After doing a good deal of reading, I decided to jump in and contact Phil G to get an encoder. Being a Cox fanboy and lifelong 1/2A enthusiast, a Sharkface naturally came to mind as a first SC plane. I emailed Phil and downloaded Sharkface plans. I was going to get a small project box and make a minimum size transmitter using the Futaba Corona module that I have, but I saw an Ecktronics Pacesetter box that I thought would be great for the project.
I gutted the box and started thinking about starting the Sharkface while waiting for encoder to arrive, but then my plans started to morph. I got so many ides that one SC setup wasn’t enough. I decided to go ahead and pull the FrSKY DHT module out of an old 3 channel Airtronics radio that I’d converted a few years ago and use that for another SC setup.
![Image](https://i.postimg.cc/Wp7bxbnP/Modules.jpg)
I taught myself to fly RC back in 1990. I first bought a Cox EZ-Bee and started with that, but for some reason which I don’t remember now I needed another Cox Bee engine. I went to the local hobby shop and asked if they had any for sale. The shop didn’t have one on the shelf, but the owner went into the back and brought out a very sad looking Q-Tee with a Babe Bee on it. He said the plane owner had brought it in for something six months earlier, but never returned to claim it and never paid what he owed. So the owner sold me the plane with two channel radio for $20. The original builder built it as a single channel proportional plane with the elevator joined by small brass strips so the elevator could be trimmed. I immediately got a second servo and converted it to 2 channel control. I fixed all the build problems, and proceeded to log 200 flights on it. After the 200th flight, I gave it away to another guy at the field. I figured I’d pushed my luck by continuously doing “just one more flight” to get to 200, and if I kept going I’d crash it. Besides, 200 flights on a $20 airplane was a good deal.
I started building another Q-Tee in 1995, moved, and didn’t finally finish it until seven years ago. I built it for three channel control using an Airtronics transmitter that I converted to 2.4 using the above mentioned DHT module. Well, now that I got the SC bug, I’ve changed my strategy. I’ll still build a Sharkface, but for nostalgia’s sake, I think I’ll use Phil’s encoder to make the new Q-Tee single channel first. Sort of a tribute to the plane that never flew. Besides, the FrSKY receiver is already in the plane, so I don’t need to replace anything in the flight pack.
![Image](https://i.postimg.cc/kGwJSf45/Module-Q-Tee.jpg)
Now I just have to wait for the encoders to come from Phil while I come up with more ideas for SC models. I’m only up to six at the moment. I’ll post threads on the projects once the electronics come and I get busy. I’m excited about the first one following the Q-Tee.
Mark McRiley