48 MODEL AVIATION
A Dream
Becomes Reality by Roth Heyes
After hundreds of RC flight hours, Dave Scott spent more than two years building Pitts 8962M from a partial kit and test-flew it on
September 25, 2010. Since then he has performed more than 50 aerobatic flights with the S-1S.
02sig2_00MSTRPG.QXD 12/20/10 12:36 PM Page 48
February 2011 49
Model aviation becomes a
stepping-stone to flying a
full-scale Pitts
Photos by Dave Scott
Dave’s goal is to compete in several fullscale
contests this summer, leading up to
the Nationals in Texas in September.
A NEW AIRPLANE has been heard lately zooming overhead near Shawano, Wisconsin. The pilot is
Dave Scott, who has been practicing for the 2011 contest season in the full-scale aerobat that he recently
finished building.
If the name looks familiar, Dave runs the 1st U.S. R/C Flight School. Although he has lived and
operated his facility in Shawano for the past 25 years, he grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, attending the
EAA’s (Experimental Aircraft Association’s) AirVenture with his father and dreaming of the day when he
would become an aerobatic pilot and fly at the event.
When Dave was young, he built rubber-powered FF models until he started flying RC with his father
at age 9. Dave’s goal was always to fly his models in a manner that mirrored that of the full-scale EAA
airplanes he watched.
He idolized the great Bob Herendeen, who flew his Pitts Special biplane with a style and precision that
stood out among everyone else. Dave even named all of the pilots in his models “Bob.”
He eventually became an instructor in his local RC club and taught the way he had learned—primarily
through trial and error. After he completed school, Dave moved to Colorado to pursue a career as a
draftsman, while continuing to fly and instruct RC.
As his skills improved and his reputation as a flier grew, people offered to pay him to be their regular
instructor. That is what compelled him to develop a better program of RC instruction.
Dave’s father and others eventually convinced him to provide full-time, professional RC flight training, and
in 1987 he returned to Wisconsin and founded the 1st U.S. R/C Flight School. Dave admits that he made a ton of
mistakes the first few years, but he learned from them and continued to improve his programs.
Word spread about the school, and now most of Dave’s four- and five-day classes are booked a year in
advance. Each summer approximately 70 students attend the flight-training school from across the US and
Canada; three-quarters of the classes consists of aerobatic instruction and one-quarter consists of primary
instruction.
The difference between Dave’s school and other training programs is that he works to maximize every
02sig2_00MSTRPG.QXD 12/20/10 11:45 AM Page 49
50 MODEL AVIATION
minute in the air through detailed flight
planning and teaching pilots to control what
the model does instead of reacting to it. This
way his students achieve success from the
start, and then they spend the rest of the week
honing their skills.
Dave has written several flight-training
manuals that feature the techniques he has
developed while running the school. He also
regularly writes training articles for model
magazines.
The success of Dave’s school eventually
made it possible for him to pursue the dream
of obtaining his pilot’s license and becoming
a full-scale aerobatics flier. After earning his
license in early 2002, Dave gained access to
an Illinois flying club’s Super Decathlon and
learned to perform aerobatics; he used the
same training techniques he teaches.
In August 2002 Dave entered his first
aerobatics contest and won the Sportsman
category by 3 percentage points over 20 other
pilots in his category. He also won the trophy
for garnering the highest percentage of points
possible at the contest.
Dave credits those result to the fact that
models fly under the same aerodynamics rules
as full-scale airplanes. Therefore, he was able
to transfer much of what he already knew
from models to full-scale aircraft and vice
versa.
He won or placed in several more contests,
but everything came to a halt when the older
Decathlon Dave was renting was grounded.
After three years without an airplane to fly, he
bought a Pitts S-1S kit. He has spent the past
two years building and modifying it to be
competitive with the higher-performance
monoplanes against which he will compete.
He test-flew the new aircraft on September
25, 2010. Despite having to hold in right stick
to keep its wings level, the controls were
beautifully balanced and the S-1S performed
great.
A fast idle setting resulted in the first
landing attempt coming in too high, so Dave
elected to go around. By widening the pattern,
which was probably aided by the fact that he
was carrying some power, he greased the
second landing attempt right on the centerline.
