FT What Did You Do RC Today : Caution Offtopic At All Times

Namactual

Elite member
BE VERY CAREFUL!
I do the same thing here and you may find that soon enough your pile of planes you have lost interest in is rapidly depleted and you could end up building replacements just to keep him flying!

There is an old saying, "Give a man a fish and he will eat today but teach him to fish and he will never go hungry". You might be wiser to take the recovered electrics and help him build something properly and teach him to fly as well. You may end up with a trained conspirator and a flight buddy for many years to come!

Have fun!
Sound advice as always.

I already plan to build him a Tiny Trainer when he comes around and decides he needs assistance. :)
I really need to get rid of some of these planes though.
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Sound advice as always.

I already plan to build him a Tiny Trainer when he comes around and decides he needs assistance. :)
I really need to get rid of some of these planes though.
I hear you and unfortunately I did and still do exactly what you are now doing. In the extreme it can lead to situations within a club where people feel excluded from the "Gifting" and the tension can and does lead to disputes and ill feeling.

Here to placate the ill feelings I am currently doing a (Hopefully "One of" program of gifting one of my designs to club members. So far it has cost me my three prototypes, one PNF, and another 9 copies of my production model. Still have three orders to fill!

Be generous and helpful where possible but try not to let others get a lean on your wallet!

Just a heads up!

Have fun!
 

Namactual

Elite member
I have the opposite problem.

I tell everyone I know I will build them an aircraft and teach them how fly it, but no one is ever interested.

I usually get the "hey, that"s cool!"
(do you want one?)
"Nah"

I even drag a few of my nephews to the field with me just to get them out of the house and make them film every once in a while. They would rather sit at home and play PUBG or Fortnite though.

I will just say, there is no fear of this impacting my wallet. Not yet anyway.
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
I just finished a build for one of my local designs which I had designed, prototyped, modified and built as a final model. The prototype and the final design ships were both gifted as I moved onto something less complicated and more suitable for production as a retail offering.

Anyway one of the recipients loved it so much that I have built him a full replacement and a further replacement fuselage. He was showing his son, (last week), how well it flies and his son wanted him to get one from me. So I built one, (at the same time as I built the replacement fuselage). Sadly as I am the designer and builder of the unique design I am stuck with supporting the model as long as the new owner/s keep flying it. (I am not a hobbyking, Durafly or similar). I just need to lower production costs especially in labour terms and introduce a method of charging for them and I will/may break even.

Have fun!
 

Namactual

Elite member
Here is footage of the last VFA-103 flight today.
I love these new motors. Keep in mind, that is running on 3s at the moment.
Mostly trying to slow high alpha/hover, but I did do a few full speed passes. It's not a speed demon, but plenty fast for a park flyer.

I like this bird a lot. It's sporty yet carefree and goes where you tell it to without question.
Most of the time anyway.:sneaky:
 

DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
I have the opposite problem.

I tell everyone I know I will build them an aircraft and teach them how fly it, but no one is ever interested.

I usually get the "hey, that"s cool!"
(do you want one?)
"Nah"

I even drag a few of my nephews to the field with me just to get them out of the house and make them film every once in a while. They would rather sit at home and play PUBG or Fortnite though.

I will just say, there is no fear of this impacting my wallet. Not yet anyway.

I did the same thing with some planes a couple of years ago - I had 3 or 4 that were getting to their end of shelf life so I brought a friend and his kids down and we destroyed them all. We buddy boxed so they did manage to get some flying in.

More recently I have been building for guys down at the field who are interested in a particular plane but are not in a position to build themselves. It works out pretty well. I refuse to take payment for the builds because i feel that obligates me in some way. So generally the guys will give me some old electronics or an airframe. One guy paid me with 10 sheets of foam which i thought was cool.

On the bench now are two new "orders" for the 64mm Diamonds. I tell them what electronics to get (EDF, ESC, Servos) and I supply the rest. Its fun. When i am done with these two there will be six Diamonds at our field and I get a big kick from that.

DamoRC
 

Namactual

Elite member
AWESOME!!
Thanks Griff!

I did the same thing with some planes a couple of years ago - I had 3 or 4 that were getting to their end of shelf life so I brought a friend and his kids down and we destroyed them all. We buddy boxed so they did manage to get some flying in.

