old timers look here must be 50+ years only
12-30-2014, 12:29 PM
#601
My Feedback: (6)
The weather here is gray, chilly and gloomy, I am taking full advantage and getting my mustang glassed. I have about eight planes in the build que and I promised myself To finish what is on the bench before tackling another. Very hard for me to do but I'm trying, Got a burning urge to build a turbine powered Mig 15,and a ww-2 japanese Shinden. a cessna 310 , fw-190, c-47 b-25, f7f tigercat, f4, .................................................I gotta get hold of myself, I feel a liver quiver comin on.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!![/QUOTE]
Donny
You gotta get a grip,
that's to much to keep in your head make the head band to tight
but your weather is good, it -12 to day so it keeps me in the shop working on my repairs.
cheers Bob t
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!![/QUOTE]
Donny
You gotta get a grip,
that's to much to keep in your head make the head band to tight but your weather is good, it -12 to day so it keeps me in the shop working on my repairs.cheers Bob t
12-30-2014, 01:29 PM
#603
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...
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...
12-30-2014, 01:34 PM
#604
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Hello all you young fellas.
I am 81 years old and a just getting back into RC after not being into it since1959. At that time I had a trainer that had a rubber powered escapement which was actuated by a signal. One click was left rudder, two, right rudder. If you let go of the button it would return to neutral. Everyone was on 27 mz so only one could fly at a time.
In Canada at that time I found out that another frequency (40.68mz) was allowed so I ordered a crystal for that and spread out the turns in the main inductance of the Tx,altered the receiver and got it working. For a while, every time I launched my model, all the guys yelled at me in a panic . I remember the receiver had a single 1AG4 tube which needed an
"A" battery for the tiny red-hot filament and a "B" battery as well.
Going back earlier to model building in the early '40s I can remember going around to all the small stores with some cheap tissue paper for covering models.
We would ask the proprietor if we could look into all the old airplane kits to find some of the rare Japanese tissue which was pre-war. If he like us he would let us substitute our cheap covering tissue and depart with the treasured "jap tissue". Anyone else remember that stuff? A very popular model at the time was the pylon model called a "Zipper", I think by Carl Goldberg. The engines had to run using spark ignition and had "points" to time the spark. Aero made the best HV coil which had to be wired into the model with a battery to yield the necessary spark. Sometimes they were hard to start, My first engine was Rogers .29. What a dog it was. Later the 0.19 Arden engines proved to have better power and easier starting. A year or two later (guess 1950) glow plugs came out and ignition was gone overnight.
In those early days RC was a distant dream. I can remember, at a Toronto contest in 1949, seeing the American, Jimmie Walker of AJ models, demo a multi-channel high wing RC. It was quite large and was probably an early pioneer of using reed relays which vibrated with each tuned modulated note and actuated the controls through large hand-built servos. At that time people were talking about proportional control but to my knowledge had not yet achieved it.
I had a bit of luck in the model contests of the late '40s and 1950 , enough to pay for flying lessons on Cessna 140 and Fleet Canuck. I received my pilot's licence when I was attending Engineering school at U of T. Then I was working with a family to support so the model building pretty well stopped. The flying bug was alive and well, however, and in 1975 I bought a Cessna 172 floatplane with a 180HP constant speed prop. I had a 31 year love affair with that airplane. Flew it on floats to Whitehorse Yukon and camped on lonely lakes in the Rockies as I flew south to Vancouver and then back across the prairies to Toronto. I had my instrument rating and the plane was fully instrumented. I really needed that rating on the trip because I had to fly over forest fires (way over - 10,000 ft) and the viz was about 1/4 mile in smoke at one point.
In 2006 I was 73 years old and took stock of myself, deciding that I should sell my plane. Until this year (2014) when I could not stand not having flying in my life and decided to get back into water flying RC. What an amazing change had happened, I could hardly believe the low cost and high performance and reliability of the equipment.
So here i am today, having just equipped a Flyzone Tidewater with Spektrum stuff and can hardly wait for May so I can fly from my cottage in Haliburton, Ontario, I just want to fly gently around Eagle Lake, nothing fancy. No flying club is necessary although I will probably join MAAC (and get my ofd number 288 back) because the insurance coverage is worthwhile. I have crashed countless times on my Mac - Aerofly simulator to which I have wired my DX6i, and hope that I will be able to fly the model next spring.
I intend to keep flying into my '90s.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
I am 81 years old and a just getting back into RC after not being into it since1959. At that time I had a trainer that had a rubber powered escapement which was actuated by a signal. One click was left rudder, two, right rudder. If you let go of the button it would return to neutral. Everyone was on 27 mz so only one could fly at a time.
