18WT 014:  Our hosts are joined by Patrick’s brother-in-law Larry Heller. He starts out a little bit nervous and Patrick goes where no Host should go, of course. This leaves Janet shaking her head. She begins by asking how Larry got into RC cars.

He began in his hometown of Schenectady NY with a friend of his. He began with Nitro cars; this was in 2011; he explained that a Nitro car runs off Nitrous. He then went to gas then electric. He went from a Mad Max RC car to a Tesla RC car is how Patrick explains it.

Janet asks about the batteries and Larry explains that per battery the cost can be $489 for a pro that competes. Larry shows his battery and car hook up; it is the Arrma 6s Felony. This is a 1/7^th scale RC car. It goes 80miles an hour out of the box. He has clocked it at 73mph. He shows them the car without the body on it and makes Janet dizzy as he turns his camera back and forth.

The batteries are a twin battery pack. Larry refers to them as “LiPo’s”, they are 5000 milli-amp, G2, 11.1 volt, 50C 3S. Larry explains that is just to run it, the speed comes from the motor, a Spektrum Firma 2050K-v motor, he has knobby tires that came with it, they can be upgraded; the front tires are different from the rear tires. This set up is on road but could be used off road, probably causing damage to the car. He talks about running without the body and the damage it would cause.

It comes with a launch control like dirt bikes, the talk turns to RC helicopters and planes briefly. He wants to go to events because he can draw a crowd when he drifts the car and smokes the tires. It is AWD, very quick, like a miniature Tesla, with the look of an old muscle car.

You can change inter-coolers, add a Holly Intake, and change out motor and body parts. He plans on adding nighttime LED 180watt Lumens running lights, fog lights, and head lights. He removed the side skirts since one broke and they are on back order.

What he likes about some of the cars, such as the Nitrous and Electrics’ is that the bottoms are T6 aluminum. He especially likes this feature on the electric cars. The cars can be twisted up and an “oops” can happen, but it can be an expensive “oops”.

They round back into the questions and the types and costs. They can run into thousands of dollars. Patrick asks Larry what he would suggest for beginners. Larry says start with electric, and a hundred-dollar car. Because you can go out, have fun, and learn a lot about RC cars with it. It is a cost-effective way to begin, Larry says do not begin at a Hobby store. He recommends going online to Amazon and buying that beginner model to learn all about it.

Next up they talk about where to race RC cars and is Larry running up and down the Vegas strip. He raced a motorcycle and won, because he had no weight and the power is instant with electric. He says he could go to carbon-fiber, but it is costly. The same thing with Nitrous, start with the 1.8 motors and work your way up as you learn about it.

The guys spend some time discussing the lottery and Charles Heller’s podcast, Episode #13, continuing with RC cars once again. RC racing can be done both indoors and outdoors, depending on which style you go with, gas or electric.

Larry is amazed at the sizes of the outdoor courses here in Arizona.

Patrick asks how bad a break can Larry fix. Larry asks if they are ready, for show and tell. People want to know! Before his current RC, he had the 1/10 scale Traxxas, Erevo2.0 RC Monster Truck. He said that he never measured the distance between a telephone pole and a sidewalk. He then shows them a box of parts, no body, it exploded. All of this as Janet hums “Taps”. Larry says he cried when this one exploded on impact, it is salvageable at a price. It could be the “six million dollar” car. It is like totaling a car, pulling the engine, and saving only the engine, Janet adds.

Patrick asks what else is going on and this brings up Larry’s Quad-Copter drone, the LH-X6 Intruder Sky King Explorer. He needs a license for it and if caught using it without a license the fine is a whopping $50k. The license is inexpensive, but he must have it on him and is only allowed to fly the Quad-Copter drone in specific areas, such as not the strip. It has a camera attachment on the bottom. It can be placed stationary, like in hover mode and the camera syncs with the car and the camera follows the car with a tracker. He can get the pics and videos of the car drifting and is in the process of adding his own custom music in to the videos.

He has had four run-ins with the Police, the Quad-Copter due to size, and camera and where he used it. He also got in trouble for his monster truck being too big for on street use. The police pulled him over, the truck kicked up so much dirt that someone thought there was a fire. The last time he got in trouble was for pulling his Traxxas Xmaxx next to a police car in traffic. The tires are the size of a Pit bulls’ head to give you an idea of the size of the car.