Dave has worked out most of the bugs and
logged more than 50 flights on his Pitts,
practicing Cubans, hammerheads, humpty
bumps, vertical rolls, torque rolls, snaps, and
rolling turns. Under his coach’s supervision,
Flying a Pitts has been Dave’s dream since
he was a kid and he watched the Red Devils
air show team and Bob Herendeen fly Pitts
biplanes at Oshkosh AirVenture. As do most
amateur airplane builders, he received much
help along the way. Dave is the treasurer for
International Aerobatic Club (IAC) Chapter 1,
and he owes a great deal to the IAC members,
EAA tech counselors, and friends who helped
his dream become reality.
Starting this spring, Dave will begin
practicing again for competition. His goal is to
compete in the five for six contests that are
held throughout the Midwest and then attend
the Nationals in Texas in September.
And all of this started with a father taking
his son to air shows and getting him involved
in aeromodeling. MA
Roth Heyes
[email protected]
Sources:
1st U.S. R/C Flight School
(715) 524-2985
www.rcflightschool.com
Experimental Aircraft Association
(800) 564-6322
www.eaa.org
International Aerobatic Club
(920) 426-6574
www.iac.org
Dave spent two days working on spins,
including five-turn flat and accelerated spins,
both upright and inverted.
The principal emphasis during spin
instruction was to nail the Beggs emergency
spin-recovery technique. Despite being an
advanced RC pilot and having competed in
full-scale aerobatics, Dave found the
accelerated and inverted spins to be
disorienting at first. It took several attempts
before recovery became automatic for him.
Thanks to that training, Dave is
comfortable spinning his Pitts in all attitudes
and knows that he can recover quickly if he
becomes disoriented.
AMA and EAA
Partner to Attract
Young Members
The AMA and the EAA have agreed to offer a joint student/youth membership
for all 8- through 19-year-olds who complete an introductory full-scale flight
through the EAA Young Eagles program.
“Thousands of youngsters are given that first airplane flight through the Young
Eagles program by EAA,” said AMA President Dave Mathewson. “We think it’s a
natural for them to be exposed to model aviation at the same time. We’re happy to
offer a joint youth membership.”
With the help of 40,000 EAA-member pilots, more than 1.6 million Young
Eagles have taken flight since the program began in 1992. As many as 80,000
youngsters are invited annually, and approximately 20,000 accept the EAA’s offer.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University supports the Young Eagles program.
All EAA and AMA student/youth memberships are reciprocal, as long as the
eligible youth opt in. This offer features scholarship opportunities from both
organizations when respective criteria are met.
The joint youth participants will receive a membership card for both programs.
This card signifies membership and insurance coverage for model-flying activity.
“Model flying can help keep young people engaged in aviation, whether they
want to pursue a pilot certificate, choose an aviation career, or just want to fly a
model for fun,” said AMA Marketing and Programs Director Jeff Nance.
The AMA currently has 10,200 youth members.
For additional information, please see the EAA’s announcement at
http://bit.ly/cqJzPh. MA
—Chris Brooks
[email protected]
02sig2_00MSTRPG.QXD 12/20/10 11:56 AM Page 50
Edition: Model Aviation - 2011/02
Page Numbers: 48,49,50
Edition: Model Aviation - 2011/02
Page Numbers: 48,49,50
48 MODEL AVIATION
A Dream
Becomes Reality by Roth Heyes
After hundreds of RC flight hours, Dave Scott spent more than two years building Pitts 8962M from a partial kit and test-flew it on
September 25, 2010. Since then he has performed more than 50 aerobatic flights with the S-1S.
02sig2_00MSTRPG.QXD 12/20/10 12:36 PM Page 48
February 2011 49
Model aviation becomes a
stepping-stone to flying a
full-scale Pitts
Photos by Dave Scott
Dave’s goal is to compete in several fullscale
contests this summer, leading up to
the Nationals in Texas in September.
A NEW AIRPLANE has been heard lately zooming overhead near Shawano, Wisconsin. The pilot is
Dave Scott, who has been practicing for the 2011 contest season in the full-scale aerobat that he recently
finished building.
If the name looks familiar, Dave runs the 1st U.S. R/C Flight School. Although he has lived and
operated his facility in Shawano for the past 25 years, he grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, attending the
EAA’s (Experimental Aircraft Association’s) AirVenture with his father and dreaming of the day when he
would become an aerobatic pilot and fly at the event.
When Dave was young, he built rubber-powered FF models until he started flying RC with his father
at age 9. Dave’s goal was always to fly his models in a manner that mirrored that of the full-scale EAA
airplanes he watched.
