RCDave's Crash Report

Saturday, December 13, 2025

Clipped Wing Eaglet

In 1987, I picked up an old Eaglet 50 (50" span) at a swap meet. I fitted it with a O.S. .40 FSR ABC and tuned pipe, converted it to a tail dagger, and clipped 2 bays out of each wing panel :-) This thing was INSANE! The wingspan had to be down to about 42"... It was almost breaking the sound barrier on takeoff, and had a glide ratio similar to a brick...but it was FUN!! Talk about landing on a short field... chop the throttle and it fell out of the sky. Did I say it was FUN? It was!! This is a pic of what it would have looked like, before I bastardized it :-)

Cap-21

In 1986, I finished building a .60 size Cap-21 by Great Planes. The original owner built one wing panel and the fuselage, and quit. I discovered, while building, the original wing panel had a huge warp. I made several cuts and patches, and _thought_ I had corrected the problem. During the covering phase, I realized the original wing panel still had a warp. I twisted the wing, re-ironed it, and all was well (or so I thought...). The airplane was trim flown, all checked out. I loaded it in a trailer and headed to a show at RC World in Florida. I dropped it on the flight line in the blistering heat, after several hours in a scalding hot trailer, and never thought about the wing. Immediately upon takeoff, it began rolling left. With full right trim, and full right stick, it was still rolling left. There was no way to correct, and it screwed itself into the paved runway. All was lost. R.I.P. Cap-21.

Telstar .40

In 1986, I built a .40-size Telstar mini-pattern ARF. I built this with standard gear, though it was built to accept retracts. I powered it with a Royal .45, a copy of an O.S. .45 ABC FSR engine. I fitted it with a underslung tuned pipe. This was a screamer, a great flier, and had a show-stopping finish. Below is a pic of the kit...not my actual airplane.

Goldberg Skylark 56

In 1980, I joined my first RC club... Johnston County Aeromodeling Club in Smithfield NC. I was living in Clayton, so this was a fairly short drive. I was told about Johnny Johnson's RC shop down in Fuquay-Varina NC. I went to his rural shop and was blown away!!! Everything a RC hobbiest could ever want, and then some. Kits, parts, engines, materials, tools, and even used airplanes for sale or trade....wow. Johnny passed a few years ago. He was such a good guy, and is sorely missed. He helped guide me on a lot of issues. Anyways, I bought a Goldberg Skylark 56 and an O.S .40 engine, and started the build. I built the wing with a little reinforcement, and with no dihedral. This airplane has a flying stab. By early 1981, it was ready. I went to the flying field, and no one was there. Boy, was I nervous! I started the engine, ran a tank of fuel out running up and down the runway, even lifted off and settled back in a few times. I refueled, and waited. This was my first 4 channel setup, and way predates flight simulators, so the experience you get is real world. No one showed up, so I decided to do it. I took a long run, pulled back easy, and she was up! Holy crap, I was horrified... I got plenty of altitude, added a little trim, and it flew like it was on a rail. Wow!!!!!! Another experience I'll never forget. I flew a bit, made a few slow and low passes, and landed. I had to sit down and rest a bit :-) hahahahahaha... The hook was set, deeper than ever. The only pic I can find of it, is with me squatting with it. The other pic is to show what it looked like...

Hobby Shack Cessna 150

In 1980, after a bit of experience flying the Piece-O-Cake, I decided to move into something with a larger engine and 3 channels. Still, after all these years, I was not in a club and had no guidance on my selections. I bought a Hobby Shack Cessna 150, a .15 engine of some sort (don't recall), another flight pack on my 72mhz frequency, and got busy. This was an injection molded foam airplane...nothing like the foam that's used today. Like someone else said: "It was a flying ice chest"! It was....VERY thick foam, high wing loading (probably my fault), and a poorly performing engine made this kinda miserable to fly. I set it up as a 3 channel airplane, since I now had a throttle. Wow...what a bomb it was. Took wide open throttle and a long run on the highway to get up. Flew only at WOT, anything less and it would loose altitude. Looking back, I'm sure part or all of the issues were of my own doing. No matter, it flew, and I flew the snot outta it. I bought a spare wing, cut sections out and joined them to almost double the wing area, added flying wires, and it flew great...until I folded the wing about 4 years later. The following pics are not of my airplane, (except for the one crash remains photo I found), but it gives you an idea what it was...

Boy, I think Igloo had a hand in the mfg of this airplane...

Look at that thick foam!

Ugh...this crash was ugly....

DynaFlite Piece-O-Cake

In 1980, I bought a DynaFlite Piece-O-Cake kit from a local Hobby Shop. With a 72" polyhedral wing, this was the biggest thing I'd ever seen or had. I still wasn't a club member anywhere, so m,y RC world was confined to magazines and my own little self-taught bubble. This was a fun build...I covered it in transparent blue monokote, and put a Cox .049 Black Widow (I think) in it...it has a built-in tank that would allow for 3 minute runs. Anyways... I built it, and installed a newly purchased Futaba 4FP radio system. The 4FP was the all black plastic thing on 72 mhz. Anyways, I got it trimmed out, and started flying it on my grandfather's farm. Just a few flights in, while flying over an open & freshly plowed field on a summer day, I got into a thermal by accident. I had been reading on how to find them, and how to stay in them, and pretty soon, it worked!! I put in a flight of bout and hour, and was afraid I'd out fly the battery, so I came in. Talk about excitement....I will never forget the experience! I kept it for many years, and sold it at a swap meet. I've kicked myself several times for that. These aren't photos of my airplane...they're long lost. But this gives you an idea of what it looked like...

Cox Cessna Centurion

In 1979, I was ready to test my luck on RC. I bought a Cox Cessna Centurion from the local hobby shop, it came with a Cox/Sanwa 2ch radio. The Centurion was a foam ARF, equipped with a Cox .049 engine and spring starter. It turned out to be a pretty good flier, and I had tons of fun with this thing for a few years. I hand launched one day, forgot to turn the radio on, and it flew straight away and disappeared into the clouds. I'd usually hand launch, since it didn't have a steerable nose wheel, and wouldn't track straight enough to ROG. Now that I think about it, Cox played a big part of getting me into this hobby! These aren't the pics of mine, but you'll see what it looked like and also see the magazine add from 1979.

Friday, December 12, 2025

UFO (Sig Kadet Jr)

This is an airplane that Brandon originally rebuilt back around 1996 from an oil soaked wreck. I don't recall where we picked it up at... Brandon repaired the wood damage, recovered it, and we hung it on the wall. Sometime around 2006, he got bit by the RC bug and decided to finish it, and learn to fly.