The RC Airplane

Over the past eight months or so, I've had a little project of pulling an old Father & Son RC Airplane hobby out of storage and getting it back in working order.  My dad bought me the plane as a present when I was 14.  The Kadet Senior is a well known trainer airplane for the beginner RC pilot, and it is a full blown balsa wood kit that was purchased with all the accessories and hardware to get it in the air.

We started working on it and slowly progressed through assembling the wings, fuselage, and the rear control surfaces.  With other duties and projects around the house, along with doubts about how to proceed with doing the covering; the hobby came to a stop.  Several years later when I was in High School, there was a gentlemen at my summer job who was experienced with RC airplanes, and he helped me finish everything.


After it was completed, my friend and I took it out to the Calvary Church parking lot to fly it.  We flew it twice that day and both times the engine stalled out and my friend brought it back down and landed it.  He felt the problem was with the weight inside the gas tank and that it was loosing fuel.

I brought it back home, removed the fuel tank and started researching a few different things to fix it... and that was the end if it.  Now, here we are, 15 years later and we're going to give it another try. After pulling it out of storage and evaluating everything; it was going to require quite a bit more than I realized to get it back in the air. It needed a complete new radio package since the frequency of the old radio had been discontinued by the FCC for model airplane use.  The engine was going to need a few tanks of gas run through it and tuned up, and new batteries, etc.

Another big hurdle was that I'd never flown it before... never flown anything before actually.  I needed a simulator.  I found the RealFlight 6.0 PC simulator package and it was just the thing for me to practice on and get some hours under my belt.  I was able to download a simulator model of the Kadet Senior which made practicing even more fun and enjoyable.  With the majority of my practice working on the landing, I was really getting my confidence built up that I was going to be able to do this!

After working through all the details on the plane, it was finally ready... for the second time.  I picked out an area at a nearby park where 2 baseball fields were side-by-side and I set the date for June 16, the day before Father's Day.  What could be a neater gift to my Dad, than to see the airplane we'd worked so hard on all those years before trolling around in the blue sky.

The day finally came and I loaded the kids and everything into the van and off we went to meet my parents and my sister at the park.  When we got there I noticed that it was pretty windy, more so than what I'd seen on the weather forecast earlier that morning.  At this point though, I didn't want to say No and disappoint everyone; and with the size of this plane I figured it could handle a little more wind that your average smaller R/C plane.

I got everything put together and set, got her started, and we were off.  I'm thankful to have captured it (mostly) on video.

Yes, well, the end result wasn't so stellar; and in hind sight, it was too windy.  However, I really feel that if the engine would have kept running that I would have been able to bring it in for a much better landing and it would have survived it's first flight under my control.  While the damage looks really bad, it isn't.  I'll be able to fully repair it, thanks in part that I can get all new wood pieces still from the manufacturer.  Additionally, I'm going to get a new engine since the old K&B engines were notorious for carburetor problems and the company is no longer in business.  This will allow me to get a more powerful and more reliable engine, so hopefully I won't have to endure any more dead stick landings... and I won't make the mistake again of trying to fly when it's too windy.

Despite the outcome, my Dad was still thrilled with what I'd done with the plane, and he's excited to see me get it fixed and to watch it again sometime soon!