In Canada at that time I found out that another frequency (40.68mz) was allowed so I ordered a crystal for that and spread out the turns in the main inductance of the Tx,altered the receiver and got it working. For a while, every time I launched my model, all the guys yelled at me in a panic . I remember the receiver had a single 1AG4 tube which needed an
"A" battery for the tiny red-hot filament and a "B" battery as well.
Going back earlier to model building in the early '40s I can remember going around to all the small stores with some cheap tissue paper for covering models.
We would ask the proprietor if we could look into all the old airplane kits to find some of the rare Japanese tissue which was pre-war. If he like us he would let us substitute our cheap covering tissue and depart with the treasured "jap tissue". Anyone else remember that stuff? A very popular model at the time was the pylon model called a "Zipper", I think by Carl Goldberg. The engines had to run using spark ignition and had "points" to time the spark. Aero made the best HV coil which had to be wired into the model with a battery to yield the necessary spark. Sometimes they were hard to start, My first engine was Rogers .29. What a dog it was. Later the 0.19 Arden engines proved to have better power and easier starting. A year or two later (guess 1950) glow plugs came out and ignition was gone overnight.
In those early days RC was a distant dream. I can remember, at a Toronto contest in 1949, seeing the American, Jimmie Walker of AJ models, demo a multi-channel high wing RC. It was quite large and was probably an early pioneer of using reed relays which vibrated with each tuned modulated note and actuated the controls through large hand-built servos. At that time people were talking about proportional control but to my knowledge had not yet achieved it.
I had a bit of luck in the model contests of the late '40s and 1950 , enough to pay for flying lessons on Cessna 140 and Fleet Canuck. I received my pilot's licence when I was attending Engineering school at U of T. Then I was working with a family to support so the model building pretty well stopped. The flying bug was alive and well, however, and in 1975 I bought a Cessna 172 floatplane with a 180HP constant speed prop. I had a 31 year love affair with that airplane. Flew it on floats to Whitehorse Yukon and camped on lonely lakes in the Rockies as I flew south to Vancouver and then back across the prairies to Toronto. I had my instrument rating and the plane was fully instrumented. I really needed that rating on the trip because I had to fly over forest fires (way over - 10,000 ft) and the viz was about 1/4 mile in smoke at one point.
In 2006 I was 73 years old and took stock of myself, deciding that I should sell my plane. Until this year (2014) when I could not stand not having flying in my life and decided to get back into water flying RC. What an amazing change had happened, I could hardly believe the low cost and high performance and reliability of the equipment.
So here i am today, having just equipped a Flyzone Tidewater with Spektrum stuff and can hardly wait for May so I can fly from my cottage in Haliburton, Ontario, I just want to fly gently around Eagle Lake, nothing fancy. No flying club is necessary although I will probably join MAAC (and get my ofd number 288 back) because the insurance coverage is worthwhile. I have crashed countless times on my Mac - Aerofly simulator to which I have wired my DX6i, and hope that I will be able to fly the model next spring.
I intend to keep flying into my '90s.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
12-30-2014, 06:11 PM
#607
Been sitting here getting my nightly dose of happy reading this thread. Santa brought me a top flite DC-3 which I am going to cover as a c-47, like Donny a few other projects will need to be finished first.
12-30-2014, 06:43 PM
#608
The good book specifies, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you." (I Thessalonians 5:18) and "Doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself; each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others." (Philippians 2:3-4) World English Bible
Thus I maintain an attitude of thanks in my model building and flying and helps to keep the Devil in check regarding my activities with others. Life is too short to not be happy with what one is doing.
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Believer (01-26-2021)
12-30-2014, 07:02 PM
#609
My Feedback: (1)
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Brooker,
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Donny, thanks for the old-timer's thread. I'm 58, soon to be 59 and my initial experience was control liners in the 1960s. (Radio control was out of my league back then.) My Dad got me interested in airplanes at a young age, and after he died we found some old pix of him back in the 30s or 40s with some stick and tissue planes. I'd like to share those with you. He was building a Senior Telemaster when he passed.
12-31-2014, 05:29 AM
#611
Russell.... thanks for sharing the pics of your father... your sharing reminds the rest of us of fond memories. For the aging, memories are a precious thing but that said, I'm aiming to add more.... hope Y'all do to.
I'm doing final sanding today on a scratch build of a 1929 Travel Air 6000 and will start covering soon. Was reading some about the plane yesterday regarding the many that saw smoke jumper action. I've equipped a drop bay and will try to recreate some jumping.
I'm doing final sanding today on a scratch build of a 1929 Travel Air 6000 and will start covering soon. Was reading some about the plane yesterday regarding the many that saw smoke jumper action. I've equipped a drop bay and will try to recreate some jumping.
12-31-2014, 01:58 PM
#615
My Feedback: (-1)
It came from some friends and I will have a drink with them on holidays. I try to avoid alcohol except when I BBQ, then I like a finger or two of brandy. I'm not all that bright on any given day but just add alcohol and I'm an idiot that doesn't drool too much or loose his village. I have never been able to hold my liquor and old age hasn't made it get any better.
