PD Parasol ...vintage 2007

[retiredVTT]

While browsing through some old CD's today I came upon these ONLY remaining pictures of a build I did in 2007!

These were taken by Jim H (saboo) at Shannon Park long before the garage buildings were demolished and back when I could still stand up straight..!
The model was scratch-built from a RCModeler magazine plan and was known as a PD Parasol.

It had a terrible demise some time later when it not only struck one of the high voltage towers but cascaded back and forth down inside the tower completely wreaking itself.

Thanks Jim, for preserving the memory.. (Later Edit: I had forgot about the "build thread" pictures that are preserved on the Internet.)

Bill

[Scooterboy]

Very similar to the Pietenpol. A very nice job sir.
I bet it was very relaxing to fly.
You should build another!

[retiredVTT]

Very similar to the Pietenpol. A very nice job sir.
I bet it was very relaxing to fly.
You should build another!

...you know, the thought has occurred to me to do just that, but maybe in a different way,,,,such as to have a laser-cut kit made of it, or maybe even a joint-build project. For now it remains just another item on the "back burner".

..Chris D. had done a really nice job of taking a video of it (perhaps it was even the maiden flight) and a year or so later when I mentioned it to him he remarked that he wasn't sure how to get it downloaded from the camera. I can't imagine that it's still around, will have to ask him..!

[retiredVTT]

Today being another rainy Saturday in May, I decided to do some more research on the PD Parasol model that this tread is about. Sometimes in this Internet world we live in, a joke can be played out that becomes an eye-opener. After determining that it was the RCM plan #413 that I had used to build this model, I decided to Goggle "RCM plan413" and what pops up but my own build thread on RCGroups, dated 2006/2007. Wow, surprize, and a bit scary! I was 4 years into retirement, had a new 8 foot workbench setup, had got a birthday gift of a bandsaw and was obviously gung-ho to dive headfirst into a scratchbuild. (today, in my 21st year of retirement, ARF's seem to be where my comfort level is...!)

Anyway, here is the my build-thread that still lives out there in CyberWorld..

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthr ... -plan-413)

Finding this build-thread brings back a lot of thoughts, some of them scary...like how much I have forgotten in the past 17 years..! When I re-read the post about the model climbing excessively and what we did to cure that, it came back to me that it was likely Jim H. that suggested that move ...heck I had only been back in RC for fours years after being away from it for a 10 year hiatus while motorcycling. Jim was the resident expert on stuff like motor mount thrust settings, and wing/fuselage "incidence" settings.

For those new to this hobby over the past multitude of years, and who are not familiar with the RC Modeller magazine, it had a run of about 40 years between roughly 1963 and 2003 and was the RC bible during that time, partly because of it's monthly "plan section". Each month there was a plan for an RC aircraft, drawn with every detail required, along with a complete description of how to build the model. These magazines were carried by all hobby-shops that dealt in RC, and it was a ritual to visit the shops every month to pick up the latest issue.

Unfortunately around 2002, the original founder of RCM, Don Dewey, died of a massive heart attack and the life of the magazine started to spiral downward. However over the years, the vast amount of the terrific plan section of the magazine has lived on, in various forms, and is available if one finds the correct source, and from these excellent plans, some shops are laser cutting parts for a large number of these plans.

Here is a link to more info: http://store.laser-design-services.com/ ... cts_id=244

Looks like the plan and the Laser cut parts are available here: http://store.laser-design-services.com/ ... cts_id=479

[bdg]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing. I haven't read all of the RCGROUPS thread - but familiar names there too... John O'S and Jack to name a few!

Brian

[retiredVTT]

Here's a PDF file of the "plan":
This can be opened in Adobe Acrobat Reader, and probably could be printed full size at a print shop.
Original wingspan is 60 inches.