so, back in december i had tonsils removed in an attempt to sure my sleep apnea. for about a month and a half i had some of the best sleep of my life. then it started going back to the way it was before the surgery. i went to see my surgeon and he suggested a follow-up sleep study to see if there is some other problem that might be causing me to experience apnea again. i did the sleep study about 2 weeks ago and last week i got my results. i had no signs of apnea, but.....they seem to think i might have narcolepsy. how awesome is that? something with no real cure, a lifetime of being tired and not being able to do anything about it. there are medications, stimulants for example. but who wants to experience the constant highs and lows and the possible addiction. anti-depressants are also recommended, bye-bye sex life. the last one is a drug called xyrem, aka GHB, aka the date rape drug. same exact formulation. apparently you can only get directly from the maker, jazz pharma, and it's unlikely that insurance will pay the $1000 a month it costs. but i guess i would make a great date. who knows, maybe i don't actually have it. i still have yo get further testing done.

i love my precision aerobatics addiction. it is by far one of the absolute best planes i have ever flown. it will do whatever i want it to or at least whatever i can make it do, and then slow down nicely and settle onto the ground right in front of me. i have slammed into the ground on more than one occasion now and other than a cracked wheel pant there is no damage. and, unlike all of the large scale airplanes out there, it fits nicely into the trunk of my honda civic. sorta. i have to put the seats down to fit the rudder.

Hello.

I am a new member from Denmark and this is a little test of blogging.
It is about my new model a Pitts S2-A from an kit from Exclusiv Modellbau in Germany.
The quality of the kit is outstanding the parts fit is perfect and it goes together easily if you are used to build.
I have a ZDZ 120cc gas engine with Krumscheid mufflers and a 26x12 Mejzlik 3-bladed propeller on it and it runs great.
The radio gear is Futaba/Emcotec with Hi-Tec Digital servoes.
The plane is completely covered with Oracover which is strong and light,the finished model with one liter of gas weights 17,4 kg.
It is a great flier and when you first have tried this you don`t want small models anymore.
The photos are taken during the first three flights by my wife who also helps me when preparing and cleaning up the plane after the flights.
I have got a pilot for the Pitts it is from Axel Scale Pilots in Germany he is handmade,very realistic and a little masterpiece.
Here are a couple of photos before he goes into the model.

Best Regards Henrik Hammer

i am fat. out of shape. it sucks. i recently bought a bicycle, a specialized allez triple. it's a nice bike, it's fast. i manged 31mph today, downhill of course. but it is kicking my ass. i have cut my meat eating down to almost virtually zero. practically vegetarian. i don't mind that too much. my wife keeps finding great recipes and i enjoy vegetables. it's also not the bike riding that i hate. i used to ride all the time. about 10 years ago i used to ride a skateboard, a mountainbike, and a roadbike daily. not all at once. usually at least two of them. road at lunch, mountain in the afternoon, and then skating at night. that was 10 years and 60 pounds ago. now i am trying to start biking again. i don't dare try to restart skating due to the fact that i am still recovering from many of those injuries. the main problem is that i think i expect to step on my bike and still be as fast and have the ability to ride 40 miles and i can't. it's a little frustrating having to admit my condition to myself. i see it every time i look in the mirror. but i guess i'm still in denial. but the longer i protect my heart the longer i can fly my airplanes. that's my philosophy, i hope it works.

Freind of mine wants to get into pattern, anybody know about leo 110 from CMP Has a limited amount of $ .

OK, I scrapped the first one. everything was glued crooked and it looked like hell. This time it looks a hell of a lot better and I masked off a design on the wings before painting it. Pretty soon I'll be hovering a mere few dozen feet above the ground.

so apparently later this year the aptera will be released in california. if you don't don't know the aptera is a new car (sorta) that will be releases as two different models, the type 1e and the type 1he (i think). the 1e is electric that runs on lipo's and gets about 120 miles to a charge, and the 1he is a gas-electric hybrid that gets on average 300 mpg. they accomplish this through aerodynamics. studies have shown that the average car uses 70% of it's energy just moving air out of the way. well the aptera, looking more like an airplane, solves that problem through streamling and a few other neat tricks such as only having three wheels. due to it's weight and the three wheel configuration it's classified as a motorcycle, but because it has three wheels and it's totally enclosed you aren't required to get a motorcycle license or wear a helmet. and it has indy car style safety features, but as of right now it will only do about 85-90mph instead of 200. check it out at www.aptera.com. and it's a lot cheaper then the tesla roadster, although not as fast.

Donate blood!

I did it today and it's really cool! It'll help save someone's life! AND it will only take a little of your time.



Chris

How do you get maximum throw in a funtana 100X? it dosen't give me as much throw as I would like. my friend has one and he hass a lot more throw for d/r.

i see so many people who build these amazing 1/4 scale and larger planes from scratch, and here i am trying to tweek some homebuilt 3d foamies. lame. but they're fun as hell. my first one, extra 300, was fun and flew well, but it was too nose heavy and hit the ground wrong upon landing and removed the motor mount. i'm going to build a new one. stronger....faster....less nose heavy. it's fun to fly something that you built from nothing, even if it's as simple as a little foamie. but i still give preference to my PA addiction. best plane ever. let me throw in some props for rcfoam.com. i ordered my foam and carbon strips on a friday afternoon around 3pm and then at 9:30am saturday it was on my porch. and they threw in a sheet 6mm depron for free to go with my 3mm sheets. i think in the next few weeks i am going to download the directions for dave powers' 6mm depron f-117 and start building it. it looks like a fun plane.