Snowing on and off all day, yes, it snows a little in Vegas, it's a fun surprise for tourists!!
Snowing on and off all day, yes, it snows a little in Vegas, it's a fun surprise for tourists!!
12-31-2014, 02:12 PM
#616
ME as SANTA got
32" flat screen w/ Chromecast, Canon Rebel T5i DSLR with extra zoom 75mm to 300mm
All kinds of Camera accessories. Still need an Canon ENG Video lens and adapters.
An FPV set up with HDDVR. Still need a 7.1 Surround for the TV. Don't worry the Kids got theirs.too
If I don't spend it they will.
32" flat screen w/ Chromecast, Canon Rebel T5i DSLR with extra zoom 75mm to 300mm
All kinds of Camera accessories. Still need an Canon ENG Video lens and adapters.
An FPV set up with HDDVR. Still need a 7.1 Surround for the TV. Don't worry the Kids got theirs.too
If I don't spend it they will.
12-31-2014, 02:29 PM
#617
So there is an irony I am sure many of you have experienced. I have it going on right now. It just happens to be getting down to -15 degrees here. Well, it is building season for sure, but this dang cold does not help my dope to dry properly! Still plugging away regardless. : )
12-31-2014, 02:38 PM
#618
My Feedback: (6)
Hound dog
Just read your sig ( every one of these things we fly comes with a number, and when the RC Gods call that number, it's going in a garbage bag)
I think maybe I have been good,
but not to good, as it has been about 3 seasons sense I have had to put one in the bag, but I have been doing my share of repairs.
The wife still can't figure out why I am laughing at some of these post's
Cheers Bob t and Happy New Year
Just read your sig ( every one of these things we fly comes with a number, and when the RC Gods call that number, it's going in a garbage bag)
I think maybe I have been good,
but not to good, as it has been about 3 seasons sense I have had to put one in the bag, but I have been doing my share of repairs.The wife still can't figure out why I am laughing at some of these post's
Cheers Bob t and Happy New Year
12-31-2014, 02:57 PM
#619
Thread Starter
Hey I am tripping here, you guys have me grinning from ear to ear
. ...............Graybeard I've been in my slippers all day too crummy to leave the house. and -12 degrees is why I did not return to New York when I got out of the service, I am allergic to snow shoveling.
RT3232 Get a grip?? LOL no way! I busted my --- for a long time to be able to do what I am doing, and I intend to enjoy every moment and let someone else clean up the balsa chips
Daveymo....Glad you made it over I didn't have much luck with the WEN MACS either mine ran like yours, seldom. Did better with my spitzy and OK Cubs.
MR. Eagleflyer ........ Welcome back! once a modeller always a modeller. I can only imagine your surprise with the vast improvements made in modelling over the years the escapements don't need rubber bands anymore and things are a bit smaller especially the radios. happy flying!!
. ...............Graybeard I've been in my slippers all day too crummy to leave the house. and -12 degrees is why I did not return to New York when I got out of the service, I am allergic to snow shoveling.RT3232 Get a grip?? LOL no way! I busted my --- for a long time to be able to do what I am doing, and I intend to enjoy every moment and let someone else clean up the balsa chips
Daveymo....Glad you made it over I didn't have much luck with the WEN MACS either mine ran like yours, seldom. Did better with my spitzy and OK Cubs.
MR. Eagleflyer ........ Welcome back! once a modeller always a modeller. I can only imagine your surprise with the vast improvements made in modelling over the years the escapements don't need rubber bands anymore and things are a bit smaller especially the radios. happy flying!!
12-31-2014, 03:15 PM
#620
Thread Starter
Donny, thanks for the old-timer's thread. I'm 58, soon to be 59 and my initial experience was control liners in the 1960s. (Radio control was out of my league back then.) My Dad got me interested in airplanes at a young age, and after he died we found some old pix of him back in the 30s or 40s with some stick and tissue planes. I'd like to share those with you. He was building a Senior Telemaster when he passed.
12-31-2014, 03:19 PM
#621
Senior Member
Odd, Donny. Many years ago, my uncle gave me a couple of well broken in Wen Macs, and they were screamers. Went to the Baby Bee to get something a little less wild.
But, sometimes I think I'm being a little optimistic now. Maybe ten years ago, I had a blockage in the optic nerve to my left eye, which went away in about an hour. It caused that eye to see nothing but a huge gray screen, but I didn't think much about it, I was in the Milwaukee area, driving, made it home with no problems, but went in to the eye doc within an hour. Nothing showing except some old arc burns, none of which bothered me. The next day, the eye half grayed out, stayed that way, so one eye isn't worth diddly squat. The right eye isn't what it once was, and maybe I'm kidding myself thinking I can see well enough to fly again. Got a ripoff on the Royal Coachman that's been "in the works" (Or more out of progress) for several years, I'll get that ready, if I pound ground with it, I have to take that hint. Just glad it didn't happen a year earlier when I could have been at 3000 feet in a single seat glider. That could have been nasty.
