OLDNRINKLED

My Feedback: (5)

About 1965 I became interested in modeling, Galloping Ghost was my choice of projects for the winter of 65. Some of my friends were still flying REEDS, one with a Taurus. A couple had Orbit proportional radios and many single channel radios were represented at the field also. What an exciting day we could have at the field, first by mowing the grass then by rolling the runway and lastly we would fly till dark. We were always helping to locate a lost model, always around dusk someone would challenge the clock for just one more flight.
Picnic lunches, blankets with children dotted the picnic area and on more than one ocasion there would be a charcoal grill smoking away with burgers burning. Fall time was the best, there was always a basket of apples, cider and donuts and hotdogs.
One club member had a beautiful parts cabinet in his stationwagon and always had half of the local hobby shop in it. Always willing to sell us the little screws and parts that we had shed that day in the air.
Our local PRO always showed up near the end of the day and gave us a performance that made everyone drool. Someday we all hoped to be half as good as he was. The smell of cut hay, grass, and castor oil filled the air. Silence was golden, we had a farm field to use and other than an occasional buzz from a modelers motor it was possible to grab a nap under the shade tree. Gasoline was under .20 cents a gallon. I couldnt afford a full tank, the Hobby shop took most of my free money. I was a slow builder, I could pump out about one model every six months, how some of these guys could buy a kit on Friday afternoon and fly it on Sunday was amazing to me. The paint would actually be dry. There was more than one of these miracle workers in our club. I guess they were my inspiration for building. I would never be as fast.
Plastic models were new and fiberglass was the wonder material. No carbons that I remember. Monocote was an exciting improvement and better glues and epoxies were just around the corner. CA's what were these? Alot of my models were my own design and all that was need was a three foot yard stick and some brown paper from our local meat cutters shop and some cardboard to make templets with. If you had a dremel jig saw you were the envy of the club. My buddy loved to cut and sand parts (R.I.P) friend, he made more than one kit for me to build, he also always made the first flight. According to him I never used enough sandpaper. I could go on for days about this wonderful hobby, a lot of water has gone under my bridge, I have divorced and started over more than I care to remember, as I am now in my early 60's I have started again in this hobby. Where in the hell are all of my buddies? LONG LIVE BALSA !!!

Jim_McIntyre

Thanks, you brought a smile to my face.

I'm not quite as old as you (mid 40s), but I do remember escapements, only because I was young and on a tight budget when I made the leap from FF and CL to RC, the older modellers with more expendable cash were flying MRC and building heathkit radios about that time.

I still build with wood and cover with fabric and dope. No ambroid though, these days it's carpenters glue (better for my health).

Small, farm-field type, friendly clubs do still exist, for example, my local club has a shelter for winter flying that seems to always have some chili and hot chocolate on the wood stove. More socializing than flying during the winter (especialloy when it's nasty cold) ... nice. A pleasant contrast from the "pro" fields where the primary activity appears to be dueling wallets, with large over powered arfs hovering in your face.

GrnBrt

My Feedback: (5)

Well that sure brought back some memories! Were about the same age and I have been active in this madness since 1954 and have a lot of good memories as I came along. I can still remember the hobby shop my Dad took me to in the mid 50's, could smell the balsa wood, glue, fuel and dope and not like the shopsm of today. We try and have 4 pot lucks a year at our club and the last one was really successful and yup nothing like the smell of a BBQ while you fly, god you have to love it![&:]

Live Wire

Oldnrinkled
I think I will just call you O&R There are a few of use around yet but some people call us some thing else I still have my old equipement from way back when Kraft, Heathkit.Ace, Royal and a lot more. You sure brought back the good old day's. I would walk the river to find drift wood to build with when I ran out of orange crates. In 1949 I move to town and found out there was more than a Quarter a week to live on. My school was across the street from our local hobby shop and he had all the uptodate goodies of the day. Gliders for $.15 model kits for less than $10.00 and they were drawn on the wood so all you had to do was cut them out. The red heads just came out and sold for $5.95 for a .29 or .35. The Heathkit 8 channel radio sold for $469.00 and took about 6 months to put together.
I better quite it's your fault you got me started I have started smelling the food and the Old K&B fuel

Mettler1

I'm 63 yrs. old and remember all that back then and it was great. But for me these ARE the good old days. Lots of flying time and great friends to do it with. Doesn't get much better than this!!

