbying power.

[00:27:36] Right so which leads to my next question do you need that lobbying power like for example drone.

[00:27:41] Drone pilots a-holes are everywhere and they’re causing the same problems here too don’t get me.

[00:27:47] Started. But yeah, like here, here in the states we have the faa, who is sort of the, the governing body. That’s kind of coming down on the hobbyist. Do you have a similar with us? It’s.

[00:27:59] Transport canada. Okay, so you all right, okay, well, that’s unfortunate. Yeah, I’m sure it’s the same about everywhere, unfortunately. Yeah, well, in north america anyway, I mean, right, our policies here, our systems and your systems are we got mcdonald’s too? Yeah, you guys have running inside water up there, as not inside, it runs from the, from the glaciers, and I don’t know how you’re doing this without

[00:28:24] Electricity that’s amazing yeah that’s right he’s on the bike he’s spinning the hamster the horse on.

[00:28:31] The trip the horse on the treadmill our polar dip happens in july not january but okay so we pay.

[00:28:39] Obviously, like I said the, the stuff is the same with ama and your. You said mac or whatever it was. What’s the like cloud? Then you join your, your mac. What’s the cost of like your insurance do?

[00:28:53] It was either 80 or 100, I can’t remember. I just renewed they. They still have my original number from back in 99, so I just click a switch and get it turned on. That’s nice, I have.

[00:29:04] My original number from. I’m not going to mention, but yeah, I still have my original ama number. Oh, that’s so funny, it’s so. Besides, it’s more than it’s five. It starts with a one, though it starts with a zero. Actually I’m just teasing. So, other than russ and Reggie, do you have a group of guys that you, generally speaking, like to prefer to fly with? I mean, it sounds to me like you pretty much fly with anybody you can get convinced to come and fly with you, but yeah, it’s like dating. Yeah, in the last three,

[00:29:40] Weeks. Have you found a big group of people to fly with? No, so what I’ve done is I’ve reconnected with some of the guys who are, who are still around from the original club. I was actually an instructor and a vice president at that place when I left. After, after just a couple of years, you burn more jugs or more fuel in one year than most guys do in three years. You, you move up the ladder pretty sure. So, yeah, so some of those guys are still around, and so I reconnected with some of

[00:30:11] Them to pick their brains and get suggestions and help. And then we’ve got a guy, who he is. He’s just renowned as being I, what it’s like, right, you need a prop here, the prop. You give the prop back next time you see him. What hobbyists are like? Everybody’s always willing to help and all that stuff, right. And this guy never met him before in my life. Russ knew him. Russ had met him in person a few times and after just chatting with him online for well, I mean, look, I’ve only been

[00:30:43] Doing this a couple of weeks. Right next thing, I’m over at his house and he’s helping me rebuild some, some damaged models and I’m going home with some models. Ross walked out with a beast- oh, he got that. The biplane, oh yeah, oh yeah, the big one. Or the umx one, no, no, no, the real one. Oh yeah, the big one, the hangar nine, really, oh yeah, he’ll never fly it jealous. I haven’t one of those since they come out. I’m going to go over with a hundred dollars more than.

[00:31:13] He paid cash and just go listen. Yeah, you’re not going to, you’re not going to fly it. I know you’re not going to fly it. I’ll fly it. There you go now. Are you talking about the, the 60 size or the full 100 cc one? It’s got to be the full 100 cc. Oh wow, it’s the hangar nine. Yeah, I have always I’ve, I’ve, wanted one of those. It’s almost flirt with giant scale, like it’s. It’s yeah, yeah.

[00:31:36] Actually that would be I think what’s considered it’s imaa legal yeah it’s giant scale here yeah.

[00:31:41] Yeah that’s incredible do they put a percent on it is that would this one be measured and it’s not like.

[00:31:46] It goes by wingspan I think and 80 inches or bigger as giant if I 81 okay so 81 inches are.

[00:31:54] Bigger as giant scale. But there’s an exception for biplanes, oh, is there? Yeah, I can’t remember what it is, but yeah, that one’s still pretty big though that’s so yeah. So yeah, hangar nine did three versions of that right. So they did the umx, the foamy, they did a 60 size, and when I say 60 says I’m talking like a 62 stroke size. So the top wing: 60 ish, 54, 60 way, yeah, somewhere. And it was electric too. Yeah, you could do electric. And then they had the beast, 100 cc, which is like I think the wingspan is at least 80.

[00:32:22] Inches on the top wing oh I would think so they’re huge that’s not that’s not what he has then okay so he’s.

[00:32:27] Got the 60 size then yeah still an awesome airplane I would love to have one of those oh.

[00:32:32] That’s what I would love to have one of those that’s like the only biplane I would like to own a beast.

[00:32:36] Yeah, because you like the red and black and silver. I know there’s something about that color combination that just gets me, I don’t know why. So in the trevor, in the three or so weeks that you’ve been back flying and you can reach back farther if you need to do. You have a favorite crash story, because we love.

[00:32:52] Crash stories. Let me cut you off on that. Just I’m sorry, just really quick. So the, the 100 cc beast is only 89 inch wingspan 89 inch. Okay, I thought it was bigger than that. I really did what’s a biplane?

[00:33:03] They’re generally speaking yeah and it’s and the beast is a small biplane even at one-to-one so right.

