Octavius

I've been looking for kits to build for quite a while. I like how the new, good quality ARFs are built. Interlocking, permission cut pieces. It seems almost all kits are still old-school construction. Fuse is straight plank sides with firewall, and 2 formers. No curves or interesting lines. Blah. Yeah if I was rich I'd have my own CNC machine. Trying to cut new style parts by hand would be the end of me.

Stevephoon

Octavious,

There are lots of Laser Cut Balsa kits available that are really nice. I have some Mountain Models and StevensAeromodel planes that are great.

http://www.mountainmodels.com/

http://www.stevensaero.com/

Checkout the huge list of Kit makers in the Sticky in the "Scratch and Kit Built Aircraft" area.

http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14868

Steve

Bub Steve

to me as well, A straight line is only a lousy approximation of the proper CURVE! your bub, steve

Blue Note

As mentioned earlier, I agree that we are also seeing a shift in building due to the newer materials and electronics being used. The time honored traditions of building planes with balsa are being challenged by composite planes, which can vary greatly as far as materials and construction methods are concerned. For those that are truly new to building, having to learn a new skill set is a given, so it may matter less to them which path they travel down. I believe most are still more comfortable with balsa stick built planes, as that is what we see a lot of in the ARF community, along with foam planes for electrics. I think we have a tendency to copy what we see and progress from there. As we see more composite aircraft on the market at more competitive prices, I think it will generate more building interest in that direction. However, I feel the lack of building as a whole has decreased due to our fast paced lifestyles and, well... laziness and fatigue. Many these days have so much on their plates...working, taking the kids to their ball games, fixing the house and car, etc. that taking on another task may be too much, especially if all they want to do is fly. Eventually, most that I know that do take some time to get more comfortable with the building process find it rather relaxing and enjoyable, once the learning curve doesn't seem so great, not to mention the gradual acquisition of tools and supplies beyond what is typically required to assemble an ARF. I think that as times change, we may again see a rise in the building side of the hobby. Right now, we just need responsible people flying enough to keep the hobby alive and in good standing with the community. My $.02.

solentlife

That's been a traditional problem over the years .... back in the 70's 80's when I flew in UK - we were always talking about how to get people into the hobby ...

ArneH

For me, building with Balsa is the most important part of this hobby. But you really need to sit down in quiet and peace to enjoy building.
Some people, like me. Take up building again, when the kids have grown, and it's possible to have a evening free. If people cut down on the time they are watching TV, I am sure many will find time to enjoy a hobby, like building.
For me building is very relaxing, but I need to be in the right mode. It's not possible to stress and have a busy mind, when building. That's maybe most of the builders are grown up men with a more relaxed life style, than the younger people with small children.

guamflyer

Hey roadking97,
thats exactly the point man. I got a couple foamys that were given to me but I always ended up canabalising them..lol.. at this moment I'm just about done with a small 42" MONI motorglider. no one has one here, and I'm currently working on R&D for motorgliders. with the schedule I have I need to get every second of flight.I' m truely obssessed..I have a motor set-up to build an 80 or 90" sportavia fournier RF-4. there again is the thing..I want to fly that plane and although there are a few kits on the market..I use those examples for researching.I fly alone alot so I'm not doing it to impress but thats ok too...scratching is that satisfaction you feel when you're looking at your plane fly after launch..every scratcher knows the fundimental rules concerning incidence,declage,washout and all the stuff that goes along with it, which is what makes it so interesting. I'm going on and on but YEAH I'm with you too !!!!

solentlife

There's an old adage that holds true more than people appreciate :

If it looks right, it's most likely IS right.

The eye is quite a critical instrument and will detect many things that you 'feel' are not quite right. You may not know why you think it ... but 9 x out of 10 - it's spot on.

Building is an art as well as a skill. You can do it with either and not the other, but when you get someone who combines both - WOW ! I've had privilege to know a few who truly have the combination ...

AEAJR

One design builds and one design contests are a great way to create interst in building in your club. It can also be a great way to introduce non-contest pilots to the fun of contests.

LISF has begun a group build over the winter. We are in NY so some of our members don't fly over the winter. So let's make it buildling season.

Ours is a glider club so this will be a glider build. But it could be built as an electric glider too.

Most of the OD build and contests I have read about are based on 2M entry level models like the Gentle Lady, Vista or the Easy Glider. These are inexpensve but what I am told is, after the contest, they become hanger queens. We wanted to avoid that, so we are going to base our OD on a 3M glider and allow it to be modified to make it more versitile, as long as the outer wing profile is not changed.

