Let's Go Flying (It's About Time!)

From what I have heard, just about all of us have been having less than ideal flying weather recently. Here in the Pacific Northwest we don’t get much snow, and it seldom freezes, but we have more than enough gray, rainy windy weather to share with the rest of the world. Just last Saturday, (the day before Easter), Mother Nature gave us a break in the form of low 60’s temps, clear skies, and moderate wind, and quite a few of the guys from my club , the Puget Sound Silent Flyers (an all-electric outfit) got together at our field for a chance to fly some airplanes without having our sneakers squishing through soaked grass at every step.

I caught a few pictures to share with you…

This is one end of the pit and parking area of the Puget Sound Silent Flyers field in Olympia, Washington. Just like a hundred other fields across the country...but isn't it GREAT when the wood chips in the parking area aren't soaked and there's green grass showing along with real buds in the trees and the windsock is coming really close to hanging limp?

These are the planes I brought out to help celebrate spring. Remember that everything at our field is electric. In front is a 1/6 scale DH 60 Gypsy Moth, built from a British kit over ten years ago. The little guy in the middle is the old prototype of my Baby Kitten derivative of the TigerKitten, and in the back is the Waco SRE that I "scaled out" from the Sig ARF and wrote up for the current issue of Fly RC Magazine. This is also the airplane I showed you in my "Repairing the Waco " blog recently. I got a couple of nice flights on each of them.

This is the part I really want to share. Mike Crawford is one of the truly active, contributing members of PSSF. He is a relatively new modeler who learned to fly on ARF's over the past few years, and realized that there was a lot about BUILDING model airplanes that he wanted to know. Mike built this little Aeronca C-3 Collegian using plans from the old Sterling kit, a few of the plastic dummy engine parts, and new balsa he hand picked to replace the gross, heavy stuff that we find in so many Sterling boxes. The covering is real Esaki TISSUE done with clear nitrate dope. Mike tried silkspan for the first time just one or two models back; now this one is his FIRST using real tissue. It's OUTSTANDING!

Here's a close-up of the C-3. Mike used the plastic moldings provided in the old kit as the basis of the dummy Aeronca engine, but replaced virtually all of the other material in the kit. All-up weight is 5 1/2 ounces.

That is real tissue and dope, gentlemen. Take a good look at a covering done by a real model builder you are going to hear more from. Oh, yeah, he flew it...several times...and these are post-flight pictures.

Let’s Go Flying (It’s About Time!)

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