Howdy All,
New to the forum, but definitely not new. I've been building and flying r/c for about 20 years off and on, and it seems now I'm back on. I've been away from the hobby for a few years but am going to build a couple of pattern planes and a 35% Extra over the winter to fly contests next year. I'm an average pilot but hoping to learn a lot through competition.
I usually lurk the r/c forums as they are rife with drama and a few too many kids who wear their hat backwards, it seems. I am increasingly impressed with the quality of ARFs being produced and have owned a couple, but when someone says "Dude, you have amazing building skills, yo!" on an ARF "build" thread, I vomit a little. I'm pleasantly surprised to see that kit building is still alive and well in Giant Scale, and I'm hoping to learn a bit more before I start my Extra. I'd like to take it to the next level and produce a kit or two of my own, but between day job and family, there's precious little time.
My Extra has been gathering dust in a box for a number of years. It's an AeroTech 35% Extra 300, and apparently one of the last produced in about 2007 or 2008 when the company was going all topsy turvy. I understand it is (or was) in new hands now; are they still in business? Mine is not one of the newer lightweight versions but I do plan to take a little weight out where it's practical. Being an aircraft structures engineer by day, it makes me squirm when I see how much "weight" guys take out of their planes when they don't understand how the structure actually works to distribute the loads. But I digress...sometimes things work in r/c that wouldn't or shouldn't in a real airplane, and that's just the way it is. Without detailed knowledge of the actual loads, it's all just guesswork and building on prior trial and error. Here's to making fewer errors...
Cheers!:very_drunk:
New to the forum, but definitely not new. I've been building and flying r/c for about 20 years off and on, and it seems now I'm back on. I've been away from the hobby for a few years but am going to build a couple of pattern planes and a 35% Extra over the winter to fly contests next year. I'm an average pilot but hoping to learn a lot through competition.
I usually lurk the r/c forums as they are rife with drama and a few too many kids who wear their hat backwards, it seems. I am increasingly impressed with the quality of ARFs being produced and have owned a couple, but when someone says "Dude, you have amazing building skills, yo!" on an ARF "build" thread, I vomit a little. I'm pleasantly surprised to see that kit building is still alive and well in Giant Scale, and I'm hoping to learn a bit more before I start my Extra. I'd like to take it to the next level and produce a kit or two of my own, but between day job and family, there's precious little time.
My Extra has been gathering dust in a box for a number of years. It's an AeroTech 35% Extra 300, and apparently one of the last produced in about 2007 or 2008 when the company was going all topsy turvy. I understand it is (or was) in new hands now; are they still in business? Mine is not one of the newer lightweight versions but I do plan to take a little weight out where it's practical. Being an aircraft structures engineer by day, it makes me squirm when I see how much "weight" guys take out of their planes when they don't understand how the structure actually works to distribute the loads. But I digress...sometimes things work in r/c that wouldn't or shouldn't in a real airplane, and that's just the way it is. Without detailed knowledge of the actual loads, it's all just guesswork and building on prior trial and error. Here's to making fewer errors...
Cheers!:very_drunk:
to the forum and back to the hobby.
