My 2017 RC year in review and the way ahead

Hi Everyone -

As 2017 has seemed to fly by, I took the time over the holidays to reflect and be thankful for how blessed I am to have a life that allows me to enjoy this hobby I love so much.  I take pause to look back on where my RC journey took me this year and take a peek on what lies ahead in 2018.  As usual, lots happened this year and I think has set me up for an exciting journey ahead😊

At the start of 2017, my NAMC (North American Mig Consortium) partner Stephan and I were busy working out the "think and design" part of the NAMC Su-27 Flanker (our motto being Think, Design, Test and Validate).  This was a project we had been discussing for a couple of years and leading up to it's release, there was a lot of work for Stephan to get the curved nose of the Su-27 just right as well as incorporate some of the great characteristics of the NAMC Mig-35B.  Here is a "God's eye view of a Mig-35B and the first prototype of the Su-27 that I built and flew.

In addition to this work that was going on in the background, we decided to start a thread on the RC Powers forum called the NAMC Su-27 design, build and test thread which we hoped would shed some light on our entire development process at NAMC and hopefully generate some interest in our Su-27.  Our goal was never to make any money, but there were website bills to pay😉  I also recruited a beta test team, something we had done with the Mig-35B which was very successful to give us final ideas for the plans, instructions and of course the plane, but on a more objective level.  I am very grateful for the support that team provided us, my deepest thanks to the following gents

• Carl (CRMERC from the RC Powers forum);
• Eric (EricR from the RC Powers forum);
• Peter (homey666 from the RC Powers forum); and
• Rocky (pileit1 from the RC Powers forum).

The NAMC Su-27 was officially released on April 2nd of this year and reviews were good, however it did seem that response from the community was very slow (at least if sales of the plans was an indicator).

I had lots of energy and motivation after the Su-27 release and decided after seeing the success that Peter had building his Su-27 entirely of Dollar Tree foam (DTF or Adams readi-board), I built a Mig-35B entirely of DTF.  I had long been using DTF for my KF airfoils, but had never built a plane entirely from DTF.  It was a great adventure and experiment, the plane flew great and was quite durable in a variety of temperature conditions.  Here is that plane here (it has since been recycled).

However, shortly after this point, I became a bit of a victim of my own enthusiasm and felt a bit "burnt out" and took the months of June and July completely off from the hobby in any way including the NAMC website and the RC Powers forum.  I had taken a break from the hobby in the past to "recharge my batteries" so to speak, but when I returned this time, I didn't have quite the same passion for the NAMC website and the RC Powers forum.  I'm not trying to be negative here, just honest, my gut was starting to tell me perhaps it was time for me to make a change in how I approach the hobby.  My number one goal in this hobby is to have fun, and it just didn't seem to be as fun for me as it once was.

I owe a lot to RC Powers, I wouldn't be in this hobby without them and I still build and enjoy their designs.  However, as often happens, the forum has changed considerably to be more of a general forum, with far less discussion about park jets than there once was.  I have tried to be an active participant and give back to the community that got me where I am today in this hobby, but it is no longer the same for me, so I thought it time for this "old dinosaur" to move on.

I have always been a bit of a "foam park jet purist" I suppose and I don't mean this to sound elitist, probably the opposite.  I get the most joy from building these inexpensive foam planes, experimenting with them, learning from them and passing on those lessons learned.  I have tried other planes over time, but quickly get bored of them as I don't feel the same connection as I do with park jets.  So I decided after long, thoughtful consideration it was time for a change if I was going to stay passionate about park jets and enjoying myself in this fairly simple, inexpensive, niche part of the hobby.

I told my NAMC partners Stephan and Dave of my decision that I no longer wanted to be the face of NAMC on the website and the RC Powers forum, nor was I interested in being part of any future designs there.  They were very gracious and supportive of my decision and soon after was born this blog and my increased educational content on my YouTube channel.

Before this of course I had started building more planes experimenting more with the readily available (to me anyway) DTF and other foams I had on hand to come up with the best performing and most durable park jets I could build.  This also went hand in hand with starting some testing and evaluation of quad racing motors for use in park jets on a standard 3S setups.  I have already written a blog article on my initial lessons learned using quad racing motors in park jets.

So hopefully I haven't bored you with my story, but I thought it important to share as I am taking a much different path in my park jet journey, one I think will be very good for me.  Without being responsible to my partners at NAMC and providing input to the RC Powers forum, I will have time to share a lot of what I have learned thus far and continue to be creative by following my own path and imagination.

Even though I took almost two months off, I still got lots of flying done, accumulating 950+ flights in 2017 and surpassing 5000+ park jet flights since I started keeping a formal log in Jan of 2014.  I also surpassed 1000 total flights on my favorite park jet of all time, the NAMC Mig-35B since flying the first prototype in Dec of 2015.  I have never come close to this number of flights on any other park jet and I will be flying it for many years to come😎

In recent months, I have also started following rcplanepirate's YouTube channel and we have had many great conversations about motors, props, ESCs and batteries.  He is a great fellow and I have learned an incredible amount from him, I encourage you to go check out his channel highlighted where his name is in the first sentence of this paragraph.  His channel contains an incredible amount of test information on all kinds of motors, props, EDFs as well as some flying videos of planes much faster than mine😎

Another fellow "Youtuber" I have been following is Ground Control RC who has produced a lot of great videos focusing more on micro RC, FPV, quads, planes as well as reviews and great RC tutorials.  He has designed his own micro F-22 Raptor which I hope to build and fly in the New Year to explore that part of the hobby with something a little smaller.  I encourage you to check out his channel by clicking on the highlighted "Ground Control RC" in the first line of this paragraph, lots of great information there and I have learned a lot from him as well😊

2018 I think will be starting off with a bang, lots more quad racing motor testing to do on the bench and at the field, more "table talks", "how to" videos and a revision of some old blog articles I wrote including the series "which park jet for me" that I wrote awhile back on the NAMC blog.  This will still be up for awhile, but the website will be moved or shut down at some point in the future. 

I hope to keep this blog fresh and informative and keep up with some good content on my YouTube channel to pass along my personal lessons learned about what has worked for me so that perhaps it will help others or inspire them to try new things.  One of the biggest things I enjoy about scratch building foam park jets is the ability to experiment and express your creativity without it costing a lot of money, you just never know what is around the corner in your park jet journey😊

I may also clean up and organize my work shop this year...but no promises😁

I want to humbly and sincerely thank those of you who have supported me on this blog, my YouTube channel, at NAMC and the RC Powers forum.  Your support and input have made me the park jet builder and pilot I have become and given me the motivation to pass along what I have learned, be it good, bad or indifferent.  

I wish you all the best in your RC journey and peace, prosperity and good health in 2018 for you and yours😊  My co-pilot "BDog" (Bently🐾) and I wish you all the best!

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom😎

Cheers,

Scott