About Me

I’ve been flying RC aircraft since the mid 90′s. I started with airplanes, and got heavy into the giant scale aerobatic sector. I dabbled with helicopters and smaller glow planes, and a couple semi-scale projects.  I also got into turbine jets, getting an AMA waiver, and built a couple turbine projects.  I was intently focused on RC and let it consume me for 7 to 8 years straight.

Then it happened. I just got burned out with flying, and my business was growing and also taking up much more of my time. I all but gave up flying for 3-4 years, with airplanes sitting quietly in the corner of the workshop collecting dust. I had urges during this period, but not strong enough to actually act on them. However, I decided that this year was the year I was going to jump back in and dust off all my airplanes.

Dec 2008 – End of Season Update

After a frustrating month or two of trying to get my 40% Extra flying without a dead stick every flight, I bought a T-Rex 450 on a whim. I had flown helicopters in the past, on the simulator and on my MA X-Cell 60. So I did have some experience with helicopters, although limited only to forward flight. I thought the T-Rex 450 would be a good diversion to the airplanes. I didn’t expect ‘the heli bug’  would bite me as hard as it did.

After the first few flights, I was flying in forward flight without the knees knocking too much. I owe that to the flight simulator I started to practice on when I was building the T-Rex 450, and the few flights I had under my belt in the past on the X-Cell 60.  It all paid off in the end as I picked it back up very easily, and felt very comfortable with the T-Rex 450.

I decided to amp up the excitement and picked up a used T-Rex 600 electric, 5 battery packs, and a dual port charger. With 5 batteries and the ability to turn around 2 packs every 40 minutes, I could fly as often as I wanted all day long. On the fourth flight, I was brave enough to try some basic aerobatics with good success. I’ve been flying the 600E almost exclusively over the TR450 (which only has about 10-15 flights on it), along with an Xtra-Fun 3D airplane. I hope to have the 40% Extra problems ironed out, so that I can fly that next season as well.

I’m going to concentrate mostly on increasing my helicopter flying skills until the end of the season. I would like to be able to fly very comfortably in forward flight, loops, rolls, flips, stall turns, pirouettes, sideways, and backwards flight by the end of the year. I’ll concentrate on that, and provide some updates of my progress over time.

There are some very practical attractions to flying helicopters over giant scale airplanes. I can fit a couple of them into my sedan or SUV and wouldn’t need a 12′ trailer to haul around the 40% giants. You can literally take them out of the car, pop on a battery and be flying in a matter of minutes, in stark contrast to the field assembly of the large airplanes. I can fly in smaller spaces, they are quieter, and much easier to fix after an ‘incident’.

For the 2009 season, I should be flying the 40% Extra, my 1/3rd Scale Balsa USA Cub, and the Xtra-Fun for fixed wing. For the helicopters, I will be flying the T-Rex 600E/Hughes 500E sport scale, a T-Rex 600 Nitro Pro, and the T-Rex 450 for helicopters. The helicopters will take priority over the fixed wing, but I will be flying both quite a bit.

Typically, I fly in the greater MA, NH, ME, and CT areas, but travel to giant scale and IMAA events as far as So Carolina for the annual Joe Nall event, and have traveled as far east as Ohio for the IMAA rally, and again for the Superman Jet Rally. I’ll also be attending some of the helicopter events in the New England area this season.

Dec 2009 – End of Season Update

Well, the season is over. I’ll still be flying during winter when it weather is reasonable (sunny and at least 30 degrees).

I’ve made a ton of progress over the season focusing on the helicopters, although I’m sure my fixed wing flying has probably suffered quite a bit.  In addition to the T-Rex 450 and T-Rex 600 Electric, I picked up two T-Rex 600 Nitro helis and focused on flying those for the most part. I firmly believe that you can progress much faster flying one aircraft over and over, rather than flying a large fleet of various airplanes.

From my initial shaky knees with the T-Rex 450 at the end of 2008 just going into forward flight, my knees only shake now when I am learning something new and more demanding. I’ve gone from the basic circuits last year, to a small repertoire of more advanced maneuvers;

forward flips, backward flips, stationary rolls, death spirals, descending knife edge, extended tail slides, tail slides with aileron rolls, climbing flips, various pirouette maneuvers, split-s, falling flips, as well as some backward flight and inverted hovering. Hopefully by the end of next season, I hope to have added more backward flight and inverted hovering maneuvers to the list. That will be my goal.