Slick Flight Box

I ran across this nice tool box at Wal-Mart which is all Oak and around $25. It is made like those doors where there is a frame and the inset panels are recessed. I didn't describe that very well, but hopefully you get the idea. I am drooling over it, and the nice lady I married is getting me one for Christmas. The top tray and some other parts are lined with green felt like a pool table top. Slick, but I want to make it fully functional.

From other threads, looks like a blue laundry detergent bottle for fuel (all soap logos removed!), the battery with plug attachments (Yeah, have to drill a couple of holes in the side of the box for connections).

Leonard is not allowed to respond to this post <g>. I am sure Leonard has a box with an anemometer, hygrometer, and equipment that measures everything anyone could hope to measure in milliamps and milliseconds.

How would you define a "slick" flying box?

I plan to build a flight box eventually that will have fold up legs and a cradle for the plane. I get tired of crouching over to work on it.

Well, I dunno. I kind of like the old image of us CL guys out there gnawing on half lit cigars and some pubic hair overflowing our too small white T-Shirts. Don't know that I want a cradle to hold my toy. Seems like some effete RC thing, you know?

Joking aside, you nailed one thing. We need a box of bags, then organize the bags. Think I have better picture. Thanks.

Now I'm the Old Guy.

The RC guys would show up at the Nats in a huge motor home. These were the guys with money, and they showed it. That mobile home was their "flight box."

The free flight guys would have an inexpensive, dedicated trailer that they would tote behind their car. The trailer would house all of their airplanes on racks, and sometimes sport a small work bench, since they were always doing "something." Again, that was their "flight box."

The Combat guys would show up in an inexpensive commercial type van with a rack in the back holding their dozen or so planes that they would destroy during the contest. They didn't need a flight box. They just threw the pieces away or tossed them in the back of the van.

And the precision stunt guys would show up in a compact car, just big enough to house the driver and the plane, if the wing were, somehow, allowed to stick out and over the front seat on the passenger side. But, to top it off, and I saw this a number of times, the flyer would show up with this beautifully finished, gorgeous looking plane, and then set it down next to a shoe box which contained all his support stuff. We spend all our time building beautiful planes, but never have time to build any sort of box. And, yes, fishing tackle boxes were the "next step up."

Steve

That seems pretty accurate! Like Currell says, I remember the Speed guys as upscale Harley folks. The scale guys . . . I politely decline to comment upon.

paraphenalia.....paraphenalia... Oh yeah,,,,stuff!

Jerry

I only take the battery and fuel syringe to the circle.

Some guys use an old Rislone or plastic oil can for fuel.

I have a milk crate with four gallons of fuel....including 10% FOX, as well as various and sundry spray stuff to clean=up.

I carry a wooden rc type flight box with all sorts of pliers, screwdrivers, little widgets, etc as well as glow drivers and chicken sticks, tach, stopwatch and alcohol.

Fooling with tuna pipes and cf props has yet another fishing box on the scene. I also carry a screw/nut assortment from Microfasteners, tape AND a FIRST AID kit.

I have seen Tom's box and would probably chose that if I hadn't "grown" what I have now!

See Ya

Last winter when I was finally finished building my Skyray, I realized I'd want some kind of box to carry the necessities in, such as fuel, etc. I got a gallon container of Sig Champion, and designed my box around it. I had recently replaced the rod and shelf in my bedroom closet with a closet organizer thing, so I had some spare wood to build with. I just took some measurements, then cut out two ends, two sides, and a couple of boards for the bottom, pretty much designing as I went. I used part of the old closet rod for the handle - it goes into holes cut in the ends. The finished box has three compartments - one in the middle big enough for the fuel jug, and one on either side of that - in one I keep a smaller (quart) container of half-A fuel, fuellers, fuel line, etc. (everything in that compartment can get exposed to fuel). In the other compartment goes all the rest - lines, handles, tools, extra plugs, etc. I painted the box with some left-over paint I had used on the Skyray, so it's in the same colors, and looks okay - nothing fancy. It's nice and strong and does the job.

We have a guy at our field - a Russian - who finished 14th at the Worlds last year - I've seen his flight box, it's just a box in which he keeps his stuff. But you should see his plane! (not to mention how he flies!)

I Velcro my stooge to the top. I have a 6" piece of dowel in a hole in the stooge base, and I put the line reels (flying and stooge) right on the dowel, just like you would do with your Buddy Holly 45s. I even leave the respective handles (again, flying and stooge) attached to the lines, and use those little line clips to keep the handles from falling away from the reels. There's no way I could get all this stuff in the box.

The only real problem is that now I have to make all my planes yellow!

I made partitions out of cardboard for areas for my props, lines with handle, and tools. In the tool area I used old plastic medicine bottles, the low wide type, for plugs and small parts. I used another bottle for my various sockets and allen wrenches.

It isn't fancy by any means, but it does the job nicely. Considering weight, since I've got a bad back, I drop it all off at the flight line and then park elsewhere. Of course I'd better mention that I'm the only one flying in the area. So, it is still safety first!

My flight box is a '93 Aerostar with all the seats but the front two removed. There's just one big piece of castor dripped house carpet back there now. If the airplanes drip oil I don't care. I built an airplane rack that holds 5 stunters that slides in the back. It has factory cubby holes for paper towels, spare motors, props & so forth & one in the back floor that will hold two one gallon fuel jugs. I leave my stooge, starter & starter battery, two toolboxes & two smaller flight boxes in there pretty much all the time, along with at least one Ukey 35 slung in the unused seatbelts, (though I can get one on each side if I want to). It also gets me to work. My wife doesn't like to drive it so it's mine to mess up as I see fit. It smells like a flying field inside. I like it
Nils

Wow! This old thread refocused me due to your response. It is not a flight box question at all.

The real question, which you addressed, is the nested Russian Doll model. First is the vehicle, second is the number of containers inside the vehicle, and third is the contents / size of each container. My old post only addressed the third element. Like you, my vehicle is devoted to my hobby, and the seating compromise is the same as the one you described.

Remember if the women don't find handsome they should at least find you handy!
I'm pulling for ya we're all in this together, keep your stick on...
My man Red Green
Dwayne

Keep-em Flying!

Now you want a trick, try getting a plane with a 68" wing span into a Mazda Rx-7. Takes real technique. Now, that's a flight box.

Nils,

Well, I'm afraid it is a trade secret. I can say it involves a vast knowledge of creative language....in several dialects with subtle phraseology.

This old thread seems like a bad dream that keeps coming back. I decided to use it today, as I learned a lesson.

On the second flight today, landed inverted with a little too tight outside loop. Not too much damage, so threw the plane and flite box and fuel jug in the back of the van and headed home.

Since it is a short trip from the field to home, I didn't stow stuff away properly. There is a little bridge about .3 miles from our house, and all the locals politely pull over when meeting another vehicle. Well, I had to hit the brakes not all that severely to let the other guy through first, but severely enough to cause the jug of fuel to rocket forward and knock off the fin and rudder of my plane. Poop!

Regardless of the length of trip, I will forevermore stow my field box and planes and fuel jugs properly.