Hi Steve.....Back in the late 80's I've built my gas powered balsa and hardwood planes from the blue prints up. Yes, lots of space and time involved. The covering was the same you showen there called monokote. Required a heated iron and heat gun to apply. Also before gluing in the hinges. I would but a dab of vaseline on the joint to keep glue from setting in there.......👍
used to use tissue paper and something called dope if i remember rightly and kits would come on flat sheets to be cut out or some clever builders would make them up from blueprints
This video took me back 38 years ago. I started with balsa planes for a short time then and put it all aside because of life, work, marriage and kids. Then 35 years later I started back up with dji, tello, mini 3 pro and the avata. Oh and I just picked up a emax tinyhawk lll hdzero.
Balsa planes, both RC and non-RC, were the childhood of many of us Baby Boomers. The crazy thing is that they are still the same and there are even kits available where you have to assemble everything from scratch (I don’t have the time or patience for those). If you get a chance, for nostalgic reasons, you may want to pick up a small size kit for a weekend build.
I grew up making those. But what you have there is what we used to call an “ARF” - an “Almost Ready to Fly”. We used to have to build the whole plane from a kit. Nothing came assembled. In fact, we used to sneer at anyone who came out with a foam plane. My, how time has changed the hobby. For the better, in my opinion.
Dancing Wings Hobby themselves differentiate between an ARF (almost ready to fly) like the Vogee and laser cut kits (a box of sticks) that they also sell.
Steve you had it easy. My brother built many many planes from scratch putting all balsa wood together and cover it. I helped takes awhile to build thats for sure
When I was a youngster I built a balsa plane from the kits back in the 1970’s, except I had no electronics, motor or even DOPE for the tissue covering. But it was still a time consuming joy to build. Today, I don’t have the time or patience to build from scratch.
@@CAPTAINDRONE798 heres another one before my brother flew remote control planes he if you want to call flying striger planes flying you go round and round . planes using o 49 motors. I young i held the plane while he went back to little handle and said let her go . I don't know how he didn't get dizzy lol
A member of my club gave mea balsa kit pt20. Another member has taken the lead in the complete build of the plane.there’s no way I’d ever get the model build on my own..Steve it’s a serious learning experience for me.
Congrats on a great balsa flight Steve. I built one on a HS winter break back in the early 80's. Not an ARF, much more work. I got it built and covered but stopped there- I didn't have the guts to finish and crash it like all the other 1st time pilots. It was a glo engine plane, but I may actually finish it and convert to electric now that I know how to fly.
BALSA was the go to material back in the 1980s for sure! Today, BALSA is considered "GOLD" and you will find pilots who fly nothing but BALSA planes (prop and Jet) or pilots that only fly Foam. Usually people on a budget stick with Foam.
I used to build the balsa and plywood kits back in the day no problem but don't ever ask me to do the monokote covering I think that's why I ended up on psych meds later in life 😂 also epoxy would have been your best choice for for attaching the 2 wing halves and the horizontal and vertical stabilizer not sure how safe I'd feel using hot glue on it especially the main wing and wing spar
I check 10 sites daily for new content, Steve i am guessing you put out double their content of the other, your video are so good and real, i appreciate all theinformation, great job. Learning a lot from you as a beginner. Great Job
This is not building a kit. It is assembling an ARF. In the balsa world, assembling a kit means gluing all the little pieces of wood together and might means sanding round edges from square stock and cutting out your own covering that is sold separately so you can choose your own colors and scheme. All the electronics would also need to be purchased separately.
You should consider putting each aileron servo on it's own channel for more adjustability like sub trimming each aileron independently and also being able to do things like flaperons or adjusting wing wing camber. You paid big bucks for a fancy computer radio and a 6 channel receiver so why not use all the features you paid for? Only downside would be more hassles if you want to completely detach the wing from the fuselage for transport or storage but that shouldn't be really necessary for a plane this size.
Beautiful balsa plane! Half the fun looks like building it! This one seems like it's not for the absolute beginner RC airplane pilot. A little more advanced than some of the others you have flown. I'm probably wrong as I know nothing about RC airplanes. I love the wing lights you added. They would make it so much easier to see the plane in low light or even night. You do make it look easy but I know it's not that easy 😁. Thanks for sharing and I would love to see you fly this a bit more aggressive and do some rolls and flips, etc. Until the next one!
