My History with RC Airplanes

When I was young, my mother insisted that my two brothers and I work on summer breaks from school. At the time, I wanted to have a fun summer break like all of my friends. I realize now, at a much later age, that my mother was instilling a work ethic in me and my brothers.

I mowed lawns until I was 13, then I got certificate from the agricultural extension agent (every county in Texas has one) that allowed me to drive a tractor. So I drove a tractor for my neighbor who was a farmer. When I turned 14, I got a job at an A&W Root Beer stand and did that for a couple of years.

With the money I made, when I was ten years old, I bought a Jetco Cessna 170 model airplane kit. I had never seen a balsa airplane kit and had sure never built one. The parts were die cut but as we used to say, "die crushed." I used white Elmers' glue and did the best I could.

The nearest hobby shop was 100 miles away. I LOVED going into the hobby shop. I was mesmerized by the airplanes and all the kits.

I did the best I could on that Cessna 170 and did the best I knew how to putting the covering on the plain. After I put a few coats of dope on the silkspan, it began to tighten up. Little did I know it was supposed to do that! LOL

That kit was designed as a control line, free flight or single channel RC airplane. That was back in the days of the old single channel escapement radio. I never flew the plane.

I was 14 or 15 when this was taken. This was one of the RC airplanes I scratch built. 

As I recall, the airplane flew very well with only aileron and elevator control.

After that, every time my family and I would drive 100 miles to Amarillo, I would buy what pieces of balsa I could afford. When we got home, I would take a single edged razor blade and cut out pieces to make my own model airplane. I read once that guitar affciando, Chet Atkins, as a boy would take pieces of wire out of the family's screen door and make his own guitar strings! Buying balsa as a kid reminds me of what Atkins did. He wanted to play so badly and I wanted to fly an RC plane just as badly.

I had a Cox .049 engine and I had saved enough money to purchase a 3 channel radio control. There is no telling how many airplanes I built and used that combination of engine and radio in. I would usually just use aileron and elevator control on the airplanes I built.

A foam Chipmunk (I can't remember what company made them) and a 1/2A control line combat airplane. I used scraps of Monokote that I had laying around to cover the plane. I put a Fox .19 on the Chipmunk and I could never get the engine to start. I'm not sure why I never sent it back to Fox to have them fix it.

I have built at least three Sig Kougar RC airplanes (seems like there may have been a couple more). This was taken, probably in 1978. My little 1976AMC Pacer is seen on the left hand side of the photo. This the ORIGINAL Kougar. Now, they sell the Kougar MkII.

I have tried to remember all of the RC airplanes I have built. The number has to be at least 200. Here is a list of just a FEW of the RC planes I've built.

3 - Sig Kougars	2 - Bridi Super Kaos'	House of Balsa P-51	Sig Quick Build P-51
2 - Super Duper Joy Sticks	2 - Sig Kadets	Midwest Super Chipmunk	Midwest Trainer
2 - Goldberg Slylark 56	Goldberg Falcon 56	2 - Lanier Comet II's	2 - Great Planes Super Skybolts
Ace Pacer	Ace Biplane	.15 sized trainer	Hobby Shack foam trainer
2 - Pica Cessna 182's	2 - Quickie 500 planes	Avistar ARF	Alpha ARF
Bridi Killer Chaos	2 - Lanier Comets	Bridi Utter Chaos	Bridi Dirty Birdy

I bought my first four channel RC airplane from a neighbor. It was a Lanier Comet II with a K&B .61 engine and an old EK Logictrol Champ radio. The airplane seemed huge to me after flying 1/2A's. I had met a guy in my little home town who flew. His name was Don Piatt. We went to an old cow pasture south of Booker, Texas. The cattle had walked through the field when it was muddy so their were holes in our runway. We took dried up cow patties and stomped them into the holes. I soloed pretty quickly and spent the rest of the day taking off and landing.

I wish I had photos of every RC airplane I've ever built but unfortunately I don't. Here are some photos of planes I've had and some I have currently.

This is another photograph of me with Sig's original Kougar. The photo was taken circa 1978 when I was 18 years old. Pardon the shorts! LOL. I've built at least three of these planes. They are FAST and super fun to fly.

This was one of my own designs that I called the Venture. It was a .40 sized RC airplane. I hadn't put the cowl on it for these photos. On the first flight, another guy turned his RC transmitter on and it was on the same frequency as mine and it crashed the airplane. The wings were covered with black Coverite and the fuselage was covered with fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin. It was then painted with Rustoleum.

Joe Bridi designed some RC planes called the Sun-Fli's. In the early to mid '70's he flew his "Super Kaos" in the Nationals and did very well. There have been several variants of the Kaos. The yellow airplane is the Bridi Killer Kaos. The green airplane is the Super Kaos.

Both photos above are of the same airplane. I had flown it hundreds of times and then I refinished it. I can't remember which paint job came first. I'll be the first to admit, the Kaos, especially with the very small canopy was not a beautiful airplane but they did fly beautifully! I had Dave Brown's Southern Pro mechanical retracts on the airplane with an O.S. 65 LAX for power.

I have designed my own version of the Kaos, I call it the Xtreme Kaos. I haven't been in a hurry to finish it but I do have the fuselage finished and the wings just need to be covered. I'll be using an O.S. .61 for power. I've designed it to be a tail dragger and the main gear will be aluminum. I'll use wheel pants over the wheels for more a streamlined look.

The photos above are of my Xtreme Kaos. I recently made the plans available for free. I do not have building instructions written at this time but if you are a seasoned builder you will be able to build one from the plans. I built this prototype without any plans. 

