Member Profile- Mike Bagley

[mBagley]

Still a work in Progress with more coming.... ( update 9/20)

Member Profile Mike Bagley

The very early years

How many reading this still remembers show and tell at school. Well I have one of the early experiences of really getting something out of those early and sometimes awkward rites of passage for school children. I had always liked model planes, but at the around the age of 5 I had some plastic models that I would “fly” around by carrying the model and making the motor sound. But that changed one day at grade school when another boy brought in a gas powered plane. I think is was one of the Cox .049 size control line models. At the time it seemed huge. It also had the effect of making the plastic and metal planes I had quickly less attractive and fun.

Not sure if it was a birthday or Christmas, but sometime after this sighting and no doubt some heaving lobbing on my part I got the Cox PT-19 .049 flight trainer. It was a good thing that my dad had flown models when he was young. His hobby started with the early days of gas models with the points and small spark plugs. He did his best to help and the setup of the new trainer. The plane and control lines were set up correctly, the main problem was that I was not a good pilot to start with. In those early days, it was a good day of flying if I could get a complete revolution around the circle before I crashed. Fortunately this trainer was the type that was held together by rubber bands. So after a crash you would get wings tail motor and fuse and put the bands back on. The biggest problems was that after the crash the bands went flying and finding the bands always seemed to come up short. And so it went for my early flying career was somewhat self-limited by the number of large rubber bands I had.

Eventually over the next few years and much practicing and I think even a replacement trainer ( yes I even was able to break a break apart plane) I could get a couple of complete circles in for a flying session and was working on getting a whole tank run through on a flight. With some minimal flight skills now I was interested in branching out for more planes. I did not want the plastic type since any hard knocks would completely destroy them. The only alternative was to start building. So again with dad’s help I started to build some control line models. The first built one was a profile balsa .049 size kit called Little Wizard . By now I had some consistency flying the PT-19 for the full 3 mins until the tank went empty and was even starting to try some loops and wing overs. The Little Wizard was fun to fly for it’s time it was pretty tricked out, with a dual ported .049 it would scream. I ended up going to 50 ft lines because it flew so fast. The next one was a Baby Flight Steak with another .049. Wow was that a change. This was stunt plane and very sensitive. I don’t think I really got comfortable with this plane, it was a handful to fly. I think I ended up just kind of hanging on during the flight trying to keep it in the air until the tank went dry.

By now I had a flying buddy next door who also had a plane or 2. We spent our weekends making lots of noise at the local school yard but having fun.


Next come the R/C planes

In my early teens the family moved across county from California to Virginia. As part of my parents effort to meet new kids and families they joined the large neighborhood swim club. I remember on hot afternoons during the summer or on weekends I could hear the faint, yet unmistakable sound of a model engine running for a brief period of time while at the pool. Well this had to be located if it was just someone running it at their house or actually someone flying. It seemed to take a long time to locate the source of this engine sound. I had not figured out the schedule yet of it or where to look. After all I was in this large housing development, where could this be? After some more exploration and a weekend where there appeared to be a pretty consistent model engine noise I rode my bike past the new construction area to a large open field. In the distance I could see a plane in the air, but it did not fly in a circle. Holy mackerel I had found heaven…. Someone flying an R/C plane. This had to be more closely investigated, so off I rode until the edge of the construction area. From there I had to walk or carry the bike across the open field (this was not the days of mountain bikes). I finally got to the top of the hill and stood near some cars and watched the plane I had seen in the air come in for a landing. At the time those planes seem gigantic, even though most were .30 to .40 size. I had no idea of the kind of planes they guys were flying , I just knew that it was very interesting and would be coming up here whenever I heard that sound. To put this in some context, it turns out that these were planes like the Falcon 56 or H-Ray or even some home made planes. I initially thought that they were all purchased planes because of the slick covering on them. It turned out I had never seen Monokote and thought it was only plastic model. Also with these moderate sized engines of this time all of them were incredibly loud. This is still the time of no mufflers yet on model engines . They only had a baffle on them for low speed back pressure. So when the motor wen to full power you also got that full roar of an open header .45. But in those days it seem like music ( in a strange way). It was also just the time when modelers were converting over to proportional radios ( although there were still some guys flying escapements or the occasional galloping ghost rudder planes) this other wise open field where a group of modelers had cut the grass down with their own mower and drove up from the road on a dirt path. This was day of flying out of the back of your car, No paved runways, pits, stands or even an outhouse.