[00:33:07] Yeah, it was. I should say it was based off, based off of a piss, which is really small. Yeah so, yeah, yeah so yeah. Should we talk about crash stories? All right, yeah, sorry about that, let’s.

[00:33:19] Do it no I thought I had written this one down it may be my.

[00:33:31] Second crash- not the one with the, the pt-40 thing that I picked up, that didn’t last and I may even have died on the first day. You’re lucky, what I’m lucky. I don’t have a lot of crashes. Well, that’s really good. I mean, yeah, the one that sticks out for me, the good for you. Yeah, oh yeah. Like I can definitely tell you on one hand, and still have a thumb left over, how many times I’ve crashed, but now that means that I crashed that ultimate the other day with us.

[00:34:02] Because apparently these batteries die and you’re supposed to land before that happens or you lose control. Well, there is that. Yeah, yeah it, it survived. Okay, it just won’t protect you from a dead battery, that’s for sure. No, it sure won’t. Yeah, so I’m up. So no one told me that trainer aircraft aren’t constructed to withstand geese and aerobatics. Yeah, especially the ones that have rubber banded wings.

[00:34:32] Yeah, which my, the one on my workbench right now, will not, but anyway. So I go up and picture a really like picture- helen keller doing a hammerhead, okay, that’s what it looked like. And as I’m coming down with the train, yeah, as I’m coming down, I’m doing, I’m pointed straight at the earth and I’m doing- I’m not doing a spin, I’m doing a roll, because I don’t know how to do a spin yet, right? So I’m pointing straight at the, at the, at the field, and I’m holding full l Ron and I’m just rolling. And then one of

[00:35:06] My wings, decides to nope out, it’s, I’m out of here. It takes off, it leaves the airplane, it ejects from the airplane and I just put the radio on the ground and cross my arms and watch, watch, luckily, because that’s all you can do really at that point, right? Yeah, well, I called your buddies. You don’t want them to.

[00:35:22] Yes right exactly pull the throttle back so it happens slower at least so you give them time.

[00:35:26] To see exactly. Yeah right, you’d be considerate. So it had rained for days and the ground was saturated and soft. So the eagle, two nose, dived into the field. Prop gone, spinner gone. I don’t think the firewall was pushed back. If I recall now the front of the plane was pretty banged up and needed some shaping and some fill and stuff, but I’m like it survived so incredibly well because I basically

[00:35:57] Crashed into a sponge and some club member had an eagle wing, eagle, two wing- on a shelf in their garage somewhere or in the rafters covering didn’t match, didn’t care, yeah I, yeah, I recovered the. The fuselage threw that wing on and I was back in the air probably in like three days or something nice, so all right. So let’s talk about this ultra sport. Yeah, okay, so this is a really cool story.

[00:36:25] I, and the reason I know that is because you were in 16 emails, yeah. So no, it’s. It’s a great story and I love it, and I think our listeners might like this, because it can’t be the only time this has.

[00:36:37] Happened, so go ahead. I’m sorry. No, it’s fine. So I bought this ultra sport after my probably in my second year flying and it belonged to a local club member and he had built it, done some weird modifications to it at one time and had a tail wheel actually built into the rudder. He took the landing gear off of the wings and put it up onto the fuselage in front of the wing.

[00:37:05] He always did this with all of his planes. He put this heavy duty wire gear on them. I don’t know if he was flying off of some field somewhere other than our club. That was extremely rough, but he did this modification- all his, all of his planes. So it looks very unique and kind of like an ugly duckling. But anyway I had a SuperTigre g60 on it. I bought a tune pipe for it which unfortunately I never got installed, and when I graduated and left town I sold it to a young guy in the club with the engine.

[00:37:37] That servos, everything I don’t know anyway. So a couple. So I sold that one and I left. So that was in 2002 and I have a picture, a couple of photographs taken at the field, of me holding this plane. And I’ve had these photographs in a, in an envelope that you get them back from the photo lab right all this time, me standing there at the field holding this, holding this ultra sport 60. And last year I was on some rc.

[00:38:08] Facebook group and this guy, ram nickel, says this is the same trevor that used to be the vice president of flying club in fredericton. I’m like, yeah, he goes. I still have your ultra sport. Like, really, that’s amazing. He goes and guess what? I’ve never actually flown it. You were the last person to fly. It’s been in storage and I moved around this hellhole atlantic canada about five times and I’ve drug it with me everywhere I’ve gone. I was like that’s an awesome story. I’m glad you still have my airplane fast forward to may 1st. And then I’m like, okay, I’m back in airplanes. I wonder. So I see him in a group.

[00:38:42] He’s now racing drag, drag cars to rc dragsters, year 10 and stuff like that. So I reach out to him I’m like, hey, man, you still got my ultra sport. He goes. Yeah, yeah, I do. I was like, all right, you’re getting into rc cars and stuff, I will trade you team associated sd 6.1 For that plane and he goes. Well, if you want that plane, I also have a goldberg cub with a clipped wing and a full length wing and I also have a 25 size mustang that unknown make manufacturer. I don’t even know you want them.

[00:39:16] All I’m like: do I? Yeah, so it’s better I go down there and my ultra sport looks like the day I gave it to him, essentially, only he’s lost the canopy somewhere along the way. After 20 years, I guess you can excuse that, yeah, and then he says: what about these engines? And he throws down a bag of vintage weber engines and some of them are sold. They actually say: made in austria. No, before austria it was germany. Right, really, it was germany, then austria, or austria then germany. Okay, whichever one.

