Donny offered an invitation to this thread that I just couldn't refuse!
My first old-time story goes back to central Iowa in 1964. Dad had given me a plastic AMF Wen Mac control line plane for X-mas. With the Mark XIII engine, it ran well at home when we first tried it out. However my brother and I just couldn't get it to run for flights. Money was a bit tight, and those used carbon-zinc batteries just weren't up to the task. Of course I had no idea at the time that a fresh battery and good connections were crucial to getting the engine to run. We must have walked with that model the several blocks over to a neighborhood playground at least 10 times. No luck and lots of frustration! Then for no reason apparent to us (probably a new battery or a good wire), it actually ran well for a couple of days. We eventually got a couple of brick-like flights out of it which was enough to hook us on the model air hobby.
At that time, our community (Iowa Falls) had an active model air club with mostly adult membership. My brother and I'd go watch them fly, usually beautiful control line ships and an occasional R/C. However one day was more thrilling than most, for a member flew a jet-powered C/L model! After a few false starts using a compressed air tank, his crew scared the living h--- out of us when the engine finally roared to life! After backing off some distance, we turned around to see the plane take to the air. We couldn't help but notice the pilot leaning back and using both hands on the control handle to keep that beast reined in and on a screaming, level flight! He made maybe eight turns before running out of fuel, but I do recall the pilot executing a fancy step or two to avoid falling over backwards at flameout. For us, this was all but unbelievable!
A couple of years later, we somehow ended up with a Cox .049 Babe Bee engine. It ran like a champ. I'd always wanted to build a model helicopter, so I suspended that engine in the middle of an over-designed balsa/hardwood frame, maybe 10 inches in diameter. Firing it up on the driveway and letting it go always had the same result - the engine would instantly quit and the thing would go nowhere! I gave up after several attempts, admitting that I didn't know what I was doing!
After these events I gave up modeling, but my younger brother went on to become an excellent C/L combat flyer. He built an R/C ship, but wasn't able to fly it before Uncle Sam grabbed him up for the service. Upon returning home, he found the wing warped beyond salvage due to humid storage.
Still, there's much fun to be had these days. We're getting back at it again!
Davey Mo...