Rich.
But, sometimes I think I'm being a little optimistic now. Maybe ten years ago, I had a blockage in the optic nerve to my left eye, which went away in about an hour. It caused that eye to see nothing but a huge gray screen, but I didn't think much about it, I was in the Milwaukee area, driving, made it home with no problems, but went in to the eye doc within an hour. Nothing showing except some old arc burns, none of which bothered me. The next day, the eye half grayed out, stayed that way, so one eye isn't worth diddly squat. The right eye isn't what it once was, and maybe I'm kidding myself thinking I can see well enough to fly again. Got a ripoff on the Royal Coachman that's been "in the works" (Or more out of progress) for several years, I'll get that ready, if I pound ground with it, I have to take that hint. Just glad it didn't happen a year earlier when I could have been at 3000 feet in a single seat glider. That could have been nasty.
Rich.
12-31-2014, 03:30 PM
#622
Thread Starter
And BIG! a nieghbor down the road from me flew his telemaster between my house and his (acres) we both flew from our homes, it was very graceful and I am sure he enjoyed it immensely right up to time I did diving attacks on it wth my kaos, he didn't say anything until I did a Barrelroll around it the look on his face when we met later told me to kinda ease up.
12-31-2014, 03:39 PM
#623
My Feedback: (-1)
Funny, I wanted a TD engine so bad but the store was out of them and my dad gave me the choice, the Attwood they had or nothing. That attwood never did run. The one time it fired and I still have the scar on my finger. You know how it goes, it never started so I was half asleep flipping it when I got bit!!!
I had to work this morning at the wood workers club then when I got home I made lunch then dyed the canopy for my new Roar and just came in from gluing it onto the plane. The snow flurry's have quit for now but it's still cold for Vegas so it may take a day or two for the canopy glue to set up. The plane sure looks better with it on there!!!
I had to work this morning at the wood workers club then when I got home I made lunch then dyed the canopy for my new Roar and just came in from gluing it onto the plane. The snow flurry's have quit for now but it's still cold for Vegas so it may take a day or two for the canopy glue to set up. The plane sure looks better with it on there!!!
12-31-2014, 04:09 PM
#624
Thread Starter
Odd, Donny. Many years ago, my uncle gave me a couple of well broken in Wen Macs, and they were screamers. Went to the Baby Bee to get something a little less wild.
But, sometimes I think I'm being a little optimistic now. Maybe ten years ago, I had a blockage in the optic nerve to my left eye, which went away in about an hour. It caused that eye to see nothing but a huge gray screen, but I didn't think much about it, I was in the Milwaukee area, driving, made it home with no problems, but went in to the eye doc within an hour. Nothing showing except some old arc burns, none of which bothered me. The next day, the eye half grayed out, stayed that way, so one eye isn't worth diddly squat. The right eye isn't what it once was, and maybe I'm kidding myself thinking I can see well enough to fly again. Got a ripoff on the Royal Coachman that's been "in the works" (Or more out of progress) for several years, I'll get that ready, if I pound ground with it, I have to take that hint. Just glad it didn't happen a year earlier when I could have been at 3000 feet in a single seat glider. That could have been nasty.
Rich.
But, sometimes I think I'm being a little optimistic now. Maybe ten years ago, I had a blockage in the optic nerve to my left eye, which went away in about an hour. It caused that eye to see nothing but a huge gray screen, but I didn't think much about it, I was in the Milwaukee area, driving, made it home with no problems, but went in to the eye doc within an hour. Nothing showing except some old arc burns, none of which bothered me. The next day, the eye half grayed out, stayed that way, so one eye isn't worth diddly squat. The right eye isn't what it once was, and maybe I'm kidding myself thinking I can see well enough to fly again. Got a ripoff on the Royal Coachman that's been "in the works" (Or more out of progress) for several years, I'll get that ready, if I pound ground with it, I have to take that hint. Just glad it didn't happen a year earlier when I could have been at 3000 feet in a single seat glider. That could have been nasty.
Rich.
or..............Now as to the eye are you familiar with the "telemaster"? it is a balsa overcast, now brightly painted you would reduced the load on your other eye, it doesn't jet around the sky but will hold it's own in the air and is a good flying bird. I bet telemaster sales could fill you in on the details....just be careful of them Kaos's. you mentioned gliders, While stationed at Arizona's Williams A.F.B. we heard of a guy that was stuck in his glider for twelve hours or so, everytime he tried to put it on the ground thermals dragged him back to altitude. when he finally landed all he wanted was water and sleep.