[00:39:46] Makes it older. I think it’s germany, yeah, germany, then austria. So I got- and it’s a european engine when it says 10 centimeter, yeah, 0.60, Right, yeah. So I got two of those. Plus I got a speed 60, which was a just a crazy fast engine back in the day, like it would be a great engine on the ultra sport. Oh yeah, so these I’m like okay. Well, how much you want for the engines, he goes, I’m giving them too. They’re seized. Oh, they are, are they okay? If you say so, the motor on the mustang is fine, he said.

[00:40:17] He put after run oil and it turns over the motor on the ultra sport, which is a SuperTigre g60 and SuperTigre engines are amazing engines. They were always strong, good quality engines, especially when they were made in italy, I don’t know, and then they went overseas, I guess, but these are amazing, yeah. So for all these planes, I gave them that truck and 150 bucks.

[00:40:41] Yeah, so the ultra sport, of course, is the priority. So I get it all squared away: take the engines off, all these things. Somebody actually gave me a test stand, so, yeah, I got every one of those engines unseized with. The recipe for unseizing a nitro engine is 250 degrees for 20 minutes in your wife’s oven when she’s not home. It’s important to do it when she’s not home, yeah, when she’s not home, yeah. And then she donated a toaster oven and told me to bake my, my engines in the basement from now on, because I think another one, not really.

[00:41:13] Not too long ago so yeah I flew that ultra sport just the other day for the first time since.

[00:41:20] In 20 years. Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah, I think that’s an awesome story. Like, if I could go back 20 years and get an airplane that I had 20 years ago, I think that would be just that’d be amazing. Yeah, like.

[00:41:32] I’m not very nostalgic, but like I got some of the original rc cars I had when I was a kid- but they’re not my personal ones. I do have one of my bodies from one of my oval cars and I bought the car that I used to race back in the day and I put my body on it, so that’s cool. But man, I have one of my personal airplanes that I flew the first time I was in the hobby, that’s, and

[00:41:53] It’s a heck of a plane too. Yeah, oh yeah, it’s a great flying airplane. That’s that’s. I think that’s a great story. Yeah, I like stories like that. I have my first rc touring car and I have my first rc f1 car too, and a cabinet downstairs, so I’m nostalgic about that kind of stuff. Yeah, so I understand.

[00:42:11] Yeah, and everything had to be right. I mean, it’s irreplaceable, exactly. Even if I, even if I find a kit on ebay, it’s going to cost me like I’ll have to take out a mortgage. So well, with the price of.

[00:42:23] Balls of these days yeah though which brings me to my next question do you prefer to build or do you.

[00:42:26] Prefer to fly. I hate building so much. Fair enough, look, man, there’s something about cutting sticks and gluing them together. It’s not natural. I’m not saying that planes should be made out of packing material, but

[00:42:42] I will, I will build. And there are worse things to do with your time, like go to the proctologist or the dentist or something. But nice, I, I. For me, building is a means to an end. I want to get it. I. I don’t mind wrenching on a car and tuning your car and adjusting my cars for racing, but not look, oh god, I, I, I didn’t. And I don’t remember balsa dust being like. I feel like a like. I just came out of a coal mine. I’ve been coughing all afternoon. Next time I’m going to go down there, I finally, finally use for those silly covet masks I don’t know where- one of those ones they do actually work pretty well.

[00:43:15] Really well for that. Yeah, you don’t realize how much that gets into your lungs until you’re trying to sleep that night, and then you’re like, oh, that’s true, that’s what I’m coughing about. Yeah, so

[00:43:25] So that probably leads into the next question I mean kit r for ready to fly obviously you’d.

[00:43:30] Probably prefer ready to fly. I’m guessing most of the ready to flies though aren’t, aren’t kind of what I want. What I mean? Some of the new arfs- you look at some of those hangar line arfs. Oh man, they’re nicely finished. Back in our time arfs came covered in sticky mac tac type material like that easy sport 40 I had. Like, oh man, I was so happy when I ripped all that stuff off and covered it MonoKote. Yeah, I was excited to talk to you about the easy sport too.

[00:43:58] Because, as that’s what we got for lori to build for her first airplane, and it’s covered in MonoKote, not that, whatever that shelf paper is or whatever that- yeah, the early ones were covered.

[00:44:08] In that stuff and then the later arfs were covered in MonoKote. I mean, I’ll build. Right, I’m to build this winter. I’m building a carl goldberg ultimate. Now, I’m like you, I’m a big fan of biplanes. Oh man, and I like. I like a modern looking biplane. I don’t like a. I don’t like a. I’m certainly not into like camel, or stop with camels, or anything that looks, or a tiger moth, that’s not my cup of tea. When it comes to biplanes, I like, like the ultimates, even the pits. The pits even had like it.

[00:44:38] Looks like a camel of 1950 or something what I mean but I mean the pits let’s be honest the pits.

[00:44:42] Is the mother pretty much of all aerobatic small high-performance biplanes. Like the ultimate is based off of the pits. The beast was more or less, I think, based off of the pits. I think I know the ultimate was, but anyway, yeah, so the pits was like the, the ultimate like the, the, the mother of all, the predecessor to everything. That’s, yeah, competition, aerobatic biplanes. So yeah, I like

[00:45:07] We’ll have a pits whatever I’ve I’m. I’m on the hunt right now for an fms pits. I know it’s foam but the hanger- nine pits- is a lot of money. Yeah, and I’m not sure I’m willing to go that hard right.

