Remington's Flying Free: 4/1/08

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Well after a really crazy start to this year, spring has startted to show it's face and I have started flying planes once again.

<>My goal this year was to take my flying to a new level and start flying my true love, military jets. So I thought I would start with this beautiful angel to the left. The F/A 18 flown by the US Navy and Marines. You will also recognize it as the plane of choice for the United States Air Force Blue Angels. I'm proud to say that I have flown this plane succesfully a couple of times this week. It truely looks like one of the blue angels is flying around the flield at LCCC. The plane is fast yet handles nicely. If there is a down side to it the flight time is only about 6 minutes. However that seems long as you are flying by the seat of your pants.

The second plane of the winter building season was the F-15 Eagle flown by the US Airforce. This is the number 2 fighter plane of all times second only to the P-51D Mustang. It has a perfect record in battle. 113 planes shot dow, 0 F-15's lost. A pretty impressive record.

I managed to fly this airplane 3 times this week. It truely handles like a dream. The first two landing were a bit scary as this plane carries allot of weight. It's speed is not as impressive as some of the other planes I fly, yet it's one of the biggest birds I fly and is very impressive flying across the hostile planes of LCCC.

The next part of my private war is the F-16 Falcon. This is my second favorite plane in the world next to only........you guessed it the F-14A Tomcat. I've yet to find one to build so for now this is my favorite RC plane.

This plane you have to see to believe. If you know me you know that my nerves are not the best and they were not in great shape as the time approached to take this rocket into the air the first time. I've had this plane built for over a month now and not a day has passed that I have not looked at it and wondered what would go wrong to destroy my dream of flying one some day. Well that day was yesterday. A friend of mine who I met through flying was there. His wife is not as understanding as Lori and really puts time restrictions on when he can fly. The winds were less than perfect (14 mph realisticly they should be under 7 mph) so I flew a couple plane I was familiar with. I took up the Spitfire MKIIB and the F-15 from up above. CHris never saw the F-15 fly and it was a thrill for him to witness.

It was now 7:50 pm and he had to be home at 8. I informed him that this was the second time I brought the F-16 and I was going to fly it. Worse case I would wreck it and have to build a new one. Chris said he would see the launch then had to go. So push the throttle to full and the engine was screaming. I took a couple of steps and let it fly. Folks the take off was perfect and to keep you out of suspense the entire flight was. This plane has a max speed of around 90 mph and is a complete rush to see. I kept reminding my self that it was the first flight so be easy on the throttle. The plane sliced through the air at about 60 mph most of the flight and from time to time I would light the after burners and let it scream. Chris stayed for the entire flight and I could not stop thanking him for sharing it with me. He said it was one of the nicest flights and planes he has seen. He should my hand and thanked me for letting him be there. I also flew a security mission over LCCC this evening for Lori. All she could say was the speed is sick on that plane. She had a grin from ear to ear when I landed it.

The next couple of planes are still being worked on in my area 51 hangar. The first is this gem to the left. This is the F-86 Sabre. It was introduced during the 1950's and was developed to counter the Mig 15 developed by the Russians.

It was flown during the Korean war and had an impressive kill record. The americans did not own the skies over Korea until this plane came into service. Once it came in I believe it had a 15-1 kill ratio over the Mig and from there we won the war.

Next is the A-4 Skyhawk. It was flown by the Navy during the Vietnam war. It had a less than stellar record and was the plane John McCain was flying when he was shot down over Vietnam. He spen the next 5 years there as a prisoner of war.

The plane was later used at Top Gun at NAS Miramar along with the F-5 to use to train the F-14 fighter pilots. If you get the chance to watch top gun it's the plane that Viper and Jester was flying against the F-14 pilots. Top Gun later replaced the F-5 with the F-16 again featured above. One final note on the A-4. It was also flown by the US Navy Blue Angels prior to switching to the F-18. If you google A-4 blue angel pictures you can see what they looked like.

This next plane is really one of my favorites. I had the the chance to fly it for the first time this week and it by far is the smoothest flying plane I own. It's the US Navy T-28 Trojan. It was used to train pilots through the 1950's for jet flight. It was even still being used by the south Vietnamees during the Vietnam war.

If is arobatics you want, this plane performs them gracefully. It has a ton of power and really is poetry in motion while in the air. Hopefully if I get the chance to fly some planes for any of you this summer I'll have this gem with me. It has a brushless motor and you'll be amazed by how something this powerful can be so quiet. While the jets scream you can barely hear this plane.

I still have an F-117 Stealth fighter to build once the other two are completed. I will not bore you with more posting of planes, but I'll share some pictures of my others. Sorry for the long lay off here but I promise to do better keeping everyone informed of how things have been going. Enjoy the planes by clicking on them and seeing them in full size.