Death of the Tiger Moth

I stopped flying RC planes sometime in 2004. I wasn't exactly sure why-- considering that flying RC planes is one weekend activity I truly enjoy more than anything else. The Tiger Moth had since been a wall adornment.

For six years the Tiger Moth hanged on my wall. In February 2010, I took it down and noticed a crack on the Tiger Moth's cowl. Somehow I felt compelled to repair it though I was not sure what I'd do after fixing it. Stripping the Tiger Moth of its landing gear and wings brought back good memories. I gutted the fuselage of its electronic innards; filled in the crack with epoxy; and touched up the yellow paint.

The Tiger Moth's lower wing had been broken three times in three crashes and had been glued together from what was left of the original and later from a discarded half of a wing I've salvaged from the garage of a fellow RC flier; the upper wing, on the other hand, had been broken two times. The nose had survived two major surgeries: one involving the replacement of the motor mount and the other from a crack brought about by a hard landing. The Tiger Moth is now a Frankenstein monster with lots of character.

After the nose job, I oiled up the motor and fired it up. Interestingly, it whirred to life. Smelling the hot oil and hearing the little geared motor gave me a thrill. Can it fly still? Something stirred within me.

I could feel the thrill of the build and the joy of flight sucking me in again-- now I felt even more compelled to see the Tiger Moth fly again. That's the thing with this hobby. You could scratch build anything that resembles a plane, balance it, trim it and make it fly. The fun to fly your plane a thousand feet away then make it come back and land it on your feet is as fun as the challenge of building (or re-building) a monstrosity from scraps that defy the forces of gravity. Or, building and flying an accurate scaled replica of your dream plane.

Early the next morning I went to a vacant lot; plugged in the Li-Poly battery pack onto the Tiger Moth and fired up my old trusty TX (-- a Hitec Flash 5 System X at FM 72.250/channel 23). I gave the motor a full throttle. Nothing. I checked. Fired it up again. Still nothing. I checked it one last time. Nothing. The motor had died*. It was a noble death for the Tiger Moth-- it died on a flying field.

I hanged the Tiger Moth on my wall again and looked at it as I sip on a cup of coffee. It really looked good on the wall.


Later in the evening, I felt an itch coming on...


* The kit motor for the Tiger Moth is no longer available; upgrading to a "brush-less" motor equivalent would entail nose "foam surgery" to replace the motor mount and an upgrade of the ESC as well.