[00:45:18] Now, yeah, I happen to know if you’re into, if you want a couple of balsa ones- I know where there’s a couple right now, well, but that doesn’t mean you’re gonna be able to get them out- our favorite hobby.

[00:45:28] Shop. Yeah well, that’s true. Oh well, I mean, if it’s a kit, you can ship a kit anywhere in the world. No, these are built, unfortunately, so oh yeah, no, that I mean I can’t imagine shipping how much that.

[00:45:40] Would be I wonder what that would cost I don’t want to know I don’t want to know either more than.

[00:45:45] The airplane itself oh yeah for sure yeah down there maybe but yeah but yeah pits is on the list.

[00:45:51] And also christian eagle is on the list, and I’m falling in love with the idea. Gas, my, my, because nitro is ridiculous, like in canadian dollars it’s 50 a gallon. You just got Ron’s attention. Yeah, we’re on the same here. We go with the same page here. No, well, I’m not bashing nitro, I’m bashing the cost of nitro fuel. Yeah, it’s insane right now, and the motors are thirsty, some of them. Yes, yeah, four strokes aren’t now. Back in my day, gas engines, gas engines weren’t a thing, especially in

[00:46:27] Small, they were a thing, but not as like. You had to have a percentage attached to your model exactly, say, it has a gas engine. Right, there’s, your model came in the k, you went to the field and your model was in a trailer behind your truck. So now gas engines. Wow, 10 cc. What? 6, 15 Cc, really okay, reliable, these reliable 10 and 15 cc, yeah, so that sip the fuel right and at two dollars, canuck in a

[00:47:00] Liter it better sip it I have no clue what you just said canuckian currency canadian.

[00:47:07] Currency. Well, what is this leader thing? That’s why I buy soda, I don’t. Yeah, it’s like 3.57 And a gallon, I think. Right, you mean five liters pop? Oh yeah, sorry, you’re right, pop, yeah, I never touched this.

[00:47:21] Stuff. Anyway, good for you. So yeah, my, my carl goldberg, ultimate sacrilege. I was thinking of converting it to brushless. And then I got looking at these 20 cc dle engines and I’m like, oh okay, but I did the math, I can put a gas engine on it for probably less than it would take to buy an esc, a motor. A couple of success batteries. Then I gotta convert it. Listen, mother nature intended.

[00:47:48] That thing to run on fuel and it’s going to run on fuel I don’t disagree I really don’t especially.

[00:47:53] With gas? Yeah, because it is so economical. Yeah, now, with 20 cc. Yeah, it’s, it’s not going to hang off the prop, but 3d wasn’t a thing back when the ultimate came out, like you didn’t hover off the prop, that wasn’t a thing. So I’ll fly at scale. I like pattern aerobatics anyway, me too- as opposed to 3d. That’s because I don’t know how to do them yet. But well, it’s been three weeks, give it time. Well, I will kill. I’m gonna kill that ultimate trying, that’s for sure. There’s a video on my youtube channel on me flying.

[00:48:25] That ultimate on the second flight. And russ- and russ and I are joking that it took me a whole two minutes to get used to it. So yeah, yeah, so, but the cub- unfortunately- whoever mounted the four stroke nitro engine to that cub- decided that they needed to enlarge the holes in the firewall and use some kind of rubber dampening vibration system. It’s a jtech snuff vibe, that’s what it was called. So if that is still available, good, fine, okay, because what’s in there is rotten and dried out and stuff, right. So

[00:48:56] I’m not listen, I don’t like to build well, I like to repair even less. And the idea of trying to fill those holes and re-drill those holes- I’d sooner put the whole plane through a wood chipper.

[00:49:06] So I could. Just you might be able to find the grommets. Actually, yeah, if what a drywall anchor looks like. These look like that, except they were made of rubber. And as you pulled the screw and you tightened it down, it pulled the grommet in behind it, on the back side of the firewall, and then pinched everything in between. Jtech radio wave- that’s the name of the company now, or at least last time I looked them up. If you do a google search, you might be able to find those grommets. They may have like a old, a bunch of new, old stock or whatever that you might be able to get.

[00:49:39] But otherwise, yeah, they stopped making that mount quite a while ago, unfortunately, because it actually was a good mount. I have a couple of them at home because I’ve got they’re mounted, but what I?

[00:49:50] Mean yeah I got an os four stroke on the shelf at a hobby shop with my name on it for that.

[00:50:00] Until I saw that hot mess on the firewall. It’s easy to fix and maybe really it’s not hard to fix. Yeah, but if you don’t want to do it, I understand. I can’t sharpen a pencil. I can’t sharpen a pencil, Tom. Listen, take some tape, put on the back side of the holes, fill the holes with epoxy. Done, let it cure redrill holes for your new mounts. You’re and you’re good to go. Seriously, it’s that.

[00:50:21] Simple man even Ron can do that even I can that’s what I just said I don’t know you threw me with that.

[00:50:30] It’s really not it’s really not hard it’s not I mean definitely worth saving that’s for sure.

