It was bound to happen. I’m hooked. This Radio Control stuff is just as fun, if not more fun (now that I can afford basically anything I want to fly) than it was as a kit!

While driving all over Puget Sound looking for a few things (good price on transmitter set, a good 450-class heli, some training software, parts, etc. etc) we stopped at HobbyTown near PLU. This place is more like the old-school hobby shops of my youth. Piled with all sorts of cool kits. A little bit of everything. Old display fixtures and a group of characters behind every counter. Reminded me of Houston’s Hobby in the Cambrian area of San Jose. Digressing…..

Atop a counter sat a small collection of R/C demo aircraft. The Boy gravitated straight towards the P-51 mustang there, and asked if he could see if fly. It didn’t look like they had ANY place to fly a fixed-wing model, so I was surprised when the guy picked it up and said, “Sure, let’s check it out. It’s a little windy but I think we can do it.” And that he did.

I was impressed by the 4-channel micro foamy plane’s ability to fly, and to handle the breezes. The Boy wanted to see it fly over and over again, but the batter was low in the plane and it barely made it back. LOL.

Long story short, they guy at the hobby shop made a sale because of that demo. I was $135 lighter in the pocket. Which I didn’t think was *that* bad considering that buys the plane, the transmitter, receiver and servos, battery and charger, plus it’s completely Spektrum DMS2 2.4 GHz spread-spectrum compatible (how compatible I would shortly discover, more on that later). That’s it on the right there, in case you can’t tell the difference between a heli, a can of PBR and a P-51.

We drove all around town, even up to Tukwilla for another hobby shop before heading home with the batteries in the P-51 charging up in the back of the car.

When we arrived home, there was still plenty of sunlight to go fly. So that’s what we did! Took the little P-51 out for it’s maiden voyage. Thankfully it’s light weight and made of foam, because it spent white some time ‘landing’ on surfaces other than it’s wheels. One crash was bad enough to snap a better connector off. This was the begining of it’s downfall, and really, mine as well, I just did not know it yet. Fortunatly the battery, even though it was broken, was still able to be attached to the plane. So I crashed it until dusk and we headed home.

I discovered that flying fixed-wing is fun too! 🙂