Great Flyin' Planes

What is your all time favorite "great flyin'" plane. I'm not talking necessarily about the best stunter, if there is such a thing, but the plane you just liked best to fly. One you could take out time after time, flew just great, did what it was told to do, didn't mind a bit of wind, and didn't go ape when you made a little mistake.

No Flite Streaks, they are hard to make fly badly.
No Ringmasters, they don't fly as well as a Streak.

Goldberg Shoestring Stunter with a Fox 35. Great for uust going out and burning up the sky.

Bigiron

LAST EDITED ON Dec-13-03 AT 10:21 AM (CST)
 
Someone on the Flitelines forum stated that Brodak is about to introduce their version of the Goldberg Shoestring. I'm gettin one of those! I agree that the Shoestring/ Stunt .35 is about tops. What is it about the Shoestring that makes it so great? I think it is that they are just so pretty, I mean gorgeous, and they do fly pretty good too.

>Someone on the Flitelines forum stated that Brodak is about
>to introduce their version of the Goldberg Shoestring. I'm
>gettin one of those! I agree that the Shoestring/ Stunt .35
>is about tops.

The Shoestring gets my vote too. Mine flew great on a Torp Green Head 19 (yeah, it shook, but plenty of power).

I sure hope the Brodak Shoestring is coming out soon. Too late for Christmas.

I also hope John makes a *big* first run of them. They are going to sell fast! I'll probably get a Buster too, while I'm at it. I've got an original Goldberg Buster with the McCoy Red Head 35 originally purchased for it circa 1965, but it is porky because I painted it with a brush.

Happy Holidays,

It was the "Green Box Nobler" I had back in the '60's but now it's the USA-1!
Bill <><

Since I can't vote for the full sized Streak, how about the Streak Jr?

Of all of the Hollow Log Scientifics I have flown (I am going to a sub category of a sub category here), the most stable is the Little Mercury.

Yes, the Shoestrings are pretty decent. But they don't hold a candle to the (in this thread, banished) Fl... (there I go again).

Currell:D

LAST EDITED ON Dec-13-03 AT 10:43 AM (CST)
 
The Magician 35. Great plane, great flyer. Lent itself to modification and still flew nice. I leearned a lot on mine. I usually had a green head Torpedo or ST .35 on them. Never did do a Fox. Never owned a Ringmaster until I inherited the one on the garage wall. It's still ugly. Other than that, even if you say no. it's the Flite Streak for sheer fun, combat, ballon busts, fun, racing, fun. There, I said it. (place smiley face here) Sorry Dan.

Genesis with ST 46 in the 70's

LAST EDITED ON Dec-13-03 AT 11:52 AM (CST)
 
For sheer fun, my favorite so far is still a Midwest Me-109 with a throttled Enya .35. It stunted reasonably well, and touch and go as well as full stop, power on landings were a ball and real crowd pleasers.

When it comes to single winged planes the Goldberg Shoestring or Cosmic Wind with a ST G/21 40 for power. When it comes to bipes its still gotta be the Sterling Flying Fool with a ENYA 5224 29.

LAST EDITED ON Dec-14-03 AT 01:05 PM (CST)
 
F2D Combat is my favorite so far. They are lots of "FUN." The airplanes come from Russia ready to fly. You can buy them in the USA for $45.00 each. All you have to do is mount an OS Max 25 LA engine on it. The airplanes will fly 40 mph to 120 mph. The airplanes are almost industructable. If you fly them straight into the ground at 75 mph and it will damage only the prop. Put on a new prop, remove the dirt from the venturi and you will be flying again in 5 minutes. The airplane weights only 8 ounces, has a 47" wing span and with a low pitch prop the airplane flies good at 45 mph its great for practicing stunt and for beginners. They fly good in any wind condition up to 20 mph. I have flown in 25 mph wind gusting to 31 mph with not much trouble. Its one of the best airplane to teach a biginner I have seen. You can change the controls so it won't turn sharp and if a beginner crashes you only have to fix the broken prop. After about a dozen crashes it weakens the airplane and things start to brake. They are very easy to fix..

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.35 #1 BI-SLOB, .35 #2 Bi-Slob, #3 and Big 60 Slob.

For Stunter......Twister, Toutor, POWWOW.

Earlier this year I built my first flapped plane, a Sig Banshee. I plowed in hard on it's maiden flight, rebuilt it, correcting the errors that made it fly like a brick the first time and that plane has flown smooth and true ever since. Until two weekends ago, it stopped running in an overhead manuever and landed inboard wing down about 5 feet from me, interesting perspective seeing your plane grenade that close to you, since it was just a free fall the damage was not severe, repairs are done I just need to re-Monokote the wing!

I have a Twister, RTF, but the Banshee best suites my skill level and style.

After 50+ years in this hobby I have an opinion that might differ from some, but the thread began by asking for opinions, so here goes. #1 stock Twister. #2 and not much behind is any of the Ukey series. I still reach for the Ukey 35 with an ASP .25 on board when I pack up for a contest or just an evening or Sunday gret-together of flying.At the present time I am building #'s 9 & 10 of the line of Twisters I have had and flown.Basically the stock version is fine for me!
Joe Just

LAST EDITED ON Dec-13-03 AT 07:59 PM (CST)
 
Flite Streak oops sorry didn't read the whole thing.
I guess I'll have to go with the Peacemaker then.

Midwest Magician - McCoy .35

My Primary Force. It flies way better than a Shoestring ever thought of. Simple and really fun to fly with the .25 LA in all kinds of weather.