The guys discuss gliding RC cars across water and what it would take to do it. Larry says a less expensive model, Patrick says go to the Bellagio Fountains to try it.

They continue with the discussion of the video and music and sound effects. Larry says that he needs new tires, but the video reminds you of Mad Maxx. They talk more about the car and it’s three drive shafts. Larry describes parts as meaty dog-bones for size and looks. He goes on to explain that the Arrma 6s & 8s Felony’s come with an app and your phone can adapt to the car.   The app will tell you if your battery is dying, car overheating or anything wrong with it. Patrick jokes about everything having an app for it now, even Janet. At this point Janet malfunctions and needs her app reset.

Larry discusses that everything is replaceable, it just depends on the prices you are willing to pay. He can pay over $100 a pair for rear tires, plus rims. They then go on to talk about costs of all things RC. Larry goes on to show his controller which looks a bit like a joystick or a maybe gun. The Spectrum DX3, has a knob or wheel or button for everything. You hold it with one hand, it has a trigger, gas, brake, e-brake, launch control, steering and throttle trim. Janet once again begins singing “Major Tom to Launch control” and Patrick chimes in by counting down and laughter.

Larry has been using Traxxas RC cars for some time, but they are expensive and plastic. He switched to Arrma they use aluminum, which has benefits and liabilities. The talk turns to suspensions and Janet joins in as Patrick calls her a gearhead. Larry talks about RPM RC products, they make plastic, tougher parts. They also replace parts that are broken, even if you break it. Even suspension parts, motors and more. These are “after-market” parts, Robinson racing for gears, RPM for tougher plastic parts. You can pretty much rebuild anything with the right budget and imagination.

Larry tried his hand at helicopters, he used one and took out a guy’s windshield. That cost him $1000, luckily nobody was injured, the car was parked.

When Larry began in RC, the controllers had crystals and you had to make sure that nobody was on the same color of crystal or someone else could take over your RC. Larry also took out the Michelin Man with an RC car, it went in-between a stack of tires and then there was an explosion on impact. At this point, Janet asks about his insurance for accidents and damage caused by his RC. Larry is not sure if you can get insurance for RC cars and the damage you cause with them. Patrick is sure that they do, they bring up American Family Insurance and they seem to insure everything. Larry talks again about how this is not a hobby; these are not toys. If you go into a reputable store, they will not sell RCs to kids, they ask for I.D. Larry was there one day when it happened, and he appreciates that fact.

Larry also has his music that he is working on, has three new tracks on his SoundCloud. He is having issues with his music being flagged on YouTube, even though it is original. Patrick had that problem briefly but was able to resolve the issue with YouTube and SoundCloud and kept his music up. Larry did all his music on a keyboard with digital interface and produces the midi-data through his VST software program. That is why he doesn’t understand that they believe his music is a copyright infringement. Most of the problems with music posted such as theirs, seems to be the fault of computers checking the algorithms.   There is no human double checking to see if it original unless someone complains.

Larry explained how serious he is about his music and that when he wants to sample someone else’s within his, he always asks for permission. Larry has an album coming out on SoundCloud and Reverb Nation in the next year. He makes money when people download (buy) the songs, when people stream it, he doesn’t make so much.

Patrick and Larry discuss another podcast when Larry has his album out, so that he can talk about his music more in depth. Larry says the album will be called “We Finally Woke Up”, it is a mix of all types of music that he enjoys making and listening to. This one will have HipHop and Metal intwined, he hopes it will throw people and is excited about it. He asks Patrick to come on and do a spoken word piece for him since Patrick has a deep voice and Larry feels it will mix in great with the three beats he wants to do together. Larry will have it all scripted out for Patrick, but they all laugh about it. The album has a video that will go with it on both Reverb and SoundCloud. Larry has done his research and begun submitting through Reverb for submissions in magazines for his music.

They wrap up with a few glances down, that Larry notices, because the pugs have begun to bother Mommy about going for a walk. They rewind a bit and talk about the size of the RC car, the look of the remote control and sign off with a quick goodbye, see ya soon.