He idolized the great Bob Herendeen, who flew his Pitts Special biplane with a style and precision that
stood out among everyone else. Dave even named all of the pilots in his models “Bob.”
He eventually became an instructor in his local RC club and taught the way he had learned—primarily
through trial and error. After he completed school, Dave moved to Colorado to pursue a career as a
draftsman, while continuing to fly and instruct RC.
As his skills improved and his reputation as a flier grew, people offered to pay him to be their regular
instructor. That is what compelled him to develop a better program of RC instruction.
Dave’s father and others eventually convinced him to provide full-time, professional RC flight training, and
in 1987 he returned to Wisconsin and founded the 1st U.S. R/C Flight School. Dave admits that he made a ton of
mistakes the first few years, but he learned from them and continued to improve his programs.
Word spread about the school, and now most of Dave’s four- and five-day classes are booked a year in
advance. Each summer approximately 70 students attend the flight-training school from across the US and
Canada; three-quarters of the classes consists of aerobatic instruction and one-quarter consists of primary
instruction.
The difference between Dave’s school and other training programs is that he works to maximize every
02sig2_00MSTRPG.QXD 12/20/10 11:45 AM Page 49
50 MODEL AVIATION
minute in the air through detailed flight
planning and teaching pilots to control what
the model does instead of reacting to it. This
way his students achieve success from the
start, and then they spend the rest of the week
honing their skills.
Dave has written several flight-training
manuals that feature the techniques he has
developed while running the school. He also
regularly writes training articles for model
magazines.
The success of Dave’s school eventually
made it possible for him to pursue the dream
of obtaining his pilot’s license and becoming
a full-scale aerobatics flier. After earning his
license in early 2002, Dave gained access to
an Illinois flying club’s Super Decathlon and
learned to perform aerobatics; he used the
same training techniques he teaches.
In August 2002 Dave entered his first
aerobatics contest and won the Sportsman
category by 3 percentage points over 20 other
pilots in his category. He also won the trophy
for garnering the highest percentage of points
possible at the contest.
Dave credits those result to the fact that
models fly under the same aerodynamics rules
as full-scale airplanes. Therefore, he was able
to transfer much of what he already knew
from models to full-scale aircraft and vice
versa.
He won or placed in several more contests,
but everything came to a halt when the older
Decathlon Dave was renting was grounded.
After three years without an airplane to fly, he
bought a Pitts S-1S kit. He has spent the past
two years building and modifying it to be
competitive with the higher-performance
monoplanes against which he will compete.
He test-flew the new aircraft on September
25, 2010. Despite having to hold in right stick
to keep its wings level, the controls were
beautifully balanced and the S-1S performed
great.
A fast idle setting resulted in the first
landing attempt coming in too high, so Dave
elected to go around. By widening the pattern,
which was probably aided by the fact that he
was carrying some power, he greased the
second landing attempt right on the centerline.
Dave has worked out most of the bugs and
logged more than 50 flights on his Pitts,
practicing Cubans, hammerheads, humpty
bumps, vertical rolls, torque rolls, snaps, and
rolling turns. Under his coach’s supervision,
Flying a Pitts has been Dave’s dream since
he was a kid and he watched the Red Devils
air show team and Bob Herendeen fly Pitts
biplanes at Oshkosh AirVenture. As do most
amateur airplane builders, he received much
help along the way. Dave is the treasurer for
International Aerobatic Club (IAC) Chapter 1,
and he owes a great deal to the IAC members,
EAA tech counselors, and friends who helped
his dream become reality.
Starting this spring, Dave will begin
practicing again for competition. His goal is to
compete in the five for six contests that are
held throughout the Midwest and then attend
the Nationals in Texas in September.
And all of this started with a father taking
his son to air shows and getting him involved
in aeromodeling. MA
Roth Heyes
[email protected]
Sources:
1st U.S. R/C Flight School
(715) 524-2985
www.rcflightschool.com
Experimental Aircraft Association
(800) 564-6322
www.eaa.org
International Aerobatic Club
(920) 426-6574
www.iac.org
Dave spent two days working on spins,
including five-turn flat and accelerated spins,
both upright and inverted.
The principal emphasis during spin
instruction was to nail the Beggs emergency
spin-recovery technique. Despite being an
advanced RC pilot and having competed in
full-scale aerobatics, Dave found the
accelerated and inverted spins to be
disorienting at first. It took several attempts
before recovery became automatic for him.
Thanks to that training, Dave is
comfortable spinning his Pitts in all attitudes
and knows that he can recover quickly if he
becomes disoriented.