[00:50:36] Because the goldberg cub flies really well. Yeah, it looks. So when you steer that thing in the air with a with a rudder full-length wing, it looks. It looks like a cub in the air. Yeah, yeah, I agree so.

[00:50:50] Do you have a favorite airplane like I mean I get that you like the racy biplanes but do you do.

[00:50:56] You have a favorite. I mean, yeah, it’s only been a few. Okay, I know it’s only never. Never actually owned a goldberg ultimate, but I always wanted one. It was always my favorite plane when I was flying before. Or my goldberg super chipmunk and my ultra sport were definitely my two favorite planes. Sure, right now, everything here in the hangar again, my ultimate favorite plane. That little carbon cub. Oh man, like they have no business being that good, they really don’t like you do anything with them. Yeah, so like.

[00:51:30] Perfect so you would say the goldberg is like for me my go-to is a stick your go-to would be the.

[00:51:35] Ultimate then yeah, but I got my. I definitely was looking hard at sticks too. I thought maybe I would get the 30 cc stick over the winter for next year. But awesome flying airplane right.

[00:51:51] Flies. So nice. And you’re talking about the green one, right? Yep, yeah, that with a dle 35 ra on it. Oh man, that is a sweet combination and it’s gas. So there you go. Yeah, exactly so, but I’ve got.

[00:52:06] Like they’ve been following me home like stray dogs I’ve got several things on the go that I need.

[00:52:14] To finish, let’s let’s get on to that then, right now. What is your, what is your number and what do you have? Yeah, so that we kind of like you keep talking about airplanes. I want to get a full picture of what.

[00:52:24] We’re dealing with now. So, as of last sunday, I hit 13. That’s, that’s respectable. Like in three weeks time. That’s very, very respectable. Yeah, and apparently well now. Reg said he congratulated me for letting on an entire week pass without getting a plane, but to be fair, I was actually at 14..

[00:52:46] I brought two to be far. I brought home two and gave one away, so I was at 14 and so technically it would have been two for that week. Yeah, so technically, yeah, yeah, I’d give that. So I’m at 13. I’ve got the polecat, which was the one that I bought in 2013 and russ put back together for me, and I look, I haven’t read a good review on that plane. Everybody, oh, it’s twitchy. Actually, it’s not true. I heard some- I read on one, one post, that or one thread- that the polecat was the best micro. They.

[00:53:19] Ever made. But anyway, I, I love it. I love it. By the way, whoever wrote that. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, man, like I’ve been scouring a main and other shops to find, like some, some parts in case I do. I want to because it discontinues, so anytime I find something in stock for it I’m going to grab it. So I keep it going because it flies so nice. It’s got to be dead calm, but it’s great, great flying plane, yeah, cool. And then, of course, my night vapor, my apprentice, and these are in order, by the way, that.

[00:53:51] I acquire them. Then I went and I got my ultra sport back, the carl woolberg cub, that p51 mustang, that is a hot mess, hot mess. Yeah, the tail fell off. And whoever built it? Well, I think helen keller built it. Actually, that’s two helen kelly, one episode. Yeah, so we are some phone calls. Probably not because

[00:54:12] Five of our listeners probably don’t know who that is there’s the five well and the ones who do.

[00:54:17] Probably can’t use a phone, so got to reattach the tail, recover it. I got the silver monitor, the aluminum covered MonoKote, on the way anyway. And then I picked up a tequila sunrise erf, brand new, old.

[00:54:33] Stock 50 bucks now I’m trying to picture what that what that is I mean that the name rings a bell did.

[00:54:41] You send us a picture of that? I probably did. I believe it came in 25 size and 40 size. This is the 25 size, described as flying like a fat brick- and that’s an insult to fat bricks everywhere. So the wing, the wing loading was high or low, whatever’s bad, I can’t. I can never remember high. So the loading was really high. So not a lot of surface area on that wing for the weight of the plane. But back in the day you had a 25 size nitro hanging off the front, you had full-size servos etc and so on. It came out kind of heavy, but I’m going to go with micro servos. I’m going

[00:55:17] To put one on each elron. I’m going to put one directly on the rudder, one directly on the elevator, put them into the side of the airframe in the back. I’m going to set it up for 3s brushless and it should fly better with an electric setup. It’ll be lightweight, lighter, yeah for sure, and they say it’s a handful. But to be fair, I think if I can fly that polecat, I can fly that tequila sunrise. I’m supposed to wait until next spring to try it, till I got my skills back, but I

[00:55:47] I’d say: your skills are back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the only thing stopping me is money. So once I get some other projects done, that’ll be next because it’s going to cost. It’ll probably cost 250 bucks to get that thing in the air by the time I get all the electronics in it, and again, that’s canadian money, so that’s about 82 american. We know the feeling on having to wait for things because this hobby can get expensive really fast. Yeah, it can, but no, like I can’t get over how cheap airplane stuff is. Like I can’t buy anything for my rc race cars without spending 100 bucks, like to put tires on my

[00:56:20] Truggy is 100 bucks and I go through three sets a summer. Depending on how many runs I put on it right, like in canada, when you put an eight scale buggy on the track, it’s two grand. Yeah, I don’t.

[00:56:30] Gotta maintain it. I don’t miss racing, so like I thought I would miss it, I really did and I, and maybe I did like the first year I got out of it, but I don’t now miss it. Yeah, you did for a little.