Once you start in the RC plane hobby it becomes addictive & easier everyday. Like all the hobbies, you never stop learning. I love trying new projects and figuring things out as I go, then squishing it all into a short video which makes it look easy.
Hello Steve, thanks for braving the cold doing these great entertaining videos. Was flying yesterday in the freezing cold here in Moncton and by the time I’m done I’m half “P”ed off. I tried the coupon # to purchase this beauty but doesn’t work for this Canadian. Thanks again Steve! Keep defining the law of gravity 👍
Out of 12 of my friends that fly RC planes, I’m the only person that flies all year long. I absolutely love the RC hobby! The coupon codes I get usually work for Canada, but if it tells you on the screen it does not work for Canada, then I guess not.
You are not supposed to use hot glue on balsa. Some steps specifically require the use of thin CA like attaching the control surfaces, and hardening screw holes. Thin CA is needed to wick into the wood to harden the joints and holes and saturate the fabric covered mylar hinges. All of these things should be written in the instruction manual.
One has NOT truly experienced a balsa wood plane unless they have spent many hours building the wings from ground up by positioning and gluing each of the individual parts from each rib, the spar, the ailerons and flaps, if your plane had that. Then individually building the fuselage and horizontal and vertical stabilizers. Once that was done, you had to heat-shrink the skin onto each of the assembled body parts and wings. Pros about doing it the above way... 1> One really got to experience a plane build piece by piece. 2> One could custom design the skin color and/or color combinations. 3> Select an engine type and size of your choosing within the suggest power range of the model specifications. 4> Choosing your own radio transmitter and receiver, including the servos. Cons about full piece by piece building... 1> Takes a really long time from start to finish and then fly. 2> if you crash and break some balsa parts, you are done for the day. And if your are lucky, you can glue the broken parts back together and get flying again. 3> If you crash and turn your plane into shrapnel, or to use a better term, many splinters, all the time you spent building the plane has gone to waste.
Building from scratch was the thing to do in the 50s to 90s. By 2000 it was becoming less popular, and today it is difficult to find someone at the flying field that still builds balsa planes from scratch (it is an art form being lost for sure).
Quick question Captain, Brian Phillips RC said in the US there are FAA regs regarding taking videos with a plane. A plan for the future for me,, is to get a plane with a video camera and the goggles the same as you do, and fly up in cottage country for a beautiful overhead view of the lakes. Any advice please? Others maybe thinking similar.
I live in Canada but the world works like this when it comes to RC Planes. RC Planes, RC Helicopters and RC Drones are all the same when it comes to regulations for unmanned remotely controlled vehicles. So whatever applies to camera drones also applies to camera RC airplanes.
@@CAPTAINDRONE798 thanks Captain, and maybe it’s a tad easier for us up here. He was saying something along the lines of not even posting videos. I use your videos and advice very much. I purchased the Carbon Cub 1300 to learn on. But it was never my first choice re its looks. Looking back now I wish I bought the military green piper cub? Or saved up a bit more and bought one of the Trojans. The planes I am so impressed with are the ones that fly incredibly slow with full flaps, almost to the point where you could grab them out of the air as they fly by, and can almost take off with no runway, and land the same. Eventually a Beaver with floats. One of the best planes ever built IMHO. Thanks for the reply and great videos.
I NEVER trim planes in a review as that would be a waste of TH-cam viewer time & the plane would be out of view to the audience. Keep in mind that you trim a plane if you plan to fly it often. I have tons of planes that I have never trimmed & I simply compensate via the CG and joysticks. Pretty much all planes fly great as long as you set the neutral points of the ailerons and elevators based on the CG of the plane.
You said kit. Then you had a prebuilt plane 😂. Have you never built one up from a thousand fragile wood bits, covering your fingers with superglue then trying to iron film over the whole thing?
@@CAPTAINDRONE798 No, this is an ARF. ARF's are pre-covered subassemblies which you assemble. It includes an electronics combo pack in this case (they sell bare ARF's and ARF's with electronics packages which they call the motor/esc/servos combo). Dancing Wings also sells kits, which come as laser cut balsa and ply and dimensional wood which you need to cut and glue together. Those are also available with and without the electronics packages. The Vogee series are currently not available as kits, but many of their other products are kits, like the 1.6m Spacewalker.
It is not a build from scratch kit (like in the 50s to 70s) as those don’t really exit anymore. This is an assemble, install hardware & electronics build kit.
