combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

What was your first experience?
Can you even remember back that far?
Mine was about 1964, IIRC...I would have been about 9. It was Xmas morning and there was a Testors P-40 under the tree. I was pretty excited and taken by surprise, because it seemed like a pretty "risky" gift to be getting from my parents.
My Dad and I went to the school yard and I remember him just cussing and flailing away trying to get it started. Finally, the local neighborhood "know-it-all" kid came by and got it fired up.
My Dad took first crack at it and flew it successfully from the scruffy dirt / short grass field. He just flew level laps. I remember the great smell of the exhaust spray and how loud the engine was.
Now it's my turn......[]!! I remember a short take off roll and a loop right into the dirt.
That was "it", Xmas 1964 was officially over! I don't remember what ever happened to the remains of that plane, but that was my first and only exposure to 1/2A model aviation until about 1984.

coriolan

My first contact was a PeeWee .020 in 1956, went into a 24" free flight pylon job

vicman

My Feedback: (10)

I had a cox .049 engine as a 10 yr old...no plane Fast forward 30 years and the likes of Raymond, Rog, and you CP got me interested in something beyond the .40 size plane and here we are.

gkamysz

My Feedback: (19)

My cousin brought over a new plastic Cox DR1 CL. We spent all day trying to fly.While I remember getting the engine to run fairly regularly we probably only got a handful of laps in. The place we were trying to take the thing off the ground from was not smooth. I don't think we ever tried throwing it. This must have been in the early 90's.

ProBroJoe

Many of you have heard this one before, but tough noogies, here it is again!

Back in '75 or '76, as a kid, I sold greeting cards to "earn prizes", several of which were Testors .049 powered C/L planes and tether cars... never flew or drove either.... but did run them a lot.... in the house! The smell of glow fuel takes me right back 35 years.... Oh my gosh, has it really been that long ago?!?!?

flyinrog

My Feedback: (1)

Mid 60's I was 6 or 7 my brother was 11 or 12 he got a cox pt-19, he and my dad tried to fly it from a dirt mound next door,,dont remember it being successful though....Rog

Andrew

It must have been around '57 or '58 - I got a COX plastic Piper Cub (yellow) with a Babe Bee .049. My Dad helped get it started and I stuck it pretty quickly. The windows were of a harder plastic than the remainder of the plane and had a boss that the bellcrank screwed into. That cracked off and I could not get it to stick well enough to fly again. I kept the engine (still have it - how's that for nostalgia?) and built and flew several hollow log C/L models into mush.

I learned a couple of things with that engine. (1) It's not good for one's health to start it inside the house. (2) You can't hold it by the backplate and tank for any length of time while it's running. []

I didn't live in the middle of nowhere, but you could see it from the backporch. The nearest kid close to my age lived about a mile and a half away and had little interest in model planes. I figured out that I could lay down cardboard boxes for a takeoff surface and had a nail release stooge for planes with gear. I built a drop away dolly (later I found out the speed boys did the same) for those without gear. I could usually get a successful launch about 1 out of 3 times.

My first scratch built was a Little Gem that came as a pull out plan in MAN. It was for a .020, so I scaled it up a bit and stuck the old faithful .049 on it. The rest, they say, is history.

andrew

hllywdb

Oops

hllywdb

OK, I was realy fourtunate. Back in the 60's, (I was around 8) my grandfather taught me to fly control line with a trainer he built and a Fox 15, which he then left with me. A few months later he showed up with an Eindecker (anyone else remember that kit) with a baby bee and he had added ribs to the top of the flat wing and covered it. The next week I used my hard saved allowance to buy a cox baby bee and an Eindecker kit. From there it was a 1/2A Flite Streak, Li'l Satan, and a ton of scratch builts using any material an 8 year old thought "looked" like it ought to fly! 15 years later when I started RC, he gave me a Goldberg Jr falcon he had laying around, I put a 049 medallion on the nose and after (many) crash and rebuilds, taught myself to fly on it. So what do you think I taught all 4 of my kids to fly on over the last 20 years?

ndb8fxe

My Feedback: (1)

Were these the Testors that had a zip line pull start deal? I had many of them, but it was in the 80s.

My first experience was in the late 70's with a cox p-40 CL model.

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Some good stories there......Vic is the "oddball" of the group so far since it looks like he was already into the hobby with larger stuff and back pedaled into 1/2A.
My first "BIG" engine after running .049s for a few years was a used McCoy .35. Man, I thought that thing was a big, scary monster! Nothing could possibly be more powerful! For a $10 engine, I got a lot of fun out of that one.

Boomerang1

A friend recieved a Cox CL PT19 for his birthday (wealthy parents) about 1970. THe plan was we would take turns flying it but he smashed it to bits on the first flight on a concrete cricket pitch.

Some months later we saw a twin boom DeHavilland Vampire as a gate guardian at a local airport so we built a control line version each out of balsa about the same size as the PT-19 (cannot remember where I got the Babe Bee for mine). The local council was lazy mowing a local park so the grass was 2 feet high, perfect for cushioning crashes! In a day or so we both learned to fly control line without breaking anything.

