No one knows how to build their own birds these days. Sad.
You are so right! Sad! When I flew RC's, I was into "scale" stuff big time! I built a 1/4 scale DC-3, powered with 2 "Quadra" engines, down to a J-3 "cub", first one, with a super Tigre 60 engine for power! Last time I saw the J-3, after about 3 years of flying it at meets, I watched it fly out of sight down in Georgia, as my Kraft radio had quit! We hunted the thing, but never found it! Even rented a C-172 for low and slow looking, but no luck! One problem was, my wife had a cat which used to love to set in the thing and I had flown it around several times at meets and it seemed to love it, but I have often wondered if that cat turned off the switch which was inside the cockpit! It was a "rocker arm switch" mounted on top of the so called baggage rack behind the back seat! Of course I was in the dog house until I found a baby raccoon and brought it home and all was well again with the wife! She kept it about 3 years and it disappear one day and I had to swear on a bible that I did not fly it off somewhere!