airplanes2

I received my first quality radio control unit when I graduated from college;  it was a gift from my wife.   I did not have a plane ready to fly at that time and so I installed the unit in my Chris Craft Express Cruiser.  ( Boats2 )   But about that same time, I built another plane, this time one designed for RC.   I do not remember the name of the model but it was designed for engines in the .1 to .2 size range and I acquired an O.S. .15 motor for it.   I subsequently borrowed the receiver from the boat and put it into this aircraft along with two of the previously unused servos from my radio unit.   I flew the plane one cold morning from the parking lot of the local Elementary School in our neighborhood.

The plane was hand launched and flew up just fine, but was not properly balanced and proceeded to stall and loop in a succession of these gyrations until I lost control completely and it dive bombed into the cemetery just to the south, digging a new grave and totally destroying the craft.    I recovered the motor and the radio (which I put back into the boat) but stopped trying to fly an RC model for some years thereafter.  

During the late 80's and early 90's, I watched my son Jared fly two RC planes, one that he built and one that was a pre-fab, both of which crashed and died, although the ARF model did survive several flights before running into a telephone pole in the street across from our home.

It was the spring of 2002 when I revived my enthusiasm for flying.   I had been hearing about electrics and decided that the ease of operating a plane with an electric motor was so attractive that I could no longer resist having another try at landing an RC model without damage to the craft.    Jared was also very interested in trying out an electric plane and we found one on Ebay that looked just about right for our purposes and so we split the cost between us and bought the model.   It was an Air Strike, by Megatech and we subsequently flew it from a parking lot a few miles north of our home.   Unfortunately, it was too windy that day and although the plane few just fine, we lost control of it in the wind and it flew off into the trees some distance to the north.   Jared looked for the plane for some time but was unable to find the wreckage and recover any of the electronic parts.

Although we were quite unhappy about losing that plane, our mutual love of flying overcame our discouragement and we determined to try again.   Page 3