I was sure my goal of flying a warbird at Joe Nall was a gonner, then in comes
the help of some very special people.
Text and photo by Tom Hintz
Posted – 2-6-2016
Update - 5-11-2016
One surprise came early
Update – 5-11-2016
If you have followed my Joe Nall long term goal you know that one of the big points was turning over the Top-Flite Giant Scale P47 Razorback I had built and test flown to the man who paid for it originally to help me live out this goal. A surprise three-way phone call at the flying field a couple weeks ago changed two big parts of the plan.
First, the man who started this project has a conflict an unavoidable conflict at work and won’t be able to come to Joe Nall. Second it was revealed that the other man from Texas had chipped in 50% of the Top-Flite Giant Scale P47 Razorback cost and he was going to meet me at Joe Nall. Finally, the plan of me turning the plane over to the original supporter was never really meant to happen. They had always intended on giving me the Top-Flite Giant Scale P47 Razorback at Joe Nall and with the travel change decided to do that during the surprise phone call!
I have to say that without the help of these two guys along with other contributors to my GoFundMe effort none of this would have happened in the first place. Being given the Top-Flite Giant Scale P47 Razorback is a very big additional surprise that I think is still sinking in this morning. I had told my wife, Beth when the plane first arrived that with my luck this would be the best warbird I had ever flown and I had to give it back! Well, it is the best warbird I have ever flown and I get to keep flying it!
Right now it is 4:54AM on Joe Nall departure day. The trailer is packed, I have gone over everything I can think of several times and will be outside soon going over everything once more before we leave for Triple Tree Aerodrome where Joe Nall is hosted every year. Remember, the good folks at Triple Tree Aerodrome invited me to come fly at Joe Nall as their guest. This is another part of this whole long term goal that made it possible. Triple Tree Aerodrome is a very special place in the RC world and the people who operate it are also some of the best in the radio control world and I thank them sincerely for this opportunity.
I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night as the excitement of living out this long term goal is keeping my mind racing. Just going to Joe Nall is big, getting to fly there and meeting one of the Texas supporters makes this a very special event for me.
Stay tuned. We will try to get some video of the experience and present a recap of the trip on FlyingRC.net early next week.
Thanks again to all who helped to support this effort.
Tom Hintz
Update - 4-21-2016
At this writing (4-21-2016) we are three weeks from leaving for the Joe Nall radio control meet in South Carolina. This is regarded as the biggest RC meet in the world so I want to try and eliminate nervous induced screw ups on my part. We did have an incident with the Top-Flite Giant Scale P47 Razorback this last week but fortunately that turned out to be minor and with decent weather I should be able to get a good amount of practice time in on the plane before leaving for Joe Nall on May 9th
Joe Nall actually runs a full week from May 7 through May 14th but we simply cannot afford to stay for the entire event so we arrive there on Wednesday May 11th and come home on Saturday, May 14th. Just flying the Top-Flite Giant Scale P47 Razorback at Joe Nall is a huge part of my long-term goal but I would love to stay the entire week because of the wealth of manufacturers that show up for this event. There are lots of opportunities to meet the people behind the products we use and review. I also get to meet for the first time the man from Texas who is behind the Top-Flite Giant Scale P47 Razorback effort when I deliver his plane to him at Joe Nall! I also will be able to meet another major supporter from Texas that also is also attending Joe Nall.
Even more importantly is that Joe Nall is an opportunity to stretch the dollars I have in my pocket. Joe Nall is a huge event in the RC world and the manufacturers area will feature a Who’s Who of the companies and people that make up this growing hobby. We can get more bang for our bucks because of what often amounts to the best prices of the year on virtually everything I would like to review/demonstrate on FlyingRC.net. If you are able to contribute to this effort now is a very good time. Visit our GoFundMe page. All contributions are greatly appreciated and we can make the best use of them in this discount-happy environment that happens once per year.
We will try to document some of the Joe Nall experience and present that in the week following our trip. Stay tuned!
Posted – 2-6-2016
The withdrawal of the last major sponsor of my woodworking web site eliminated my final major source of income ad forced me to drop a Top-Flite Giant Scale P47 Razorback at the Joe Nall meet this summer. But then a long-time supporter of me and my site stepped up with a new plan and Joe Nall is back on my schedule!
My Texas supporter bought the Top-Flite Giant Scale P47 Razorback and all needed components from retracts to engine to servos and had them all delivered to me. I am building the plane, will do all of the initial flights here before meeting him (for the first time!) at the Joe Nall meet where I will fly the Top-Flite Giant Scale P47 Razorback before turning it over to him so he can take it back to Texas with him.
The folks at Triple Tree Aerodrome the famous site of the Joe Nall meet heard of my long term goal and asked me to fly at the event as their guest! That generous offer made all this more feasible because the pilot fees for several days is not cheap with my no-budget budget.
You can help with this effort by contributing to the GoFundMe campaign using the GoFundMe box in the right margin of this page or at the link below. Any contributions are needed, welcome and deeply appreciated. They will also help push this effort over the top while I am still able to do it.
So, stay tuned. I am moving forward with the Top-Flite Giant Scale P47 Razorback build and you can see the segments on that project in the Reviews section of this site..
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