[00:56:41] Bit, because I remember whenever we so we put a track in and out at our house and that was right after you got out of your actual racing. If I remember right, yeah, about 2008 or so. Yeah, you didn’t want anything to do with it because you just wanted to. You wanted to give it a clean cut, just be.

[00:56:55] Finished with it because I was all in I mean just yeah I mean yeah so anyway yeah you had it hit you.

[00:57:00] Hard. Yeah, it’ll burn you out. It’ll burn you for sure. It’s go, go, go all the time and it’s cash flow all the time and it’s a different environment, it’s a whole that you gotta, you gotta. You have to have a competitive nature about you to want to race and yeah, so yeah, if you’re not first, you’re last. Shake and bake. And carbon cub s, carbon cub s2- that’s my trash, can master, okay, I paid 40 bucks for that- and another cub of unknown- I don’t know, but it was like 11 years old.

[00:57:38] It was actually in better shape. But to try and track down the parts and stuff- and it wasn’t that nice of a model anyway, so I actually tore some parts out of it to keep for other projects. And then this: I’m going to do one of those tail mounts on the wall like a beer head, but yeah, yeah, we all have those, unfortunately. Yeah, so this, this carbon cub man, it was in hard shape, the tail was actually completely detached and the person selling it didn’t know anything about it. I was like, well, can you tell me if the electronic bits are still inside? Because I’m like, even if it’s trashed, if

[00:58:10] It’s got all the electronics. I can use them for something else. 40 Bucks, a little epo. Is that what it is, epo? Yeah, that’s the foam. Yeah, yeah, so I brought that to russ and sorry. Expanded polystyrene.

[00:58:23] Yeah, with the big brain on round. Yeah, I don’t remember. Epo is something too, but I don’t remember what that one is. Like I said, the little, the little foam looking ball ones, is eps. Okay, okay, well, this was.

[00:58:36] Foam glue, but not the CA, the kind of like the other stuff. Yeah, the, the foam is safe, the foam is safe, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I had 40 bucks and I bought a prop and I’ve been flying the snot out of it. I haven’t touched my apprentice since. I love that. I mean, it’s it’s, it’s, it’s ugly, like it reminds me on a prom date. It’s rough, but if, but, like my prom date, it works. Yeah, perfectly, you don’t want anybody else to see you with it, but, man, you have fun when you’re alone. True story. Yeah, kind of like a moped, don’t want.

[00:59:07] Your friends to get your friends to see it right. Yeah, yeah, like I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t fly this in my old club. And then I got the carl goldberg ultimate. So this came out of nova scotia, actually new in box, kit, never used. He inherited it. I paid 350 for it, canadian, so again like 82 american.

[00:59:28] That’s actually a really good deal because they’re going like I would like to have. So it’s funny. I’ve owned three of those, built two and flown none of them. What? Yeah, I know, so I know, but eventually I would like to. I would like to acquire another one, but the cost of them is extremely prohibitive, so I

[00:59:50] May have to scratch one somehow, yeah. Yeah, there’s a guy on one of the- I don’t, I think it’s the carl goldberg facebook group- very snotty group, by the way. They won’t let me post because I haven’t had my account for more than three months. They delete my stuff anyway. Somebody said: yeah, yeah, elitist carl goldberg, he scratch, built a 300, carl goldberg 300, somehow, I don’t know. Hey, scratch builders, you photograph or photocopy plans or you get the webbing, I don’t know, but anyway he was able to reproduce every part for that kid and build it. Yeah, that’s a whole other level.

[01:00:26] Well, that’s what we did. Like, if you watched our duelist episode or watched our youtube stuff, that’s what Ron and I both did with our duelist. We scratched, well, we plans. We have them from plans. Yeah, yep, yeah, yeah, you didn’t. Yeah, yeah, plans built. Yeah, it’s a lot of work. It’s very rewarding. I thought I’d like it. Yeah, so, yeah, maybe that’s what I’ll have to do, because I can’t afford.

[01:00:48] A goldberg kit at this time. Well, I can’t afford. I would love an episode. I would love an episode dedicated to that, dedicated to how you turn plans into plan build, how you actually create the parts that you then glue together into an airplane. Because you can check out our website:

[01:01:05] The dual stuff is on there isn’t it yeah didn’t we do build logs yeah we did but not an actual like.

[01:01:10] And see I cheated with that because I use a laser cutter oh I see what you’re saying so yeah okay you.

[01:01:15] Know well maybe we ended up building a kit pretty much something that’s something we can we can look.

[01:01:20] At: yeah sure, like transferring stuff over, because I’ve never done that, like I’ve never actually built from a piece of paper and tried to trace it on the wood and cut it out and do all that kind of stuff.

[01:01:30] Yeah, I mean it’s not hard. Well, no, that’s for the, for these discontinued kits. I mean, if people would just ship the ball so that they sold you, that’s a sore subject. Yes, it is. Yeah, I’m about ready to go down there.

[01:01:48] I am still holding out hope that he’s going to do the right thing I am too.

[01:01:53] Yeah, I’ve been holding out hope for a year and a long time I’ve been this saga. Every episode I’m like this is the episode he gets his wood. I like the way that, when it comes in, you should entitle the.

[01:02:04] Episode: we’ve got wood. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Tom’s still waiting. I can’t even order. I know, that’s what I mean. I will be the only one that has wood at that time.

