Pond Skipper

13 for me Mike = ) I was learning the ropes with cox control line at that age and 1 yr away from my first FF .020 Pee Wee flight. with a Guillows high wing stick built cabin plane.

MJD

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I coaxed my folks into getting me a Pee Wee and a Ranger 30 when I was - I think - 8. I had a bit of help with it of course. Lost it on the first flight, and never forgot the hiding power of trees..

aspeed

I was probably 11 and the first plane was also a Ranger 30. I did the control line option with the BB .049. That would be about the same year. A couple years later, I made a real Flea Fright model with an .049 like the VTO. Vertical take off thing. Lost it first flight too. That was the end of powered free flight for me.

combatpigg

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Let's see here...I was 21 in 1976 and nicads were classified as "SECRET" by the Army then.

I witnessed successful model aviation twice as a lad in northern California.
My Dad flew out a full tank with a Testers P-40 Rock On A String model and possibly the same year a couple of "Greasers" commandeered our ball field [while we had a game in progress] so that they could fly a flat black thing on really long lines. This thing was doing crazy overhead stunts, flew pretty fast and looked like a lot of fun. I only remember 1 flight, then they jumped back into their "dune buggy" and took off. Looking back to 1965 or so when I watched this as a 9 or 10 year old, it was probably a hot .35 powered combat-thing on 60 foot lines.
We did have a tiny LHS that catered to H.O. slot cars. They might have had some airplane supplies, but I never noticed.

GREG DOE

My first control line experience was an American Junior Fire Baby with a OK Cub .049, in 1954, or '55. Flew single channel escapement in 1959 with a used Cox Thermal Hopper. First multi channel RC was a Kraft reed system, in a Top Flight Taurus, in 1964. I also had a Pee Wee .020 free flight fly away. That hurt! I was 12 or 13. This Saturday I'll be 70. Greg

aspeed

I was just going through an old magazine from 1977, and seen your name there in pylon racing. Wow, a famous guy.

MJD

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Our LHS when I was very young mid-late '60's had a good stock of Jetex. My older brothers were both pyromaniacs and one was an airplane tinkerer, so following by example I was scraping out hot smelly crusty motors, burning fingers, and battling with youthful clumsiness and the fragile wick at a very early age. Loved it. I got a Scorpion 600 (that's the bad-ass of them all, though not for burn duration) in my single digits.. maybe 9. I remember it tearing off down the road leaving shreds of my balsa car along the way and spinning around madly on its own until burnout. And I recall the wings peeling off something not long after launch. But I did get some things to fly with help, though on the little 35's and 50's. The exhaust fumes were bloody awful - ammonium dichromate being a principal ingredient. Nothing like inhaling chromium salts. Vanadium pentoxide was used as a catalyst at one point too - toxic by inhalation or ingestion. Not nice things for kids to play with in retrospect, but double-u tee eff. It worked. I seem to have no related lingering problems, though my mental health has been called into question several times. I still have a little stash of Jetex downstairs. Including a Scorpion 600 NIB and four packs of pellets. Maybe a 50th anniversary flight in 2019? Where are the plans for that FF Bomarc..

MJD

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Back to CP's delta...

combatpigg

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Have a happy 70th Greg..!
You were a lucky kid to be exposed to the hobby so.
My most memorable experiences as a young flyer was with kites. A few times, all we had left to see flying was a bunch of string lengths tied together that disappeared into the distance. At that point all you can do is tie your end off to the backstop and go home with the hope that your string will still be flying the next day while you are on your way to class.
Today was spent with the rusty Jeep floor..driver's side. I also noticed that I can't find my 1 and only Spektrum RX. It's the size of a saltine cracker and I fear it dropped into a scrap metal bin. It's been the only RX I've reached for....for quite some time. The only high freq RX I've ever had.

Pond Skipper

Greg might recognize this one out of Las Vegas late 70's owner thinks 1979 / 200sq. in. used reg. size futaba rx and servos of the day all up 14oz built by Jim W.

no idea of name took from a post.

combatpigg

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That's a super nice looking racer...!

Here is evidence of some progress on the Toad.
Labor intensive servo installation..should have just done the "servo hatch" method instead.
The fins "plug in" to the wing, sandwiched between a pair of beefy ribs.
The tank sits on the CG and I'll probably put a throttle servo in front of the tank.

Pond Skipper

Yes one of the slickest I have ever seen from that time.

Is that a 2oz tank? The devils in the details no one knows the pain more so than the builder tending to those details!

Perhaps some vinyl graphics?

GREG DOE

Pond Skipper. That's a very pretty airplane. Sorry I don't recognize it. It is probably an original. Maybe a modified Quickie 200? You guys comments triggered some other memories. We flew the heck out of hundreds of kites too. It was crazy in the spring. It was a good day if we had something to take home at sunset. A kite was 10 cents, and a ball of string was 10 cents. We usually got 2 or 3 balls of string. We played with Jetex too, but speaking of pyromaniacs, I set my house on fire when I was 4. That was a week before Christmas, and the it burned up all of Santa's presents, so that's when I learned about Mr. Clause! We were very lucky, as it only burned a hole in the kitchen floor, and a little other damage. That's probably why dad didn't kill me. He told me it was legal back then to kill your kids. Who knew? Greg

combatpigg

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That's a Hayes 3 oz tank.
The engine is sensitive to tank position, so it might end up needing to move forward.
I'll just get the plane covered, hook up the servos and then look at where everything needs to go inside the radio compartment to help arrive at the correct CG.
I really want to use a throttle and muffler for this one and be able to enjoy fairly long flights. The object is being able to take it to a club field, since the hay field [I've flown at by my own rules] is getting sold as commercial property soon.

