bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,

I have a Pro Line Competition Series 1975 (7 ch) radio but when I try to find some info about the company Pro Line (that existed during 1970th) not much info can be found when I Google this company.

Anyone know more about Pro Line company?
Did they make any catalogs - anyone have such catalog?

What I have found so far:

* Pro Line Electronics Inc started in 1968 (as far as I have found) and thecompany was sold to ACE R/C in 198x (anyone know the exact year?). Pro Linefactory was located in Phoenix, Arizona.
* Pro Line was designed and sold by Jim Fosgate, a former EK Logictrol developement engineer.

A lot of top pattern plane flyers (F3A) used Pro Line in beginning to mid 1970th, at least in US.
It was considered top quality radio, built with high quality components,with open gimbals sticks that was very good and they hadrather hefty price tags.

Below some photos of my Pro Line Competition Series '75radio, two ads from Model Airplane News 1975 (same year as my Pro Line radio was made) and a photo arrangement I made some time ago with my radio (compare one of the ads...).

/Bo

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I seriously doubt that they are still around. The radios from Asia that hit the market in the 80's pretty much put the US companies out of business.

fizzwater2

My Feedback: (61)

Pro line has been gone a long time - ACE really didn't do much with the line after they bought it, if I remember correctly. ACE used to be just a couple of hours from where I live, so I went over there once in a while to visit with them. I was a home ACE dealer for a while, too, but never got too deep into it.

Proline also had a "custom competition" radio that had stick assemblies that were made from cast and machined parts, used Spectrol or other conductive plastic long life pots. Heck, even back in the late 80's, a new pot for one of those sticks would set you back ~30-40 bucks. Wonder what a modern radio with parts like that in it would cost?

Proline never really got into the dual rates, reversing, etc that was becoming popular then. ACE had their "silver seven" encoder board that had these features, and I don't remember if they ever put them into the proline cases / mechanics or not. Then ACE had the "micropro" radio, with an early computer and programmability. Folks still today are using Micropro radios with updated software / firmware, there's a whole Yahoo group that deals with them. I quit using mine when I got a Futaba 7UAFS radio, found it easier to program. Even that's been a long time ago..

BuschBarber

My Feedback: (2)

I have a fellow club member who traded his ProLine radio for an In-the-Box Spektrum DX8. There are those that still value design of the ProLine radio, with possible thoughts of converting it to 2.4.

bem

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Rich,

I contacted Radio South yesterday about converting my Pro Line to 2.4 GHz. We will se what Mr Tony Stillman at Radio South has to offer.
It is strange that RCHall of Fame just have two pictures of Pro Line and no history information atall, Pro Line was after all considered a Rolls-Royce" radio back in1970th.

/Bo

ChuckA

Proline was formed in about 1968 by several famous RC flires from the South. Some of the initial founders included Jim Kirkland, Ron Chidgney, Doc Edwards, Jim Whitley, and others whose names I don't remember but they were some of the top pattern fliers in the US. They hired Jim Fosgate to design the electronics while Jim Kirkland and Ron Chidgney designed and manufactured the open gimble sticks. The primary emphasis was on quality and reliability so all electronic components used lab quality precision components. The Compition series used the Chidngey open gimble sticks while a cheaper sport series used Kraft molded sticks. Early receivers were built with discrete components and was housed in a metal case. Servos used Kraft mechanics with Fosgage designed electronics. The initial factory was set up in Athens Alabama near Jim Whitley's home. Fosgate's wife suffered severe alageries in the Alabama weather so the factrory was moved to Arizona in about 1970.

In 1969, I bought my first Proline sport radio and it was built in Alabama but my 1971 Proline single stick Competition transmitter was buit in Arazona. I used that transmitter until 1993 and I still have it. I don't know much about Proline after they moved to Arazona but someone bought the company after Fosgate lost control. Ace finally wound up owning Proline but, as far as I know, never built any Proline radios. In about 1995, I bought a used single stick transmitter that looked like a Poline in a larger case. The lable says that it is a Cuctom Build Ace Silver Seven transmitter. I bought it because it had a Chidgney single stick with the intention of upgrading it to Micropro electronics using a kit Ace was selling for upgrading Silver Seven transmitter to Micropro electronics. Unfortunately, the Micropro board could not be installed because the Chddney stick was too big and I would have to use a larger case.

In the early years, Jim Fosgate came to the Nats and provided free service to anyone flying Prolines. I attended the 1972 Nats at Chicago and watched him adjusting several transmitters in his Holidan Inn room. On a 1972 side note, I got to hear Phil Kraft play paino in the Holiday Inn Bar after midnight.

onewasp

bem,

From memory !