@@CAPTAINDRONE798 Dancing Wings makes traditional kits in addition to ARF's, PnP's and EPP flat foamies. We are actually in a golden era for wood kits, they are widely available online with hundreds, if not thousands, of kits available today. They just aren't usually in your local hobby shop (but if they are, good chance it's a Dancing Wings kit)
From 1976 to 1999 I must of built about 45 planes. Miss those days. Good looking kits!
You most certainly have to get back into it. You must have exceptional building skills and patience.
I love the way balsa flys so much better that foam… very crisp and precise
I agree
Hi Steve.....Back in the late 80's I've built my gas powered balsa and hardwood planes from the blue prints up. Yes, lots of space and time involved. The covering was the same you showen there called monokote. Required a heated iron and heat gun to apply. Also before gluing in the hinges. I would but a dab of vaseline on the joint to keep glue from setting in there.......👍
used to use tissue paper and something called dope if i remember rightly and kits would come on flat sheets to be cut out or some clever builders would make them up from blueprints
Excellent advice! I’m still in the learning stages of building RC planes.
This video took me back 38 years ago. I started with balsa planes for a short time then and put it all aside because of life, work, marriage and kids. Then 35 years later I started back up with dji, tello, mini 3 pro and the avata. Oh and I just picked up a emax tinyhawk lll hdzero.
Balsa planes, both RC and non-RC, were the childhood of many of us Baby Boomers. The crazy thing is that they are still the same and there are even kits available where you have to assemble everything from scratch (I don’t have the time or patience for those). If you get a chance, for nostalgic reasons, you may want to pick up a small size kit for a weekend build.
I grew up making those. But what you have there is what we used to call an “ARF” - an “Almost Ready to Fly”. We used to have to build the whole plane from a kit. Nothing came assembled. In fact, we used to sneer at anyone who came out with a foam plane. My, how time has changed the hobby. For the better, in my opinion.
Ha ha, I do indeed recall those days (I was not an RC plane pilot then and only watched with envy).
Dancing Wings Hobby themselves differentiate between an ARF (almost ready to fly) like the Vogee and laser cut kits (a box of sticks) that they also sell.
I remember those good old days. Awesome 👌 review.
Steve you had it easy. My brother built many many planes from scratch putting all balsa wood together and cover it. I helped takes awhile to build thats for sure
When I was a youngster I built a balsa plane from the kits back in the 1970’s, except I had no electronics, motor or even DOPE for the tissue covering. But it was still a time consuming joy to build. Today, I don’t have the time or patience to build from scratch.
@@CAPTAINDRONE798 heres another one before my brother flew remote control planes he if you want to call flying striger planes flying you go round and round . planes using o 49 motors. I young i held the plane while he went back to little handle and said let her go . I don't know how he didn't get dizzy lol
And it should fly great its a high lift wing. I build a large corsair out of Styrofoam years ago with a high lift wing flew great
Beautiful Balsa Wood RC Plane, and Excellent Flying. Thank you Captain Steve.
A member of my club gave mea balsa kit pt20. Another member has taken the lead in the complete build of the plane.there’s no way I’d ever get the model build on my own..Steve it’s a serious learning experience for me.
Congrats on a great balsa flight Steve. I built one on a HS winter break back in the early 80's. Not an ARF, much more work. I got it built and covered but stopped there- I didn't have the guts to finish and crash it like all the other 1st time pilots. It was a glo engine plane, but I may actually finish it and convert to electric now that I know how to fly.
It would be super rewarding to see it fly
I really enjoy your trying different RC products, but you the drone videos i enjoy the most, great job.
Monday’s video will feature a fun drone with blinky lights and a camera.
That looks like a fun kit to build and learn on. Very tempting. Thanks for the excellent review👍👍😀
I was building balsa gas powered rc planes since 1984😄😎🚨
BALSA was the go to material back in the 1980s for sure! Today, BALSA is considered "GOLD" and you will find pilots who fly nothing but BALSA planes (prop and Jet) or pilots that only fly Foam. Usually people on a budget stick with Foam.
