Vintage RC Transmitters and Airplanes

[@spitfire051288]

you had me totally fooled until #3 looks to be using a brushless motor, 😆 im super envious of your radio collection Sir ♥

[@MGB1977Red]

The Kyosho Pitts S2 got converted to electric also. An E-Flite Power 46 provided the power and flaperons were incorporated to help with take off and landing chores. A 3 axis gyro was added to help with the various typical Pitts muddles. The gyro especially helped in point rolls as the rudder wanted to un-roll the 3rd point which is typical of Pitts Specials. A Pitts likes to get off the ground quickly before it can ground-loop and a little droop on all 4 ailerons does the trick. The same flaperon helps with landing by slowing the aircraft down and delaying the stall.

[@MGB1977Red]

The DeBolt P-Shooter is a hoot to fly. The 4250 800KV outrunner brushless motor really winds up on an 11x6 propeller and provides plenty of power. It does tight little loops and is quite perky. The ailerons require about 50% rudder mixing to get it to roll properly. I remember now that back then you used full aileron and rudder together to get an axial roll. The strip ailerons are quite narrow so they need to deflect a lot to get adequate response. The P-Shooter was designed for reed receivers and slow Bonner servos so the slow ailerons hid the control blips. Loops were a full throw event. All that dihedral helps level flight but is a hindrance in cross wind landings. The P-Shooter is reluctant to snap roll and spin because it just won't stall.

[@MGB1977Red]

JR 8103 is like the Galaxy but easier to program. 8 model memories and Digital trims are a real help. The Dynam Spitfire has flaps, retracts and fairly scale features. It’s surprisingly easy to fly but the landing gear needs more sweep forward. The JR 9303 was the end of the line for 72mhz PCM. The good bit is that the 30 model memories are stored forever without a lithium battery and you can download the setups and even transfer them to another 9303. You do have to remember to extend the antenna before flight! A great system that is now cheap to own but is no longer serviced. The P-51 Mustang is a framed up balsa ARF that is well made. The electric conversion was easy and the Turnigy motor puts out huge power on 8 cells. So, this is a brief story about where we came from and along the way it was all fun. The early equipment gave limited performance but the modeler’s skills made a difference. Things crashed a lot but materials were cheap. Expectations grew along with reliability and now even an average modeler could excel easily. It’s fun to go back and fly a 1965 P-Shooter with sewn hinges on the original wing that was set up for Bonner reed servos. As capabilities improved, so did the contest pattern. The Astro Hog needed to roll and loop but the Tipo 750+ had to do so much more in a complex turnaround FAI sequence.

[@spitfire051288]

My first tx to fly with was the Futaba FP-T4LK 27mhz. Early 1980's i believe. At around 16 I used my pocket and birthday cash saved up to buy it, this was around 2005. We were poor in a way. To this day I still use it primarly. i regret that I never invested in this hobby when i was able to. These day's i am worse off than ever financially and the bug has bitten me again hard. I really want to build a collection of radios, planes, engines. RC aviation history obsession-mania.

[@CalebT_RC]

I still have a JR radio and works great even if it is almost 20 years old

[@MGB1977Red]

The Astro Hog was a real surprise. It's a big airplane with a short nose and a long tail so it's easy to build it tail-heavy, Back in the 1960 modelers were used to building very light because the radios were so heavy and the motors were puny. This airplane has a lot of lead in the front end to balance correctly. Plenty of power made it go fast but it was difficult to slow down for landing. Because of it's weight it could only slow down a bit before it stalled. Also once it was into a 3 turn spin it really wound up due to the weight and was reluctant to recover normal flight. So the surprise was that it was fast and rolled and looped nicely. If it could lose about 3 pounds it would be a better aerobat. The wing is flat instead of the considerable dihedral of the original. I would add back a couple degrees to make it look better.

[@MGB1977Red]

The Art Chester Jeep was an old kit by Coverite powered by an OS .40. I decided to convert it to electric and substitute a modern radio system to see if it would fly better. With an 4250 800KV outrunner brushless motor on 5 lipo cells it really scooted on an 11x7 propeller. However it didn't want to turn but would rather fly knife-edge. Mixing in 25% rudder with the aileron got the nose to turn properly. It was still flying a bit goofy so a 3 axis gyro was added which helped a bunch. The tail moment of the Jeep is really short and there is a lot of fuselage area so flies a bit like a Gee Bee. I also used the ailerons as partial flaps which helped slow it down for landing. After all this it flies much better but it's very hoppy on landings. Low bounce wheels help and I'll tie the metal landing gear legs together with a spreader wire to reduce the spring action. So an old model was given some new life with appropriate modern technology.