1/2 a again to learn to fly radio. Converted a Veron Cardinal to single channel with Mattel pulse radio & powered by a Doonside Mills .75 diesel.

My only 1/2 A engine now (well, almost 1/2 A) is an OS 10 FP, a great little runner but with the convinience of electrics it doesn't see much use these days. Hey, it's raining so no flying today, I think I'll clean it out, refit it to a plane & give it a run! - John.

H5606

Circa approximately 1970 - there were three available at the SHAPE PX in Belgium - the Stuka, P-40, and PT-19... My dad bought me the PT-19 (you know - the one with the integral metal tank [Babe Bee] and probably influencing the beginning of my modeling interest) - I was about 9 or 10 years old; the next door (duplex) German neighbor was big into R/C airplanes - I distinctly remember the strong smell of airplane dope in his attic workshop... I remember going out to some neighborhood [soccer field?] late in the warm, bright afternoon sun and someone (perhaps my brother and/or the neighbor's son) starting the engine and the German neighbor at the handle, not having had much experience with C/L, promptly taking off with a steep climb and "wing-overing" right into the ground. As I watched from the sidelines, the PT-19 did what it was designed to do - disassemble itself without any damage!

mtntopgeo

My Feedback: (12)

'Bout '51 or '52, I got a Firebaby for Christmas. Powerplant was a .051 Atwood Wasp. Several of my friends also got one. Never saw one that got off the ground under it's own power, but if the right kid was available for hand=launching, the Wasp would hold it in the air. Took 6 days of wages (10 cents/hr) pulling weeds in a farmers' field, to purchase a .074 cub. The performance of the newly powered Firebaby was "breath-taking". !!! Left the hobby shortly after, until just a few years ago. My, have things ever changed. !!! ...
George K.

vpresley

My Feedback: (162)

Mine was in about 1961 or 1962, when I was 6 or 7. A Green Plastic Cox Dauntless control line plane that my Dad bought. Hard to start, and fly. Its the only time my dad tried that, LOL. There were 3 of us boys, and I think it was destroyed the second or third time trying to fly it. Not sure by who. But I remember my Dad and how hard he tried for us. My Dad is gone now, but I still remember that Green Cox Airplane.

Vince

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

George, so far you get the "olde timer" award and also the most time elapsed between active periods in the hobby!

hfenn

I was 12, the late summer, fall of 1966. I had spent the previous year near my Mom's parents while my Dad was in Viet Nam. My Grandad had a country store. He saved the coupons off the back of Raleigh cigarettes. Before my Dad got back, Grandad showed me a catalog and told me to pick something from it. I picked a Wen Mac CL Fan Jet. It was a cool looking red twin boom pusher that looked like a jet. When Dad got home he was stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC. He finally gave in to my begging at we took the plane to a black top pad near the housing where I had seen guys flying before. He got it started and I took the handle. Round and round we went. No matter what I did with the handle, it never left the ground.
A little over a year later, he got sent to Germany for his third time there. The family went twice before, but it was his last year before retirement and only a one year tour so they said no dependents (I think they thought he would quit with 19 years, lol). Well, back to the community where Mom was from. I spotted a Cox Corsair at the Western Auto the next town over. Now I was 14 and making money working at Grandad's store as a box/bag/stocker/sweeper/gas pumper boy. I had to have it. I enlisted the aid of my cousin. It was/is all sand around here, but I wanted to fly. We found a clear patch behind his Dad's tractor barn and dragged in a 12' piece of roofing tin. I figured we should make a ramp and put a cinder block under the end. We got it fired up and I took the handle. Off the end of the ramp she shot, just like off a carrier. I made a lot of laps. I know I broke it apart several times, but it was held together with rubber bands and we kept flying. Next chance he got, he bought one also. I've been hooked ever since.

hfenn

Yep, Geo got one a couple years before I was even born.

R. C. Day

My Feedback: (7)

It was 1965, I bought a Cox PT19 with the money I earned mowing yards, working on crop and dairy farms, I was in the 6th grade.

Surprisingly enough the Cox PT19 was heavy and slow enough that I lost many fuel soaked rubber bands but broke very few parts, wing overs were the extent of my flying skills with that PT19.

Once I started building with balsa my skills improved and I moved on to ukie combat, the Combat Kittens, I loved that double kit.

I was interduced to free flight when I was in high school (1968-1972) by Kelly Thomas (who flew in the LA area in the early 60's I believe in the free flight glory days) he had many model airplane magazines that he and his buddies were captured in thru photo's and print.

I built and still have many 1/2A ukies today that I built when the kids (all grown up now) were small. I have collected (kept/horded) every 1/8th, 1/4 and 1/2A engine since I got hooked on that wonderful castor oil scent back then.

I sure wish Kelly was alive today so that I could properly show my appreciation to him for his guidance and encouragement.