Pro Line went out of business in 1974 (result of a bad business decision) and that was before any real competition from the Asian mfgrs.
Futaba was here but under MRC and went no where until much, much later.

Pro Line was owned by Jim Whitley and engineered by Jim Fosgate who now lives just outside Salt Lake City. Jim Whitley I believe died some time ago but I lost all contact before that.

As I remember it they did indeed have dual rates and options beyond that were available on an as ordered basis. As was switch location; trim location etc.

The Kraft Signature came in as Pro Line was going out and Steve Helms from Pro Line went to work for Phil and was in charge of Signature Series production etc., etc. The Kraft Sig. Series was designed by Doug Spreng working for/with Phil at that time.
Doug died roughly a year ago and was involved in many other significant businesses which were quite successful.
Doug was quitewell educated (Harvard bachelors and masters fromMIT) as I remember .

As many know Steve is now and has been for many years Mr. Futaba in the USA.
He ran the Futaba USA business for several years after MRC was cancelled and through Steve's efforts Futaba became an accepted brand in Pattern where Steve was well known and quite successful in Pattern / F3A .

Much later the distribution rights were contracted to Hobbico.
Futaba closed their So. Cal warehouse and Steve moved to Huntsville, still in charge of Futaba USA. as he is today.

As I said all from memory but I did spend an hour or so with Steve at the Toledo show a couple of years back.
He still regularly attends that and other RC industry functions.

Pro Line used the Kraft-Hayes 15 II servo mechanics with their own amp and the cases were molded in the off white, color which IDd their brand.
The Pro Line sticks were Ron Chidgey's design. Very simply the Gold Standard.

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

While my post may not have the interesting content of the previous ones, I do have a bit of info to ad. My ProLine Competition 7 bought new in 74 or so came with the Kraft IC in the 15II servos and also used the carbon button servo wipers. It didn't use the Fosgate amps! I remember because I looked at one of them! The thing worked great for at least a dozen flights before all the servos started glitching like mad and of course they wouldn't center worth a darn. The wipers had worn holes in the composition servo pots with the fore mentioned results. They all went back to ProLine where they installed the traditional metal finger wipers and all was good again. So much for that experiment. I flew that radio for one season then went back to using Kraft equipment where I stayed until they went away. Another thing about the ProLine servos. They used a very high quality servo motor ... much better and more reliable than what Kraft was using at the time.

I bought that well over $400.00 radio in a time when I really didn't make that much and had a very hard time selling it. But I had to own one of those white box radios at least once!

Does anyone know if the mid 70s vintage, Kraft metal open gimbal sticks were the same as those in the ProLine radios?

Silent-AV8R

The OP's radio, which he bought in 1975 (I assure you ProLine was very much still in business then) was very likely built by me. I worked at ProLine in 1975-76 building transmitters in their small plant in west Phoenix. The Competition Series radios had Chidgey designed sticks that were for all practical purposes hand built for each transmitter. The raw parts fit was awful and each needed custom reaming and tooling and tweaking to be the smooth works of art that went out the door. My general rule of thumb was if a stick took more than 1 hour to get right I tossed the parts and started over.

You could indeed get custom switch locations for the dual rate and snap roll. Our radios were used by some of the biggest names in RC at the time (except for Phil Kraft of course!!). A buddy of mine still has a transmitter I built in 1975. The sticks are still as smooth as silk. Honestly, if you never felt those sticks you really have no idea what a nice stick feels like!!

All of the soldering was done by hand on site. This was before wave soldering and then surface mount came along. A highlight was doing repair test flying. We would put repaired radios in our trusty Jensen Ugly Stik and go fly. One test was to fully collapse the transmitter antenna while in flight. Never lost a plane.

I worked there just after a local electronics firm that made computer parts acquired it. I never met of knew Fosgate, he was out of the picture by then. They had no real idea about making hobby RC stuff. This was just after Steve Helms left to go to Kraft. There was no Futaba or JR then. ProLine and Kraft were the big dogs.

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,

Very interesting information so far. I'm sure there is much more to tell so keep it comming.

Silent-AV8R:

Do You think You built my rado, Pro Line Competition Series '75? It has serial number 008408 - does that number say anything more then just that, a series of numbers? Was it the 8408 Pro Line made (total or that year) or was it just my Competition Series build nr 8408 (total until then or only that year 1975?)

Do You know if any Pro Line catalogs was made by Pro Line during the years this company existed?

/Bo

CedricD67

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We have full range of  Walkera RC heli.

