RC Model Airplanes

Welcome to My
Remote Controlled
Model Airplane
Web Page
All Photographs are Copyright©2007
by: M. Byron Norrell, Jr.

This page updated: May 17th, 2007

Click a pictures to enlarge

Attention
Duncan's R/C First Annual 2007
Sailplane Competition
Sunday May 20, 2007
Starting at 8:00am
To be held at:
La Pradera Park
40th and Glendale Ave.
Phoenix, AZ

More Information

June of 2006 my wife told me I need to get a "Hobby" so I decided to get back into Model Airplanes again. As a kid of 9 year of age my father taught me how to build Model Airplanes, but it only lasted for about four months.

In 1957 Radio Control model flying was in it's infancy and fly by wire was the thing to fly. Standing in the middle of a circle, and the plane is controlled by two wires, around and around you go. That was the beginning, but I had no luck with it. So I built a "Free Flight" model, this is a motorized Glider with an engine. Starting the engine and let it go, it has a fuel cutoff switch that cut the flow of gas to the motor, than it sails around until it comes down. Some times it would land anywhere from two feet in front of you, or miles away. That means getting into your car, or truck, or run after until it landed to get it back.

Man, what difference 48 year makes. When I started in 1958 the model kits were filled with a box of Balsa wood and you glued it all together, then covered the balsa with paper, and used what was called dope to harden the paper.

Today they still have the "Balsa Kits", but now there are ARF (Almost Ready to Fly). These kit require anywhere from 3 hours to a couple of days to build, plus you need a few other parts to fly, like a radio and other parts. There are the RTF (Ready To Fly) models which require very little time to put together and come with every thing you need to start flying the model.

My First plane was the Firebird Commander 2

I found it on the Internet at Hobbyzone
Revolutionary Anti-Crash Technology™ (ACT) is unique to HobbyZone and ground breaking, because there is no other technology on the market that accomplishes what ACT does. It makes learning to fly easier and safer than ever before.

After crashing this thing, I forget how many times, I meet other flyer's at the park, who told me that a "Slow Sick was
the "BEST" plane to learn how to fly. It looked Ugly but I bought one anyway. I crashed it a couple of times and found it
cheaper to replace the parts to get it flying again. After the second crash I went ahead and bought a Flight Simulator,
and with in a week I was flying the Slow Stick.
Here is my first one.

I crashed this one a few times before I totaled it and finally had to buy a new one at a cost of $25.00.

My second model was the a WW2 War Plane "Messerschmitt ME109.

The Owner of the hobby shop where I bought it from flew it twice, and due to me failing to completely follow the instruction to build the plane he crashed it twice. After doing all the necessary repairs I thought I was ready to fly
it on my own and crashed it badly. Now it hangs from the ceiling in my office to remind me that I am not ready to fly models of this kind just yet.

After a couple of months went by, I felt I wanted an acrobatic plane. I then bought a Cap 232 model. I just loved the
way this plane flew and handled in the air. I had no problem flying it, but when it was time to land it was where the problem started.

Scratch another one off the list of "I want it."

Time to get back to the old standby, yes the Slow Stick.

After watching the guys I fly with two or three times a week at different parks. I joined the Sunday morning get
together of guys from Duncan's R/C shop. Time to put a plug in for this Shop. By the way the owner's name is
also "Byron."

This place is a "Great Shop." Byron DOES NOT just sell the planes and watch you walk out the door!!! No, should you
need help with your new model, or experience any kind of technical problems he will always help you. This is the
store to go too. I can not say enough about him or the other guys that work there. I have made friends with a lot of good people there.

OK, back to one of the guys I fly a lot with is Antonios.

Here we are with our new Fling Glider's, these are true Glider's meaning launching them with a string attached to a rubber tube to get them into the air. This time of the year (Winter) you only get from 1 to 4 minutes flying time,
then you have to hook up the plane again for another short flight. I want more flying time. So I converted my plane
into a motorized one, but with high winds around 100 feet it is hard to get it any higher. During the Summer, with the thermos, I hope to be flying higher.

One day John, one of the guys from the shop, came to the park with a nice looking "Glider". After watching him fly I was
hooked. I just had to have one. The glider was called the "Phoenix."

This plane has a 2 meter wingspan, or equal 79 inches. It sails beautifully, also fun to land.
Well I crashed this one twice, and was able to repair each time.

After the third crash, I was ready for a Glider called a "Hotliner." I went and bought a Breeze III another 2 meter winged plane, with one big difference it is built for "HIGH SPEED" flying. I mean you can do a 100 miles per hour power dive as well as acrobatics. A good glider that likes to fly.
I crashed this one three times, and the final crash would prove to be to costly to replace.

So, I decided to replace it with a less expensive one Called the "Siren" this plane is "HOT"

Check out the Video for this Bird.

Well, this is what I have been doing since June 9th, 2006. I will be adding more pictures as time goes by. I will also be adding some videos of our outings.

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