basslord1124
Master member
So feeling inspired after @mayan and some of his diary-like posts about his journeys. I wanted to do the same. At one time, I swear Flitetest and/or the Flitetest forum had a blog section, but it is gone now. So I will kinda consider this thread my blog/journey/diary of most of what I encounter doing some RC flight and my experience with Flitetest foamboard airplanes. I think the forum will be a good home for this as I feel the forums will be around for a long time and it keeps it still accessible within the community instead of on some random blog site. Plus this place is specifically about RC flight and that's just what I wanna share.
There are no rules for this. I will just share my experiences and people are welcome to read my long boring ramblings, reply and share knowledge and experience, or ignore. Doesn't matter to me. I just wanna share my experience just for my own personal reasons but also to hope/see if others may benefit from my knowledge/experience or lack of lol.
I should mention this thread as well as RC flight in general, do serve a sense of joy/happiness, reliving a part of my child hood that never quite took off (pun intended), and a way to keep my mind/self busy. This hobby/thread ALSO serves the purpose of keeping my mind off of some personal frustrations that have been wearing on me in recent years. I won't go into that though, as this is going to be focusing on the happier things.
So anyways here we go...let me give a real introduction about myself and RC flight...
I originally started in RC planes around 14 years old (1994-ish) after watching guys at a local RC plane club fly at a large local field. That Christmas my parents got me 4 channel balsa trainer complete with glow engine/glow fuel, and a Futaba FM radio. I put the plane together without much issue and ran the motor a few times but that's as far as I got with it. I was too afraid to fly it for fear of crashing and seeing this nice plane shatter into a bunch of tiny wood pieces. I eventually sold the plane some years later.
Fast forward to 2015-2016 I figured to give RC planes a try again. First model to try out was a Dynam PA18 Super/Piper Cub which was all electric and a 2.4Ghz radio. I lawn darted the thing so many times and broke so many props I lost count. Rather than giving up, I just tried a different plane...the 3 channel Hobbyzone Champ. And it was with it, that I found success. Even the Champ's first flight was uneventful and near perfect. Such a great little flyer.
Since the Champ I also grew and managed to have success with a Parkzone micro T28, and a Hobbyzone Sport Cub S. I even managed to score an old balsa trainer similar to the one I had as a teen. I fixed it up and made it all electric and got some good flights out of it too.
It was after that, that I discovered Flitetest and constructing foamboard airplanes. It was good timing too because I was also realizing that the RC plane hobby could be pretty expensive. And Flitetest had a way to make it cheaper. Believe it or not, my wife built the first FT plane in our family...but to her, I think, it was more of a craft project than something RC. She's very crafty and likes to sew as well as other things. She built the FT Baby Blender from scratch. We still have it and it has never been flown. Following after her, I tried the experience out for myself. I built the FT Simple Storch and the rest is history.
Since my discovery of Flitetest and building the Simple Storch...I have also built the following FT planes scratchbuilt from the regular white Adams foamboard: FT3D, FT Simple Cub, FT Long EZ, FT Mini Scout, FT Tiny Trainer, FT Bloody Baron, and FT Super Bee. I have also built the FT Seaduck which was a speed build kit. AND, I have built a large foamboard glider, foamboard profile plane, and a foamboard snow skimmer. Not all of these have been flown/tested however. I am just now starting to dive in to some of these to see how they perform especially since the weather is getting better. I kind of feel too that it's nice to have a bunch of airframes ready in case something crashes. You can fly/test something else while you do any repairs to what had crashed/needs fixed.
For right now, I feel that covers everything pretty good. I will report back with any updates, changes, or anything else that happens along my journey. For anyone who has managed to read this entire post, you deserve some kind of award and I promise that most future posts will be shorter. And now I continue with any "current" things going on. Stay tuned! Thanks for reading!
Also, since 2016, I have been sharing some of my RC journey on my youtube channel Perkyplanes & RC. Link is in my signature. And one last thing...since getting back in RC in 2016, I feel I have really become "addicted" to RC planes. You can't have just 1 RC plane...know what I mean!
There are no rules for this. I will just share my experiences and people are welcome to read my long boring ramblings, reply and share knowledge and experience, or ignore. Doesn't matter to me. I just wanna share my experience just for my own personal reasons but also to hope/see if others may benefit from my knowledge/experience or lack of lol.
I should mention this thread as well as RC flight in general, do serve a sense of joy/happiness, reliving a part of my child hood that never quite took off (pun intended), and a way to keep my mind/self busy. This hobby/thread ALSO serves the purpose of keeping my mind off of some personal frustrations that have been wearing on me in recent years. I won't go into that though, as this is going to be focusing on the happier things.
So anyways here we go...let me give a real introduction about myself and RC flight...I originally started in RC planes around 14 years old (1994-ish) after watching guys at a local RC plane club fly at a large local field. That Christmas my parents got me 4 channel balsa trainer complete with glow engine/glow fuel, and a Futaba FM radio. I put the plane together without much issue and ran the motor a few times but that's as far as I got with it. I was too afraid to fly it for fear of crashing and seeing this nice plane shatter into a bunch of tiny wood pieces. I eventually sold the plane some years later.
Fast forward to 2015-2016 I figured to give RC planes a try again. First model to try out was a Dynam PA18 Super/Piper Cub which was all electric and a 2.4Ghz radio. I lawn darted the thing so many times and broke so many props I lost count. Rather than giving up, I just tried a different plane...the 3 channel Hobbyzone Champ. And it was with it, that I found success. Even the Champ's first flight was uneventful and near perfect. Such a great little flyer.
Since the Champ I also grew and managed to have success with a Parkzone micro T28, and a Hobbyzone Sport Cub S. I even managed to score an old balsa trainer similar to the one I had as a teen. I fixed it up and made it all electric and got some good flights out of it too.
It was after that, that I discovered Flitetest and constructing foamboard airplanes. It was good timing too because I was also realizing that the RC plane hobby could be pretty expensive. And Flitetest had a way to make it cheaper. Believe it or not, my wife built the first FT plane in our family...but to her, I think, it was more of a craft project than something RC. She's very crafty and likes to sew as well as other things. She built the FT Baby Blender from scratch. We still have it and it has never been flown. Following after her, I tried the experience out for myself. I built the FT Simple Storch and the rest is history.
Since my discovery of Flitetest and building the Simple Storch...I have also built the following FT planes scratchbuilt from the regular white Adams foamboard: FT3D, FT Simple Cub, FT Long EZ, FT Mini Scout, FT Tiny Trainer, FT Bloody Baron, and FT Super Bee. I have also built the FT Seaduck which was a speed build kit. AND, I have built a large foamboard glider, foamboard profile plane, and a foamboard snow skimmer. Not all of these have been flown/tested however. I am just now starting to dive in to some of these to see how they perform especially since the weather is getting better. I kind of feel too that it's nice to have a bunch of airframes ready in case something crashes. You can fly/test something else while you do any repairs to what had crashed/needs fixed.
For right now, I feel that covers everything pretty good. I will report back with any updates, changes, or anything else that happens along my journey. For anyone who has managed to read this entire post, you deserve some kind of award and I promise that most future posts will be shorter. And now I continue with any "current" things going on. Stay tuned! Thanks for reading!
Also, since 2016, I have been sharing some of my RC journey on my youtube channel Perkyplanes & RC. Link is in my signature. And one last thing...since getting back in RC in 2016, I feel I have really become "addicted" to RC planes. You can't have just 1 RC plane...know what I mean!
