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old timers look here must be 50+ years only

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old timers look here must be 50+ years only

Old 12-06-2014, 05:14 PM
  #201  
Gray Beard
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Funny thing is I have photos of my foster sons oldest boy when he was only 2.5 years old in my living room flying one of those little indoor choppers. Now when they come over I pull it out and he allows his younger brother to fly it first for a few minutes. He isn't being nice though, he knows it will fly better after the battery looses a little juice. I had him on the buddy box at 4 years old and let him do everything except take off and land my 60 size trainer. Now at 8 he has been flying for a long time but it is taking a back seat to mini truck racing, the Trophy Kart series. It helps a lot with a dad that can afford these toys. This kid has been on his dads computer playing with the sim ever sence I can remember so flying a plane was easy.
As a kid his dad was always in my engine box making something, these days he seems to have forgotten how to do anything himself but he has a good hobby shop and they set up his ARFs for him. I don't say too much about it, at least he and the boys are out flying and having fun.
Next time the boys come to town I will start teaching them to build, I have a couple small RB kits for them to work on.
Old 12-06-2014, 06:11 PM
  #202  
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Greetings Gents,
Glad to find this thread and recognize some names here. Turned 51 this year and appreciate all the accounts I am reading here. Although I got back into the sport/hobby/obsession via electric foamies, I was surprised how fast my primal urges took me right back into fuel and balsa. First planes for me were in the late 60's, the familiar Cox and Testor's CL screamers. My dad got me started on my first stick and silkspan. Simple kit, small plane of about 30" wingspan. Painted it up with orange dope, and I don't remember where I even got the engine from. Flew it free flight. Once. But that led me to studying plans a whole lot closer and understanding what made them fly. Learned to balance around CG and I think I even surprised my dad at an early age I had figured that out. Also, thrust lines. Then converted a larger plane to CL on-the-fly and flew that in fields by the house, during high school. I have the Tee Dee 051 from that, still, which refueled my primal interests. Later, after college, I built a sailplane which was fun (a Wanderer, I think - sitting over there in the corner right now as I right.) Other unfinished planes from a couple of decades ago will now get finished. The early and harsh winter here in NY State makes for good building weather. 30 mph winds forecast for tomorrow and Monday.

Right now I am trying to round up guys in the area who have CL planes sitting around from yesteryear, get them dusted off, and get out flying.
There may be a fair-sized bunch that don't want the complications and expense of RC - KISS with CL.
Seeing if I can rekindle the same interests in those gents that have as fond memories as I have.
I have picked up a few CL planes off Craigslist to have handy if people with no experience want to try it out. Sig Buster, Twister, Chipmunk.
Here's my stab at rounding up the ranks, and I have gotten a couple of replies already: http://tinyurl.com/o6o6swe

Cheers,
Poughkeepsie Pete
Old 12-06-2014, 06:55 PM
  #203  
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Originally Posted by GallopingGhostler
Difference was we grew up with parents who had been through WW2. They knew what rationing was, many came from a farm background and knew what hard work was. They made ends meet by budgeting, saving money, making wise purchases and refrained from purchasing unnecessities. There was no such thing as credit card loan mechanisms, etc. It was not unusual to have only one outlet per room in a house. There was a radio and may be a TV in the house, a phonograph for recorded music, not like today where every room has one. Most cars in the 1960's were without air conditioning. I didn't own an air conditioned car until I was working after graduating from college in 1982.

Drinking Coke was a luxury. We didn't have Coke every day, may be once a week if we were lucky. When we had it, it was a treat, not a daily drinking item. We played as kids. We didn't have parental supervision, but then I never heard of drugs until I entered high school. It wasn't unusual to hear a mom calling aloud for your friend's or your name to come to supper. Although we had a TV, we spent more time outside playing than watching. Usually Saturday morning was spent watching Superman, Zorro, Sky King, Captain Kangaroo, etc. Late afternoons and evenings had Leave It to Beaver, Father Knows Best, Combat, Roy Rogers Show, 12 O'Clock High, the Ricky Nelson Show, Andy Griffith Show, Ed Sullivan, etc.

There wasn't the open violence, vulgarity, coarse talk and sexually explicit material programming on TV like today.


My Dad was born in 1912 and his father lost his shirt in the Depression (he had begun building homes from what had been the family farm in a subdivision; the street still bears our name). Went from not too bad off to nothing. Dad was what his friends called "Tight".

I don't recall EVER having carbonated soft drinks at home. First color TV was about in 1972. I had an older brother and two older cousins and I didn't own any clothing that hadn't been worn by at least one of them except shoes. Sneakers had to be the least expendive available ("EJ Rejects"). I had to pay my own tuition and books for college - but was fortunate enough to have been awarded a 50% scholarship.

