Some RC models

Hillbille wrote in post #19349480
Some flight shots.

Nice images of the Komet.
The real one had a generator on the nose, so the propeller on the model just looks a little large.
See the pictures here: https://en.wikipedia.o​rg …esserschmitt_Me​_163_Komet

It was a very impressive plane. It's always good that people appreciate "models". Sometimes that is all we have as the "real" plane become fewer and fewer. John was able to create models very quickly from foam and tool work. Something he took some ridicule from in the modeling world, especially from die hard modelers that believed scale models could/should only be recreated with balsa and ply. John was truly a master at doing things differently, and the results were phenomenal! On the plus side, he was a really easy going man that was friendly to everybody he met.

Out at the Calico Dry Lake on Tuesday, 01/18/2011. Some guys showed up and unloaded a rathe nice HUGE powered glider. The support vehicle wasn't bad either. The top of the wing on the aircraft was all electric cells, when flying in sunlight it could not only sustain flight, but, recharge the onboard batteries to boot. Cameras were mounted for forward, rearward, and both side observation (manually switched). The trailer control room, had a pilots seat with three monitors displaying views from three cameras. (Side views had to be manually switched). Full FPV out to range.

I believe I was told that this plane was capable of very high flight as well as flight exceeding 24 hours, with night flight needing to be VERY gentle and gliding as much as was possible. So initial climb before sunset needed to be very high. The airframe was very efficient. These guys said that they had been warned off of the dry lake bed near Lancaster. I assumed they were.

That solar powered glider is something else especially for that era. A big investment & a lot of learning needed for what they were doing. As for the Komet there must have been a plan set circulating in that era for one that size. I've seen a few over the years including this one which a retired RCAF member built & flies on a regular basis. It always makes a pretty loud "thump" when it lands making me think it's likely damaged but to date that hasn't happened. The nice crisp shot is from 2011 on a near perfect day while the take off shot was in near useless weather in 2015 when I caught the take off reasonably well. It was always used the dolly rather than a bungie cord launch.

Not sure what plan John used for his, but you could be right as both of those would appear to be close in scale.

I also fly remote control airplanes. In fact I fly some of the ugliest planes that do fly! LOL! My philosophy is function over form, so, if it does/will fly and do what I want it to do, I do not care what it looks like, just the results it produces.

Case in point is my Solution. Big plane, flys slow, good lifting ability. At full throttlr it has been clocked at 32 - 35mph, shuddering badly under the strain! Best cruising at around 12 - 15mph. Buily strictly for aerial photography. Will carry anything from a pocket cam up to and including a DSLR. The DSLR id worth about twice what the plane is, and I will say that there needs to be a great deal of confidence in the aircraft to put a DSLR on it and fly it remotely! LOL. Didn't use the DSLR a lot, but did occasionally.

Hillbille wrote in post #19349057
The following pictures are of a Pre WWI passenger plane. It is a model of the Handley-Page Imperial Airways "Helena". The gentleman that built/owned it was over 90 and just delightful. He had it hanging in his garage for years (since the '80's) and allowed a friend to convert it from Rubber power to RC Electric. It was a really nicely built plane and a real delight to see fly after so many years.

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Love this. Was it free flight when rubber powered?

I think it was. The owner was 90 years old (in 2010) and said he had built it in the 80's. It flew a couple of times and he hung it up in his garage. As sometimes happens his neighbor saw it and offered to convert it from rubber to electric. At least that's the story I remember. It was a nice plane. Built back when Elmer's was the glue! LOL! His neighbor is holding the plane and the old guy is being interviewed for an RC video.

For maybe the first time in my life I seem to have been ahead of a trend. I spent roughly 2 months trying to come up with a colour scheme for a rather old Goldberg Gentle Lady i acquired years ago. About 2 1/2 weeks ago I decided on a scheme for the wing using red & white checkerboard on the bottom of the wing with bright orange tips, bright yellow upper tips & after some different ideas settled on blue inner panels on the centre of the top. The stab & elevator will also be blue on top when I find the "safe place" I stored the elevator in.

LOL!! The only reason I'm laughing is I've done that myself, and if I could remember when, I'd admit that too!!

I have a little plane called the "Drift". About 8 months ago I came back from a flying session and had multiple things in hand as I entered my garage. One of the items being the front hatch for the Drift. I remember tossing it to the side as I was handling the other stuff.

Never have found it.

I've looked everywhere! I remember saying to myself, "I'll just toss this there until I get everything in from the truck." Yeah, right.

Ended up 3D printing a new hatch cover as a replacement!

Getting old, slow, and forgetful ain't fun!

It is funny, but it sure ain't fun.

Hillbille

3d printing? In balsa Only kidding...

A couple of weeks back I was putting my Gentle Lady up my bungy on Minchinhampton Common. It has to be one of my favourite models. I originally had a Sophisticated Lady but I got fed up with the 'droop snout' stopping it dead in the grass on every landing so that's when I decided to build the Gentle Lady fuz and tail feathers and keep the Soph Lady wings. They are stronger than the proper Gentle Lady wings as they are decked out to the tips and I believe that they were/are kitted with the electric version?

Instead of spending time looking for the elevator just make a new one. It's only a small bit of 1/16th or 3/32 balsa and then you can be launching it that much sooner and admiring it in it's true element

I had my Obelix in the air yesterday morning and it flies beautifully for such an unlikely flying wing. I don't seem to have any photos of it and i will try to rectify that. Not that pretty, but good cheap fun.

I think I've spent about 2 hours looking for that elevator & since flying season is at least 2 months away still I'll wait a while before building another. I also have a 5 inch display GPS from my car in another "safe place" after bringing it to check for a map update. It was up to date so I put it in that safe place as part of a clean up because we were hosting a birthday party.
My new "safe place" has been picked & from now on things will be hung in plain sight in one specific area of the basement. If they can't be hung as is they will go into clear plastic bags or ZipLocks etc.

Taken sometime in the mid 90s outside of Little Rock, AR. at our clubs field.

Dodgson Designs Camano 100 (blue & white) & Windsong. I crashed the Camano in the early 2000s at a contest in Virginia and still have the Windsong which was featured a couple of times in Bob Dodgson's publication. Once for riding numerous thermals to an altitude of 3740' AGL back in 1995.

" Once for riding numerous thermals to an altitude of 3740' AGL back in 1995"

How on earth were you able to see it well enough to be in control?