This is the second Great Planes Super Skybolt I've built. The first one was powered with a Saito 150. On the first flight, I did a snap roll too low to the ground and I drove it into a paved runway. The whole plane and the engine were destroyed! 

I originally powered this airplane with a Saito 150 also but sold it to a friend at work. After selling the Saito, I gave it an ASP "Red Head" 1.08. The fuselage was covered with Monokote but when I switched engines I decided to fiberglass the fuselage and I painted it with Rustoleum paint. The wings are covered with Monokote. I built the airplane in 1995! I haven't flown it since the summer of 2008. It is hard to believe that it is 23 years old at the time of this writing and it has been ten years since it has been in the air!

The airplane has some hangar rash but I'm getting it ready to get into the air again. One of these years, I want to strip the paint and the covering and refinish the plane. It weighs in at just a little less than 9 pounds. The aluminum gear is not quite stiff enough so I'm going to beef those up before its next flight. I really love how this airplane kit was engineered. It has a very cool way of attaching the top wing and the wing struts. 

Joe Bridi designed the Dirty Birdy (above). I think they are gorgeous airplanes. I have never been in love with this paint scheme so I've started sanding off the finish (January 2018). I've got to figure out a new paint scheme. This one has Dave Brown Southern Pro manual retracts on the main gear and a Hobbico manual retractable nose wheel. The Hobbico retract is not great quality. I messed up on mounting the main gear so I had to have a little bump in the wings where the main wheels go. I am seriously considering going back with electric retracts and I will remove the bumps in the wings. Depending upon how much work it looks like it will take, I may go back with a balsa or plywood covered foam wing core.

Flying in Florida, I've been able to meet and fly with people that I have read about in model airplane magazines for years. This is past AMA President Don Lowe.

This is a Bridi Utter Kaos. It was powered by a Fox Eagle .61. I converted it to a taildragger. As with most of my RC airplanes, I cover the fuselage with fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin. It takes a lot of work to do it that way but it makes for a beautiful finish. I lost this airplane due to radio interference at the flying field in Salt Lake City. The Utter Kaos is eligible to fly in Senior Pattern Association's events.

This is the Bridi Killer Kaos version of the Kaos. Man, this airplane flew well and I got a lot of compliments on the paint scheme. I don't have a photo with the wheel pants that I used on the plane. It really looked good. Unfortunately, it was one of three airplanes I lost in one summer because of radio interference. I am hoping that by going to 2.4 GHz that I won't have that problem any longer! 

I've had a few ARF's over the years along with the airplanes I built from kits and my own designs. This is the Giles 202 from Phoenix Models. It is a .40 sized airplane but I powered it with an O.S. .61. This was a FUN airplane to fly. I've never had another airplane that has as fast of a roll rate as this one did! The only thing I didn't like about the airplane was that it came with a VERY SMALL fuel tank, probably around 5 or 6 ounces. I put in a larger tank so I could get longer flight times. I lost this airplane when I did a spin just before I was going to power out of the spin, the engine died and it pancaked into the ground and pretty much destroyed the airplane. I wish Phoenix Models still offered these planes. I would buy another one.

This is a Goldberg Skylark 56 ARF. This was a nice little airplane. The nosewheel mounting bolts were not tightened up so I had to cut the airplane's fuselage up to get to the bolts and nuts. My first ever Skylark 56 was built from a kit back in the early '80's. I painted and covered it in solid black. It was powered by an HP .50. I flew that airplane in several fun flies and won several trophies with it. 

This is my Hangar 9 Ultra Stick 60. I first powered it with an O.S. .61 but I have changed that to an O.S. .95. I made the ailerons and flaps where they will "crow." It will slow down to a walk when landing. This is probably one of the most fun airplanes I've ever owned. The last time I flew it, the engine died and it was a very windy day. I had to land with the wind and when it touched ground, it cartwheeled and did a little damage. I've got it ready to get back into the air once I get a new 2.4GHz radio control. The radio is ordered and on its way.

I moved to Florida from Salt Lake City on December 15, 2008. There were two things I had never done in the RC hobby. One was to fly near sea level. Where I grew up in Texas, the elevation was 3,000 feet above sea level (asl). The lowest I had ever flown was in Las Vegas, Nevada which was somewhere around 2,000 feet asl. I can tell a huge difference in lift, speed, etc. at sea level as compared to higher altitudes. I flew at a fun fly in Evanston, Wyoming once where their modelport is at 9,000 feet asl. I took a few airplanes with me. One was my son's .40 size Alpha trainer. That trainer would take off but once it got out of the ground effect which is always about the height of the wingspan of an airplane, it would quit flying. The air was too thin there.

The second thing I had never done was to fly an RC plane off of floats. So, when I got to Orlando, I found a Tower Hobbies .60 sized trainer ARF online. I had purchased some foam floats sometime before that. I covered the floats with a layer of fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin. Then I covered them with white Monokote. I made a new bracket on the airplane to mount the floats. I also made a water rudder so I can steer it in the water. I powered the plane with a Fox Eagle .61. 

There are lakes, ponds and retention ponds all over Central Florida. I've never had a problem finding a place to fly and it has been fun flying off of water. A couple of times my engine has died. Usually, I'll let the wind blow the plane to the shore but one day the engine died the airplane floated into a bunch of reeds. It was a cold day in Florida and I had to swim out in almost 6 feet deep water to retrieve it. The biggest fear I had was that there might be a big ol' alligator in the water. Lucking. I didn't have any problems and I got my airplane back!

I wish I had photos of every airplane I ever built but I don't. I hope you enjoy the ones I've posted here.