My wife lost her father when she was 12 and he was not employes at the time. She knew some very hard times. She has no taste for jewelry, dressy clothes, wears few but sensible shoes. We met in college and were married in 1980. I think we spent $1,000 for the wedding including her dress, flowers, musician and church reception hall meal because we didn't want to be beholding to our parents. And her hobbies are raising the sheep and spinning the wool and then knitting it.

But, in spite of how much I hated it as a kid, a lot of it stuck. I've worked for three firms that went under and been "rightsized" once (after nine years and 10 months so I wasn't vested - ba$+tards).. Each time we go into "essentials" mode and have done well. We're completely debt free now and have a nice home on 20 acres, sheep, chicken, turkeys and a large garden. I take my lunch to work. And I also now make a pretty good living showing young engineers and professionals whose work is hemmoraging cash what "essential" really means. Turns out I have a knack for budgeting and holding to that budget.
Old 12-06-2014, 07:16 PM
  #204  
PointMagu
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First R/C? Goldberg Ranger 42 with single channel rudder control. First propo? Orbit 4 channel. Been flying models at Mexico Farms Airfield since 1965, R/C since 1970.
Old 12-06-2014, 07:49 PM
  #205  
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Originally Posted by OL55
Early in my 1/2A control line days I went through MANY Baby Stuntmasters building most of the later ones into bipes. The version you refer to was the only one I remember with a built up fuse and was called "Super Stuntmaster" (I'd love to see a pic of that myself.)
Plans for Stuntmaster on outerzone.co.uk = http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=3871
Cheers, Peter
Old 12-06-2014, 08:32 PM
  #206  
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Very interesting thread here! A mere 56yrs old. First plane when I was 12 was Cox pt19. After wrapping the lines several times around the mailbox post I built the Lil' Satan. Great plane. I then took several years off and built my first RC plane in 2006, Sig Lt40 (my Significant Other). Since then I have acquired over 50 planes of all sizes. I really wish that I would have stayed with it back in the early years. I love building planes so much I just got a Full Scale Sopwith Pup completed for my Wife to fly.
Rich
Old 12-06-2014, 08:52 PM
  #207  
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..

Last edited by ARUP; 01-28-2015 at 03:07 PM.
Old 12-06-2014, 09:29 PM
  #208  
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Can't remember the exact date (probably around 1962) but Dad would load Mom and I in the car on Sunday afternoon and head for the airport. I grew up in Charleston, SC and going out to the regional airport meant parking at the flight line fence and eating a picnic lunch that Mom made special for those occasions. Not only did we watch the commercial and private planes come and go but since Charleston shared the runway with the USAF we got to see some military transports too. Also would get to see Bevo Howard from time to time on those Sundays. Now get this, people were also flying control line out there by the airport as well. I remember my Dad bought us a "Wen-Mac" plastic .049 yellow trainer looking plane. When he set it up he only used one of two of the lengths of control line and when he managed to get that sucker off the ground, the short lines took him for a dizzying circular journey, Mom and I couldn't help but crack up laughing, which I don't think he liked very much. Dad gave it up after that dizzying episode and money got tight as my Mom lost her job at the American Tobacco Company. After that, I didn't get back into control line until I was in the USAF and stationed in Wichita Falls in 1973. Progressed from there and ended up doing a lot of hi-start launched sailplanes like the old Centurion, Windrifter, Windfree... Doing quite a bit of warbirds and I've got a Pitts S1, and a Super Cub. Turned 62 this past September but I'm still working and will probably be doing so for a few more years. I don't think I'll ever truly retire.

Happy Flying!

Bullseye52

Last edited by Bullseye52; 12-06-2014 at 09:32 PM.
Old 12-06-2014, 09:41 PM
  #209  
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Originally Posted by Bullseye52
. I don't think I'll ever truly retire.

Happy Flying!

Bullseye52
Retirement is when you begin to wonder how you ever found time to go to work, then realize you don't have time to wonder either.

