Cool radio control airplanes from the 90s
Plus other hobby and airplane stuff
This is a fact light picture heavy pure nostalgia post about cool radio control and airplane stuff from the 90s.
As a kid in the 90s I was really into airplanes. My dad took me to the Oshkosh Air Show and I built several radio control models from balsa kits.
The pictures below are from the 1996 air show. The Gee Bee flew an acrobatics routine.
The Piper Cub is one of my favorite airplanes. When I went to the museum at Oshkosh I got a ride in one. The pilot even let me have the controls once we were in the air.
This is my grandpa standing next to a Yak-55. He was in WWII in the Pacific theatre, mainly stationed on small boats. He never talked about it and I recall him being mainly into gardening and doing slide photography of flowers.
The best way to obsess over radio control stuff was to get your hands on a Tower Hobbies mail order catalog.
I always thought the Kyosho monster trucks were extra cool.
Balsa kit airplanes are covered with a plastic film that is shrunk with an iron and heat gun. It sticks to itself and the balsa frame when heated.
As I kid my budget was limited so I used a 2 channel radio.
I’m not sure how but the Piper Cub I built is still flyable. It flew excellent despite being burdened with standard servos and a 4AA battery pack. The power was a Norvel .061 Big Mig engine with no throttle. I remember flying it at my other Grandpa’s farm and our dog Norsky trying to chase it into the corn fields.
I had a folding table setup in front of the TV in the basement where I worked on the models. I would usually be watching taped episodes of the X-Files or maybe a Roger Moore Bond movie on VHS from the rental store.
Here are some build photos of the same kit from IfIHadWings on Rcgroups.
Parts like the ribs come precut. You setup the plans on cork or cardboard and put wax paper or plastic film over them to protect them from the super glue, then just build over them.
I recall missing that the fuselage had different L/R sides at this stage. Somehow it still worked out.
A kit I really want to build is the Clancy Aviation Lazy Bee. They just look comical with the oversize inflatable tires and super low aspect ratio wing.
This Bee build is from J Bergsmith on rcgroups.
The leading and trailing edges are built from laminations. This gives the Bee some additional survivability at the cost of more complicated building. At the Flightest forums rockyboy shares his glue-up fixture for the wingtips.
While looking for the Oshkosh photos I found some pictures of a trip I took with my grandpa and uncle down the Mississippi.
As I kid sometimes I thought the Grandpa in the pictures could be a bit grumpy. But as an adult I understand how seeing parts of the world and people you didn’t wish to see can make you seem that way. I’m just glad I found all these photos where he’s smiling.
My dad loved to build R/C balsa models, especially gliders, and he also built a Piper Cub (yellow, of course) but I don't know who made the kit. I guess the Cub was the "everyman's airplane" of the day. I know the Gee Bee thanks to a 90's movie: The Rocketeer. I loved that film and especially the opening sequence that featured the first flight of their Gee Bee.