Well I got pretty good at getting out to that hill on evenings or weekends during the summer whenever I heard that sound and even managed to have dad drive out when he was home to see this new found play zone. After much of the summer of being up there to watch the plane I started to the guys up there started asking if I was interested in planes. Of course I was … why else should I be up at the field just watching for hours. I then started to get some helper duties like carrying planes and equipment to/from the cars, holding planes while starting, and my favorite.. helping locate /retrieve downed planes. I even took some turns pushing the mower on the field. From here I had to start figuring out a way to get an R/C plane. After a while of these duties and always being at the field, there was a pair of guys I used to talk to at this field who were a couple of years older than me named Jeff and Andy. One day while watching they asked me if I wanted to fly some while they were up in the air. Well of course I jumped at this . It was interesting for this first flight, but I also remember I found a big bunch of nerves while doing this. I think it was partly not wanting to mess up my opportunity, but more of my nerves was for me flying their plane, even for this short time. Looking back on it now it was a incredibly generous offer to let a stranger fly this plane. I later learned that they guys had put together their money to buy and build this plane. It was also before the buddy box system so for those brief minutes I was holding the transmitter. They were using one of the early Heathkit radios with their plane. So they had a lot of time and effort from both the construction of the radio and the plane invested in this.

So now begins the process to get a R/C plane to lean to fly with. I may have already had that paper route at the time, so at least I had a small source of income for effort. I also started doing lawns in the summer for additional money. Combine this with converting my future birthday and Christmas gifts and it became more realistic. Pretty soon I was ordering a Heathkit GD-19 radio and picked up a Flacon 56 with a K & B .35 . My R/C plane starts out as 3 boxes of parts. One with balsa, one with electronics and a box with the motor waiting to be bolted to a plane. Sure seemed like a lot of work . It turned out to be most of the winter project of building the radio and the plane.

As the following spring was coming we were all set to go fly this new plane. So one of those early warm weekends in June off we went to try out the new plane. Andy and Jeff were the test pilots and they did all the correct things such as checking the CG, pulling to see if the hinges were completely glued, even taking off the wing to check the radio installation for loose screws or things rubbing together. Got the motor broken in and did the range check. Here it is, the maiden flight. Well it actually went pretty good the plane flew well, motor was set correctly just needed some small amounts of trim. (Remember now this is in the days before computer radios and such so you had to go re-adjust the links for the trim changes) . The next flight would be where I get a chance to get on the sticks.

One of the guys took off the plane again and got it into the air. IT was flying well and the weather was warm and not much of breeze that day …. All good signs for having a good flight. So when I finally get the transmitter I am even more nervous than when I flew their plane. It was combination of a very tight stomach ( lots of butterflies) and my knees were shaking. It was like a large uncontrolled twitch. Well with all of this going on I was not doing very well at flying, it was kind of like a paralysis where I hardly moved the sticks, just let the plane wander around in the sky. So my main memory of the first flight on my plane was mostly of all the nerves I had and lots of handing the transmitter back and forth since I did not put many commands into the plane.

With a description like that why would one want to keep doing this…. In spite of all that going on I still liked it. So I sat a while and the guys flew their plane and we watch several other planes fly that day. I fueled up the plane again for another flight. I wanted to at least make some form of improvement for my first day. The plane was taken up into the air and was flying great. I was determined to get more involved with the flying and control the plane. The reality was a disconnect between determination and execution. I was making all the classic beginner mistakes, over control, wrong control, and not enough elevator in turns. So the flight is proceeding again with lots of hand offs of the transmitter and corrections by my instructor. Somewhere in the middle of the flight I got into one of those beginner death dives and the instructor rightfully grabbed the transmitter and began to save the plane…. with a healthy dose of up elevator the worst case happened. The attempt to save the plane ended up being it’s start of a fatal crash. The sudden application of up elevator in the dive caused the wing to fold. Now we could only watch as the plane vertically corkscrewed out of the sky with it’s remaining wing half while the remaining half fluttered down. Two things possibly went right after this was the instructor instinctively pulled the throttle down and there had been some rain prior this week that soften the ground somewhat.

Now it’s time for the dreaded long walk through the field to retrieve a downed plane while knowing it will not be a pretty sight after watching it spiral in. Finding the plane turned out be pretty quick, lots of folks had watched it go down and had a good idea of the location. Walking up on the crash the tail was sticking straight up out of the ground. The remaining wing half had separated from the fuse upon impact now laying next to plane. It had the appearance of having thrown a large dart out of the sky. It turned out to be somewhat difficult to remove the impaled fuse from the ground. The soft clay had formed a seal around the front of the plane. The fuse now was much shorter. The section from the motor to the wing saddle was buried. With some continued pulling and prying it eventually come loose. Where there used to be balsa, plywood and spruce motor mounts were just slivers of wood. My new Torpedo .35 was still stuck in the mud. It ended up taking finding a sick to pry the motor out of the clay.

