newbie introduces himself

ennobee

Member
Hi y'all. You might have come across my name or profile picture already since I have been posting like crazy this last couple of days. Still. I haven't been properly introduced myself so far, so here I go.

I am a 50-something old forever kiddo originally from either Belgium or Germany. (grew up switching between both places a few times) who somehow ended up in Texas.... well, in Houston at least. Growing up in the 70's and 80's, I think I followed the classical curriculum starting with plastic models (the famous Airfix blister kits) graduating to chuckwood gliders and eventually Guillows kits (or Graupner if you were from Germany). However somehow I could never get the hang of cutting 20 balsa ribs to exactly the same dimensions, so although I made a few attempts at RC models, I never got anywhere but for a collection of 27 mhz radios that eventually got repurposed into the slowest RC speedboats ever to sail on my neighborhood dredge pond. Instead I spend numerous hours in all the local libraries dreaming away reading about all those fantastic historical aircraft and the guys and gals that flew them.

By that time the eightties started to turn into the nineties and I made a sidetrack into such nineties hobbies like building kites and sawing boomerangs. Every once in a while, I also went back to chuckwood gliders, albeit instead of balsa, I went for such nineties materials like rubber foam sheets (bounce back real nice when you throw them at your little nephew). By the way, I also went to the city's art academy and became a bonafide certified pencil artist and printer. I started making some money, living on my own and getting my own little library of books about fantastic historical aircraft and the guys and gals that flew them.

Then, between all the girls in Belgium and Germany, I met someone from Texas, and so I ended up in Houston, went to moving around boxes of papers in a warehouse for a living. In the meantime computers had become commonplace and so I ended up downloading several freeform flight simulators and building myself all those fantastic historical aircraft for me to fly myself... well, virtually off course.

I also acquired myself a scrollsaw and after some experimentations and trying out different project and at one point even a stint on Etsy selling custom wooden boxes and jewelry, some 5 years ago, I found my niche building wooden toy models of all those fantastic historical aircraft I've been reading about.

by that time the 2010's came around and RC sets now had automatic binding and flight controllers. Engine power was now simply plugging an electric motor into your receiver unit instead of messing with fuel and spark plugs. So RC flying became a lot more accessible, even for continuously bad flyers like me. So when I heard about a local RC group doing indoor flying in the gym of our local church, I got me a little Night Vapor all-in-one starter kit from Horizon Hobbies and eventually managed to fly it for one whole accu charge without crashing. Then we had to move and I lost contact with the group. In our new place, I became involved with the local artist community and have been making woodblock prints of fantasy aircraft instead of flying them.

Well, recently I decided to give it another try so this Christmas, my wife ordered me the EZ power pack with the EZ-jets from Flite-test, figuring that with only 2 channels even I would not be able to f--- that one up.

My EZ-power pack F-18 actually flew for 3 times 30 seconds so far until the last flight ended up in a tree and pulling it down I ripped off the nose. I glued it back on since, and actually gave it a halfway decent paint job. So I'll keep on trying until I once again can fly a whole accu charge without crashing. Then I will try to once again build my own airplanes. I am already making plans for models based on all those fantastic historical aircraft I've been reading about.

So here's me so far: lots of dreams, lots of knowledge about ancient airplanes, lots of knowledge about kites, boomerangs, chuckwood gliders, woodworking, reading Greman, Dutch and French..... not so much about actually flying RC planes.... and still learning the in and outs of modern RC building and design.

so feel free to ask me anything.
 

bigdano711

Active member
Have you tried building one of these little buggers? I get my hands on the Simple Cub I ordered tomorrow. I'm 52 and feel like I'm 12 and it's Christmas Eve!
 

SP0NZ

FT CAD Gremlin
Staff member
Admin
Moderator
Mentor
Welcome to the family @ennobee! That has to be one of the best intros I've ever read. Hope to read more about your adventures moving up from the EZ series to full blown FT models and beyond. This is a great place to be. Reach out if you need anything.
 

SSgt Duramax

Junior Member
Welcome, Good times! Glad to have you here. You sound just like an Army student I had, pretty much the same story, he just joined the Army to honor his inlaws and their service. Pretty cool.