I Would just like to say a great big THANKS!!!! to Andy and his Crew his customer sevice and work surpass DA's Ive never had anyone do such a good job and surpass my expactations. I mean I cant belive its the same motor, They done things that I didnt even ask for such as The cleaning job, new carb links, and scrubed the ports. The engine runs beter than it did when I purchased it

dose any body now of any 3d vidio gides on the web

the red bull air races are awesome. the pilots like mike mangold and paul bonhome are the best in the seris but one day they will retire and who will take there place as the veterans of the races.

i just got home from 2 days at nall. luckily i only live an hour away. all i have is two words.....A_MA_ZING!!!!! sorry about the clerks reference. bill hempel is a madman, the 50% cub of his is ridiculous and if i had $2500 laying around not paying bills i would totally order one. the crowd was much larger than last year. if you couldn't make you should start planning for next years now.

Hi Guys:

I have read with interest the various postings on the CRRCPro 45cc engine. I decided to get one since so many before me have worked out so many problems.

I just decided to move into gas after 60 years of modeling and 30 plus in RC, but always glow.

At any rate I ordered a engine from Hobby-People. They list as the "THOR", it has CRRC stamped all over the crankcase and the cylinder powder coating is black. It must be OEM'ed for Global for the USA market and for Ripmax for the UK, at least that is the way it appears to me. The instruction sheet seems to be from the UK since fuel is referenced as "petrol". We also have CRRCPro-USA and CRRC-China in this picture. As I said not sure how all of these relationships work, maybe someone will enlighten me.

Anyway I received the engine from Hobby-People in timely fashion. I have documented my journey with pics so everyone interested could share my experience.

With all the posts about QC , etc I decided to pull the engine apart to check the inside. Re-assemble and test.

1. The engine was well packaged and exterior appearance was very good.

2. Interior inspection disclosed some substance in the top of the cylinder and on top of the piston in the "squish" zone. Don't know what it was. Black and soft, almost looked like lapping compound but it was not gritty, felt like wax. Cleaned it all out. Rest of the engine appeared clean but dry. No residual oils. Squirted the entire interior with Marvel Mystery Oil and re-assembled.

3. Drilled and balanced a Zinger 20X8 and mounted. No problems.

4. Mounted the engine to a test stand and mounted the ignition module to the right side of the stand. The CDI is in a plastic case no markings on it except "THOR".
I did a test of the ignition with the plug connected but not inserted into the engine. Nice fat hot spark. No sign (sound) of internal discharge inside the CDI that I believe "hardtop531" in Australia experienced. Excuse me if I have referenced the wrong guy, there have been so many postings I may have him mixed up in my feeble old 73 year old mind.

5. Filled the 24oz tank with 89 octane mixed 25:1 with Pennzoil Multi-Purpose 2-cycle oil. I know, not synthetic, I said I was 73 !

6. Throttle full open, choke full closed, ignition "OFF". Eight flips to to prime. Reverse above settings , heavy glove, and flip 1, 2, 3, 4-ROAR. Flawless start idling at 2850-RPM. No kickback at all. Warmed it up at idle for about 2 mintes- throttle advanced about half way for 4500-RPM range. Very smooth transition and acceleration. Next 12 minutes spent on the same type actions. Ran the tank out at about 17 minutes.

7. Turned everthing off for a rest session (including the driver for coffee).

8. Two cups of coffee later, did I mention I am a old USN Submarine sailor ? No coffee no workee !

9. Re-filled the tank, backed the idle screw out about 30 degrees.
Primed the engine with 4 flips.
Ignition, glove, flip- 1, 2, 3-ROAR. Now where is the challenge in that ? All subsequent runs have been the same, EXCELLENT, no kickbacks and very easy starts.

10. Engine settled into a very smooth idle at 1560-RPM. More time (about 6 mintes) and I wanted to see what was on top.
I found there was 6975-RPM with the Zinger 20X8 at the top. Very impressive with less than 30 minutes on the clock. Only time will tell on the CDI but it hasn't missed a beat so far.

Anyway, long story short. Thanks to "Tooly" in Israel, "hardtop531" in Auatralia, "Jim" at CRRCPro-USA and CRRC-China and all others that came before me to assist in the improvments from a stinker at first to what I consider to be a very good engine. I have about 2 hours on the clock now and showing steady improvement. Top end with same parameters is currently 7100-RPM. I have not flown it yet but I feel confident enough to put it in my new 27% Extra 330L.

My experience has suggested to me that I would always open these engines up for internal inspection before even turning it over by hand. I am sure the manufacturer will address the QC issues since it is only to their advantage.

I will be happy to respond to any questions.

E T (just "E T" to everyone)
Milton, WI

Any advice or opinions on zenoah gas engines?

I am a new member from Kelowna B.C. Canada. I am at present flying an Astro Hog Bipe and a Citabria Pro sport. ( Balsa USA kit ) I would like to hear from anyone flying these planes.

Hi, I'm collecting information on Mig 15. I would like to scratch build 1 / 5 scale. does anyone have scale accurate plans or cross sections? any help appreciated. Or where is a good place to purchase plans only? Regards Jason

A few of my friends.

Hi all,

Wow did I pick a great time to attend my first Top Gun competition. I met 95th squadron members David Foster and David Hayes there. The details on the model airplanes were phenomenal. The flying was outstanding. Although it was a bit pricy for a first timer, it was well worth the price of admission.

David Foster flew his "Jill" which is painted to exact replica specifications of the Japanese Torpedo Bomber it is depicting.

David Hayes flew his Rockwell Thrush which is a crop duster whose paint job is scaled perfectly. Congrats to him for winning the honor of Mr. Top Gun 2008 .

Please see additional photos from the awesome competition in my photo gallery.