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When I turned 42 in 2008 I decided now is the time to live (more of) my dreams. What dream?
Radio control aeroplanes of course. Power planes have their following, but I had a bad experience with a Cox Baby Bee, could never get it to start, besides the headaches and snot from being allergic to the smell of the fuel. So, it is slope soaring or electric for me.
I think my first real brush with gliders was at a friends house in grade 7. His Dad flew scale gliders, and a number of them were hung from the roof in his study. I recall going in there (it was off limits most of the time) and being awed by those lovely white gliders hanging around.
Dad was a non-flying member of the local light plane club for many years, due to his interest in radio and also in flying I guess. We used to visit the 'drome every weekend, and visit the airport whenever we travelled to the big city. Now and then, we would also make the trip to the model club at St.Albans in Port Elizabeth and I remember those visits with fondness.
I have purchased some radio gear and a Windrider Bee Combat Wing kit (through Midas Hobbies in Port Alfred), which will hopefully survive the learning to fly experience for myself, wife, and at least 2 kids (not sure the eldest cares).
Little progress toward flying was made during 2008/2009 because it turns out that while the area has plenty of mountains and plenty of wind, the two seldom work together to create flying conditions. The most useful wind would be a North Easterly because of the large slope that faces it, but the road up there is 4x4 only. I did it once in the Opel Kadett and decided to wait until I could buy motors for the planes and just fly flat field. The motors were duly purchased at the end of Sept 2009 (hey ho for 13th cheques) and first flights have been achieved (woohoo!). Read more via the links in the list on the right.
Of course, now that I have flown the bug has truly bitten and I am bursting with plans for future planes. I'll keep telling myself to just get a Solo rating first but it may not work (-:
Also have a TechOne Mini Eagle built and flown and crashed many
times. Needs to be lighter so it will have to wait for money to replace the 4.7
gram servos with 2.5's.
Recently I printed a 50% set of plans for the e-QSC, thinking to put
the Eagle electronics in it just for fun. Meanwhile I am making progress on
some CNC projects as well, since cutting parts out takes most of the build
time, and I just love watching machines do the work for me.
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