Ressurection

3 weeks ago (April 2009) my family (myself, Liz and Kaeleigh) were walking through the mall near our house in Camp Hill. Kae spotted a group of tables in the center of the mall covered in RC Planes.. there must have been 15 of them. As we walked around, my eyes gleaming with past memories, we past one that was covered in see-through Mono-kote. I started to explain how they are built, and how the ribs of the wing are constructed first, and all glued together from a pattern, and then the mono-kote is applied, along with some heat and it firms up against the wood to form a skin.

As Im finishing up my story, the club president for the flying club who's planes they were approached me and said "Sounds like you know a thing or two about this stuff, you fly?" So I told him a bit of this story, and then Liz took a flyer. They were having an open house the next weekend, and we should go.

1 week later, at the request of my family (which just makes me feel VERY good, I love that my family would opt to spend their Saturday with me, immersed in a past love) I was standing on a flying field, much like the one the Exeter Flying Eagles had put together, surrounded by RC Planes and their pilots.

I got to watch several exciting flights, they have some highly skilled pilots. I also got to go up with an instructor, Andy, who has a "Buddy Box". A buddy box is is a pair of remotes, tied together with a PS1 cable, that allows the instructor to take off, flip a switch and let the student fly, then if the student gets in trouble, flip it back and correct the mistake.. or, you know, land :-) It.. was.. AWESOME.

The very next day I was on the phone with my sister, "Hey.. you still have those planes?"

As I climbed the steps of her attic, now 8 years after the last time I had, and I got my first glimpse of the old planes from my childhood, it almost brought me to tears. So many happy memories over 4 of the forming years of my life, such good times with my Dad, and I had done so little to pack it up and move it to this attic it was almost as if we had just dropped the planes off the day before... except for the 1/4" of dust and dirt on everything!

Kae helped me get them cleaned up before packing everything into the cars. I found the heat machines we used for the mono-kote, the remotes, spare motor parts, and even.. my crown jewel. A completely un-touched stunt plane kit that we bought just months before we stopped flying.. plans and wood in tact, motor for it in tact.

We had 3 planes that were working when we stopped flying, a white trainer, a purple trainer, and a red bi-plane (which was Dad's favorite). The bi-plane has some holes in the bottom wing, which should help me learn how the mono-kote works. The white trainer has some rutter damage (the apoxy that held it down has broken loose, and so it's not attached to the fuselage very well anymore. The purple trainer, however, is in excellent condition. Its' skin is 100%, parts are all firm, and strong.

The motors, however, are another story. One of them turns... with some coaxing, the others won't budge. I assume they are quite dirty as the oil and grease in them wasn't well cared for when we flew, and they now have 12 years of dirt built up on and in them. 2 of the motors' throttles were left open.

The electronics are all in good condition. There's no water damage of any kind, and most of the servos seem to turn with a little help from me. The batteries are all completely shot, even tho I have a cycler, I'm not even sure it's worth trying. I still have yet to inspect these carefully for corrosion, and they need cleaned; but they seem salvagable.

So, I decided to start this blog to detail the work I will have to do to get back in the air, and share with you the learning to catch up this enthusiast on the sport, and fill in the gaps that were left because I was 12 when we flew, and my Dad was the one who needed the real knowledge.