I just put a captain drone sticker on my new mavic 3 pro.😄
@@CozydroneThe value of your MAVIC 3 just went Way Up👍
I hope to fly a remote control plane or heli one day. Great video 👍🏾🛩️📸🎥📹
I used to build the balsa and plywood kits back in the day no problem but don't ever ask me to do the monokote covering I think that's why I ended up on psych meds later in life 😂 also epoxy would have been your best choice for for attaching the 2 wing halves and the horizontal and vertical stabilizer not sure how safe I'd feel using hot glue on it especially the main wing and wing spar
Reminds me of my E-Flite Ultra stick. Flies about the same. My idea of a full balsa build is an old Goldberg or Great Planes kits.
I check 10 sites daily for new content, Steve i am guessing you put out double their content of the other, your video are so good and real, i appreciate all theinformation, great job. Learning a lot from you as a beginner. Great Job
Thanks Don, I certainly appreciate that!
Very cool. Use to do balsa from scratch. Using a razor blade. This is nicer a quicker.
This is not building a kit. It is assembling an ARF. In the balsa world, assembling a kit means gluing all the little pieces of wood together and might means sanding round edges from square stock and cutting out your own covering that is sold separately so you can choose your own colors and scheme. All the electronics would also need to be purchased separately.
I like the set up
NOW WE"RE TALK'N !!!! WOOO HOOO !~!!!
Really nice plane I had the cheap plane when I was young
Fun video ! 😃
I musta built a dozen balsa planes back in the day.
Great review Cap !!
😎
Another good review Steve
awwwssssooommmme review Captain.
Great little trainer
Nice video from Australia 🇦🇺 ❤️
Thank you Australia!
Great video nice review looks cool
Cool video.
Next step: build a kit from scratch 😅
One day. I’d need plenty of free time for such a build.
Building a ARF is something I have not done yet. Would like to. I see lots of "antique" kits out there that look cool.
Hmmm… I must try one of them.
Well done Captain!!!; loved the concept however with no mechanical / construction bones in my body, unfortunately couldn't consider this one!!! 😊😊😊
Well presented. A c.g. check would be good advice.
You should consider putting each aileron servo on it's own channel for more adjustability like sub trimming each aileron independently and also being able to do things like flaperons or adjusting wing wing camber. You paid big bucks for a fancy computer radio and a 6 channel receiver so why not use all the features you paid for? Only downside would be more hassles if you want to completely detach the wing from the fuselage for transport or storage but that shouldn't be really necessary for a plane this size.
Thanks!
Thanks Don! 🙏
Beautiful balsa plane! Half the fun looks like building it! This one seems like it's not for the absolute beginner RC airplane pilot. A little more advanced than some of the others you have flown. I'm probably wrong as I know nothing about RC airplanes. I love the wing lights you added. They would make it so much easier to see the plane in low light or even night. You do make it look easy but I know it's not that easy 😁. Thanks for sharing and I would love to see you fly this a bit more aggressive and do some rolls and flips, etc. Until the next one!
Once you start in the RC plane hobby it becomes addictive & easier everyday. Like all the hobbies, you never stop learning. I love trying new projects and figuring things out as I go, then squishing it all into a short video which makes it look easy.
Cool...
I wish Horizon Hobby sold more planes without electronics, especially the foamies.
Super 😎🤝
had many a balsa plane steve 👍
Excellent. Currently I only have two.
Hello Steve, thanks for braving the cold doing these great entertaining videos. Was flying yesterday in the freezing cold here in Moncton and by the time I’m done I’m half “P”ed off. I tried the coupon # to purchase this beauty but doesn’t work for this Canadian. Thanks again Steve! Keep defining the law of gravity 👍
Out of 12 of my friends that fly RC planes, I’m the only person that flies all year long. I absolutely love the RC hobby! The coupon codes I get usually work for Canada, but if it tells you on the screen it does not work for Canada, then I guess not.
You are not supposed to use hot glue on balsa. Some steps specifically require the use of thin CA like attaching the control surfaces, and hardening screw holes. Thin CA is needed to wick into the wood to harden the joints and holes and saturate the fabric covered mylar hinges.
All of these things should be written in the instruction manual.
One has NOT truly experienced a balsa wood plane unless they have spent many hours building the wings from ground up by positioning and gluing each of the individual parts from each rib, the spar, the ailerons and flaps, if your plane had that. Then individually building the fuselage and horizontal and vertical stabilizers. Once that was done, you had to heat-shrink the skin onto each of the assembled body parts and wings.
Pros about doing it the above way...
1> One really got to experience a plane build piece by piece.
2> One could custom design the skin color and/or color combinations.
3> Select an engine type and size of your choosing within the suggest power range of the model specifications.
