She's Tore Up Plenty, but She'll Fly True

Why my cheapest, most beat up plane is the most fun to fly

I have been flying RC aircraft for over 10 years now and began with a cheap electric Styrofoam model. There have been so many advancements in both technology and types of models available and I got sucked in. I went from flying cheap, underpowered foamies to huge, glow powered models. I own over 20 planes and 5 multi-rotor aircraft now. Every time I tried something new I learned more and had a great time with my friends but I also noticed things began to get more complicated. Prep time to go flying increased, crashes became more costly and the increased risk of losing a coveted aircraft began to interfere with the fun factor. That was until I found the F9F Panther, a 65mm ducted fan foamie. 

 If number of flights and fun are measurements for what make a good RC plane then the Panther has taken the prize. This little beast set me back about $80 bucks. All I had to do was add an $8 receiver and a battery. So what makes this plane a favorite in my fleet? Not only is it cheap; it has amazing fight characteristics. Its fast, takes off in about 30 feet and its incredibly stable despite being beat to crap. Last night I counted no less than 17 epoxy repair jobs but this plane just doesn’t quit! It has suffered busted wings, tail and the nose is as crooked as the wicked witch herself but even after all that, it flies great. 

If I want to run to field and do some quick flying, all I have to do is grab my radio and some batteries. The Panther being so cheap and beat up means I can relax a bit when I fly. Its like picking up a load of gravel in your old pickup truck. You don’t need to tinker with it much; it just works. If I dork it in, no big deal. The Panther calls for 1300 mah battery. I found they didn’t last long so I carved out some Styrofoam and jammed a 2200 battery in the nose. You would think this would screw up the flight characteristics. No problem for the Panther, just a couple of clicks on the elevator trim and she was good to go.


One day the Panther may suffer a fatal crash but if it does, there’s another sitting in the box in my workshop. Funny, its been there almost 2 years but since this plane is the zombie that won’t die, it can just sit there a while longer. My point is this; it is easy to get captivated with all of the dazzling technologies currently available in the world of RC flying. It’s easy to get sidetracked and forget the reason we get into this hobby. 

It reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite shows, Firefly. The crew shared nostalgia for the ship that got them through plenty of tough scrapes. The first officer, Zoe said it best, “She’s tore up plenty, but she’ll fly true.”

Maiden flight of the Beaver, Spacewalker Crashes

March 6th was one of the nicest days of the spring or so we thought until we got to the field. The weather was warm and winds were thought to be low but once we got to the village park we noticed winds speeds were about 10mph with some minor gusts.

Kip worked to get an electric ready for the day so he stopped by and we rigged a brushless in-runner into his electric supersportster. The first flight was crazy, the thing was so tail heavy the plane wanted to climb to the moon. Somehow Kip managed to bring it back in without wrecking it. After adding an ounce of weight to the nose he tried again. Better but somehow he ended up stuck in a tree next to the parking lot. Some kids with sticks came by and helped us poke it down. One more flight. It looked pretty good but I think we over propped it because the plane dorked in next to the baseball diamond and we noticed a nasty burnt electrical smell coming from the fuselage. It turns out the motor and the speed controller were cooked.

I was intent on taking the E-flight Dehavilland Beaver up for her maiden flight. I almost chickened out because of the wind but finally decided to give it a shot.
Takeoff was nearly flawless except for a hook to the right which I under-compensated for. Still, the Beaver lifted off predictably with no surprises. After a few laps I brought her in over the top of the village hall. Thanks to the stiff headwind, no flaps were required and the Beaver gently landed. Next I took the F-4 Phantom up for a few laps. Wind is not a problem for this plane because it flies at like 80mph anyway. Two flights with the jet and my hands started to get cold, despite my fashionable thumbless flying gloves.

Glenn entertained us once again with the Spacewalker. Full throttle takeoffs, hammerheads and flat spins had us swallowing hard. My grandsons Josh and Alex (the Holy Crap kid from our video) were dazzled. Then tragedy struck. During a full throttle takeoff the plane banked to the right and nailed a tree. The spacewalker's fuselage was smashed! It was devastaing for Glenn, this is the 4th spacewalker. At first Glenn felt pretty discouraged. Kip and I took him to the the pub to ease his pain. After a couple of cocktails Glenn

left. We found out later he stopped to by a replacement fuselage from Dawn (Northern Hobbies). By Wednesday the fuselage had shown up and Glenn is on his way to rebuilding the spacewalker. Other than the Spacewalker incident, not a bad day.