What a trip down memory lane this topic has brought up.

Thanks guy's
R.C.

mtntopgeo

My Feedback: (12)

One thing that I forgot to mention was that I got a lot of very good help & advice back then. Tony Grish was the owner of the local hobby shop (Griffith, Indiana). After the Firebaby, bought a (several) Sterling Mustang & a K&B .32. Tony had me brew up some 37% for the K&B. Jeeeeeeeez would that thing scream. Lost the head & cylinder gaskets each flight. ....Also, he had his Dooling powered "WHITE FAWN" speed job yet, & I thought that it was the most incredible piece of machinery on the face of the earth.!!!! Ah the memories.!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ............... I gotta stop this s... ; getting misty-eyed, ................... George K.

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

George, I remember the McCoy .35s losing the head and cylinder if you didn't keep your eye on 3 long screws.
There was a lot of incredible power and speed being made for the times back before Schneurle porting.

fritzke

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks to my old man "Bud" (also a lifetime modeler) I finally managed to fly out a tank of gas on a Cox P51. This was late 60's.
Not such a great trainer that Mustang! He kept fixing, I kept crashing. I was pretty darn happy when that engine
ran dry the first time.

For RC, and again thanks to my Dads tenacity, I finally flew a Jr Skylark/Lil Esquire "frankenstein" on the Ace Pulse Commander.
So then Dad went and got me a Top Flight Aircobra kit. Oy! Always upping the ante, that guy! Then I had to go buy a 6 channel radio
and a Fox Eagle .60, which meant I had to work...I finally did fly that thing, which scared the hell out of me.

My Dad was no well off man, he was a college student/artist/father of two who laid floors for a living. But he loves modeling.
Thanks Dad!

Dave

fizzwater2

My Feedback: (61)

Mine was a Cox PT-19, same as a lot of you. Not real sure when it was. I started flying RC in '73, and that was several years after I first flew C/L, so I'm thinking late 60s or so.

It was a metal tanked babe bee engine, with the firewall you could adjust the downthrust on by clicking into different ridges in the fuse, if I remember correctly. The two sides of the fuse were not joined in front of the engine, and the color combination was backwards - yellow fuse / blue wing & stab. Wish I still had it, but pretty sure the engine is in my stash.

I was lucky to have a buddy that flew with me. We used to walk over to the school yard or the local churchyard and fly. We scoured the neighborhoods for the rubber bands people would shuck off their newspapers, to hold our planes together. He had a pt-19, too.

We sure had a lot of fun, too many good stories to list 'em all. One day we were flying, the rubber band holding the firewall into it's notches broke. The engine parted company from the plane, sputtered ahead a little bit and whacked him in the jeans. The plane just sort of flopped to the ground. No one was hurt, and we sure laughed about that one.

Another time we were flying at his grandparent's farm, and camping for the weekend. He had this great idea about taking off from the ground and trying to land again on pavement, instead of grass. Trouble is, the only pavement available was the end of a concrete pad his grandad had for setting pig feeders. The pas was big enough to add a few more feeders, so we had one end of it to use. Yep, it was in the pig lot. He used a board and scraped the pig "stuff" off the concrete. The flyer would stand out in the pig lot, while the other of us started the engine and launched the plane. Takeoffs were no problem, but it was tough trying to put just enough fuel in the plane to do a couple of laps and actually have a chance of landing on the concrete - sort of like our very own carrier to land on! As the guy was starting the engine, the pigs would sneak up behind the pilot to see what was going on - you could hear them snuffling away as they got closer. After you took off and made a pass over them, they scattered, only to come back next time.

Man, we had a ball that weekend. The planes got dirty, we got dirty, and our shoes were never the same. Never did get the smell out of 'em...

Remember hosing off the engine with fuel to clean the dirt off, so you could fly again? Man, those cox engines were subjected to lots of abuse, and they just kept on ticking!

We built some balsa models, used the same engines, and kept flying (he now flies for a major airline, in fact..) but I believe the most fun we had was with those PT-19's.

Tom Nied

In 1966 as a 7th grader, I couldn't afford anything. But my friend Mike Danecki got a Cox PT 19 flight trainer and we both learned how to fly Controline on that plane. Thanks to Mike, I had some early success and really learned to love the little Cox .049. If I heard a glow engine running a block away, I was out the door before my parents could stop me. It's an addiction, and it hasn't ended. Love those little engines.

mylamo

My Feedback: (1)

I believe 1951 was when I got a Wasp powered plastic thingy with S & H green stamps.
Never had much luck with the plane but later years saw it compete in free flight. My first
success in control line was with Ohlson side port .23. Got back into 1/2 A in 1957 in speed
and free flight. The Thermal Hopper on a 9 inch span speed plane brings a whole new
version of hand launch into the game. It helps to have a very tall helper. Sixty percent
nitro running on pen bladders and a prayer they were amazing, and a little loud. No lekies
for me.[>:] Ralph