[01:02:18] Tom is jealous of Ron’s wood okay that’s there you go there we go all right so eagle two I think.

[01:02:24] I may have forgotten that one, the tequila sunrise, and then the eagle too, so I bought this kit. This kit was super affordable because they’re on ebay right now for hundreds. I got this kit shipped from ontario, another province in canada, on terrible, on terrible. Actually, ontario is kind of like our california: everything sucks and costs twice as much. Okay, so eagle two is the plane I learned to fly on, but I never actually built one, so that’s actually on my workbench right now. I’ve got balsa lung from sanding the tail feathers. Nice good, yeah, I got the tail feather. I just gotta

[01:02:59] Shape, the leading edges and the tail feathers are done. But man, I’ve never built a die cut kit before. I’ve only built a couple of kits, and luckily they were all laser cut. Yeah, this die cut thing. Oh man, you’re gonna make the parts like fit and stuff it would. I’d be, I’d be twice as far on the process or in the progress of building this model if the parts weren’t so rough. They come out of the webbing and it’s, it’s. Oh yeah, I know that mounting that tail is going to be a nightmare, so

[01:03:30] Anyway, it’s not that bad. I’m actually surprised. I’m actually surprised you don’t like bit like that. That kind of hit me that you don’t like building because you’ve been posting pictures on discord of you building this airplane. So I was like, okay, cool. So he’s another guy that likes to build and stuff.

[01:03:45] And then you come in here like no I absolutely I hate it’s terrible means to an end just like.

[01:03:50] He said yeah I wouldn’t expect misery loves company wrong that is true I gotta be unhappy I’m.

[01:03:56] Gonna share it with you guys. Let’s commiserate, we appreciate that I always like looking at build pictures because it usually motivates me to go downstairs and work on something of mine. You.

[01:04:06] Know oh absolutely well somebody else is doing it I ought to make some progress too.

[01:04:10] I documented. I have all the build pictures. Well, maybe not all, but I certainly have a ton of build pictures of my super chipmunk too. So it’s very cool like I can go back and look at the build process of my chipmunk. When I crashed, the eagle and the wing decided to take off on me and I repaired it. I got the pictures for like all the before and after that too, so we’re almost done. It’s good. Yeah, oh for sure. Carbon cub s2. We talked about the cargo ultimate. Oh, the e-flight ultimate two. Park zone cub s2. So I bought the ultimate two and the park zone cub s2.

[01:04:47] At the same time and he threw in another one. So I went there for two and I left with three and gave that to reg. And then last sunday I was at a shooting match and one of the other competitors there- somehow he knew I, I used to be in airplanes and I knew he used to be in airplanes. And one of our mutual friends is like: all right, you’re going to sell those airplanes to furlot or furlot you’re going to help them get those airplanes in the air. So I followed him home and there was a jug and three quarters of fuel, a complete flight box, a real rough trainer. The trainer, the, had an os 46 f.

[01:05:31] Fs, not, not an fp fs. Oh, an sf, and that’s a stroke. It’s a two stroke, right? Oh yeah, yeah, so it’s a 46 sf and the throttle barrel on the carburetor was actually rusted. Ooh, then there was a super sportster.

[01:05:52] 40 Size with a 46 fx, no glow plug in the cylinder head. And I’m like, oh yeah, all right, how much you want from him? He goes, oh, I don’t know, make me an offer so I’ll give you 100 bucks. He said, no, no, I said I need 200 bucks. I said, well, your motors are effed. This, this one’s rusted shut, this one doesn’t have a glow plug, so all the humidity and moisture and air is down inside that cylinder. So if the motors were good, I’d give you 200 bucks. So he’s like: this is sunday, remember, all right?

[01:06:24] I’ll take the 100 bucks. So I give him 100 bucks. I loaded them in the car, I took them home and I flew the super sportster on tuesday, nice, yeah, 250, 20 minutes, yeah. So I’ve unlocked quite a few of these engines so far since the first of may. And isn’t that fine? I always- yeah, it is. I love bringing back an engine. I don’t know, there’s just something. I brought one back. It’s got to be a two stroke has got to be really far gone to be gone. It really does, as long as these bearings are fine.

[01:07:00] The rest is going to be gravy. So I just I, if the throttle body moves in the carburetor, I put some after run oil down there and I take the exhaust off and I put some after run oil there. If the play, if the plug is there, I remove the plug and I put some after run oil there, put in the oven, take it out and then try and turn it. If it doesn’t turn, I put it in for a few more minutes and then eventually. So this one, the cylinder and the piston freed up pretty quick- the carb took a little bit longer- and then wipe off any gunk as I’m going and put more oil in it, put a prop on it.

[01:07:35] Turned it over by hand to get all that oil through there and then I put it on the. Did I even put this one in the test stand? I don’t think I did. I think I put it right into the airplane. Maybe no, I feel like I put it on the test stand because what I do then is to make sure they’re not hydrolocked. I take, I keep with the plug out, I run the starter on them to blow all the excess out through the glow plug hole and then I strap it together the way it’s supposed to be. I put in the plane and it started.

[01:08:08] Instantly, like zero hesitation, this thing fired up and it sat there. Last time he flew his plane was 2001. His mac card or aim, this model air and association candidate card you have to show when you go to a flying field if you’re new there, whatever. Anyway, most of us used to keep it right on the side of our box, our flight box. Yeah, last time he flew 2001 and this thing fired up just instantly, I couldn’t believe it and I brought it outside, tuned it on, picked it up on tuesday on.

