A friend once said:
         "Everybody needs a hobby.
Mine happens to be drinking.
I had to sell all my tools and I've moved back to my mom's house.
I'm starting all over again," he said.

Back at it with a Phoenix 2000:
Rule Numbers: 4, 14, 29 & 35
May 22nd, 2017:
Over 30 hours of flight time in the first week.
My first motor plane:
       At least I should say that the motor is like a back-up that one will use to get out of trouble or if the winds are not co-operating.
       I can pack a 2,200 mh battery in it but my 1,800 makes it handle better, however a 1,000 or 1,300 would be even better if the winds are good for slope gliding. (And can you believe I put in over 30 hours of flight time in the first week?)
       After seeing who the plane will react in strong winds via camera placed on the end of the wing, I opted out of the flap option and just glued the flaps closed and stuck the decals over the hinge areas. Reason being is that the manufacture put carbon spars in the ailerons, but not the flaps and in the video, the flaps were just flapping like crazy, (and not doing the quality of flight any favors.)
       So I opted for the airplane program instead of the sailplane program in my new DMX-6.
So I got Flaperons program going instead.
Which helps slow it down for landing, and since I'm able to program up to 5 different modes, I'm using three, so I can use 45%, 15% and no flaperons. (The 15% is good for adding lift in light winds and allow for a little more control on the final approach of the landings.) Oh yeah, I also mix in a little elevator mix into the flaperons.
       I've got a mix set for the ailerons and rudder. Even assigned a toggle switch for the option of two differential rates for nice looking turns.
      I also assigned a couple toggles for duel rates and expos for my elevator and ailerons.

While I was over in Australia, took up slope gliding with RC radio planes, a hobby I always wanted to do. It is more of a hobby and sport combined if you ask me. The hobby part if it is that you have to be some sort of a engineer and craftsman when assembling the kit and it's the fine details of craftsmanship and engineering that a pilot can sense when flying these planes.
    And for a beginner: once you have it together you have to be coordinated enough to actually fly the thing. Also the sport part of the deal is ;- if you don't do so well - you will get some exercise climbing around the hillside, trying to find your plane.

Dave Kellogg, a sponsored pilot mentioned, that back in the olden days when radio gear was expensive and planes were made out of balsa wood, it was common a pilot could spend 6 hours fixing a plane for every hour they flew it.

Now days there's EPP foam gliders.
(The foam is usually used in bodyboards)
When it's used in slope gliders, its light and almost indestructible. You can often wreak your plane, walk over (or climb the hill,) retrieve and you may throw it off the hill again the same day. No big deal.
       As a result, Dave said, "Pilots are getting better faster."

This is my F-20 Tigershark. The kit comes from New Zealand. It has a JW wing foil. I was in the process of building one in Australia, but that was cut short. Randy, a dentist here in SD county won a kit through a ;raffle drawing. He sold me this one for $50.oo. I ended up with a couple hundred dollars worth of electronics into it and more hours than I would want to admit. But it sure flies nice. It can cover a lot of area pretty fast and it performs stunts real well.  
    With 20 winds or better, you just throw this baby into the pit and the adrenalin kicks in. It's characteristics are kind of a blend of a fuselage type plane and a delta wing. I've had to add 102 grams of weight in winds of 30 - 40 mph. It just eats it up and takes up space.

One thing I wish I would have done is just made it stronger because the plan doesn't want to fly in light winds in the first place, it needs to be stronger to survive crashed and if you usually have to add weight to it, then what was the point in holding back on the strapping tape for?

  Unfortunately a couple days before my dad was going to come by for a visit. Someone hammered me with another signal and I lost it in the ocean. Some lady thought she was going to help me by fetching it out if the water. She didn't know what she was doing when she grabbed it and it cost me rear wing and a two piece rear elevator I had made out of balsa wood instead of the corrugated plastic ones the kit came with.
        It took a new wiring and battery pack. A new Electron six FM receiver, and a few 85MG servos. On Jan. 11 it launched again. Talk about adrenalin.

This is my Rader. I call it the Jester. It's good for beginners as well as experts. Good for stunts and those days when the wind in kinna light. My computer type transmitter is an Optic 6. It's able to save the settings for 8 different planes and the control module on the back lets me change the frequency at will.

Some times I wonder that for my F-20, a Flash Five would be better, because you can program the flapperon control to the throttle stick. Take the pin out and the thing will self center. Then you could use the trim button to set it and the stick would be like active differential. But if the Flash Five control feels like the Laser ;non computer controller, I'd forget that idea because Hi-tech Lazer transmitters just suck, I just couldn't fly worth anything with the one I have.

On the Optic 6, I've got to un-solder the pot on the side and the stick and find out if they are the same resistance. If so, I'm in and I'll switch the wiring around. Hell, Hi-Tech could have just wrote better software.

