dionysusbacchus

My Feedback: (25)

I finally qualify for the old fart club, it was kind of tough to be in the middle of young and old, now I can say I belong! Started with Cox control line and built my first .25 size control line, a Goldberg "Buster" in 1974. My first RC was a paper and dope covered Sig Kadet powered with a FOX .25, control was an MRC 6 channel.

My dad flew free flight in the 40's, he flew a Comet Sailplane powered with a Dennymite. I now have a Comet Sailplane!


A technology comparison! My BVM Bobcat and Sailplane. This is my Dad in 1941 with his Sailplane. I added some color to the picture.

Luke

hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

Fifty four and been in since tweeny one' but have seen allot of changes. Did use monokote on my first model it was a great planes pt 40, turned it into a 3 channel but never flew it bet cause could not find someone to teach me. That a my first wife always a wanted to smash it. Anyway I am in it to stay.

rcnut42

My Feedback: (28)

Jim Walker as in the Jim Walker of Fireball/UC fame?!

Greybeard1

That's what he told me, however, Marty was also known for pulling legs.

Rich

rcnut42

My Feedback: (28)

One way or another it is still helluva story...

Greybeard1

Marty was a story in himself. I once told him I was afraid I'd crash, his answer, "If you're gonna fly, you're gonna crash. Just accept it and get it done."

Rich

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I know what you mean Luke, I get up every morning and ask myself who is this old fart staring at me? I've seen better heads on beer! Then I realize I'm standing in front of a mirror!

Mike

Hossfly

Thank You much, Donny. Private flying was never my real interest, and airline was not anything to write home about. OTOH it did make for better monthly checks,
and more time off for model aviation and family. I only left the USAF because I had a run-in with a General, and he canceled my F-4 assignment to Vietnam which I dearly wanted to do. I really did. He made me remain in ATC as a T-38 flight and academic Instructor. I needed that assignment as one without a college degree, I had little hope of getting my promotion to Major. So Bye Bye USAF. I did get some reserve time in a C-123. Now that WAS some Fun, but again I did not always do the exact things that one needs to do to satisfy the unit Colonel, so I left that fun flying.

rcten

I just remembered, all the guys in my club are over 60, 70, 80+, it is very difficult to find young new members that have the same keen interest we had and have in this hobby. We attend local airshows, fairs, community functions etc. displaying our works of art. People are interested, but no takers?

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

That's because it requires investing time and work two things most people don't want to invest, they want instant gratification.

jwrich

My Feedback: (17)

I am almost 70, (Jan 8, 15), 80% of our club members under 50. What I find disturbing, very few build from kits and forget scratch building from plans. They buy ARF airplanes and when they ding them, they don't know how to repair them. One member dinged the leading edge of a 40% Extra, so he ordered a replacement wing, $100.00 +. I repaired the wing in 1 evening including the Monocoat covering. He was very grateful and said now I have a spare.
Oh well, we do have members!

Rich

rcten

Here's where I got my model airplane genes, My Dad,(upper photo) born 1903,who use to listen to Admiral Bird, calling his home base in the Artic at midnight, and my brothers 15 years older then I. I'm the little one on the left, somewhere's in the late 40's

rcnut42

My Feedback: (28)

Is that a Comet Zipper? Smile...Steve

rcnut42

My Feedback: (28)

About the 40% Extra wing replacement...a pitiful reminder how USofA is losing skilled workforce. Most of us had to built our own toys whether it be a plane or jury-rigged skateboard with handles. Maybe we ought to establish an order: Ancient Individuals Repairing PLANES--AIRPLANES--bad acronym and joke--sorry gents, I cannot resist myself. I have picked up two throw aways and repaired them to flyable status in few evenings and having fun doing that!

Steve

hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

I still look up when I hear an airplane overhead, when a friend of mine was flying his rc plane one day , I watched as the kids walked by on their way to school, none of them even looked up"

Propworn

My Feedback: (3)

Local historic airplane group just took possession of a full size Harvard. They have been flying the beans out of it can’t stop looking up he he he!

Remember when the only thing available that I could afford to build was free flight or control line. My favorite control line was the Lil Satan for .049. Later built a bigger version for a .35 and later built one for RC that got it banned from the local flying club. Without the lines the speed was awesome but scary.

Free flight lots of memories there. After I lost a couple I looked into a dethermalizing device. Fuse and rubber bands were the only choice so I had to make my own fuses. Dissolve equal amounts of potassium nitrate and sugar into hot water until no more will dissolve. Hang strings in the water all the way to the bottom and the stuff grows on the strings making fuses when dried. Pharmacist in a small town is not going to sell a kid potassium nitrate so I asked my mom to get me some. Boy was she ever mad when she ended up buying salt peter in front of the local old crones. Dad thought it was funny but I was on moms sh#t list for a while.

Dennis

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

We have a small museum located at Wiley Post Airport in a suburb on the west side of Oklahoma City. It handles private piston aircraft and Leer jets. A number of years back a local car dealer was taking down an old building to build a new lot on the north side of town. Part of the building in question was Willey Post's hanger from a long gone airfield in the area. The car dealer paid extra to have that part of the building dissembled and preserved. The Museum plans to erect it at Willey Post Airport but it hasn't happened yet. The car dealer has passed on but to his credit he had a good sense of history and interest in his community.

a70eliminator

Man you got that right, my daughter has a boyfriend, I did everything I could to get him interested, have a buddy cord and all the trainers ready but these modern kids can't put down the phone long enough to poop.
I guess hangin with his girlfriends old man kills it.