AMA and EAA
Partner to Attract
Young Members
The AMA and the EAA have agreed to offer a joint student/youth membership
for all 8- through 19-year-olds who complete an introductory full-scale flight
through the EAA Young Eagles program.
“Thousands of youngsters are given that first airplane flight through the Young
Eagles program by EAA,” said AMA President Dave Mathewson. “We think it’s a
natural for them to be exposed to model aviation at the same time. We’re happy to
offer a joint youth membership.”
With the help of 40,000 EAA-member pilots, more than 1.6 million Young
Eagles have taken flight since the program began in 1992. As many as 80,000
youngsters are invited annually, and approximately 20,000 accept the EAA’s offer.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University supports the Young Eagles program.
All EAA and AMA student/youth memberships are reciprocal, as long as the
eligible youth opt in. This offer features scholarship opportunities from both
organizations when respective criteria are met.
The joint youth participants will receive a membership card for both programs.
This card signifies membership and insurance coverage for model-flying activity.
“Model flying can help keep young people engaged in aviation, whether they
want to pursue a pilot certificate, choose an aviation career, or just want to fly a
model for fun,” said AMA Marketing and Programs Director Jeff Nance.
The AMA currently has 10,200 youth members.
For additional information, please see the EAA’s announcement at
http://bit.ly/cqJzPh. MA
—Chris Brooks
[email protected]
02sig2_00MSTRPG.QXD 12/20/10 11:56 AM Page 50
Edition: Model Aviation - 2011/02
Page Numbers: 48,49,50
48 MODEL AVIATION
A Dream
Becomes Reality by Roth Heyes
After hundreds of RC flight hours, Dave Scott spent more than two years building Pitts 8962M from a partial kit and test-flew it on
September 25, 2010. Since then he has performed more than 50 aerobatic flights with the S-1S.
02sig2_00MSTRPG.QXD 12/20/10 12:36 PM Page 48
February 2011 49
Model aviation becomes a
stepping-stone to flying a
full-scale Pitts
Photos by Dave Scott
Dave’s goal is to compete in several fullscale
contests this summer, leading up to
the Nationals in Texas in September.
A NEW AIRPLANE has been heard lately zooming overhead near Shawano, Wisconsin. The pilot is
Dave Scott, who has been practicing for the 2011 contest season in the full-scale aerobat that he recently
finished building.
If the name looks familiar, Dave runs the 1st U.S. R/C Flight School. Although he has lived and
operated his facility in Shawano for the past 25 years, he grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, attending the
EAA’s (Experimental Aircraft Association’s) AirVenture with his father and dreaming of the day when he
would become an aerobatic pilot and fly at the event.
When Dave was young, he built rubber-powered FF models until he started flying RC with his father
at age 9. Dave’s goal was always to fly his models in a manner that mirrored that of the full-scale EAA
airplanes he watched.
He idolized the great Bob Herendeen, who flew his Pitts Special biplane with a style and precision that
stood out among everyone else. Dave even named all of the pilots in his models “Bob.”
He eventually became an instructor in his local RC club and taught the way he had learned—primarily
through trial and error. After he completed school, Dave moved to Colorado to pursue a career as a
draftsman, while continuing to fly and instruct RC.
As his skills improved and his reputation as a flier grew, people offered to pay him to be their regular
instructor. That is what compelled him to develop a better program of RC instruction.
Dave’s father and others eventually convinced him to provide full-time, professional RC flight training, and
in 1987 he returned to Wisconsin and founded the 1st U.S. R/C Flight School. Dave admits that he made a ton of
mistakes the first few years, but he learned from them and continued to improve his programs.
Word spread about the school, and now most of Dave’s four- and five-day classes are booked a year in
advance. Each summer approximately 70 students attend the flight-training school from across the US and
Canada; three-quarters of the classes consists of aerobatic instruction and one-quarter consists of primary
instruction.
The difference between Dave’s school and other training programs is that he works to maximize every
02sig2_00MSTRPG.QXD 12/20/10 11:45 AM Page 49
50 MODEL AVIATION
minute in the air through detailed flight
planning and teaching pilots to control what
the model does instead of reacting to it. This
way his students achieve success from the
start, and then they spend the rest of the week
honing their skills.
Dave has written several flight-training
manuals that feature the techniques he has
developed while running the school. He also
regularly writes training articles for model
magazines.
