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My Sterling Citabria

Here's another blast from my RC past. I built this model between 1973 and '74, when I was finishing high school, but never completed it until 1992. My Dad kept it among his airplanes in my parents' house while I was off to college, working on a cruise ship and living in NYC, playing Broadway shows, among other things. 

The model had a silk and dope finish, and the stripes and sunburst where carefully measured, masked and then painted. It had a 1991 gold-sticker 4-channel Futaba radio (4 servos) and, if memory serves me correctly, was powered by an O.S. 35.

At first, it was a bit of a handful to fly because it was much "touchier" on the rudder than I was used to, but once I got the hang of it, it was a great aerobatic performer. Unfortunately, the battery came unplugged in the air during a snap maneuver and down it went. Lesson learned: tie the battery connectors together rather than taping them, especially if the leads are stretched to their max when placing the battery for balance purposes.