More recently I have been building for guys down at the field who are interested in a particular plane but are not in a position to build themselves. It works out pretty well. I refuse to take payment for the builds because i feel that obligates me in some way. So generally the guys will give me some old electronics or an airframe. One guy paid me with 10 sheets of foam which i thought was cool.

On the bench now are two new "orders" for the 64mm Diamonds. I tell them what electronics to get (EDF, ESC, Servos) and I supply the rest. Its fun. When i am done with these two there will be six Diamonds at our field and I get a big kick from that.

DamoRC
I think my problem is I don't belong to a club. I hit the local hobby shop a few years back and asked about local clubs, but from the responses I received it did not sound like they looked to kindly on foamies. Nor any components that were not a "name" brand.

I don't mind, I just have to stick to small park fliers. It's nice having the airspace all to yourself sometimes as well.
 

DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
Thanks Griff!


I think my problem is I don't belong to a club. I hit the local hobby shop a few years back and asked about local clubs, but from the responses I received it did not sound like they looked to kindly on foamies. Nor any components that were not a "name" brand.

I don't mind, I just have to stick to small park fliers. It's nice having the airspace all to yourself sometimes as well.

Where I fly it's not a club, but RC flying is officially recognized by the city at this park, so its pretty cool. Nothing like that in your neck of the woods?

DamoRC
 

Namactual

Elite member
Nothing like that in your neck of the woods?
Not that I am aware of.

Update on the forced retirement of aircraft...
I am not sure if this is good new or bad news, but he said the plane flew great! (y)
The guy said he has not flown in decades and never flew a prop and slot park jet before. I really did not expect to hear that result.:unsure:

So, it looks like I am stuck with a few planes longer than I expected.:sneaky::p
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
I thought that went "Give a man a fish and he will eat today, but teach a man to fish and he'll sit in a boat and drink beer all day?" Maybe that's just my family though...:unsure:
Well sort of!
Teach him to fish and he will never go hungry but teach him how to home brew and he will never bother to go fishing!
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Returned my first Bixler 2 repair to its owner today. He had folded the wings at great height and it was a mess, heck it even broke the canopy, motor mounting board and the prop. Anyway refitted all of the foam pieces, cleaned up previous repair attempts, hand made a new motor mount board and replaced the prop.

Well I couldn't find the exact prop so I dipped into my pile of rubbish and fitted a 5x4x3 prop I bought ages ago by mistake.

Anyway test flight was as new with a single exception, the plane climbed like it was rocket assisted not vertical but very close and was not even close to falling away. In level flight it was faster than most of the warbirds and as fast as most of the EDFs.

Suspect that the original prop was way inefficient. Owner is happy he handed me a pile of foam crumbs on Wednesday and today he received a rocket in return!

Just another day in the office!

Have fun!
 

JimCR120

Got Lobstah?
Site Moderator
So I was wondering what would be a convenient way to practice touch-n-go's off the water and then I got an idea...


Actually there was a bit more to it and it didn't go without any "speed bumps".

If I were to do it again I would suggest a wider water strip and flatter ground. Had I had flatter ground it would have really helped in making the strip wider. Trying to manage all that water over a not-so-flat surface can be a challenge.
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
So I was wondering what would be a convenient way to practice touch-n-go's off the water and then I got an idea...


Actually there was a bit more to it and it didn't go without any "speed bumps".

If I were to do it again I would suggest a wider water strip and flatter ground. Had I had flatter ground it would have really helped in making the strip wider. Trying to manage all that water over a not-so-flat surface can be a challenge.

Jim that is Very cool! Glad to see you getting a little break to have some fun. How many attempts did it take to stick that landing without trying to take your own head off standing that close?;)
 

JimCR120

Got Lobstah?
Site Moderator
Are you asking for a peek at the outtakes? Oh the wonderful power of editing! My first touchdown in the water was actually fairly good but I had about 3 or 4 waveoffs before that and some others before the day was out where the pontoon had to be glued back on and the plane pulled out of a tree. I have some obstacles all around (but they force me to be a better pilot, haha).

Thanks CR. It does handle very very nicely. It has SAFE select too but I'm beyond that and if I go back it messes me up a bit. It also has lights which for my tiring eyes make keeping orientation much easier even at far distances. All for $130.