CCRC1

My Feedback: (13)

Jump into the Vintage and Antique section here at RCU. (and no I am not being a smart #*&@)
Thats where all of us hang out that like to remember the days when modeling was a skill, not something you just buy off a shelf. Sometimes you can actually smell the Ambroid and dope when you read the through the posts. Your still have quite a few friends out here who know what a sanding block is used for!

Roby

Oldnrinkled

What you wrote sounds all too familiar.

I guess the game is still the same, only the names and locations change.




Regards
Roby

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

I still have my MRC mark 5 radio. I still remember the OS engines with the butterfly in the exhaust ports and the Dubro straight pipe exhaust mufflers. I just recently got a Super Pronto kit and it brought back memories of just how much fun I had. The flying styles and equipment have changed over the years, but the one constant has and always will be the freindship of my flying buddies. Good Luck, Dave

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I'm 51 and grew up in the hobby since my dad has been flying since HE was a kid. I started with single channel escapement, cut my teeth on Reeds, and graduated to "Full House" proportional in the late 60's.

Wanna see my Box-O-Kraft?

gridley

THESE are the good old days. We just don't know it yet!!

BasinBum

My Feedback: (2)

Those are some nice memories and it takes me back to my Sterling Fledgling. The hobby is a hundred times better now with all the new maerials and technology. People havn't changed so get out the barbeque and cider and make some new memories.

We tend to forget the negative stuff and remember the good things, hence "the good old days" phenomenom. If you don't believe it, explain why a women would go through childbirth a second time.

ballgunner

My Feedback: (1)

In 1934 I got my first rubber powered model- a Monarch combat. By 1936, after selling many newspapers and mowing all the neighborhoof lawns I was flying a Baby Cyclone powered Bunch Bros. Scorpion Major. Kept that up until it was decided by the powers that be that I would make a ballgunner on a B-24 out of Italy. Got one furlough and came back for a week to find a bunch of airplanes flying on wires. After the Army Air Corps somehow was in the USAF reserves until the Koreans got mad at the world and threw the model airplane hobby for another small delay. In between I was flying on wires and free flight. When I got settled down with a job on the Fire Dept. took up RC because there was the Ek Logictrol Little Red Brick that was what we all wanted, even if there were only two servos which made sailplanes the order of the day. As things progressed and the model industry kept up with the times there was so much good stuff that we had trouble doing all the things that were possible with such great equipment. Except when the USAF decided I was needed for something else I've never missed a chance to construct a new modelof some sort, including sailboats, full scale, and RC as well as airboats and occasional car when they ran around in circles on a wire. I had one of the first powered Thimble Dromes with an Arden. Still kept building and flying. I'm a WWI afficionado. If you remember G-8 and his Battle Aces, or Tailspin Tommy or Phineas Pinkham your getting pretty old. Still building and flying and sailing RC. I'm 81 and have enough projects on the bench for at least another 15 years. I'm so old I flew at Rosecrans and Western with some of the famous hobby pioneers. I won't take up the space necessary to name all the great ones I knew. I was just kinda the kid in the corner and they all helped me at one time or another. With all the good equipment available I believe these are the good old days.

BasinBum

My Feedback: (2)

Ballgunner,
I don't know about everyone else but I'd like to hear about Rosecrans and Western since I live about ten minutes away from there. The Sepulveda Basin became the next stop for a lot of those guys so I feel a small connection.

scottrc

I am fortunate to have been in clubs that are still in the "good ol days". Where the only politics is to have to decide who brings the chips and who brings the hot dogs. Our club has gone back to that type of lifestyle, where we have put away the feelings of trying to be an "organized" club and all we do is get together and fly. We also have evolved into including our families in everything we do, so now its not just club members, but whole families pitching in and turning fun flys into reunions.


