Dick Harting's new Chipmunk.
Click on the thumbnails to see the full picture.
Dick Harting's new Chipmunk.
Recent field operations (Oct 03)
Dan's Cub.
Field operations: Dhahran
Aiden and Mark working on their Boy Scout Aviation Badge
Scott Blacks beautiful Citabria Pro.
Click on this one for a Hi-Res version!
Here's a few words about the plane from Scott:
"First of all it's a Balsa USA kit powered by an O.S. .91 four stroke. The kit was build almost entirely "by the book". It was covered in the scale scheme with 21st Century fabric in deep blue and tan. I am unsure of the flying weight but I'm guessing somewhere around nine or ten pounds. With the four stroke up front and the elevator servo in the tail there was no additional weight required. The balance turned out perfect. This has been the second Balsa USA kit I have built and I must say they put out a great quality kit."
Rich Schultz and his new Four Star 40. Notice how he did the bottom for
visibility.
Rich's Four Star and his PT-40 he uses for training.
Top Flight Contender Action
There seems to be a new interest in Contenders since it has been reintroduced by TopFlight.
I built two TF Contenders a long time ago. The first was a Contender60 in
1976. It had a ST60 Bluehead and a Kraft 5 channel Sport Series. I
still have the engine and radio and they both still work. I just ran
across an ancient picture of me holding my Contender60. This picture was
taken with a Polaroid camera in front of my house in Chicago during the winter
of 1976 (I think). I used to fly it off of skis during the winter and you can
see them on the bottom. From here in Saudi Arabia that seems like a
"long time ago, in a galaxy far away".
For me personally, of course I look exactly the same now. The only difference in my physical appearance from 1976 to present day is that my hair is shorter now......
Later in 1983 while I was living in West Virginia I built a Contender40 with a
ST40 for power.
Abdulla
Al-Aqeel poses with his PT-40 trainer.
Rich
Schultz and his Clancy Lazy Bee on it's maiden flight.
Keeping
the dogs separated...
Video Fun...
I have a new video system consisting of a wireless video transmitter, etc. Click on the picture below for more details....
The following video shots are older pics from my first attempt at airborne (not wireless) video. I made a mount for my Sony TRV-66 Hi-8 camera on top of my Hannibal. The Hannibal is a rather large plane with a Z-23 for power. It struggled a bit with the camera but I could still do a full aerobatics routine.
Air to air engagement over Dhahran. Trevor Lewis out turning the
"Hannibal" as the tracer stream arcs past....(In case you didn't already guess
the tracer stream was added by Photoshop....I couldn't resist.)
Here is the flying field complete with a dog on the runway. It is a leveled area
on hard packed ground below some Jubals (little hill outcrops).
A little closer shot. My dog's name is Georg. That's me standing next to
him, I'm the one flying, not him.
Preparing the "Hannibal" for a video flight. Notice the Sony TRV-66
Hi-8 camera on top of the wing.
Flying my Raptor in front of the house....
Claude Allen prepping his Combat Models A-10
Warthog for a Desert Storm sortie.
Dan Shoop with his Venture 60.
Dan Oberts about to fly my Hannibal.
Dan
Shoop's Great Planes Cub over the numbers. Featured in April, 1998 RC Reports magazine.
Just lost in March '00 do to encounter with my Raptor. Gory details can be
found here.
Part of Dan Shoop's aircraft fleet on the tarmac.
Dan's plane posing on the driveway
My
UltraSport 60. Great airplane but lost to a sand dune in a near vertical encounter. Broken
elevator horn....
A few pics of my Goldberg SU-26 powered by a Moki 120 with a TME smoke system. It is highly modified from the original kit and features carbon fiber spars, fiberglass laminated balsa fuselage, lightened stab, fiberglass gear, etc. There are a couple more pics at RCOnline in the June 1998 Pilot's Gallery.
Rich Schultz starting his Goldberg SU-26. ST90
for power.
Same
SU-26 as above, but after completing the well known manuever "Vertical Descent into
Terrain"
Rick Fairbanks beautiful Nieuport 24
"V" strutter. Also featured at RConline in the
Gallery.
Digital camera pic of Rick Fairbanks after the
battery switch broke on his UltraSport 1000.
This is what
happens when the cheap hot glue joint in an ARF fails. Here is Claude Allen's Twinstar
plummeting after the servo tray came loose inside. Before and after shots...
Rich Schultz's Great Planes Dazzler. Great
Monokote job!
Dan Shoop's
OS46 FX powered Advance 40.
My UltraSport40 ARF on some low passes.
Home-grown Design Department
This is my
"Bedouin". It was built specifically to win a fun-fly contest here (it did). It
is made from foam-board and covered with monokote (painted). It is pretty big so I have
used it as a test bed for larger engines as well.
This is a
biplane I designed. It is really light (4.5lbs) with 1200 squares on a symmetrical
airfoil.
It has a ST45 for power. It is a blast to fly and will hover in a slight breeze. I have
also rigged it up to be a glider tug.
Don't try this
at home. This is my "Scalpel". It was an attempt by me to create a super
efficient aerobatic aircraft with high aspect ratio wings. It's sort of a slope soarer on
steroids. As it turned out the plane flew fine and was very agile. The problem was that it
couldn't be landed. You could cut the throttle at 10ft altitude on downwind, make a big
pattern, and still overshoot the runway. I added split flaps later for drag but it didn't
help much. It crashed when I yanked it out of a high speed dive and the "Stab in
Transit" light came on.....