After carrying the parts back to the field the crash analysis started . First suggestion was to not try to move or turn the motor while it was impacted with clay and dirt. Wait to clean and soak the motor before trying to turn it again. This made sense since the motor was completely impacted with clay and the carburetor body was sheared off the crankcase. Dirt could get in the motor from both the crankcase and the exhaust port. Another modeler quickly make the case, evidently based on prior experience, that the wing failed because we had added the option for ailerons on the Falcon 56. Since we could clearly see the internal wing construction again…. his seemed to make sense when this was combined with the observation that the shear took place exactly where the cut out for ailerons was on the wing. It was nto a even split in half of the wing the failure point was just were the cut out in the training edge was made to place the ailerons. The instructions made no mention of modifying the doublers or Leading/trailing edges, just cut out a ¾ inch section and install the ailerons. How about that … I am now doing advanced classes at the school of hard knocks!! Well that turned out be a very time consuming, expensive, and humbling lesson.

The first part of the clean up was to get the Torpedo .35 off the remaining pieces of the hardwood mounting rails. All kinds of dirt and epoxy made this a more difficult task than expected. Add to this the fact that the impact had bent most of the mounting hardware also making it more difficult to free the motor. Eventually, my Dad and I worked it free and continued to take apart the motor to flush out the dirt. For a straight in impact it was not too bad. We needed a new carburetor body and needle valve. (Anybody remember the old Torpedo R/C brass needle valves? Just looking at them caused them to break. I even broke one needle valve while finger starting it one time) .

Since it was still early in the summer we ordered another Falcon kit and the motor parts. From our prior experience the next one went together much faster. And we were sure to add extra plywood doublers in the wing around the area where the aileron cut outs were . From this I was able to get back out to try again later in the summer. Talk about nervous, I was back to the frozen stick and wandering airplane mode of learning to fly. The image of the previous plane still in the vertical dive still fresh in my mind.

The next year had a bunch of changes. Now a sophomore in High school. I was to also experience the first loss of a flying field. The old reliable field near the house was now slated to be part of the expansion of building more houses. I had also joined Northern Virginia Radio Control Club ( NVRC). This is also where most of the pilots had met at the grass filed belonged to. NVRC was just getting a new at the edge of Fairfax County past Dulles airport. It was still a grass field but I would occasionally go up on Sat mornings to help cut grass for the runway. With all this was some new motivation for learning to fly. I really went at it that spring and early summer. The new re-inforced plane was working out and my flying skills were improving to the point of I was working on take offs and landings. We all still remember that this was more difficult and time consuming in these days, again without the buddy box. My flying was getting better, I was using more fuel, and along with the close to ground practice I was also going through props pretty regularly. I think I was up to a 2 to 3 prop Sunday afternoon for my flying. But it was progress!

So by the end of this summer I sort of had my wings. Along with this I had also recruited a new member. This turned out to be neighbor/customer of my paper route. I had talked to him many times while delivering or collecting about R/C planes and he was always interested. He then started to put together a plane also and start coming out to fly.

During the winter My Dad and I ended up buying our first plane at a club auction. It was part an plane to move up to a different plane as well as get another plane to fly. We were now the proud owners of a Top Flight Cessna Skylane 162 kit. This was the 62” version and the person that built it used a Merco .49. It was Monokoted in the classic white with red stripes, more or less like the full scale plane. We had to wait until spring to start fling this model.

I start this year again with the Falcon. It was now starting to have some visible wear and tear . While basically able to get up and down with the plane, it was not always a smooth process. Rough landings, long/short landings in the weeds all were taking their toll on this plane ( and more broken props) . During the middle of the summer we decided to take out the radio from the Falcon and put it in to the Skylane.

This new plane turned out to be quite a learning experience. It started with the basics. The Merco .49 was not the easiest or most reliable motor to work with. It had the fancy dual glow plugs and this big plastic carb that had all kids of adjustments on it for high, mid and low RPM settings . Once it was running it was sort of OK, certainly not power house. ( I guess there were multiple things that were annoying with it. Maybe that’s why they are not in the states anymore. Not sure if they are still in the UK?) . I had a instructor take it up a couple of times to trim and checkout. The plane looked great up in the air but I was to learn it had some “personality” . Turns out there was a significant warp in the wing that was very noticeable at low airspeed. Once the plane was up in the air at a cruise it was pussy cat.