I also am fortunate to have started flying when there were many "stick and tissue" guys in the clubs. I was taught by a guy in his late 80's who had a style that was, to say, smooth. He could fly anything, with anything because he had the skills that only you could learn by having to build your own planes and radios from scratch. He still flew with an old Heathkit radio on Ham band that was over 20 years old. I think most of the planes he flew were just as old for he never seemed to crash.

His building techniques were just as smooth. I remember tackling a Royal kit and was having all sorts of problems with the thick, plywood parts and trying to turn many of the blocks of balsa into recognizable shapes, he would come by and in a few minutes, show me easy ways to sand and fit parts that again, was learned by building planes from "orange crates" and blocks of balsa.

Another thing I loved about the past was the styles of the pattern planes. I have had a Taurus, many types of Kaos's, and are by far the most enjoyable planes to fly.

In this age of hovering and 3D mayhem, I still get a lot of compliments from spectators when I fly a Kaos or other old design, for watching these old planes fly is like watching a figure skater. They are just simple, clean, elegant, and graceful.

Scott

IronCross

I still have two Kraft Sport series radios I started RC with... Must have built three or four Sterling Fledglings before I got the hang of RC flying... Seems like back then people were in it for the fun, much less politics and stuff... And the Ambroid glue... Been tempted to buy a tube and see if it still smells the same .. Must have built hundreds of those Comet. Gullows etc stick and tissue planes with the Ambroid glue and Testors dope...

tychoc

Although not that old, I still have found memories as a kid in the 70's building models in the basement with my dad. Started out with simple FF gliders built from kits and covered with tissue and dope. Ah, the dope dope fumes....(mind you, this was the 70's)
Moved to CL planes using a cox .049 and then RC sail planes (2 ch). No laser cut kits back then. Had to cut out each rib and sand on my 3meter glider. These days, I have a hard time getting my kids to commit to this type of effort. They're used to instant gratification and constant entertainment.

I would take the bus for 30 minutes and then walk another 30 just to get to the frozen lake where we flew gliders in the winter.
Glad, I found my way back to the hobby 2 years ago.

-tychoc

bob36

My Feedback: (3)

Ah the memories,the smell off dope and even some banana oil. I started in rc in 1965 like all of you I had to build everything including the clevis for the push rods. I built the digitrio radio from rcm articles, did the whole works made the box from flat stock wound all the springs etc. the only thing that I bought was the tx antenna and electroics.
As for the current arf models I sure wish they had them in the day, I burned out on building after the first ten years, sure could of used a good arf or two then.
Here's to us old farts that kept the hobby alive for all you yong poots.

Bob

BasinBum

My Feedback: (2)

Here is a map from 1939 when Ballgunner was modeling...I think he may have some of you other old farts beat.

IronCross

BB
Do you know if there is still a club down there called the B.I.R.D.S ?... Used to belong to it in the late 60's... Along with Phil Kraft, Joe Briedi etc... Had a field down by Long Beach off the Long Beach Freeway at the time... They used to dock the Goodyear blimp next door... I think it all ended up a shopping center though...

ballgunner

My Feedback: (1)

