NJJF

I stopped by the field this past weekend, saw some big planes in the air that I have never seen before. I live literally a 1000 feet down the road in the Colby Court development almost directly across from the mini mall for 5-6 years. I've always seen some tents setup and have always heard the gas planes from my house and stopped and watched a few times. I never pulled in as I thought it was a private session maybe with the farm owner or something. But this weekend I saw so many people I said what the heck. You guys have some seriously wicked planes. I just tool around with my dingy little styrofoam 2 channel. I do have a Mini Telemaster kit that I am going to start building very soon. Has anyone here built a balsa plane like that? Or built a Telemaster that might have some advice?

I hope to be flying a real plane very soon, I am going to start off with a Super Cub which I may pick up this Friday. That is if I don't buy another off road RC truck. I have raced and run RC' cars and trucks for years and am still addicted to them even though I was out of RC all together for many years and just getting back into it now. My how things have changed. Brushless motors and lipo batteries, I've had to learn a whole new world. But oh what a world it is!

Hopefully when I get my skills up I can come fly with club sometime. That would be great and probably help in learning everything needed to know to have fun at this instead of learning the hard way.

-Chris

Hey Chris welcome to the forum!! I ran car for awhile too. Ive been checking out the scale rc trail trucks/rock crawlers. One day Ill start getting one hooked up.

That plane should be pretty easy to build,just follow the manual and look at the prints your working over. Sometimes theyll tell you some things on them too.. I havent built anything in a long time. The price of ARFs makes it hard to build them.. With kids and such I barly have time to work on my stuff that needs to be fixed for the next time out to the field.. Arf's make it real easy,to get into the air.. Guess Im getting old and lazy.hahaha...

Nobody complains about the noise in your area,from the planes? Keep an ear open if you do ,let us know..
Cya,
Frank

I know what you mean in terms of repairs and time etc. I don't really have the time either with work and being on call 24/7. But I wanted my first REAL plane to be something I built myself. Maybe make me think twice about what I'm doing while I'm flying it. My company is going out of business July 1st, so I will have PLENTY of time to put it together, lol.

No complaints of noise in the developement, I lived there for almost 7 years and never heard a peep. Not many other people around to complain either. If I do here anything I will surely let you know. My father is the community President so I get the inside track on the doings in there and the trailer park across the street.

-Chris

Chris,
Welcome to the NJJF forum.

Joining a club is a great way to learn to fly and get invaluable advice etc..

Where are you currently flying or planning to fly the bigger planes?

Please don't be put off or offended by this, it needs to be mentioned given your close proximity to the field...
One thing to keep in mind if you are using an FM 72Mhz radio, is that our radios have a range over 1 mile. The manual on mine actually states 2 miles as being the safe distance to avoid interference. If you are flying on the same channel as someone else and they turn on their transmitter you could loose control of your plane, and of course the inverse is also true that you could "shoot someone down" by turning your transmitter on. Do you know what channel your foam plane is?
If you use a spread spectrum radio this is not an issue.

Hi,

Yes I am well aware of other radio interference. Can happen with surface radios just as easily as I am sure you are well aware. Has happened to me in the past at races with the rooks not thinking and sending my car or another competitor off the track. Very annoying.

I don't fly my rig up there very much though, I don't live in the development any longer. I have only flown it a few times here and there. But to be quite honest I wouldn't drive around the town of Belvidere wondering if anyone else was flying or racing that might cause interference. I don't think anyone does that to be honest. But when I see and/or hear the planes obviously a different story. One good reason when I actually get a real plane up in there air I'll be using Specktrum 2.4ghz. I use it know with my DX3R for my RC cars and nothing beats its response. My current foamy is a little AM jobby so it won't bother any of you guys. It's just a toy basically just something to get my orientation down and practice flight towards me and see how wind pushes the plane around etc.

I have seen some people over the years flying different planes in other fields around you guys. Have you had any interference problems in the past up there? 1-2 miles in any direction would take you pretty much out of any good area to fly and either into PA or clear across town.

I do plan on flying bigger planes in the future. I really love old WWII fighters and Ducted fan jets. I'm not a fan of anything that runs off fuel though. I love electric cars and planes. We'll see how my skills progress and where I live in the next year. Right now my house wouldn't allow for too large of a craft. Maybe next year when me and the little lady have our own house I'll have a nice finished hanger, er um I mean basement