Leroy Gardner

Thinking back to the 50's a CL P-40 warhawk with a McCoy 35, flew great for 5 flights then the engine came lose, there was no fixing it, Rubber band motors with all those knots wound with a yankee drill, made a lot of them, then there were the gliders, my best one was the Condor with a 6" wing span, I flew it once and that was the last time I saw it, forgot the trim tab on the rudder. Remember the Jetexes, the one you started with a tire pump, yep had one of those as a CL plane, got so dizzy I fell down and there went another one in the dirt.

I was AMA at the time and we had a club in a hobby shop basement where the owner showed us how to build planes, it really was the hay days of my youth, you won't find anything like that these days. My best friend built the first single channel Heath kit RC radio in our club, I had no idea where this hobby would go today, it's really something.

Leroy

Hossfly

Mr "FlyerInOKC" that is the most excellent thing I have seen in this forum. I do love it. Now I ask you if I could use your "Vice President of the not so Scale ........" on through the last sentence, "....own large black trash bag!" where I will give it to the Newsletter Editor for Jetero RC Club (www.jetero.com). I will also try to get some of us to also
use your statement if you allow. All credit will be given to YOU. There is a REAL AEROMODELER in those several statements.

Many Thanks in advance.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

If it makes just one of your members crack a smile go for it and print it with my blessing! The VP part was granted by the President of the not so scale, almost ready to fly, soon to be scrap, Warbird brotherhood who is a member of this very forum but alas my CRS has kicked in and I forgot his handle.

Now if you want to know a real aeromodeler that would be an Englisman living Bankok by the name of Michael Hawkins. I haven't spoken with him in years but he has had several designs printed with plans in Flying Scale Models in the UK. Michael was child during WWII and once shared with me that he and a friend would use half a P-47 drop tank as a toboggan in winter. He also confided to me he thought statements made by authors in modelling magazines saying their new design flew like a dream on the first flight was a load of bunk. He never had anything but grief and terror from the maiden flight of his new designs. You don't get many guys who after getting paid for a design willing to admit that! He designed what he called suitcase designs, so he could pack them take them on his travels.

Mike

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Sorry! I forgot to mention Hossfly you have a nice looking field down there and I enjoyed seeing your newsletter too!

Mike

catboater

My Feedback: (51)

Well I'm just about 60 so I guess I qualify.
Dad was in SAC and was a flight engineer on B-36's. I was born while he was on a mission so I guess that has something to do with my airplane addiction. Every Saturday he'd take me to Woolworth's (how many of you remember them?) and buy a plastic model of something we both liked and then we'd (he) build it. I probably had 50 models hanging from my bedroom ceiling.
About 1962 my sisters boyfriend turned us onto control line and I've been at it ever since.
Ambroid was the glue of choice and we all know you'd have to pre-glue everything so in effect, it took at least two nights to glue together 2 or 3 parts. I don't know how many .049 profile planes I built and smacked nor do I remember how many Ring Master's but it was a S**T load! For my 12th birthday I got a McCoy .35 and thought I was big time!
College and girls put a temporary stop to my aero modeling but I got myself another Ring Master after I got married and started flying again. After my son was born in 1995 a friend convinced me that c/l was too limited and that I should try r/c. Well that guy has cost me ten of thousands of dollars but I couldn't be happier.
I had my son soloed at age 7 and now at 19 he's one of the best pilots I know. It has been a really great hobby for us creating memories that I'll take to the grave with me.
We started out with glow and have added electric and giant scale gas to the mix. He's a hot shot IMAC pilot but can fly a big warbird with the best of them. Funny thing is though, his favorite airplane when he comes home from school is our .76 glow powered Telemaster. Go figure!

GallopingGhostler

Speaking of fond memories of CL engines and recently re-enjoying CL flying: Shortly after graduating from high school in 1972 my largest CL airplane was the 38" span Sterling Kit S-2 P-51 Profile Mustang with Testors McCoy .19 Red Head. I covered it in aluminum Monokote. I was amazed how easier it was to fly something considerably larger on 50 ft. steel cables compared with .049 on 30 ft. dacron lines. Not long ago, with fond memories of that engine, I bought on on E-Bay for a song. It was tool drawer rash but was amazed that it had never been run. I bench broke it in last summer. A friend, Ron Cribbs gave me a 1950's Fox .35 Stunt to relive the legend on one of my upcoming CL creations.



Those interested, CL is still active. There are several very active forums catering to CL, all free to join. (Membership is required to keep out spammers, etc.) These are:

http://www.brotherhoodofthering.info/ ---> Brotherhood of the Ring. This forum is a gathering place for those who love the Sterling RIngmasters of all variants, although all post about their other CL planes and experiences.During the worldwide Ringmaster Fly-A-Thon in 1st weekend of Octobler, there were I believe over 5,000 RIngmaster flights logged. Fliers from countries such as USA, Brazil, Japan, United Kingdom, Spain, Australia and others participated.

http://stunthanger.com/ ---> This is a good hangout for CL fliers. Folks from PAMPA, Brodak events and etc. congregate there, open to all who love CL.

http://www.clstunt.com/ ---> This is another good forum for CL fliers, with all sorts of interesting info on CL including a well run forum.

All those still interested in CL are welcomed to try out these forums. You might meet some old buddies there, and make friends with new ones, find out where you can again fly CL with them.

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

Great thread guys! Too young to contribute (45), but I love reading about the history and experiences.