This turned out to be real workout for flying. For take off I remember having to add full right rudder and aileron and the plane still was leaning to left. Only after it gained some airspeed would it then start to level up and turn to the right. Similarly for landing, I had to start feeding in full right again at touchdown. The flight in between was quite nice it just floated around the sky. There was not enough power to any aerobatics so it was usually a pretty level flight. Looking back on this, this strange flying plane was a help in really learning to fly. Yes it had the warped wing and not much power for any advanced tricks, but that plane was just the thing needed to learn how to respond and fly the plane. All those goofy attributes made me ( forced me) to respond and fly the plane to what it was doing. It also made the alternative pretty clear if it didn’t it would crash. I sure was not perfect with this plane and it also had it’s share of imperfect take offs and landings along with the random dead sticks.

So this quirky plane really ends up helping my flying ability, even though it is hard to demonstrate it with a plane that wants to go it’s own way much of the time….Besides the learning to fly this plane, I am also getting better at repairs of planes and the radio. Besides the planes I am also now getting interested electronics (from building the radio kits). I’m taking electronics in school and started to work on repair of TV’s Radio’s, tape units. This electronics thing is pretty interesting. It then turns out that this interest and ability in electronics is going to be my focus for college. I will eventually enroll for study of Electrical Engineering.

While still in High School my Dad and I start a new plane project. During this winter we start building a Kwik Fly Mk3. This is the Graupner kit. To refresh those not familiar with this kit, it is made Germany, many of the drawings and plans are in German and in metric units. There are some directions in English, but these appear to have been translated from German and were sometime challenging ( I’m being politically correct here) to work with. On top of this it turns out this was a very challenging kit to make. It was latterly one of those kits where it is box of balsa sticks. All sticks for the wing, fuse and tail. There was some planking on the wing. But you had to identify all these unmarked balsa sticks just by their metric dimensions. This was challenge to make to say the least. It was also our chance to move up to nearly a motor that was twice the size of the Torpedo. We also bought a Webra .61 for this plane. It ended up taking most of the winter to complete this plane. I was still not ready to fly it but now we had a pattern plane!!
Our next club auction purchase was bit more researched and evaluated. This was a Goldberg Skylark 56. This should work out better since it is basically the low wing version of the Falcon. It even had similar motor size. Additionally I knew the pedigree of this plane of having seen it fly well at the field. During my senor High School year I had moved the radio out of the Skylane into the Skylark. I now had a decent flying plane!!.
The skylark turned out to be a very enjoyable plane to fly it had a .45 in it. There were no built in warps or such and the plane had enough power to do basic loops, figure 8’s and such. It was still a pussy cat for takeoff and landings with that big falcon wing and it could also do inverted. This allowed me to get some practice on a lot of maneuvers.
Before leaving for school I just keep flying the Skylark. Never got around to or worked up the courage to fly the Kwik Fly.

The College years
There is not much to put here during the College years in terms of modeling. Being away at school for most of the year without airplanes, there were no opportunities to go out and do it. Then while back at home during the summer I spent a good chunk of the time with a full time summer jobs. Some of which also had Saturday time. So the combination of work and trying to save money did not fit well with supporting a modeling habit. So this period of time ends up doing a cold turkey quit, or maybe suspension of airplanes.

Post College
Wow finally done with school. It is now a completely different time. Lot’s of new things starting in my life. Just completing school, I have my new Engineering Degree, I am starting a career job at Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids IA in their commercial avionics group ( cool I will be working on aircraft instruments and electronics !!) and I am moving from the east coast to the mid-west for my job. So the end of June I am driving out to Iowa to start my first big job.

It is not July and in the first couple of weeks in Iowa I locate a Hobby shop in the phone book. ( Reminder that this is the pre-internet days when we still had to talk to people to find out stuff. None of that on-line lookup or tweet someone to find stuff out) So after work one day I go over this Hobby shop. Well Cedar Rapids is not a large city and neither is this hobby shop. It turns out that it is a guy that runs a hobby shop out of his basement. He has some glass cases and pegboard with stuff to by. So I get some info on local R/C clubs.

It turns out there is one local club and this is the Cedar Rapids Skyhawks. They have a field that is in a city park. So anther evening I am on my way to find this city park and this field.

[Clarence]

Mike:

I remember the Baby Flight Streak and here it is.

Clarence

[TimothyBib]

Go Blue Michigan Wolverines

Go Raiders

Tell me Im not a loyal fan Both my college and pro teams suck