DICKEYBIRD

Jay-sus, Greg Doe! I remember you from the 80's when you and a few others came down to Collierville to race ScatCat .28's with us at the old Memphis Prop Busters field on Frank Rd. Also used to watch you kick-butt at the Smyrna races with your (sorry, forgot the name of your Q500 design, I turned 67 in December and I forget stuff) I had a set of your cores for years but sold 'em after I caught the 1/2A bug again.

Great to hear from you....it brought back many great memories!

Milton Dickey

(Sorry C/P; back to your thread....)

Andrew

Nothing but a bunch of young whippersnappers on here!! I beat Dickeybird to 67 by a month.

I remember when receivers had vacuum tubes (and transmitters). My first transmitter was a Citzenship tube style used as a blip-blip with a rubberband escapement. Flew my first controlline plane in 1958. I can't imagine another hobby that has been as satisfying or as exciting with new technology always on the horizon, but it's really about the folks who have been around for years flying planes who are about as good a bunch as one could hope to meet and associate with.

GREG DOE

Milton, I flew an original Quickie 500 design, but never gave it a name. In fact I still have one set up to 424 rules, that I have raced in Julian, NC and Americas, GA. I suspect that your "photographic" memory, might be confusing me with Doug Whitaker. Memphis is one of the few places I never raced, but you certainly should remember me from The Smyrna Air Races, since I was the CD at that race for several years. Greg

DICKEYBIRD

Oops, you're absolutely right! I didn't realize how out of focus my photographic memory was! At least I spelled Smyrna right.

combatpigg

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Andrew, I looked at photos of your Citizenship Radio and just can not figure out how it could give opposite direction control. I wonder what other sort of appliances or machinery back then shared the same type of mechanism..?

Andrew

Chuck -
I'll give it my best shot in explaining how the bang-bang escapement worked. The attached picture is the exact escapement that I have -- got it right here on the desk in front of me. In the pic, the right arm and left arm were long; the vertical arms are slightly shorter. The pin on the bottom arm was connected to a torque wire that ran back to the rudder. The position in the pic would be neutral. When the escapement rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, the pin would be offset to the right and give right rudder. Rotate another 90 degrees counterclockwise and the rudder would be back to neutral. Another 90 degree rotation would have the pin offset to the left giving left rudder. Consequently, each 90 degrees would take you from neutral to right rudder to neutral to left rudder then back to neutral.

The tab on the upper left was attached to a solenoid on the back side. When the button was pushed, the tab would be pulled in, releasing the long arm, but stopping the escapement by blocking one of the short arms after a 90 degree rotation. When the button was released, the tab popped back letting the escapement rotate again, stopping on the other long arm and back at neutral.

Given one button, the sequence would be PRESS and HOLD, go right; release, back to neutral; PRESS and HOLD, go left; release, back to neutral. To turn right twice in a row, you had to pass through left rudder very quickly. So to turn right, straighten up then right again, the sequence would be PRESS and HOLD; release; PRESS, release, PRESS and HOLD. You had to remember which direction you had turned last. To turn opposite, it was PRESS and HOLD. To turn the same direction, it was PRESS, PRESS and HOLD, hence the term blip-blip.

The hook on the back side was attached to a long rubberband like the ones that came with the rubber powered Hornet stick models. By winding the rubberband at the back of the model, you provided the power to rotate the escapement. If it unwound too much, it was just like running out of battery today.

I'm not sure how clearly this comes across. Read it and check the pics. If you have any questions, ask and I'll try to clarify it.

andrew

Andrew

Here's a Ted Strader Nomad with a typical escapement installation.

combatpigg

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Thanks Andrew, I can see now [with your excellent explanation] how it works. It was a sequential type of control. With a slow to respond plane, you could flip past the unwanted rudder command quickly if you were good at keeping track of your blips. I would hate to try to do battle with very much wind..!

MJD

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I'd love to try that someday. It wouldn't be hard to simulate with a rudder only propo model. The rule would be that the rudder joystick is only allowed to move clockwise around the full stops, i.e full forward is neutral, next stop full right, next stop fully back, next stop full left and so on if you follow me. Maybe pull the elevator servo plug on a Slow Stick and try that.. hmm.

aspeed

The rudder only stuff could get pretty wild if it was too fast. It would go high, then you would have to do a spiral to lose altitude. When it would straighten out, it would do a loop. After that, you are pushing buttons like crazy because of the speed. They all had to be slightly underpowered, and kind of uppy, or tailheavy like a free flight. I never had one, but hung around with a guy that did. Now with throttles and better motors, and more channels, and lighter radios, it is a totally different world.

MJD

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I started flying RC in '74 on a grossly made foam rudder only thing with a Black Widow, as I waited to finish my Falcon 56. Big thick hot wire foam wings, built up fuse from foam sheet, bla bla, and a Cox Sanwa 4ch am. Ttrimmed exactly like that - nose up tendency in straight flight, level with mild turn. Of course I was cheating - this was propo single channel. But I did not ding it and got the orientation thing worked out on my own. Another of those simple fun events.. I remember that so well yet struggle to remember all the sport models I've gone through.