[01:08:39] Sunday, worked on. Sunday, worked on it monday- tuned the engine and I brought it to the field. Now I took the tank out because the tank needed a new, a new stopper or whatever, and so it was dubro replaced with a sullivan- new, new clunk, new lines. Best way to clean an old tank is just put fuel in it, cover the hole with your thumb, shake it up. I agree, maybe you gotta and maybe you gotta go in with a q tip and knock a piece of debris loose, but yeah, just a little bit of fuel, shake it up and all the

[01:09:10] Gunk comes out, blow it out with a compressor, put a new rubber plug in there and new fuel lines, and he had the flight pack under the receiver pack. He had under the fuel tank, okay, and he had a chunk of lead like it was a boat anchor up in there too. I’m like, oh, geez man, that seems like a lot. So I, I, I’ve got the great plane tool of the week. I got the great plane CG machine. There are 100 bucks on ebay and I got one. I, I got it in a whole package of stuff. I basically paid 25 for it. I always wanted one of those.

[01:09:43] When I was flying 20 years ago. And yeah, yeah, they really are. It makes no brainer, right, oh, 80 centimeters or 80 millimeters, rather, and set it and throw the plane on. So anyway, it’s got a wide, wide range CG from 30 to 36 percent, which is like 79 and a half millimeters, to 96.4 Or 94.6, Something like that. Yeah,

[01:10:04] It’s quite a range yeah that’s a pretty forgiving little airplane too they fly yeah it really.

[01:10:09] Was. So I read the manual. The manual said: look, don’t pile a bunch of weight to it if, if you need to like, just balance it at the aft extreme of the CG range. So I was like, all right, well, I’m pretty close to the 36, we’ll see how it flies. Took off, went straight up, I thought, and I almost came all the way around. I was like, oh my god, I’m gonna lose this thing, and I was so nervous. I got it trimmed out finally and I was like, all right, I gotta practice my approaches and see how this thing lands. I was

[01:10:40] So nervous I was approaching with the wind like no stupid you took off one way.

[01:10:48] Anyway, I was coming in 200 miles an hour like why won’t this thing slow down? Then I looked down. Now I’m using an old h channel Futaba pcm FM radio because I just picked up a dx6 yesterday. I hate it. I’m gonna anyway trying to get that thing programmed and stuff and anyway, story for us a whole other episode. So I’m using, I’m using, I’m using an old school Futaba radio from 20 years ago as well, but this must have been a really high-end radio at the day. It’s completely programmable.

[01:11:20] Sure, and it’s got everything mixing and epa or expo everything. So I got the antenna extended. It’s like four feet of metal antenna hanging off front of my radio right, and at the end of that is that little ribbon. Remember those little ribbons like, yeah, the 72 megahertz. Well, I looked down at that and it’s blowing in the wrong direction for the direction I’m trying to land and it’s like, okay, calm down, yeah. So then I almost yeah and then I almost lost it.

[01:11:52] Coming in over the trees on my approach. I don’t know how I didn’t put it into trees, but I didn’t and I landed and that was it. I’m gonna go home and add some more weight to the front. So a little weight on the nose, yeah, yeah, it’ll fly better that time. Yeah, oh, yeah. So I think I added, well, gram. So anyway, I don’t know how many ounces, but a few more, yeah, but I use my CG machine to get it to balance at the forward end of the range, so closer to the 30, then the 36, and it’s been raining.

[01:12:25] Ever since, yeah, and we’ve been fighting weather. Here too, it’s either been raining or just windy, just like crazy windy. So, yep, anyway, trevor, this has been fun. I’ve had a good time. Is there anything else that you wanted to talk about? Or give a shout out? No, no, I just. I really

[01:12:43] Appreciate the opportunity to come on and share my experience getting back in the hobby with you guys and tell you how much I appreciate everything that you guys do. I think chemistry and the dynamics is great. I love how you carry Ron every week. It’s really nice. I do too well. It’s hard work but your back must have got a strong back. So, yeah, exactly, somebody’s got to do it. Oh no, you guys are awesome and I appreciate what you do and for somebody like me who is getting back in, or somebody that’s brand new, it’s it’s a great service essentially that you’re providing. Well, we appreciate that.

[01:13:16] Yeah, yeah, so well, like I said, this been fun. We should do this again sometime. I absolutely agree, maybe, maybe after six weeks of experience we’ll see what your take is on the hobby.

[01:13:28] Yeah, when I get up to 30 planes I’ll call you back. Yeah, he might be on to something else by then. I don’t know with as fast as he moves through things. No, no, it’s a decade at a time, typically. That’s hey, you.

[01:13:39] Got to take them as you can get them right, all right. Well, everybody, thank you for listening. Until next time. I’m Ron, I’m Tom, I’m trevor, all right, all right, bye, bye. Good night, we hope you enjoyed.

[01:13:48] This episode of the RC Plane Lab podcast for topic suggestions, to ask questions or to give any feedback, connect with us at rcplanelab.com or email us direct at either Ron at rcplanelab.com or Tom at rcplanelab.com. You can also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please subscribe, rate and review us on your favorite podcast app until next time. May your landings be gentle.