4> Choosing your own radio transmitter and receiver, including the servos.
Cons about full piece by piece building...
1> Takes a really long time from start to finish and then fly.
2> if you crash and break some balsa parts, you are done for the day. And if your are lucky, you can glue the broken parts back together and get flying again.
3> If you crash and turn your plane into shrapnel, or to use a better term, many splinters, all the time you spent building the plane has gone to waste.
Building from scratch was the thing to do in the 50s to 90s. By 2000 it was becoming less popular, and today it is difficult to find someone at the flying field that still builds balsa planes from scratch (it is an art form being lost for sure).
Quick question Captain, Brian Phillips RC said in the US there are FAA regs regarding taking videos with a plane. A plan for the future for me,, is to get a plane with a video camera and the goggles the same as you do, and fly up in cottage country for a beautiful overhead view of the lakes. Any advice please? Others maybe thinking similar.
I live in Canada but the world works like this when it comes to RC Planes. RC Planes, RC Helicopters and RC Drones are all the same when it comes to regulations for unmanned remotely controlled vehicles. So whatever applies to camera drones also applies to camera RC airplanes.
@@CAPTAINDRONE798 thanks Captain, and maybe it’s a tad easier for us up here. He was saying something along the lines of not even posting videos. I use your videos and advice very much. I purchased the Carbon Cub 1300 to learn on. But it was never my first choice re its looks. Looking back now I wish I bought the military green piper cub? Or saved up a bit more and bought one of the Trojans.
The planes I am so impressed with are the ones that fly incredibly slow with full flaps, almost to the point where you could grab them out of the air as they fly by, and can almost take off with no runway, and land the same. Eventually a Beaver with floats. One of the best planes ever built IMHO.
Thanks for the reply and great videos.
Why dont you ever trim planes...never saw anyone maiden without trimming before...seems like a nice plane.
I NEVER trim planes in a review as that would be a waste of TH-cam viewer time & the plane would be out of view to the audience. Keep in mind that you trim a plane if you plan to fly it often. I have tons of planes that I have never trimmed & I simply compensate via the CG and joysticks. Pretty much all planes fly great as long as you set the neutral points of the ailerons and elevators based on the CG of the plane.
Hi my cetus x not connecting to goggle. I bought the bnf version because i already have vr03 goggle.
I'm dumb I just downloaded the cli and paste into the betaflight and it was fixed 😅😅😅
Did u change your intro? #new intro 👍
Over 1200 of my videos all have a different intro, with different music/graphics. I do not have a standard intro.
No, no, no Steve. Stick build all the way. With CA...
I built my first back in "69" but had to cover it all. Used tissue and dope.
Those were the glory days of RC plane building from scratch
@@CAPTAINDRONE798 Nitros of course and my mother hated it when I fired it up in my bedroom.
Foam or wood, a bottom feeding battery is an older and cheaper design that nobody likes.
You said kit. Then you had a prebuilt plane 😂. Have you never built one up from a thousand fragile wood bits, covering your fingers with superglue then trying to iron film over the whole thing?
When I was 10 years of age I had such a build.
That’s an ARF! You assemble it, not build it. A kit you build.
ARF often means that the buyer needs to buy the electronics. This is a KIT which means electronics are included.
@@CAPTAINDRONE798 No, this is an ARF. ARF's are pre-covered subassemblies which you assemble. It includes an electronics combo pack in this case (they sell bare ARF's and ARF's with electronics packages which they call the motor/esc/servos combo).
Dancing Wings also sells kits, which come as laser cut balsa and ply and dimensional wood which you need to cut and glue together. Those are also available with and without the electronics packages. The Vogee series are currently not available as kits, but many of their other products are kits, like the 1.6m Spacewalker.
This is not a "kit" you build yourself.. just mounting.. 😢
It is not a build from scratch kit (like in the 50s to 70s) as those don’t really exit anymore. This is an assemble, install hardware & electronics build kit.
@@CAPTAINDRONE798 Dancing Wings makes traditional kits in addition to ARF's, PnP's and EPP flat foamies.
We are actually in a golden era for wood kits, they are widely available online with hundreds, if not thousands, of kits available today. They just aren't usually in your local hobby shop (but if they are, good chance it's a Dancing Wings kit)
Unreal, nice. Hang in there.
Nice, but I noticed your prop is not centered. There should be spacers that came with the prop to center it...great job