flyingagin

I scanned a few pictures of some of my old airplanes. Here are acouple of my old control line planes. The red and white is a magician. Had a rc 40 for power, throttle wired open. Scratch built from plans. Stock stap placement. It was a nice flyer. I am getting the urge to build another. Would move the stab back 2 to 4 inches.
The yellow one was VERY LOOSLY based on the magician but enlarged some. An OS 60 for power (insane power). Wore me out to fly it, only comfortable 2 fisting it.

flyingagin

more
The front of the flight box was my stooge

flyingagin

Just Just Bananas was finnished with Sig Koverall and dope. 70 foot lines, I don't know what the lap times were, but they were fast. Lost it when I got a bit low dureing inverted flight. I saved a piece of covering. My nieghbor across the street did the art work.
1 after flight pic. Just wore out.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Hey flyinagine Thanks for posting the old pictures, I thourghly enjoyed them. Hmm noticed you seem to have added flaps to the Magician.

John[8D]

flyingagin

Yeah I did I don't beleive they made all that much differnce. But if I had also moved the stap back 2 or so inches then I think they would have had a very notecable effect. Or so I have read on the forums. But it still turned just fine.
I am thinking it is time to build another control line plane after my current build is done (http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10675544/tm.htm). I do not build fast anymore. Just seems to take for ever. And in a small apartment using the dinning table as my shop, well the wife would practice her rolling pin swing upside my head if I staryted another build till the first was cleared.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Indeed my Magician does all I am capable of but wondered about the flaps. Thinking outside the box is what makes this passion interesting.

John[8D]

Gungadin

I've been flying my Brodak Origiinal Magician since April. And I did move the stab back almost 3". It fly's very well. Better than me !

flyingagin

Good looking bird
The plane has nicer looking lines with the stap moved back.
Wife hates profile planes. Could I still call It a Magician if I made a built up fuse, but kept the same lines?

Gungadin

I think then it would be a Super Magician !

flyingagin

HAHA good one
One would hope it would not pull a dissapearing act.

Hmm It actually does bear thinking about. Might be a way to build a little bit lighter.

Gungadin

Yes Sir, it does bear thinking about for sure !

flyingagin

All of my plans are in storage. After we move next week or 2, I will get them out and then I can give it some seroius thought.
Please don't flame me, but I am thinking heresy. A super light radio for throttle and maybe a smoke system. Last time I flew a control line with throttle was on three lines. Had a blast. My buds banned me from useing it for balloon busting contest. I got every dang one of them suckers! High speed taxi and just drove over them

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Do not forget the stooge release

In this day and age over the air 2.4 control systems, throttles as well as accessories is a completlely viable option.

For about the last ten years I have used a three function Bill Young electronic handle and over the wire system. Been a wonderful experiance. This system even allowed walking the dog in a straight line something a three line system could never do. The down side of the over wire types is ware and tear on the line electrical attachments every time they are rolled and unrolled. Even just rolling them up is more time consuming because of the plug connectors and line splices. Another down is the insulated wires that are required.

So for my next ship I am going to 2.4 and all that will go away and I will include and onboard stooge release.

John

flyingagin

A couble of the pics with the yellow plane (Just Bananas) have a yellow flight box in them. On the front of it is a stooge. It was super simple. My planes had a piece of music wire coming out the back that was bent into a full loop oriented vertically. A straight peice of music wire passed throught 3 holes in the stooge and went through the loop in back of the plane. I just pulled a string to release the plane. Super simple super reliable.

A radio will defenitly go in my next controle line plane.

I have an unused st 34 and a unkown rc wing fully symetrical airfoil. 10"x50". Maybe 1 or 2 degrees of dihedral. I wonder if the wing is to big for just a .34. My next biggest engine is a 60 but it is in use. I have a unused OS .25. but would have to start from scatch and that is a little small for my taste in control line. Unfortunatly I ain't got the money to go out and buy a motor right now or I'd go with a St .51

Avaiojet

Well, here's a photo I just found while looking for my old CL engine stash.

I was just a kid, it was 1960. This is my first scratch built CL model. The front wheel was shock operated. The model bounced like a spider.

Never flew all that well, but I did have some fun with it. 1960! Hard to believe.

The photo has aged also.

flyingagin

Here isONEairplane from when I was still in high school. Magician, Enya .35 bushed bearing.

royf

Since we're reminising about our favorite control line airplanes, here's two of mine. I took 3rd place flying scale USAF in 1959 with this Cessna 172. The ME 262 is one I "scratch built" from a 3 view Photograph. Both flew beautifully.

flyingagin

Those are both really good looking birds. Something about the Cessna, I really like it. Was it covered in silkspan or something else?

