Hi guys,
My name is Gaurav, and i am an avid aeromodellor since 1993. I love building as well as flying, and currently building :
Cessna 182 - 90 size
Goldberg Chipmunk 90 size

My Hangar otherwise includes :
Extra 330S .60
Piper Cub 46
Goldberg 3D 46
Tiger 46
Scanner 46
Javellin 90

Other than aeromodelling, i am a big Microsoft Flight Simulator fan, and have innumerable hours on various commercial flights.

Though by profession into IT, I  have a MPL and occassionally fly a X-Air microlight.
If anyone needs any help or information, PM me !
Regards
Gaurav

well !!

nearly five years this thread hasn't been bumped, all you enthusiasts you can see there is future in this hobby provided you are prepared to take to the level were gaurav has taken it, here is the news clipping from the NDTV


Kudos Gaurav
www.youtube.com/watch?v=49_osU9RNA0

Congrats once again here Gaurav. That was a commendable effort.   

Proud moment for all of us.

wow !

Great sir 

Thanks all especially Gusty, Sandy and my dear friends. I am indeed humbled.
To all you everyone, out there, please fly very very safe, and respect the hobby, and its community. Commercial interests, at any costs, should never come in way of endangering people, or our hobby community.

Great Sir

This forum has given me wonderful friends. People whom I would have never otherwise known.
Got reminded of this fact today when a gentleman from Allahabad, called ( shobhit17 ) and is a keen aeromodellor.

I do have to give back to this forum a lot more than I do. It is always my endeavour to make this wonderful hobby and sport popular. In real life I try to do my bit by sharing knowledge with those who reach out to me. I have been trying to develop ways in which newcomers can be introduced to the hobby with minimum investment of resources and time, and learn flying with minimal crashes/damage.

Off late I started spending more of my hobby-time on the field than on this forum, but after this shobhit's call , I realised I must be more active here, and share what I know with everyone here.

I''ll be updating this thread with some pictures, videos and posts that relate to aeromodelling activity in Allahabad also. We do so much of building, flying and activities and its kinda sad its not put up on the web yet.

There's hardly a community of fliers in my city, its either myself, or Neeraj, so we need to motivate ourselves to update this thread more with our activities !


So guys, watch out - there will be a deluge of posts to come by from my side soon

Keep it coming

Thanks Sandy !

http://www.rcindia.org/electric-planes/coro-slowstick-basic-low-cost-trainer-5th-anniv-sweepstakes-entry/

is a build thread for perhaps the most basic airplane that one can build. I do not take credit for the design as its inspired from Mr. Moss and many other places.
However the measurements, and actual build is a true scratch build - From plans to flying.
Got the cost down to <5000k with electronics. Want to reduce further by 1-1.5K

Ideal for students, new comers who approach me - This airplane is super easy to build, great to fly, and if it crashes super cheap to repair.

May not look good , but trust me, if someone wants to learn this is the way to go ...

I have gotten about a dozen of these made for new comers and all have been pretty happy

Here's my usual day at the field - With kids, college students, and youngsters - Helping them build stuff, tune stuff and learn to fly the "right" way.


I love simple flying - Clean easy and pure. Things have to be built right, straight true to the perfection.
Flying has to be crisp, clean and precise with a goal/aim in mind.

Here's an old video from 2010 -


Reminded the good times I spent on the airfield with Amir, Akshay, and others.

A few of my other best loved videos :

And though this is now historical, here is the RC event Neeraj and myself organized way back in 2005.
called Vortex 2005.

Here are some pictures :
https://plus.google.com/photos/112530304634056436105/albums/5032169297579308625

I had a writeup somewhere on IndiaRC but will need to dig out for the link .

Great event and again had the chance to meet wonderful friends - Sudipto dada, Ravi gupta , Sharad goyal and others...

Thanks Gaurav......

Nice videos Gaurav .  If you could remove/delete the https:// preceding all the video link actual video will appear in the thread.

Wanted to post my Hangar.

Will add a post for each of my birds.

My Trusty Great Planes PT-40.

This one I built up from a GP kit back in 1995. Powered with a OS .46FX and covered with monokote - I thoroughly enjoyed building this model . Flew absolutely marvelous and though currently in need for a little repairs/maintanence is a wonderful airplane.

Next one up - Dynaflite Daydream  a 2 Meter glider.

This one I built up as a copy from the original kit. I still have the original kit and plans.

As a true glider, did not put up any power source on this. Used a Bungee cord for launches and it is an exceedingly great plane to fly.

