Spotted®: West Texas Warbirds

Spotted®: West Texas Warbirds

Ok - this blogger made it into the local newspaper - the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal's online edition known as "spotted.lubbockonline.com".  Plus the photographer took a few pictures of my (dirty) eRC B-25J "Apache Princess!"   Imagine my shock and surprise (some would even say horror), to see a cropped version of the center picture as the "icon" in front of the event headline!

Good thing he didn't post any pictures on my one and only flight of it today!  The canopy flew off on take-off.  The retracts didn't retract!  But the nav- lights still work!  I had much better luck in the morning with my new toy - the UMX Mig-15 BNF(Bind n Fly) from E-flite.  It was a shaky flight on my part but I managed to FINALLY fly a electric duct-fan model aircraft and land it safely without it being destroyed!  I am now ready for our T-38 Jet Rally in October!  Bring it on!

JEEPS, AND More JEEPS

My friend Ricky is into collecting automobiles and over the past six weeks, he has been getting into Jeeps.  It started off with a 1975-76 CJ-7 before the Jeep line was taken over by Chrysler.  Plan is to have it painted up like a US Army jeep from the 1970s.

Then I happened to be over at his shop three weeks ago and spotted a ad in the Thrifty Nickle newspaper, and I pointed it out to Ricky.  Someone was wanting to sell their two Jeeps and I showed him the add.  Ricky called and found out that they were indeed Army surplus.  One was even in the Korean War.

An hour and a half later, Ricky, his wife Karen, and yours truely was on the road down to Post, Texas, to visit this treasure find.

The seller had had a stroke and decided to sell off his dream vehicles.  One Jeep was in a garage with its engine out on a table.  The other Jeep - referred to as the "Parts Jeep." was in his old shop on the other side of town from away from the first Jeep.

Needless to say, my friend purchased both Jeeps for the most amazing, incredible price of $500.00!  That was the price the old man purchased them for back in 1965 when he bought both Jeeps from the Lubbock Surplus shop that was operational back then.

This was on Thursday.  Friday, another trip down to Post - this time with a trailer, and the "Project Jeep" was loaded up.  Saturday, the final trip down to Post to get the "Parts Jeep."

Ricky's grandsons have laid claim to these jeeps and are now referred to by their "owners" names or nicknames.  Since both are under age 18, I will only give out their nicknames in this posting.  "Project Jeep" is now "Mr. Nick's" or "Nickko's" Jeep.  The engine for his Jeep has now been clean and new head gaskets put on, and needs a replacement starter.  The Jeep itself was taken to the sandblaster this past week and was picked up and returned to Ricky's place yesterday.  Ricky is planning on shooting a primer coat and maybe even some new/old stock Olive Drab Green paint he purchased off the internet last week.

The other Jeep is now known as "Z-Man's Jeep."  This was the so-called Parts Jeep.  But the engine was still in place and with about an hours' worth of work  the evening we brought this Jeep back up to Lubbock, it was running - but with a lot of smoke.  In the two weeks since this Jeep has been brought back to life, the smoke has almost disappeared.

The reader has to remember that both of these Jeeps have not run since 1965 when they were purchased from the surplus house.

"Z-man's Jeep" is an original Willys Jeep with that name stamped into the hood and windshield frame. Which by the way, Ricky had that windshield frame all repaired in a weeks time.  And using the seat frames from "Mr. Nick's" Jeep, he was able to create new passenger and driver seats for "Z-man's Jeep."

Ricky plans on restoring all three of these Jeeps.  Evening rides in the CJ-7 with ALL the grandkids. Both grandsons and Ricky's granddaughter have all begun to learn how to drive the CJ-7 Jeep in his backyard where there is the dirt racing track for Radio Control trucks, the battlefield for RC tanks, and the runway for our RC model airplanes.

The YouTube video link below "" shows a 1945 Jeep CJ verses a new year (2012) Jeep Wrangler.  That 1945 model shown is just "too perfect" for Ricky.  That vehicle looks like it never left the factory, seen combat, etc.  His retorations will not go that far.

The pictures with this posting were taken by me.  From top to bottom.  Top picture shows Ricky's CJ-7 and Z-Man's Jeep parked in front of Ricky's shop.  The next picture down shows "Mr. Nick's" Jeep at the sandblaster's.  Next picture down shows the now sandblasted Jeep on the trailer when it was brought back to Ricky's Auto Repair shop.  Next picture shows "Mr. Nick's" Jeep inside the west bay of Ricky's shop.  Final picture shows Ricky's craftsmanship of the replacement seats for Z-Man's Jeep.  The back plate for the driver's seat still needs to be welded into place.

Now if only I can have a (full scale) Jeep of my own to play with.  I have lots of 1/6th scale Jeeps in storage with my G.I. Joes.


UPDATE May 20, 2012:  Mr Nick's Jeep has now been painted and it looks GOOD!  I brought over some of my 1/6th scale Jeeps to photograph them with their full scale counterparts.  They were rolled out of the garage into the slightly overcast daylight today and I place my Jeeps on the hoods of the real ones.  Below left we see my 1/6th scale Jeep on the hood of the M38 that was painted overnight (aka Mr. Nick's Jeep).