After EZ models you should probably look to something in the simple series, then once you get your thumbs good and trained, move up to a master series plane. Plenty of advise and helping hands around here. All the plans you could want too. Happy to have you.
 

ennobee

Member
Ps, as I mentioned above, here are some of my wooden toy airplanes
editor_20200329_223351.jpg editor_20200406_142419.jpg editor_20200422_172413.jpg editor_20200422_171840.jpg
editor_20200422_214521.jpg editor_20200517_175217.jpg plex_wp_edited_image(3).jpg WP_20180812_19_15_04_Pro.jpg Edited_ImageEasyImageEditor_20161214_35.jpg Edited_ImageEasyImageEditor_20161220_48.jpg
...and here some of my prints:
editor_20191209_121858.jpg editor_20201004_223826.jpg editor_20201004_224254.jpg WP_20190123_12_57_47_Pro~2.jpg
This one is actually getting printed:
InSquare_12_9_2018(5).jpg InSquare_12_9_2018(4).jpg InSquare_12_9_2018(1).jpg
 

DaneB

New member
Hi y'all. You might have come across my name or profile picture already since I have been posting like crazy this last couple of days. Still. I haven't been properly introduced myself so far, so here I go.

I am a 50-something old forever kiddo originally from either Belgium or Germany. (grew up switching between both places a few times) who somehow ended up in Texas.... well, in Houston at least. Growing up in the 70's and 80's, I think I followed the classical curriculum starting with plastic models (the famous Airfix blister kits) graduating to chuckwood gliders and eventually Guillows kits (or Graupner if you were from Germany). However somehow I could never get the hang of cutting 20 balsa ribs to exactly the same dimensions, so although I made a few attempts at RC models, I never got anywhere but for a collection of 27 mhz radios that eventually got repurposed into the slowest RC speedboats ever to sail on my neighborhood dredge pond. Instead I spend numerous hours in all the local libraries dreaming away reading about all those fantastic historical aircraft and the guys and gals that flew them.

By that time the eightties started to turn into the nineties and I made a sidetrack into such nineties hobbies like building kites and sawing boomerangs. Every once in a while, I also went back to chuckwood gliders, albeit instead of balsa, I went for such nineties materials like rubber foam sheets (bounce back real nice when you throw them at your little nephew). By the way, I also went to the city's art academy and became a bonafide certified pencil artist and printer. I started making some money, living on my own and getting my own little library of books about fantastic historical aircraft and the guys and gals that flew them.

Then, between all the girls in Belgium and Germany, I met someone from Texas, and so I ended up in Houston, went to moving around boxes of papers in a warehouse for a living. In the meantime computers had become commonplace and so I ended up downloading several freeform flight simulators and building myself all those fantastic historical aircraft for me to fly myself... well, virtually off course.

I also acquired myself a scrollsaw and after some experimentations and trying out different project and at one point even a stint on Etsy selling custom wooden boxes and jewelry, some 5 years ago, I found my niche building wooden toy models of all those fantastic historical aircraft I've been reading about.

by that time the 2010's came around and RC sets now had automatic binding and flight controllers. Engine power was now simply plugging an electric motor into your receiver unit instead of messing with fuel and spark plugs. So RC flying became a lot more accessible, even for continuously bad flyers like me. So when I heard about a local RC group doing indoor flying in the gym of our local church, I got me a little Night Vapor all-in-one starter kit from Horizon Hobbies and eventually managed to fly it for one whole accu charge without crashing. Then we had to move and I lost contact with the group. In our new place, I became involved with the local artist community and have been making woodblock prints of fantasy aircraft instead of flying them.

Well, recently I decided to give it another try so this Christmas, my wife ordered me the EZ power pack with the EZ-jets from Flite-test, figuring that with only 2 channels even I would not be able to f--- that one up.

My EZ-power pack F-18 actually flew for 3 times 30 seconds so far until the last flight ended up in a tree and pulling it down I ripped off the nose. I glued it back on since, and actually gave it a halfway decent paint job. So I'll keep on trying until I once again can fly a whole accu charge without crashing. Then I will try to once again build my own airplanes. I am already making plans for models based on all those fantastic historical aircraft I've been reading about.

So here's me so far: lots of dreams, lots of knowledge about ancient airplanes, lots of knowledge about kites, boomerangs, chuckwood gliders, woodworking, reading Greman, Dutch and French..... not so much about actually flying RC planes.... and still learning the in and outs of modern RC building and design.

so feel free to ask me anything.

I spent two years in Germany in the early seventies. Nato you know. Now, it seems a good place to steer clear of. Perhaps just like America? No? Now, I have 430 hrs in private planes but arthritis keeps me from adding to the count. Do you have any knowledge to offer regarding radio control/servos/channels/well...all of that?
 

ennobee

Member
I spent two years in Germany in the early seventies. Nato you know. Now, it seems a good place to steer clear of. Perhaps just like America? No? Now, I have 430 hrs in private planes but arthritis keeps me from adding to the count. Do you have any knowledge to offer regarding radio control/servos/channels/well...all of that?

Sorry, I never really got any of my radio projects to work until now and every time I gave it another try the technology had already completely changed. So the only advice I can remember - take it on historical face value- is: don't test-run your 27mhz RC installation while your little brother next door is playing with his walkie talkie.