I think we need a nostagia thread for both control line and rc and even ff, to post pics of our old planes, even if they have already expired. Not sure how active such a thread would be.
At least in our heads we could once again be as young as when we had those planes.

royf

Both of my birds were covered with sheet balsa and silkspaned over for finshing.
Roy

flyingagin

Thanks

itsarvninea

Hey folks I'm new to this forum, I recently acquired an old Ringmaster Junior that was about to be tossed out by an elderly woman who's husband had long since passed. The plane has an old McCoy .35 frozen solid and the wings appear to have been covered in silk span which is mostly gone. I must admit it's been over 40 years since I have done any building or flying control line. We used to call it u control and we covered our planes with silk or nylon. there used to be a dope made by a company called Pactra, we'd use clear dope to adhere the fabric, apply sanding sealer to the wood surfaces and spray paint using a gun taping off the desired designs. I still have a Johnny Walker U reeley if anyone is familar with it and I have a box full of old Fox and Mc Coy motors. I still have stored in an attic some of the planes I built when I was a teenager. These planes are to old to fly and most are in rough shape they include a super clown, sterling profile mustang, a flying wing, a built up Veco Thunderbird and a scratch built 48" me109 built up stunter, anyone remember any of these?  I'm considering getting back into model flying, there's a group of radio fying people not to far away who have nothing to do with control line flying. I live in central new york is there anyone in this area that still does fly control line planes? I have a lot of questions regarding the current materials and methods used to build these planes. As for the Ringmaster Junior I suspect the fox .35 is a bit overkill I have an old .15 that hasn't run in over 40 years I'd like to find gaskets and parts or I may have to just break down and get a new motor from Fox. Anybody been where I am? I have built a full size airplane and fly often but there has always been a place in my heart for those fun old days flying control line.

Steve

greggles47

Welcome back Steve, if you soak that gummed up McCoy in kero for a while it'll probably loosen up. It's probably gummed up from dried castor oil.

If soaking doesn't do the job you can get an old crock pot and fill it with auto radiator fluid and "cook" the motor for a couple of days. The motor will come up clean as new, WARNING the crock pot should never be used for cooking food again. Once crock potted you'll be able to strip the motor down to inspect for any problems, clean & oil and reassemble. It may have lost some compression as the cooking will remove the castor varnish which helps maintain compression. Should return after a couple of runs with fuel that uses all castor as the oil component.

Good luck mate.

Greg

cutaway

If the Thunderbird is the Palmer design its would still capable of winning the nationals in the right hands if built light and straight.

BTW, a Magician doesn't need all that rudder offset, it causes weirdness in hard corners, which is already bad enough with the different length wings. Lengthening the tail is probably a good idea. The stock short coupling makes it harder to fly with real precision.

The Brodak plans version is also different than the Midwest kit version. It has a slightly smaller wing and elevator, shorter nose, and a little differently shaped rudder than the Midwest one. The Midwest kit also lacked the half ribs on the LE.

I've scratch built two from the Brodak plans and would opt for the larger Midwest wing and stab if I build another. I'd keep the Brodak's shorter nose though as the Midwest versions always tended to come out nose heavy. My Brodak plans ones balanced perfectly without any weight using a Fox .35.

The Brodak plans also show a very conservative forward C/G that hurts performance.

clscale-RCU

My Feedback: (7)

I also have flown with the Bill Young Handle and a host of other electronic control systems. I have a friend who flies his Piper cub (80" span) with a 2.4 Ghz radio and reports that the line tension is reduced since you don't have the nylon coating on the lines.

There is a rule proposal at the AMA to allow 2.4 Ghz to allow in CL general and another proposal that would allow 2.4 Ghz for CL scale. Write your contest board member on your thoughts so they know how to vote.

After flying with electronic controls (regardless what format, Bill Young, JR DSC, servo driver, etc...) I would never build a 3-line airplane again.

Here is a link to my book that I wrote on CL electronic controls, it talks about line construction and some of the information is now dated and obsolete, but a few chapters still apply today.

http://www.eicnetwork.com/eic/Scale.html

I currently fly with the JR radios with the DSC connection and insulated lines, and also use the Servo drivers.

I have recently converted to electric power with the brushless motors and Lipo batteries, best thing I did especially for scale.

Fred Cronenwett