The chosen model will be the Bird of Time which can be built from plans, from an inexpensive kit sold by Tower Hobbies, or you can buy the ARF. Even non-builders can join the fun.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXYXJ8&P=7

While our club has many winches, we are going to make this a hi-start launched contest in order to take away any advantage that anyone might have through improvements to the spar or wing rod as compared to the earlier built kits or the ARF.

If you want to build it as an electric glider and have a one design contest you can set a standard for the power system or you can use one of the altitude limited devices so that everyone starts thermal hunting from the same launch height regardless of their power systems. These altitude limiters are becoming pretty popular. They let you run the motor for 30 seconds or till you reach 100 or 200 meters, about 325 or 650 feet.


You can read about it on our club forum here:
http://www.lisfsoar.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=balsa&action=display&thread=103
or on RCG here:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1331363

So far we know of six who will be joining the build. For many of these this will be their first build and their first 3M glider. We have also opened this to surrounding clubs for any who are interested in joining the project or the One Design contest.

Some of our memembers already have this plane so they are pulling them out of moth balls and clearning them up. At least one club is going to join our build and contest. And we have a bunch of people around the country who are building with us.


This should spark some great "show and tell" at the meetings, generate interest in buildling, and get a few more people into contest flying their gliders. We hope to pick up more builders over the winter.

AFTER THE OD CONTEST

We are going to allow a significant amount of latitude in modifications to make the BOT lighter, stronger or more easily transported. These won't buy you much on a hi-start launch but will make the planes much more winchable after the contest.

I am thinking of making mine convertable so it can be flown from the hi-start, winch OR with a built in electric motor that I will cover with a nose block for other launching methods.


The goal is that this plane should not become a hanger queen. It was chosen because people will want to fly it. Once finished, with some allowed modifictions, the pilot should have a beautiful 3M sailplane that can be flown for sport and which is very well suited for the monthly club RES contests or the monthly club unlimited contest. We allow winch or HS launches for all club contests.

If they choose to carbon cap the spar and add spoilers they should even be able to compete in the ESL contests, in the Sportsman class, and place well. Many of our club members have won ESL contests with RES gliders. There is no reason this one would not place well in the hands of a practiced pilot.

The goal is to get more people flying gliders, to teach more people how to build and teach more people how to use a hi-start. And ultimately we will give them their first taste of contest flying.

Thank you Dave Thornburg for such a beautiful glider.

This should be fun!

FlyWheel

Not as cold here in the Cackalackies as you Yanks are getting, but cold enough to stay at home and build. I just started my first. http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59723

hillbillynamedpossum

I love to build, experiment, fly, tinker, and hide from my wife. Theres nothing quite as much fun for me as building something from scratch on my own ideas. I also like to put my little birds in the air, but the design and building is the best part for me.

Possum

50+AirYears

Soon's the weather warms up a bit and things dry out, I'm going to try to start on a EDF foam kit I just got a deal on. The LHS has had it for about 3 years, and had it marked down from around $188 to $88. A reasonable sized F-16 with 64 mm brushless motor and ESC. Need some decent weather so I can go ouside and paint it. Rather than the usual rather boring camoflage, I found a nice interesting and colorful scheme I can handle. Seems in 2007, the 111 FS celebrated their 90th anniversary, so they painted an F-16 in 1930s trainer blue fuse and yellow surfaces. The insigna has both the a930 era star in a circle, and a star and bar without the red stripes in the arms. Nice to look at, but I don't think anyone would want to fly into combat with it. Might attract too much attention.

Wish I had the talent to do some of the Tiger competiton schemes I've seen.

I have to do most of my painting outside anymore. Seems the wife has come down with Asthma, along with other health problems.

Wrongway-Feldman

My building skill are terrible. I also don't have the tools to just start building. The cost of picking up everything needed to do it right is prohibitive.
But over the rest of the year I plan on picking up what I need piece by piece and start working my up to building something over next winter.

wlester

sory for the late post, looks like an A1 skyraider to me

road king 97

NO Point ! i just like a challenge of building some thing different than every one else has ,its not a hey look at me . It also makes the winters go by faster here in IL as i dont care for bouncing off the walls in a gym or dome to fly .lol joe

road king 97

I have been building my own planes for 34 years and for the last 10 i have been just flying off of water but still love to build my own sea planes . Just finishing this one up ,and will do a small build thread here on the forums. joe