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ChuckA

In 1968, I saw Jim Whitley demonsrating the prototype Proline transmiter at a Decatur Alabama contest. After the contest, he would colapse the antenna and do aerobatics extreme range. At the banquet that night, I learned that Jim crashed not long after I left. His model ran out of fuel and he didn't make it back to the runway. The field was a WWII Army airfield runway surronded by cotton fields and Jim landed in the tall cotton. Jim Whitley flew two stick while Jim Kirkland and Ron Chidgney flew single stick. Jim Kirkland taught me to fly RC in 1956 when we were both stationed at Tyndall AFB Florida.

Silent-AV8R

I honestly cannot recall how the serial numbers worked. I believe it was cumulative for all radios, not within a given line. And I have not seen a catalog in a very long time.

LesUyeda

" I was a home ACE dealer for a while,"

And I was ACE Service Center West (their first satelite repair facility), for several years, till I tired of the tired excuses from the home builder, about how ACE had sent them bad stuff, because their kit didn't work after they assembled it. Of course, the burnt up traces from using too large an iron; the pulled up lands; and the diodes installed backwards didn't have anything to do with it:-((((((((((((((((

Les

HIr/cer

My Feedback: (74)

As an Ace Service Center, you must have received a lot of those unfair assessments of Ace R/C kits! Looking at Heathkit and Ace ads for R/C kits back then, I chose the Ace Silver Seven set which included the Digital Commander 1-8 receiver kit at that time and except for a faulty transmitter IC chip (replaced by Ace, they just wanted the faulty chip returned), it performed flawlessly. Bought and built another Silver Seven set shortly thereafter, with the metal sticks, expo, roll, and CAR options and was also quite satisfied with it. Also really liked those compact Ace Bantam Midget servo kits.

fizzwater2

My Feedback: (61)

I built and used quite a few of those Bantam Midgets and the Silver 7 receivers. Had a silver 7 TX that started life as a two-stick, got converted to a single stick with a new case, ended up with a micropro transmitter for a while.

My first TX (1973) was a Heathkit 8ch (the blue box with slanted top piece) that I built. I was 16 years old that summer, still have the TX around somewhere.

LesUyeda

"My first TX (1973) was a Heathkit 8ch (the blue box with slanted top piece) that I built. I was 16 years old that summer, still have the TX around somewhere. "

I also believe I have one of those in the garage rafters:-)))))))))))))))

Les

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,

Maybe bring these old Heathkit radios back to life again with a cheap 2.4 GHz TX module and a new 2.4 GHz receiver plusnew servos and batteries and fly with some nice old vintage plane again just for fun?

/Bo

fizzwater2

My Feedback: (61)

Mine doesn't look like it used to.. at one point, I put a new front on it, took the sticks apart, used one of the return-to-center mechanisms and made a "steering wheel" radio with throttle on the side out of it, so I could drive an early electric car with it, complete with a wood steering wheel made with a drill and file/sandpaper.

Hey, when you're young and broke, you get innovative...

karolh

History can be a very interesting subject especially if you have a special interest in the topic being discussed or researched, like this one.

Karol

fizzwater2

My Feedback: (61)

back to the original premise of this thread - anyone else have any proline history bits to share? Almost makes me want to dig mine out and put some batteries in it, but I am pretty sure I don't have receivers to work with it any more, mine was 6-meter (53 MHz) AM. Heck, I even let my Ham license expire several years back, so I'd have to change the RF deck in the TX to even use it.

ChuckA

I used Ace Silver Seven receivers and servos with my Proline transmitter when I switched to sailplanes. I used Proline servos and receivers in my pattern ships but I quit pattern after 1976. My Proline was on 53 and I continued on 6 meters until 1997.

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

I was a local repairman for RC equipment in the early '70s for the Seattle area. I was the local rep for Kraft, EK, and Royal products.
Jim Fosgate frowned on using a local repair rep so I only got one Pro Line set in for repair. That set receiver was a piece for piece copy of the EK receiver. Its not surprising since Fosgate had been the EK development engineer.
EK later produced a dual conversion receiver that I considered the best available at the time.

HIr/cer

My Feedback: (74)

About the time Ace R/C acquired Pro Line, they changed the color of the Ace transmitter cases from red to white. My two Silver Seven TX's were in red vinyl, same as the older Ace Digital Commander transmitters. Silver Seven transmitters were later sold in white vinyl cases. Anyone recall why Ace decided to change colors and if there was any connection with their obtaining Pro Line?

4*60

My Feedback: (41)

You guys should get together and have a beer....(don't do that anymore).......coffee(to hard on the stomach and bladder).....tea(ditto!)......glass of warm water or milk...yeah!

I'm JOKING!