Matthew Prachar (email: [email protected]; on Instagram at @MatthewPrachar) sent us this photo of an airplane with an interesting history. He wrote:
“This photograph is of a Berkeley Buccaneer C Special that was originally built in the early 1970s by George Morgan. The original AMA model identification sticker shows that it was originally powered by a converted Torpedo 35 engine and weighed 5 pounds.
“After Mr. Morgan passed away, the model ended up in the hands of William ‘Bill’ Nichols, president of the Hilliard Model Airplane Club located in Hilliard, Ohio. Bill restored the aircraft to flying condition in late 2012. The airplane is now powered by an O.S. FS-40 four-stroke engine and is controlled by an updated Futaba 6EX 2.4 GHz RC system.
“Bill enjoys flying the model. It handles the wind well and is fun to fly around with the FS-40 [at] about half throttle. The best part of the plane is the great touch-and-go landings. The other club members have given the aircraft the name of ‘Olde Yellow.’ Bill is nice and plays ‘pass the transmitter’ with other members and it has quickly become a favorite plane to fly for many people.
“In 2014, Bill had to restore the aircraft for a second time after his wife partially ran over it with her SUV while parking in the garage. Occasionally, she still gets reminded of this incident.
“This goes to show how much fun Old-Timer RC models can be and also how important it can be to preserve a model that a former club member, [who] is no longer around to fly, has built.”
Matthew took the photo with a Sony Alpha A100 DSLR camera, Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 lens at a focal length of 40mm and f-stop of 2.8, and a Hoya Pro1 circular polarized filter. Shutter speed was 1/1250 second.
Matthew also created YouTube videos of the model’s first flight after restoration (http://youtu.be/Co8AyWrN_uM) and of air-to-air footage while flying FPV (http://youtu.be/EC1wvLlqN0w).
