Preface
Ten years ago, if you asked anyone that knew me (in the model
world) if I would ever build a jet they would have answered "NO
WAY". At the time, I would have agreed with them. I was
a WWII fan... almost exclusively. Probably 75% of what I built
was WWII iron, with an occasional glider or sport model thrown
in. I never really like ICDF models, though my exposure was light.
My father had built an Airforms F-86 back when the K&B 6.5
was a hot engine (he powered it with one of the RK "kit
fans"). That plane never got off the ground. Years later
we upgraded to a Turbax with a 7.5 but lost interest in that
as well. In the early years of ICDF pilots were replacing glow
plugs at least once every 3 flights. They just never seemed that
reliable to me, so it was easy to avoid them. I'll also pass
on the true turbines. Having to obtain an AMA waiver seems a
pain and I didn't like the cost and complexity (though things
have gotten much better over the years). The lure that brought
me in was the EDF advancements. Back in 2001 I read about someone
building an Airworld Me262 for EDF. Now there was an interesting
piece of WWII hardware that was acceptable in my book. At the
time it was out of reach due to limitations on the nicads (power
and weight didn't allow for grass field operations). Then I read
about schubeler fans and lipo batteries and the seed was planted.
I could only resist for about a year and then I had to build
one. That is well documented here.
I enjoyed that plane so much I just had to continue... but with
what plane. I'll admit I'm more attracted to earlier jets (Korea/Vietnam)
that the later entries. It also had to be big... the variety
of (roughly) 5" fans make larger jets much more attractive.
I like the F9F (panther and cougar), but I don't see too many
good kits available (that is changing too). Maybe an A-4 or A-6
intruder... but the F- Phantom finally caught my eye. At first,
it had to be a BVM kit, but looking hard at that option cut too
hard in the wallet. I could probably have justified the cost
but I was afraid that I'd never fly it for fear of what might
happen to it. Yellow and JHH caught my interest, and I finally
settled on the JHH version. Though the Stumax fan sounded like
an interesting power plant for this plane, I decided it would
be better to just go JHH all the way. |
