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!

BIG RC model of Kawanishi H8K (Emily)

I found this cool looking video on YouTube of a Japanese World War 2 flying boat known as the Kawanishi H8K (Emily).

The full scale aircraft had a wingspan 124.67 feet and a length of 92.29 feet. Height was 30 feet. Max speed was 290 mph and a range of 4,461 miles. Crew of 10 and powered by (4) Mitsubishi Kasei 22 radial engines - 14 cylinder heads producing 1,850 horse power each.

The video was uploaded to YouTube by one SkyCaPtainJP2008 on September 15, 2009. Reading in the comments section, the model flew twice before being disposed of - sad.

The same video also shows a big Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" twin engine bomber that had a accident on landing.

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Ref.

1. Kawanishi H8K "Emily"( http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=594 )

2. YouTube ( http://youtu.be/jnWOqp_hyiY )

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.

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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).