37 years between these 2 photos, me and my pattern plane in 1983 and me again practicing pattern in 2020. The planes have changed a bit!

1983 with Galaxi, just after a contest.

2020 with 2 x MythoS, practicing for a contest.

Since my last post here about starting to fly power RC again a lot has happened! I now fly both scale and pattern planes and I have been practicing pattern with the plan of flying competitively again in the near future.

I will post photos and details of a few of my planes here in the future.

My trusty SebArt Angel S Evo pattern practice plane, with more than 1000 flights over the last few years it is a real veteran but still a pleasure to fly. 

It is powered by an OS 5025-375 motor using 6S 5000mah 45C battery packs and an APC 16x12 prop. Radio is a FrSky Horus X12S with Savox servos.

I have not updated this blog for a long time! Business and family pressure left very little free time and the time I had I spent building and flying!

Well, things have changed, I am now retired and escaped the city to a small town, with lots of time on my hands I can now write about my RC adventures again!

 

After taking a break from RC for a few decades I returned to RC towards the end of 2015 flying F5J gliders (electric launch). I had lots of fun and a fantastic first contest season in 2016 culminating in winning the South Africa F5J 2016 league by the end of 2016.

That was fun but somehow it almost felt like it was too easy so I decided towards the end of 2016 to take a break from RC again. While having fun with full-size aircraft during the first half of 2017 I was thinking that I still enjoy RC but I need a more challenging class. Way back from about 1983 to 1990 I flew competitive F3A, pattern.  Maybe I could try that again?

First I had to see if I could still fly a power plane and if I still had the "feel" and reflexes to steer an aerobatic plane around the sky. As a start I decided to get a simple foam plane and at the same time also start using a tray mounted radio again. I knew from past experience that I could fly with more precision using a tray mounted radio than a handheld radio like the Taranis X9D+ that I used for F5J.

Deciding on a radio was easy, since starting to use the X9D+ I fell in love with OpenTX and I really got to trust the FrSky radios. It was also easy because I had a brand new, unused, X9E just waiting to be used.

As a first plane I chose an E-Flight Timber, the main reason was that the local shop had one in stock!

The Timber and X9E ready for the first flight.

The first flight went well, I was a bit rusty but soon I could feel the old confidence coming back. 

Using the tray radio felt strange for a while after more than a year of intensive practice and competition flying with the X9D+ but I could see that it was the way to go.

As much fun as the Timber was I knew it was very limited and I needed something a bit more aerobatic and I needed it quickly!

The search started.....

A new (not really) adventure in RC!

Well, here I am, getting back into RC power flying and specifically F3A flying, it has only been 27 years, where did the time go?

Watch this space, I will post updates as the adventure unfolds....