Rich
Old 12-06-2014, 09:50 PM
  #210  
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Started flying full size aircraft in the early 70's and then it was a choice of a full size aircraft or a house and the house won out . Due to the financial commitment I had to drop the full size aircraft flying so as an alternate my first effort was an Andrews A-Ray . A very well designed
and quality kit. Due to not having r/c help/training it was short lived after only a half dozen flights . Undaunted the next one was a Goldberg senior falcon which lasted several years until I sold it. Had help from the local rc flying club that time. Did 1/2A , gliders, pattern, 1/4 scale , twins, scale , 15-500 pylon , fueled helis over the years and now electrics more recently. The latest is a venture into turbine jets this winter build. Radio 's were Kraft 5 channel, Kraft 7 channel , Futaba 7 channel ( their first computer radio) and now the SD-10 Airtronics . Big changes each time I changed systems. Love the sport and most of the people involved with it.

no bragging rights but I can only recall bagging/ rekitting two models over the 40 plus years, not denying that there have been a few aircraft repairs over time. Lol ....... Have sold quite a few models after I moved on to something new and different.

Last edited by stegl; 12-06-2014 at 09:57 PM.
Old 12-07-2014, 04:48 AM
  #211  
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i started flying in the 1940 and still fly i think iam 83 now>> i can do what the new flyers do now but i bet they cant do what i had to do so many yrs ago
Old 12-07-2014, 04:50 AM
  #212  
donnyman
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Charlie P
I feel a deep connection with what you said here, I grew up in the housing projects of Brooklyn N.Y. Poor but never knew it until I reached puberty several of my friends were starving before the welfare dept. stepped in to help.
but I can't help thinking it made me and others better humans.

Blessings come in many forms, somtime they hurt.
Old 12-07-2014, 04:53 AM
  #213  
donnyman
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Bright garden

Thanks the plan is now a part of my archive.
Old 12-07-2014, 04:59 AM
  #214  
donnyman
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Originally Posted by [email protected]
i started flying in the 1940 and still fly i think iam 83 now>> i can do what the new flyers do now but i bet they cant do what i had to do so many yrs ago
How true, they would trip over the cell phones.

I wasn't born till 1941 so that makes me a "whipper snapper" (Gabby Hayes) next to you.
Old 12-07-2014, 06:42 AM
  #215  
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HI guys. I started flying control line in 1967 when I was seven. My Brother was on the USS Intrepeid and when he got back to the states he brought me a Cox PT-19 and a P40 Warhawk. I hit the jackpot. Gota love older brothers. Thats where It all began for me.
Old 12-07-2014, 07:13 AM
  #216  
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No TV but I remember Capt. Midnight and Tom Mix. My first model was put together with the Old Bottle and Cork, Cellulose glue. The Airplane was a P-51 with cardboard wings and Pine wood fuselage ( balsa was impossible to get durring the WWII ). I glued 3 stick matches together and attached them to the wings. I took it to school to show the other Kids, Boy if someone did that today the School would be put on shutdown and i would be arrested for Terrorism.
FUN FUN FUN.
Old 12-07-2014, 08:30 AM
  #217  
donnyman
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today December 7, 2014 over 70 years since 1941 and Pearl Harbor. .............................lest we forget

I pray the reasons for and the result of that day are never repeated.

Last edited by donnyman; 12-07-2014 at 08:32 AM.
Old 12-07-2014, 09:15 AM
  #218  
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And I remember what I was doing when the announcement came over the radio, we kids just stood in disbelief, my mom started to cry and my dad said SOB, and I had never heard him swear. it is strange how the memory works, the same with the death of J.F.K.

I am with you about it being repeated God Bless

Cheers Bob T
AMA13377
Old 12-07-2014, 09:24 AM
  #219  
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Watching bombers fly over to practice field ,Started building in 43! drift wood and slats from a crate. Those were the day's.
Old 12-07-2014, 10:14 AM
  #220  
Gray Beard
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Shotguns: You aren't serious about them unless you have enough of them to make a picket fence. I was a gun crank sense I can remember, works of art!
I grew up in a little town between Ft Louis and McCord field. {{Spelling??}} Used to ride my bike to the back of the fort and sneak in to there range where they had a village/town made and find all kinds of cool stuff. My dad freaked when I came home with a grenade. My buddy in crime and I would ride over to the end of the north runway at McCourd and lay down in the grass on our backs and watch the F-86 squadrons take off and land. They were only about 100 feet over us so it was a way cool view.
We finally got a TV in the mid 50s, my big thing was the Mickey Mouse show but I had an older sister and her thing was American Band Stand. They came on at the same time, it was a blood bath fighting over those two shows.
We had a season for everything, kite season, fishing season, hunting season, sledding season, and airplane season. Everything had a season. Rained most every day but I was still always outdoors. I built all my models in my bedroom until after dark then the family played board games after dinner.
I pretty much made all my own stuff. My grandmother taught me how to make kites, even my own paste from flower. My dad didn't really do anything except puts around in his flower garden so I never learned much from him.
The older boys taught us how to fly our planes and how to build and operate the engines.
My first full scale flight was in a Cub and our small local airport was full of PT 17s so I had a love affair with Bipes. As soon as I could fly Rc I built nothing but Bipes for several years. I still love them but they are a pain to haul to the field so I gave them up, only have one left, my Boeing F4B-2 or P-12. It's really a pain in the butt to haul but I refuse to take it apart so it goes in the van assembled when it goes.
I wish the kids today could have the kind of life I had, a BB gun in one hand and a fishing rod in the other. {really} Today people would freak seeing a kid with any type of gun walking down the street. Come spring there would be 10 kids setting up and flying there planes in any open field. We had several good spots in the neighbor hood. Just a really nice time in my life.
Old 12-07-2014, 11:23 AM
  #221  
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Default old.?yeah I'm old & proud of it..