Berkley Black Tiger with OS Max I 35. Built fairly light it was a really nice flying airplane. I was flying mostly combat at the time, so ran the OS in a fast 2 cycle. Without uniflow, the run was screaming fast by the end of the flight, but at 16 years old my reflexes were much better than today.
Steve

>My Primary Force. It flies way better than a Shoestring
>ever thought of. Simple and really fun to fly with the .25
>LA in all kinds of weather.

The Primary Force is a great ship. Grooves exceptionally well.

My favorite for just downright fun is Pat Johnston's Shark 402 with an FP 20 a la Buck.

Hard to pick just one. If I had to prioritize, it would be:

1. Shark 402
2. Primary Force
3. Novaclone with FP 20 or 25.

Dave Cook's Lightning design. I've built five of 'em, one I Beamer and four foamies. Power was ST 60's then OS 40VF's. Some had been flown with both. There's no magic to 'em, just a good reliable straight ahead 650 sq. in. competition stunter. I think the one Dave published in FM some time ago was a little bigger. He's back to the smaller ship now.

My othe favorite would be my Prowler. IMHO, still the greatest flapped profile stunter ever.

Rick Campbell

Unflapped Magician with an Enya 35 III. Life was good!

The plane that was the most fun would have to be a Flying Fool with a McCoy blue head RC engine. Wasn't very good for stunting but with proper throttle management in the right amount of wind it was possible to get it to stop in air in a fairly level position. Regardless of what some people think about these engines mine was very reliable. Of course if we could include the Flite Streak.....!

Best plane I had was a Brodak Tanager.

I had an OS .32F powering it, turning a 10x4 prop, around 10,000 rpm launch.

I first had troubel with it because the hingelines were not OK.

I cut off the hinges and did a decent job and it became a fantastic plane.

At first I didn't trust it too much, but one afternoon a flying buddy of

mine (he is a very good pilot) gave it a try and made an excelent

pattern on it.

The thing (as far as I could see) did a pattern as good as his

competition "Cheyenne"!

It was with that Tanager that I got to the clover and the maneuvers i

didn't know.

I just trusted the ship.

It met it's demise when I insisted on practicing on an early morning

after having slept late.

My reflexes were no good and I just hit the ground on the horizontal

eights.

Even if I tried I wouldn't be able to destroy a plane so thoroughly.

There was not a single part left in one piece.

Funny thing is that after that I had an Accentor, (a full fuse

Tanager) and it didn't fly half as good...

One you don't hear about very much--a Fox Falcon. 50" flapless barndoor, built up fuse (with no center section planking inside the fuse, which caused no problem in the one I had), upright engine, which was a K&B Stallion .35 that ran consistently, predictably for this young and dumb at the time flier. (I removed the plastic pop-out venturi restrictor to "get more power" and the thing still ran smoothly on suction). The wing had so much lift, amazing glide (or so it seemed to me at the time). I learned most of the pattern with it.

Unfortunately I also learned to begin a maneuver AFTER deciding just exactly *which* maneuver it's going to be, or in other words, practice the whole pattern in sequence (or *some* whole pattern in sequence if you're a few maneuvers short of a load). Expensive lesson.

It was chartreuse green (must have mixed my own color!!) with maroon trim. Uglier'n the south end of a north-bound mule. A plane only its perpetrator could love.

Isn't it amazing how well things worked when we didn't know any better. Back in the 70's I don't ever remember adjusting the tank height, measuring a venturi or checking the pitch on a prop and somehow I managed to learn the pattern and work my way to being competitive in advanced in two seasons.

Going on my 4th year back, read all the stuff, now I check everything and am strugling not to come in last.

Toss up.

Trophy Trainer with Enya 35
Coyote with, wow, Enya 35

Decisions - decisions!
Sig Banshee - OS 40LA or
Sig Skyray - OS 25 FSR or
Brodak Tanager - TT 42 or
Midwest Skyraider - ST 35
NAH!
G-21 35 Flite Streak (sorry!)

Sly Sir w/ TD.049 - Unbreakable over grass

In the 60s, had a Ruffy/Fox.35 which was much more capable than I . . .

Now that I think about, an unflapped Magician with an OS 35-S. I am flying this plane, whoops, next Spring, I guess. Currell

Flapped Magician with 35 McCoy RH is first and a T-Bird I with 40 McCoy RH a close second.

VooDoo, VooDoo, VooDoo...did my spell work? Lots of fun with a Stallion .35.

Mine was given to me complete, about the same time I built my ringmaster. I liked the speed, and the fact that no matter how much up I pulled it would still do a loop, never once had an issue with pull on the lines. I had to run two sticks, one above the elevator, and one below it, to limit the travel. The first time I flew it was my first inverted flight, my dad let go, I gave it a "little up", and the plane promptly changed directions. Fortunately for me the plane was capable of this, so I yanked full down and changed directions again. I just had to think up and the plane would go up, so I put the sticks on the elevator before I tried it again. Had lots of fun with that plane before the motor mounts turned loose in mid-air, taking a chunk of the outboard wing with it. The pieces are still hanging in the tool shed so I can make patterns. I have an old fox combat motor, but I think, for me anyway, that would make it less fun.

First choice would be my current Barnstormer with one of Larry Foster's Fox 35's on it. Great OTS airplane and a great engine. An absolute pleasure to fly.

Running a close second would be my Boxcar Chief with a Max S 35 on it.
It may be a high winger but it tracks very well although it is not real friendly with the wind.

Old Time Stunt rulz!!! How bad have you got it?