Later in 2009 i added brushless power system to it , and its a wonderful glider to fly with . Perfect for those lazy sundays !

Next up - Again a plan built, Piper Cub .40 size.

This one was copied of a Great Planes .40 Piper Cub plans. and took me months to build back in 1997.

Powered with a OS .70 Four stroke engine, and covered with Coverite Fabric, this was a stunning airplane to fly around.

The engine had this severely overpowered and to fly it scale I always flew it at <50% power.

This airplane helped me learn/master the tail wheel takeoffs .. Piper is so much known for its ground loops !

With the big FS engine swinging a 12 inch prop, the airplane has remarkable takeoff and landings... slows down to a crawl to land like the real thing...

Next up - Kit build Carl Goldberg Tiger 40.

This was my first Low winger model. I powered this with a Thunder Tiger .46PRO

and the trim I gave was with Monokote - as the name says in Tiger Stripes !

Really one of the best planes I have flown. Most have done over 200 sorties on it. Extremely rugged, Great slow speed performance,
Really one of the super awesome planes I have flown .

Unfortunately lost it it on one of a radio glitch crash on Aug 15th 2005.

If I would be asked to build another low wing trainer It would be CG Tiger 40 without any doubt !

PS: the only mods I made to the original build was to strengthen the landing gear are in the wings.

Next up is again a Kit built Great Planes P-51 Mustang.

This one was the first airplane I built with retractable landing gear ! Powered with a OS .46 FX I built this airplane in year 2002.

Flew super awesome, even though had a slightly higher wing loading. Also had flaps, and was the first of my airplane to use all 6 channels !!

Lost this airplane to a crazy crash on the new Futaba 2.4Ghz radio in 2006. My radio later on turned out to be one of the first batch radios that had a FASST Lock bug. Futaba sent me a brand new radio as a free replacement, but did not compensate me with the model/engine. Futaba did acknowledge the glitch as a recall for certain radios during that time.

My first ARF. Carl Goldberg 3D Profile airplane.

Though i powered this one with a TT .46 Pro, the airplane would have been best powered with a .70 FS.

Anyhow a wonderful airplane to learn 3D with . I never really got on blowing the dust out with this but did have some fun.

Given some company in Allahabad, would like to bring this back to life again !

Looking back, I feel that somehow the ARF bug had gotten to me. Maybe due to lack of time . Well my second ARF was a Phoenix Models Tiger 40.

Beautiful low wing plane, however with a few flaws. Maybe as a builder, I wasnt used to seeing flaws in design, and due to this they seemed exaggerated . Here is what I noticed :
- The Main landing gear needs to be either bent forward, or places a little further towards the nose. With the plane a little tail heavy ( for aerobatics, ) it had a tendency to sit back .
- The fuse area, just behind the wing is structurally very weak and needs reinformenet . I hard landing can bend the fuse.
- The landings usually are bouncy with this due to the higher stall speed, and the position of landing gear.

Otherwise a great airplane. I must have easily done over 150 sorties on this bird. Took part in some competitions as well with this !

Was my first airplane to master the knife edge flying. I could sustain a clean knife edge flying with this !

Next up - Another ARF ! Javellin 90 from Minicraft Models.

I powered this with a Saito 120 Four stroke. Superrrrr awesome engine and matched the airplane perfectly.

My first airplane with digital Hi torque servos. I basically got into this to practise pattern flying.

Did my first entire fuel tank flight on knife edge with this. Knife edge rolls were too cool .

With the long tail, was an ideal airplane to do serious pattern flying.

As with any ARF, I had to do several mods with this . Including strengthening the landing gear, and moving the servos aft at the tail .





I must have done over a 100 flights on this one as well. At one time I used to go to the flying field with a goal to finish off a 3ltr fuel can over the weekend !

Perhaps the only airplane in my hangar with the least amount of airtime - The grand Great Planes Extra 300S .
This one i built from a GP kit . Enjoyed the build over the period of one year . and covered the airplane in a beautiful white and metallic blue theme.

The airplane flies too good to be true. initially i had apprehensions of flying the Extra, but this one was just too docile ! Maybe the reason for me not flying this much was the hard work put into the build.


I have this powered with a OS .91FX engine with a Pitts muffler. I upgraded the servos to be digital on this one.

Very aerobatic. Rolls are a treat to watch on this. and the airplane really tracks as if on rails.

With the pitts muffler the engine sound is also really too good.