Warbirds Over the Midwest

On August 15, 2009 we attended the Warbirds over the Midwest Airshow held in Fond du Lac Wisconsin. You can see our photo album at http://www.uncontrolledflight.com/photos.htm Overall it was a very good experience. These guys had planes in the air from 9AM to 4PM Friday and Saturday. There was plenty of action and the club that runs the event were very accommodating, allowing us to park our camper on the grounds for a very small fee.
The weather was hot and had the potential for storms. One of the clubs members stopped by on a golf cart and offered us shelter at his nearby home in the event of a storm. Now that's hospitality! The grounds were absolutely spectacular, clear testament to the hard work of the people who put this event together.

We got there Thursday night and witnessed an a turbine F-4 Phantom wizz by. This gave us great hopes for the next two days. We were not disappointed with the quality of the planes or the skills of the pilots. We witnessed dozens of beautifully constructed WWII replicas and quite a few circa WWI biplanes. Examples included the P-51, Corsair, Sky Raider, P-40 Warhawk, P47 Thunderbolt and the F-4 Phantom to name a few. Make no mistake, these are warbird pilots. They have no interest in aerobatics. If you want to see a warbird in a flat spin or go into a dive and pull out 2 feet from the deck, you will need to come to Abrams and watch Crazy Glenn at our flying field.

This was not exactly an airshow in the sense of other shows, such as Joe Nall. Even the Green Bay show had some choreographed events to entertain the kids. This event was simply lots of flying. While I have nothing but respect for the people who put this show together, I would compare it to eating beefsteak several days in a row. The first day is pretty good but you soon get too full of the rich goodness and it loses it's appeal.

There were occasional highlights such as flybys by full scale aircraft and bomb drops but these were too few and far between. The club's shining star is the modeling expertise of Carl Bachhuber who flew his 6 engine B-36 bomber and the Boeing Stratocruiser. Both were stunning in detail and a pleasure to see fly.
Kudos to the event organizers for providing excellent refreshments and food. The brats and burgers were a big hit. The big band music was a nice touch. The announcer would have benefited from information about the planes and pilots. You could tell these guys had a significant investment in time and money. It would have been nice to hear a few more details about them. We were expecting lots of vendors but could only find two, Balsa USA and a guy selling servo extensions. We came prepared to spend some bucks so if vendors selling gizmos, ARF kits, motors, batteries or servos were present, they could have easily taken advantage of our weakened state, i.e. lack of female influence and and poor judgment. Instead we went home with full bellies and full pocketbooks.

The event ended abruptly on Sunday, apparently due to a weather front coming through. From what were heard, their attendance was down quite a bit this year. This may be due partly to the hot weather but the lack of activities for kids may have played a part.

Overall, this was a very well run event. With a few enhancements it could rival some of the more nationally recognized shows. What can I say, after attending Joe Nall we were spoiled. This is a nice ltille gem to have right here in our our state.

The 90 degree SPAD

August 5, 2009 we met at Kevin's airfield. the weather was perfect, warm and low wind. Jerry brought a couple of friends and buddy boxed them on his SPAD. Jerry did some amazing stuff with the SPAD but eventually ended up where all good airplanes end up, in the wheat field. After a horrific sounding crash, this was the result.

I flew my F-4 Phantom, and did an experiment with the Superstar. A gyro was added for additional stability in the ailerons and the test was an amazing success! The gyro reduced the tendency of this pane to tip stall on landings and as a result I had a very stable landing in low wind.

The evening was coming to an end and I decided to take the slow-stick up. After all what could happen? I plugged in the battery and checked the controls only to discover that things were not quite right. It was then I realized I had the Tigermoth model selected on my radio. What would be the prudent thing to do at this point? Unplug the battery and switch the model in the radio of course. What did I do? Left the battery plugged in and started switching through the models on my radio. Apparently one was selected that had the throttle channel reversed and the Slow-stick went full throttle, running into Jerry's Twist which was parked on the runway. It was a horrible sound but to our surprise there was no damage to either plane. Looks like I got away with that one.

Slowstick in the trees

I decided to put some ailerons on my slowstick tonight to give it more control. They didn't work like I thought and I ended up in a tree on the street in front of the house, about 16 feet off the ground. I had to get the limb cutter on an extension pole and with the help of a passerby, I got it down.

The problem was the linkage had too much flexibility and the ailerons didn't move evenly under the stress of actual flight. I will need stiffer wire to prevent this.

New Field

The new field is great place to fly both electric as well as gas. Impressed with Glens landings on the grass. He did a very nice job with his P-51 scale flights. Which is pretty unusual for Crazy Glen. Wasn't much for prop noise. It sounds so cool though! Cant wait to get something in the air there...so many options for landing.

New Flying Spot

Tonight we scoped out a new park in Howard and found a great flying spot. Present were Kip, Kris, Glenn and Bill.

Spring Green Park

This is a village park which we found on satellite photos. It turned out to be a great place to fly. Glenn flew the electric P-51. I flew the slow stick, rebuilt Tigermoth and a P-47. A beautiful, calm evening.