A case history of an RC Addict

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A case history of an RC Addict
Published on: January 1, 2006
Written by: Allan "Kiwi" Main

1. Formal Any of several flightless birds of the genus Apteryx native to New Zealand, having vestigial wings and a long slender bill. Also called apteryx.
2. Informal. A New Zealander.


With significant emphasis on being flightless I think I was born to break that mold. I became fascinated with flight as a young kid sitting in the back seat of Dads old Durant and trying to work out why my hand wanted to go up when tilted in the wind and down when I pointed it at terra firma. From those simple beginnings the fascination with flight was born.

Being born in a tiny little two horse town called Kurow in the central South Island of New Zealand there was little in the way of happenings when it came to aviation.


In my pre school days tiger moths and piper cubs were the rage and they all got used up sowing fertilizer and grass seed over the rolling mountainous terrain around home. Used up being the operative word when I say many of them are lying plastered on hill sides where they inadvertently took on the cumulus granite. And yes some were fatal. Perhaps the most significant memory I have of aviation and my teeny days was the day the air force raced down the valley with a vampire. A modern wooden jet in those days. I mean I near on wrecked the door trying to get out to see it, and funny enough even 50 years later if a military jet roars overhead I still walk out to look up at them. Airplanes are in my blood and it has been since birth. In fact I find it quite fun to get stuck at the airport and just watch planes come and go, from the bar of course.

My introduction to RC was with my good old uncle Baldric. Warwick Blackman to be precise. Before I could walk he was building models and he took after his father who built model steam trains. I recall going to his fathers house once and being given a ride round on the steam train he had hand built on a rail track he had build encircling the house. The engine was fired by wood and that thing puffed and chuffed us kids round like we were kings. They were the foundation days and where the modeling bug came from. That impressed me so much from an age of five I guess and the addiction has never ever gone away. From that day on I always wanted to build models and especially aeroplanes. Well Baldric, Uncle Warwick in those days, was into free flight gliders etc and then along came those fancy top of the line RC systems. One push for left, two for right. If you know what I mean then you probably have grandkids as well. He fascinated me with his models although I never got the chance to fly one. I don’t blame him in hind sight either.

Today he is well into his 70’s and still as sprightly as a 20 year old. He rides his Buell down town for his means of transport and long road trips with two of his boys are common. Out running cops is a favorite pastime and believe me the Buell is capable in his hands. Today his models are sophisticated yet totally hand crafted. The polikarpov shown here has a 70cc chain saw engine modified to suit, hand built retracts, fiberglass fuselage and foam core wings. Believe it or not the end price for this bird is around US$300 flying. The spinner for example is really scale and is the top off a bug spray can. So getting into giant scale is not as expensive as we make it to be if you want to build and adapt.

Well school went by, puberty took control and eventually I found out that to live one needed to work. Mum and Dad were not an unlimited resource as was supposed to be the case so I elected to go and learn how to build engines and fix heavy equipment. That was 1970 and the world was on a roll. Jobs were plenty and easy to find so I decided an apprenticeship would be enough for me. Long story short one day I got a chance to go for a fly with a friend in a Cessna 172. I had flown in planes before, mainly DC3’s and Fokker Friendships, but never in the pointy end. Well that single 30 minute ride ended up costing me thousands and I’m still paying.

Six months later I had my private license, two years later a commercial license and two airplanes on the line. 500 plus hours under the belt I left New Zealand for pastures greener and sweeter and have never gone back to New Zealand except to see my family. Eight years in Australia. Seven years in Papua New Guinea (I got my first RC chopper there and still have it) and now going on eleven years in Chile. In Papua I flew nearly every weekend with the local airlines as a freeloader, and many a time with friends in helis, Jet rangers, Hughes and once in a Puma. Two hours illegal stick time in that thing and what a beast of a chopper. Dreamed for years after about that flight.

Then I came to Chile. Not green sunny Chile but the Atacama Desert where records show some local villages with no recorded rain for 530 years. It is as dry as a wood peckers bum here. It is on the coast so it is not dry heat but the Humboldt Current runs up the coast so it is cool. We are bang on the tropic of Capricorn but nothing like the heat of say Rockhampton in Australia, which also is on the same parallel. So what to do in a low wind, never raining climate in a sandy rocky dry as a fart desert (not all farts are dry and I can attest to that). Well you go fly RC. There was and still is a very small club of about ten pilots. Mostly trainers and simple stuff but some of the guys are very good. I do not include myself in those ranks.

So that brings me to today. I fly and like Composite –Arf planes and have four of them. Plus about half a dozen others. The area is very conducive to slope soaring as the wind is as regular as my bowels. Always blowing, just the velocity that varies. I want to give that try later in the year when the westerly winds pickup a bit of strength. I represent Smart-Fly who do make the most affordable and practical RC electronics on the market. I can assure you my destruction rate has reduced by several hundred percent by opting for very good electronics layouts. I have no idea how many of my planes got sucked in by gravity due to wiring and receiver installation errors. I use FROMECO batteries and they are top notch for quality and service. I use ZDZ, DA and 3W engines so have no bias to anyone in particular. They all have their own idiosyncrasies so once you get used to them they start and run without any issues.

I use HITEC servos exclusively and FUTABA radio and RX equipment. 9ZWC2 and a 14MZ of which I can only say good things about.

If there is a cure for this addiction I would prefer that no one sends it to me please. I am a very happy RC junky and would like to keep it that way.

Keep Huckin'

-Kiwi




Allan "Kiwi" Main :
Allan "Kiwi" Main is a contributor to The Leading Edge. He has been flying RC since the beginning of time, and currently is a proficient IMAC and 3D pilot.
kiwi@flyinggiants.com
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