Basin Bum suggested that I should expand on my memories of Rosecrans and Western. The airport north of Rosecrans was Gotch Field. named for Gus Gotch who in his day was a very good stunt and racing pilot. East bound along the South side of Gotch field was a very tall row of eucalyptus trees. We used to watch a Ford model A powered biplane struggle to get enough altitude to be seen over the tops trees almost every weekend. The model field was operated by the Gas Model Airplane Society of Southern California but always referred to as the GMAASC. I flew my Baby Cyclone powered Bunch Bros. Scorpion Major there. We used to have some pretty large monthly contests. I got 54th one time. It was a years subscription to Model Airplane News. A man came to one of our evening meetings with a proposition that we should all join the new AMA. 50 cents for rubber and $1.00 for gas. Our contests usually ran over 100 entries. There were some pretty well known pioneers flying there. Irwin Ohlsson, Bill Atwood (Cyclone designer),Hal Atkins (designer of the Trojan engines), The Bunch Brothers, with airplanes and their Mighty Midget engines, Barney Snyder of Modelcraft, Occasionally someone would appear with a GHQ engine and crank and crank and crank. Always by hand as electric starters were unheard of then. Never heard one run. The epitomy of engines was the Brown Jr. but they cost $19.95 and there weren't many at the field. All the big names were very kind to this kid and helped me when needed. All the engines were ignition that ran on SAE 70 oil and the cheapest white gas, mixed 3 to 1 gas and oil. The timers for the limited engine run were AutoKnips. I don't know the manufacturer but I believe they had something to do with cameras. Gotch field had one hangar that face East on Western Ave. and it had a WWI Thomas Morse WWI scout parked in front.
I flew there and East of Long Beach until the Great Unpleasantness spoiled my fun. I got one weeks firlough at graduation from Gunery School at Las Vegas Army Airfield which was way out of town. I came home to see a bunch of models flying around on wires. My friends suggested I try it so I proceeded to crash the first flight. When WWII was over we were still flying controline and free flight at some bean fields East of Long Beach until proportional RC came in with the EKLogictrol little red brick. With only two channels it pretty well set the playing field at sailplanes, mostly slope soaring at the South Coast Slope Soaring Society at Huntington Beach High School. Those were the "good ol' days" considering the lack of things we now take for granted. Personally I believe now are the "gold ol' days" considering the progress in both modeling design and available RC equipment. It was fun then and it still is. I'm 81 and have at least another 15 years of projects on the bench. Check with me later.

BasinBum

My Feedback: (2)

I heard they closed the field after someone hit the blimp with a plane. I have met Joe Bridi out at the Basin but his eyesight prevents him from flying.

Ballgunner,
That's some good stuff, I could read about it all day.
Do you guys remember Colby Evett? He has a shop in Santa Monica and is still building. He probably fixed your radio at some point back in the day. I bet you guys would have a lot of memories to share.

GrnBrt

My Feedback: (5)

I love reading this stuff so keep it coming as I grew up down there in culver city and flew at the basin in the early 60's and usually got a ride there with Jack Stafford, ah the memories! The LHS was Pico model on Sepulveda blvd in culver city and was run by Paul Good and the club I belonged to was the smog cutters, darn I'm getting misty eyed remembering all those memories, bye.

ballgunner

My Feedback: (1)

During 1946 we formed the Thunderbugs Model Club with 13 members out of Chuck's Hobby House in North Long Beach. Being on the Fire Dept. I had some free time so I worked with Chuck off and on at the shop. When he sold it to Swaney I bailed out and went to George's LHS on South St. Swaney kept telling anyone that they could belong to the Thunderbugs if they patronized his shop. He was so full of it that the original T'bugs wouldn't have anything to do with him. He kept promoting the club until it was either the biggest club in AMA or close to it. Finally had to split it into two divisions, one in Long Beach and the other in Orange County. Told anyone who would listen that he started it all. The originals had been flying together for a couple of years before he moved to Long Beach from Indiana. Talked a great game. They did have some good modelers and administration and were either sponsors or organizers of the Nats when they were held at Los Alamitos Naval Air Station for a couple of years. As for Swaney I don't care if he reads this, he was or is, full of it. I am the only one of the original Thunderbugs still on this earth. I guess you can call yourself whatever you want but if so you are not one of the originals. All of the founding members had flown at Rosecrans and Western with GMAASC in the early days. We had regular meetings and flew together as often as possible. Never an argument or harsh word. One of the kind of clubs everyone wishes for now. No dues, no officers, no rules and no contests. Just build and fly together. Now I will have to admit that there were some "good ol' days".

scottrc

Well Ballgunner, we hope to be listening to your stories for another 15 years

Joe Nagy

My Feedback: (3)

Many thanx Oldnwrinkled;

Greetings from the warm and dry 'Valley of the Sun'.

Your posting made my day. My Brother Steve & I got into RC back in '69, after hanging out at the local London, Ontario, Canada flying fields during the summers of '67 & '68, while we were still flying Controlline models, then got our RC outfits in the winter of '69-70, Steve an Orbit, myself a Kraft, and what you describe is exactly as I remember it too.......another time, another place......ah wow! where did the time go to?

And like the late Bob Hope theme song went....'Thanx for the Memories'.

Best regards from Phoenix,

Joe Nagy.