One of the things I liked was that the model had retractable landing gear, so I ordered a set and paid for them with money I had earned picking potatoes. Oh, my aching back.
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| Mike's dream model airplane from 1975. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| In 1975, I saw a really cool looking model airplane in a magazine. Wow, was it nice. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| So I ordered the plans and bought some balsa and started to build it from scratch. It took me a long time, but it was a labour of love. I was only a teenager, so I guess it must have been puppy love. One of the things I liked was that the model had retractable landing gear, so I ordered a set and paid for them with money I had earned picking potatoes. Oh, my aching back. |
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| Things ground to a halt after I left for university. I had most of it built, except for putting the covering on. The model sat neglected in the basement for about 20 years while I went through university, moved to a new city, got a job, dated a girl, got married... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| But twenty years of neglect is tough on a balsa airplane. Finally I started making up for some lost time. Some of the glue on the wings had come unstuck, so I slowly glued it back with epoxy. Now it is almost as good as new. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| It ended up not exactly looking like the picture in the magazine. It is also quite a bit heavier than the one in the magazine. It was supposed to be possible to build it to be about 6.5 or 7 pounds. Mine tips the scale at 8 pounds. I removed the retracts because I knew the struts would always get bent on this 8 pound model operating from a grass field. I changed it to be a tail-dragger with fixed gear. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Man, does it ever fly nicely. I can almost do a round loop with it. Still need more practice. Here it is merrily floating past me as I flare to land. This airplane likes to float. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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