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Post by ctdahle on May 18, 2006 17:01:48 GMT -7
I cracked up my Four Star again. Lost sight of it on a landing approach and by the time I picked it out of the background scatter, it was nose down, inverted and 3 feet off the runway.
Won't cover another one in dark blue and yellow and try to land with a sage brush covered hill behind it again, but that's not my real question.
I'm thinking that I am sick and tired of battling a crosswind with a conventionally geared plane, so I thought I'd build an Ugly Stik. I've lost my original Jensen plans, so I thought I'd order a set of plans from Phil Kraft's construction article in RCM.
So I tried to log on to RCM's plans site and it appears to be gone. Can't find RCM on the news stand either. Anyone know what's happend to RCM?
Probably I am thinking about an Ugly Stik because I learned that Phil Kraft died a few weeks ago. He was one of the few radio control legends I have actually met.
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Post by Grug - American Neanderthal on May 18, 2006 19:43:44 GMT -7
You should do one with flaps, like the ultra sticks. I have had the most fun horseing around slow landing and slow flight. Of course that was last century when I actually flew. I am going to get out and get some air time, I am going to make it a mission, I would like to say just that I am not prioritizing correctly, but I haven't been able to do anything fun since the weather got warm.
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Post by ctdahle on May 18, 2006 20:49:52 GMT -7
I did a bit of sniffing around and found out that RCM ceased publication after their June '05 issue.
Their website is back up right now and apparently their plans department is taking orders. I guess if their are RCM plans that anybody wants, they need to get them now. My Super Kaos and Ugly Stik plans are both missing, so I am going to order a set of each, but it's kind of sad that RCM is gone. On the otherhand, they haven't been the same magazine since Don Dewey died.
As for flying, I've been really lucky Eric, and have burned two gallons of fuel since early March, but prior to that I think I flew maybe a dozen times since kid #2 was born.
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Post by Grug - American Neanderthal on May 19, 2006 8:43:36 GMT -7
Heheh, I burned about 100 gallons...of diesel and none of it seemed fun at the time. I was wondeing what happened to RCM, I noticed it disapperaed from shelves, that's a bummer, but basically it was a ad catalogue more than a magazine the last several years. I am biased to scalier looking planes (don't bother looking that up on dictionary.com ) My favorite has been the Midwest Citabria. I didn't build it, it was an auction buy, but that is going to be one of my permanant residents in the flying planes. Not that it has anything to do with what we are talking about. I always like sticks, but always seemed to want something else when I had one.
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Post by Galvin on May 20, 2006 22:57:25 GMT -7
I used to drive over to the RCM offices in Sierra Madre (just east of the Pasadena boundary line at Michilinda Ave. and about two miles from where my aunt and uncle used to live) all the time in order to buy plans.
They would sometimes let me go in the back and help the guy run the originals through the blueprint machine if I had a lot of plans to buy and I would wind up with a headache from the ammonia fumes. Before I left for Saudi Arabia I loaded up on plans with the idea that building would probably be the only thing that would keep me sane out in there in the sand box.
But as it transpired, we spent most of our time in Europe and other cities in the middle east and the net result was that I ended up with a stack of plans four feet high (mostly scale subjects and gliders) and only managed to finish a plans built "Bird of Time", my second one. It came out very well and is still flying here in Seattle somewhere.
Dewey wasn't around much then as he was pretty weak from fighting the cancer that finally got him but it seemed that all of his relatives and their friends worked there. The women were allowed to bring their kids to work, the result being a cross between a publishing office and a full time day care center. I got the impression from all this that he must have been a hell of an easy boss to work for because everyone there seemed to love him.
I have no doubt that his loss spelled inevitable doom for the magazine because, while competent in putting out the mag and getting the plans out, none of the staff seemed to be into model airplanes at all.
Not too many people know that Dewey also published magazines about tropical fish and aquariums along with RCM.
I am sorry to see it go if indeed it is gone. Some of the newer stuff on the mag shelves these days leaves a lot to be desired and most are so alike as to be nearly indistinguishable from one another. Most are merely extended adverts for the larger manufacturers and the bulk of their content seems to be reviews of products, and those are mostly ARFs.
I now like the foreign mags for their wider variety and because they usually throw in a free plan with the mag.
I sure hope they keep the plans service going or at least sell the lot to someone who can appreciate the literally tons of really good stuff that Don managed to accumulate over the years.
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Post by Grug - American Neanderthal on May 21, 2006 8:04:27 GMT -7
Just curious, are you guys regular magazine buyers? I have never been one to buy or subscribe to any magazine, RC being the exception for a couple years with RCM and MAN a few years ago.
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Post by jetmex on May 22, 2006 12:11:01 GMT -7
I hardly have time any more to read the magazines I do get! But, all the graduations are over, so things will (hopefully) be returning to normal. Hey Dave, do you know if Revell still offers replacement parts for their OOP plastic models? I continued building their 1/32 P-47 razorback (the old one that came out last century, after a 15 year hiatus) and the control stick in the cockpit has disappeared. Looks kinda funny without it.......
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Post by Britbrat on Sept 26, 2006 8:05:17 GMT -7
Anyone flying?
I still do.
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Post by Grug - American Neanderthal on Sept 27, 2006 17:42:24 GMT -7
I haven't been lately. Dawned on the the other day summers over just about and I have done nothing in way of hobbies that aren't related to working in some way.
So what are you flying?
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Post by jetmex on Sept 28, 2006 12:09:38 GMT -7
Flying? What's that? The weather here is finally getting nice enough to go flying, just don't have any motivation to do so. My flyable airplanes are coated with dust, the partially built ones are coated with dust, doesn't get much better than that! I ran out of engines. Have plenty of airplanes and radios, but the Spitfire just doesn't make a good glider.....
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Post by ctdahle on Sept 30, 2006 7:44:54 GMT -7
I was flying quite a lot, having burned about 6 gallons of fuel until mid July when the elevator centering spring broke on my transmitter. Airtronics apparently doesn't sell the cheesy little nylon screw tab that holds the spring in place, I'm too stingey to spring for a new gimbal assembly, and I haven't figured out a way to home brew a solution.
I've been working on putting my other radio back into the Kadet, but my 4 year old's help sort of slows progress on that. I've still got to change out the wing servos and then we will be ready to go again.
We've also been doing a bit of building, making slow progress on our Super Cub. We've got one wing panel framed up and have started the other, but it too, is being built on a four year old's schedule.
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