UPDATE: July 8, 2012:  Today was the first chance that I got to drive the jeep we refer to as "Mr. Nick's Jeep."  And thanks to my friend Howard L, they now have a old military trailer to tow behind that jeep now.  Howard and I go back ten years or so when I got into the RC model airplane hobby and that is how we met.

Taking a pressure washer to it, the name "Ben Hur" came out in white letters on the tailgate.  Eventually, this trailer will be clean up and re-painted to match the jeep force that we somehow are building by accident.

As for the M38 itself, Ricky has constructed the canvas top bows and the fittings that go along with it.  Ricky was able to purchase from someone a new/old stock canvas top for the jeep and now we ride around in it protected from the West Texas sun. There have been donations of 5 gallon fuel tanks that will also be correctly painted at some future date.

And along with ALL of that, Ricky found some great deals for pup tents and his grand kids demonstrate here.

___
Ref.
1. YouTube Videos of Jeeps ( http://www.youtube.com/topic/0tJ3ZTFUBxI/jeep-cj ).
2. YouTube Videos of Jeeps "Jeep Evolution: 1945 Jeep CJ vs. 2012 Jeep Wrangler" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoCxunMgVfw&feature=topics ).

Quarter Scale RC Spitfire Crosses The English Channel

Thanet Life: Cross Channel Visitor:


Working from a public wi-fi at my local Hastings bookshop, I had some problems loading up this interesting news article about model radio control airplanes I found.  It featured a 1/4 scale Flying Legends Spitfire.  Quoting a post found on RCU:  Mike Booth was the pilot. This has been done before, but Mike was the first person to actual control the model from start up, in Calais, to shut down at Manston, Kent. end quote.

Neil Hutch flew with Simon Moores in a Cessna 172 and Mike and Stweart Clifford flew the Spitfire from a Eurostar light general aviation aircraft.  That Eurostar pilot was Chris Trow.

Mr. Moores's blog has a YouTube link to the video of the cross channel flight.  What I loved about this is story is that this is something I would loved to have taken part in here in Texas.

When I joined Wings Miniature Aircraft Society back in 1997/1998, one of the stories that the old hands told me about was the RC cross country flying they used to do.  The pilot would sit in the back of a pickup truck and spotter/pit crew would ride in back with pilot.  Driver also has a spotter riding shotgun to help with the spotting duties.

In 15 years, I've never had the chance to do something like this!  I can only hope it can still be done as long as we stay away from active airports while doing the cross country flight.  Also, that the Department of Homeland Security doesn't say no also.


__
Ref.
1. birchington.blogspot.co.uk. "Cross Channel Visitor" by Simon Moores. May 4, 2012.  (http://birchington.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/cross-channel-visitor.html). images from this blog.
2. RCUniverse forum posting. "Model Spitfire Crosses English Channel" by Neil Hutch. May 7, 2012. (http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_11071178/tm.htm).

My eRC B-25 Flight Videos

These videos were shot on May 7th this year at the Lubbock Oddball RC Society flying site of my eRC B-25J that comes form Hobby Lobby.

1.

2.

3.

On the maiden flight, I flew without the engine cowlings on the engine nacelles. I wanted max cooling air to reach both motors and ESCs.

Bryon's Striking Back Expo Hardware

I have always wanted to visited the Bryon Expo to see the Striking Back show. Saddly, that show stopped over a decade ago. But lots and lots of rc model pilots remembered that show. You can see the Striking Back production on YouTube, but here are some videos below (and links) that showed the huge model aircraft carriers, the smaller boats that cruised the flooded driveway when the show was underway. And finally, the Bryon hangar where the models were built and prepped for the show.

Back in my youth, the summer between my 8th and 9th grade years, I stayed up late at night writing out in longhand in what turned out to be two 5-subject spiral notebooks and thus my second novel (I had done the same thing the previous summer). It centered on RC model airplanes and re-fighting World War Two in miniature. Those aircraft carriers (that you can see in the video here) were about the size that I wrote about way back when.

Now I am 50 years old and think back on the impossibility of being able to do what I wrote about back in my youth. Take landing a model airplane. As a pilot of a model airplane, it takes lots of practice to be able to land on the same spot all the time. Add to that wind conditions, actually having to fly a 10 pound model airplane right at yourself (even if you were protected by a net in my story). Now days, you can have micro cameras and via tele-link systems; you could actually be in the cockpit of your model airplane flying around. Always wanted to be a U.S. Navy pilot, but didn't like the idea of joining the Navy to do it? Well, now you can.

Then there is the final link below of someone who actually went so far to make a function RC model airplane aircraft carrier.

____

Ref.

1. USS Hornet and Akagi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQnuAvqM2zE).

2. Background ship at Bryon site (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTQKH5AKryw).

3. Bryon behnd the scenes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sb9CVsXahA).

4. RC Aircraft Carrier KARE 11 News - April 2, 2007. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKGV-0-74FI).

5. Nitroplanes.com (http://www.nitroplanes.com/88e-camera-mount-system.html).

6. Nitroplanes.com/FPV gadgets (http://www.nitroplanes.com/gadgets.html).