Maybe I'll call or e-mail them to find out the pot values.

March 31st, 2012:
Flew my F-20 Tigershark yesterday. Now that I've got the spring set up on the throttle of my controller - to indent in the middle - for flapperons, I'm going to turn off the Flapperon mix program and program the two programmable mix channels to set the trim on the flaps through the joy sticks. Way cool, should have done it last year. It will be nice having pre-set flaps instead of having an easy to bump lever thingy on the side.

Today I'm going to get an earlier start on the swing of the wind. It's blowing like hell out of the south east all morning and I figure it's about to swing south west about now.
     Update: got rained on after about ten minutes of too much south in it. Should have been on it yesterday instead of doing this shit.

Update April 2,'12: Boy, those programmable mix channels have a hell of a glitch. I went back to just using the Flapperon program and I'm trimming things down tight so the the flap lever moves the flaps only a small amount, so that the lever only fine tunes the flaps. April 1st, I added two ounces and flew on over 30 mph winds. A fast landing wasn't so kind on my wing tip. (of which I've been debating whether to put a radius on the wing tips.It would be a good time to do it because glue is going to throw the balance off.)

Kinna missing it.
Rule Numbers: 22 & 26
April 27, 2017:
Getting back into flying RC Sailplanes:
       Just watching others fly to other day was relaxing.
       So I figured that I'd dust off my old planes and replace the batteries.
       Or should I also say, patch them up?
       Tattered as they are, the question about just replacing them just doesn't register as much as I thought because things have changed in the industry so much that my electronics are pretty much obsolete.
       Single Christal type FM transmitters are just not used much anymore because everyone is going to the 2.4 and the EPP foam type slope gliders are almost a thing of the past.
       It took a little looking only to discover that the plane I wanted to build, that used to come in a bare kit for about $35 just doesn't exist anymore. Therefore I'm left with the idea of recovering my old Raider.
       The tough decision for me is what to do with my F-20. It's been busted up so much, it no longer flies like it used to and around here, we seldom have enough wind to fly it. Therefore I've been contemplating on dismantling it and rebuilding it into a single delta wing type plane, similar to the JW plane that the front wing foil came from.
       I figure I can make a lighter plane out of it, so that I can fly something that is faster then the Raider and yet fly in 15 mph wind, -hopefully. But the difficult part about it is saying good bye to the F-20. I'm still debating on it, so I figure I should take a trip down to Kerny Mesa and see what kind of kits are still around. However what I would like to pick up on is a fiberglass plane, but I just don't think my pocket book can afford one. None the less, I figure I need to get back into it just to get my chops back.
       It is kind of a neat sport/hobby, because it can not only be relaxing, but a adrenalin rush as well.

Later

My Synchro-link truck:
A whole fleet of trucks in one.
Check it out at MiniRollOffTrucks.com

JP took some shots of a flying session. You should check out his really neat slide show at:

JP Pollak Photography

May 21st & 22nd brought in wind over 40 mph to the central coast. It's been a long time since I piloted the F-20. You sure can get out of practice. To bad there isn't many places to fly around Morro Bay and Cambria, where the wind tends to have too much north in it.

May 3 & 4 2007 brought some wind, On the 4th just before it got dark, I had to add 32 grams to my F-20, Met a guy who took some pictures. Lets hope he send us some. We worked together on the shots and he took over 100 shots with his telephoto lens camera.

April 15th we had some wind that got to 15-20 and I was able to fly my Tigershark.

March 27,'07 Had some 30 mph wind. I added 32 grams and it wasn't really enough. Crashed twice and had one real scary landing, but it survived.

Jan. 16th, "07:
The week supplied three afternoons good enough winds to get three sessions in. There were a couple days I flew my Rader.
        Had two scary landings because the wind was too north and I had to bring it down in the middle of a housing development.

Folks, if you see people flying an RC plane. And it comes down somewhere near you, please don't pick it up. Many of us have had our flaps screwed up just because someone picked up our plane up wrong.

Is Reading one of your favorite Origamis?

How about Writing?

Helpful Hints for Pet Owners

Feb. 23rd'07 winds kicked up about 25-30 today, I added 32 grams to my F-20.
The wind was a bit north though and it left a low ceiling.

Feb. 28th brought enough wind for my F-20. The wind varied. I started out with 28 grams of ballast, but settled on 21 for when it got light.

Adrenalin

Have you been to
TUNES yet?

Check out this link to a different kind of patented WingFan design

This page is in memory of Dave Kellogg, a fellow surfer and about the only sponsored pilot I've ever known. Anybody that knew him, knew he was always a wealth of information.
       Dave charged my batteries a few times.
       He also read all three of my books.
        Bless him.