Big Jim's Aircraft Hangar

I currently have several power planes and gliders and one helicopter.  I'll list them with a brief description of each.

This is a high wing intermediate trainer with a symmetrical airfoil.  It started life with an OS .40 FP engine back in 1990 and now is flying with a Super Tigre GS .45.  The .40 was just enough to get it off the ground and fly around but the .45 handles it with authority and has turned this trainer into an exciting sport plane.

This is a scaled down version of a "pattern" plane and is powered by an OS 32 F.  It weighs only 53 ounces dry and can climb out straight up after takeoff.  This plane will do almost any trick in the book and yet is a very smooth flyer.   This plane has been flying since 1991.

This aerobatic biplane is powered by a Fox Eagle IV .60 and flew for the first time on 7/21/94.  I put a lot of extra effort into covering job and showed it at the 1994 Toledo Expo.  It didn't win any awards but it was fun to rub shoulders with all the big names in model aviation.  It even snuck it's tail into a couple of photographs that appeared in R/C Modeler and Rotary Magazine.

This is an aerobatic monoplane and is powered by a Super Tigre .90 that has been converted to diesel with a Davis conversion head.  It's one of the nicest flying planes I have.  The diesel is a neat engine with a very cool sound to it.

I've only flown this plane a few times as I keep knocking the landing gear off on landing.   It has an OS .15 for power and is fully aerobatic with it's symmetrical midwing design.  It's small and will fit in the front seat fully assembled.

My club decided to try combat so a few of the guys put together 10 kits for the GVRC Combat Terminator model.  Plans for it are available from RCM by calling 800-523-1736 and asking for plan number 1134, which they have listed as the Combat Gremlin.  Anyway, it's got a plastic rain channel for a fuselage and a foam wing with fiberglass strapping tape for reinforcement.   I've flown combat with it with 3 other guys at once and it's a real blast.

My first glider and on it's 3rd covering job.  This is the plane I learned to fly with.  It has been put in and out of service several times over the last decade and was used to complete my first 1 hour thermal duration flight.   This one's a real "floater".

This is a 2 meter wingspan glider with flaps to improve landing accuracy.  I built this one so that I would have something to join our club's glider contests with.  Actually the 2nd of two I've built, the first of which was used to teach me how NOT to do a zoom launch with our club's powerful winches.  This glider is a step up from the "floater" designs.

This is my first foam wing and fiberglass fuselage model.  It is a step up from the Easy Eagle. This is a state of the art glider with obechi covered wings and kevlar reinforced fiberglass fuselage. I haven't managed to break this one on the winch yet. It uses 6 servos to control elevator, rudder, flaps, and ailerons.

The V-gilante is a 100 inch wingspan glider with a "V" tail instead of a conventional rudder and stabilizer.  It is very light at 44 oz which allows it to ride the weakest of thermals, but unlike a "floater" is still able to fly quickly and penetrate into the wind.  It was completed in early 1997 and flies very well.

The Orbiter II is a 60 inch wingspan hand launch glider.  It uses two servos and has elevator and coupled aileron/rudder controls.  I've not had much time on it but have already managed a 5 minute and 50 second flight.  I had to bring it back and land because it was getting too far downwind.  It sure is exciting the first time you thermal out from a hand launch!

This is the 2nd helicopter I've owned, the first of which was a Concept 30 DX.  It is powered by a Super Tigre G .34 H and has flown 3 summers.  I've managed loops, rolls, 540 degree stall turns, and a little bit of inverted flight and nose in hovering.  Practice on the flight simulator has helped with this one.