I built my first control line plane in 1959 or so..a profile Gee Bee with .049 engine.We flew it in Rouge park Detroit,Mi.Had a lot of fun & picked up where I left off in 1996.

I'm all RC now of course. it's still a great hobby.
Old 12-07-2014, 12:25 PM
  #222  
vertical grimmace
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One of the things I do is preserve, save, and collect plans. It seems the best way to preserve the legacy of some of the great old designs. Building over glass really helps to truly protect your plans when building. I finished the obscure Sun Fli 5 last spring from plans sent to me from a fellow RCU member. It took me a couple of years to track these down. It is one of the best flying planes I have. This design was from Joe Bridi, 1972
Old 12-07-2014, 02:47 PM
  #223  
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I'm not 50, just 44. But my dad started me on flying my first plane that someone posted in this forum. He bought me a C/L Swordsman with a Cox .049 with a built in gas tank on it that he has adopted. (By the way, I want it back) The first time I flew it I went around approx 7-8 times but being I was only about 7 yrs old he failed to tell me what to do when it went up and the lines got loose. So I just stood there and stared with my mouth open as it went up and smashed into the ground. I was crushed!!! It didn't stop me though, approx when I was about 12 yrs (1982) old I had been eyeballing a OLD Falcon 56 mk1 in my dads garage for years and years. I asked him if I could have it, and he told me if I finished it I could have it. Guess what, I finished it... So he bought me a Gold Box Futaba 4 channel and a OS Max .30 for it (which I still have both mounted in another plane) I flew that airplane for quite a while until the wings snapped in half. It injected my dad back into the hobby and soon after he pulled out his Morane Saulnier 3-channel scratch built that flew like a champ!!! I think he built that before I was born, right pop?

Today, kids are too concerned with the internet and video games to care about model airplanes. Instant gratification is the wave of the future, and that is TRULY sad. There is something to be said about building a plane from plans/scratch and rigging it to fly. (Even though I complained about sanding) The feeling of accomplishment is unparalled. Not to mention, peoples ideas and creations of color schemes and engines as well as radios that they used in their planes made it fun and sparked ideas of things you could do to your own planes. Kids today do not know what that is like, and heck I doubt they would care. ARF is a curse word to me. Newer is NOT always better!!!

I think modelling is a great hobby!! I'm glad that I was introduced to the hobby, and I plan to continue flying in the future. But right now I have a few other things keeping my mind busy. For you guys 50 and over, keep on building and flying it is truly a lost art. Who would have thought that u would have to scrounge to buy a kit, or u would have to go online to find a engine. I miss the smell of the Hobbyshop and the comradery. There is something to be said about a group of people hanging out in a hobbyshop talking model airplane stuff. For that matter R/C anything talk is cool.

Since I am here though, I would like to thank my dad for my lifetime of memories flying airplanes with him. I wouldn't change a thing and I will never forget..

God Bless you all

Love you Dad!!! (Donnyman)
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Old 12-07-2014, 04:02 PM
  #224  
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..

Last edited by ARUP; 01-28-2015 at 03:08 PM.
Old 12-07-2014, 04:26 PM
  #225  
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Ah the things we tinkered with when we were kids. Crashed my last control line model at the end of the season (winter was for building). After the first snow we were bored to tears so I took that Cox 049 and mounted it to a wire frame soldered to a pair of old curtain rods that formed skis. On soft snow it didn’t work worth beans. On packed snow it would take off but would slow down and stop in any kind of soft stuff. We built a banked oval in the front yard about 20 ft long packed and iced. It started out slow but when it built up enough speed so it wasn’t dragging on the bottom lip it picked up speed like crazy. The higher up the bank it went the faster it went. We ended up watching from behind the tree not knowing how to stop it. Finally it left the track and hit the screen door on the front of the house knocking the lower aluminum panel right out. My Dad was standing in the doorway watching what we were up to. He spanked my ass for busting the door.

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