Taylorcraft Tales

The first model airplane I built to be a no-excuses electric-powered entry for the US Scale Master’s competition was this ¼ scale 1941 Taylorcraft BC-12D. It took me two years to build the model, which first flew in 1997. This photo was taken on the RC Scale event ramp at Muncie, IN in that year. Check out a detailed article I wrote at about that time, along with some up-close-and-personal photos I have never shared before.

This is the same ramp area the next morning. We were signed up to compete in the RC Scale – Expert class at the 1997 AMA Nationals. This is always a three-day event. The first day, Friday, had been devoted to Static Scale judging (grading each model for accuracy and craftsmanship) at an indoor venue in downtown Muncie. Saturday morning, with the pavement swept clean by a passing thunderstorm during the night, found us set up and ready to go at the flight line. You can see that the broad grass area behind the runway had already started to fill up with shade shelters, chairs, and the first of a great many model airplane people. By now, at around 8:00 AM, we already had our battery packs charged, checked and topped off, and the Taylorcraft all buttoned up for Round One flying. Just then, despite the appearance of being calm, cool and collected we were not even close to being that way.

Who took that previous photo? That was our friend and fellow electric power competitor Randy Smithhisler, who then took his turn on camera with his red-and-black ¼ scale Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser built from a seriously modified Sig kit. Randy and I were the only competitors in any of the RC Scale classes using electric power. There was then and never has been since a special class for electric powered airplanes at that level of competition…we competed head-to-head with the engine-powered models by the same rules. We were both using the then-new Astro Cobalt 90 motors with the dedicated high reduction ratio gearbox, running them on 36 1800 mAh Sub-C nicads. I was still too cautious with my new Taylorcraft to fly as smoothly as I might have, but Randy, flying in his first-ever major competition, took Third Place in the RC Scale-Sportsman class.

Here’s Randy with two more of his ¼ scale Piper Cub variants at a relaxed sort-of-contest in Auburn, WA a few years later. These two models were built from the standard Sig kit with modifications for electric power. A by-the-way for of you who remember the early make it lighter days of electric flight… none of Randy’s models were “lightened” in any way. Electric modification meant changing the engine mount to take an electric motor and changing the fuel tank location to hold a battery pack in place. Both used geared Astro 90 motors the same as the red job at the Nationals. The yellow plane is a standard J-3 Cub. The blue one is a J-4 Cub Coupe, which Piper produced at about the same time with the fuselage modified for two-place side-by-side seating.

At the flight line it looks like this. This scene was in fact shot at a different contest, but the rules are all the same. We are at Top Gun 1999, at the West Palm Beach, Florida Polo Ground. I am intent on flying the Taylorcraft, which was then a couple hundred feet outside the frame. At these times I never take my eyes off the airplane. Teryl, who is serving as my Caller, has the responsibility of helping me position my airplane to account for the presence of other models in the air and keeping me clear on the sequence of maneuvers the judges expect to see. The two Flight Judges are the guys in chairs obscured behind me, and the Flightline Boss in the t-shirt behind me is coordinating everything we do on this flightline with the other three through the Airboss. Beyond me down the field you can see other pilots with their callers and judges. One of the skills necessary to compete at an advanced event like Top Gun is the ability to concentrate on flying accurately while other competitors’ models are also in the air with you.

This is the time when I get to start breathing normally again. The Taylorcraft is safely back on the ground after completing the entire judged flight. In a few seconds I will stop the airplane, shut down the motor/propeller, and announce to the judges, “Flight complete!”

Half an hour later, once I had done a thorough post-flight inspection and set up the flight battery pack on charge to be ready for the next round, we brought the Taylorcraft back out to the flight line for a photo op. As it turned out several shots of the airplane (with Teryl and me in the background) showed up in the model aviation magazines. What’s interesting about this image is that you can get a good look at some of the other Top Gun caliber airplanes behind us.

This was almost an anti-climax. Teryl was able to travel to Florida with me for Top Gun 1999, where the previous photo was taken. As it turned out we placed in the ‘teens in a field of about thirty fliers in the Expert Class. This photo op happened the next year (2000) when I had to travel without Teryl. I had discovered that my airplane was eligible for the Master Class because in addition to building it I had also created my own plans and parts patterns. You can see me here with the Fifth Place (out of a dozen or so) Master’s Trophy Cup. Nothing like this had ever been accomplished with an electric powered airplane… anywhere. Perhaps I should have allowed myself a bigger smile.