The success of Dave’s school eventually
made it possible for him to pursue the dream
of obtaining his pilot’s license and becoming
a full-scale aerobatics flier. After earning his
license in early 2002, Dave gained access to
an Illinois flying club’s Super Decathlon and
learned to perform aerobatics; he used the
same training techniques he teaches.
In August 2002 Dave entered his first
aerobatics contest and won the Sportsman
category by 3 percentage points over 20 other
pilots in his category. He also won the trophy
for garnering the highest percentage of points
possible at the contest.
Dave credits those result to the fact that
models fly under the same aerodynamics rules
as full-scale airplanes. Therefore, he was able
to transfer much of what he already knew
from models to full-scale aircraft and vice
versa.
He won or placed in several more contests,
but everything came to a halt when the older
Decathlon Dave was renting was grounded.
After three years without an airplane to fly, he
bought a Pitts S-1S kit. He has spent the past
two years building and modifying it to be
competitive with the higher-performance
monoplanes against which he will compete.
He test-flew the new aircraft on September
25, 2010. Despite having to hold in right stick
to keep its wings level, the controls were
beautifully balanced and the S-1S performed
great.
A fast idle setting resulted in the first
landing attempt coming in too high, so Dave
elected to go around. By widening the pattern,
which was probably aided by the fact that he
was carrying some power, he greased the
second landing attempt right on the centerline.
Dave has worked out most of the bugs and
logged more than 50 flights on his Pitts,
practicing Cubans, hammerheads, humpty
bumps, vertical rolls, torque rolls, snaps, and
rolling turns. Under his coach’s supervision,
Flying a Pitts has been Dave’s dream since
he was a kid and he watched the Red Devils
air show team and Bob Herendeen fly Pitts
biplanes at Oshkosh AirVenture. As do most
amateur airplane builders, he received much
help along the way. Dave is the treasurer for
International Aerobatic Club (IAC) Chapter 1,
and he owes a great deal to the IAC members,
EAA tech counselors, and friends who helped
his dream become reality.
Starting this spring, Dave will begin
practicing again for competition. His goal is to
compete in the five for six contests that are
held throughout the Midwest and then attend
the Nationals in Texas in September.
And all of this started with a father taking
his son to air shows and getting him involved
in aeromodeling. MA
Roth Heyes
[email protected]
Sources:
1st U.S. R/C Flight School
(715) 524-2985
www.rcflightschool.com
Experimental Aircraft Association
(800) 564-6322
www.eaa.org
International Aerobatic Club
(920) 426-6574
www.iac.org
Dave spent two days working on spins,
including five-turn flat and accelerated spins,
both upright and inverted.
The principal emphasis during spin
instruction was to nail the Beggs emergency
spin-recovery technique. Despite being an
advanced RC pilot and having competed in
full-scale aerobatics, Dave found the
accelerated and inverted spins to be
disorienting at first. It took several attempts
before recovery became automatic for him.
Thanks to that training, Dave is
comfortable spinning his Pitts in all attitudes
and knows that he can recover quickly if he
becomes disoriented.
AMA and EAA
Partner to Attract
Young Members
The AMA and the EAA have agreed to offer a joint student/youth membership
for all 8- through 19-year-olds who complete an introductory full-scale flight
through the EAA Young Eagles program.
“Thousands of youngsters are given that first airplane flight through the Young
Eagles program by EAA,” said AMA President Dave Mathewson. “We think it’s a
natural for them to be exposed to model aviation at the same time. We’re happy to
offer a joint youth membership.”
With the help of 40,000 EAA-member pilots, more than 1.6 million Young
Eagles have taken flight since the program began in 1992. As many as 80,000
youngsters are invited annually, and approximately 20,000 accept the EAA’s offer.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University supports the Young Eagles program.
All EAA and AMA student/youth memberships are reciprocal, as long as the
eligible youth opt in. This offer features scholarship opportunities from both
organizations when respective criteria are met.
The joint youth participants will receive a membership card for both programs.
This card signifies membership and insurance coverage for model-flying activity.
“Model flying can help keep young people engaged in aviation, whether they
want to pursue a pilot certificate, choose an aviation career, or just want to fly a
model for fun,” said AMA Marketing and Programs Director Jeff Nance.
The AMA currently has 10,200 youth members.
For additional information, please see the EAA’s announcement at
http://bit.ly/cqJzPh. MA
—Chris Brooks
[email protected]
02sig2_00MSTRPG.QXD 12/20/10 11:56 AM Page 50
