daleflysrc

My Feedback: (26)

Mine was a Testors Orange Cosmic Wind with a testors 049 wore it completely out !! The engine that is !! G lined it a few times !! Then my Dad built me a Baby Flight Streak with a Cox babe 049 !! Cox PT 19, Stunt stuka, almost all of Goldbergs 1/2 a s and then a 35 sized Ringmaster some years after R/C Scratched I dont know how many Lil Satans !! Scratched a couple of Baby ringmaster last may for SMALL STEPS and just finished a shoestring with a TD 049 !! also bought a ARF Flight streak at Mikes in Dalas last thursday and an Eny 40 for it at the Eldorado swap meet !! Come fly your U/C at this years SMALL !! more & more ukiees each year !!

SIMCO

My Feedback: (33)

Cox PT-19 was the first. For my next birthday, Cox Stuka in green,(I have been told they didn't make them in green,HA) 1/2 of 1 lap and hit the deck. Exploded. Dad said he was sorry. For the rest of my c/l career, Lil Satan's. It's amazing what you do learn without prompting. The older kids showed me how to resolder tanks that cracked, cutting ribs from ink printed wood, Ambroid takes time to cure,and finding "dope" make the head feel funny.

Kinner

Oh Boy. On occassion , a thread will open up here and all the modeling guys tell of our stories in the hobby. I do enjoy as some of the kits and planes mentioned opened up a channel to a brain room that hasn't been visited in years.

Scientific, Sterling, Guillows, ... I think I build them all. What ever the Fort Dix hobby shop or Lakehurst NAS hobby shop often made it home.

lots of McCoys .29 and .35s took thier toll on the knuckles and blood but not like the blood thirsty Cox .049. Darn things ran backwards equally well as forwards and made great pusher cars in the street.

My first plane was a Scientific LiL Devil or something like that. My brother helped me through with cloth hinges and Perfect 1 Oz fuel tank.

Flew some Navy Carrier for a summer or two and slow combat was too much for my nerves.

I had a neat old photo to upload but the internal Error monster is on the prowl.

Ray W.

HoundDog

My Feedback: (49)

Who else has the time for PLAY, but Kids and Gezzers?

harve28

First one was a cox .049 p-51 with a 4 blade prop! I couldn't fly it because I would get motion sick from going around and around! Lol

All Day Dan

My Feedback: (5)

Old farts? That's an understatement! 74 and still counting. Built every Strombecker model they made and threw them out of my second story window to see if they would fly. No luck. CL was the solution when glow plugs came out in 1947. Dan.

radioman

my first was a cox stuka my second was lil satan i built from a kit cant remember the mfg that was early 60s

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

Only old schoolers care about this stuff. I am pretty young, but am lucky enough to have been touched by this aspect of the hobby. The great old hobby stores, stick building, ambroid, printed parts, the great smell of old glow fuel, building kits because you had to if you wanted to fly!

At this point in time for me, I only build and am one of the few in my club that does. This hobby has been one of the greatest things in my life. I feel lucky to have experienced as many aspects of it as I have. Now I build contest scale models. Who knows where I will be after that. But that is what keeps me fascinated now.

Not to mention the people I have met. The best of any from all of the other hobbies I have been involved in!

ThunderBoat42

My Feedback: (1)

Yeah, we're a bunch of ole guys now..  *laughing*  I will say that MANY of our National 'Hero's"  (remember when this country had "Hero's") started out building and flying model airplanes.   AMA keeps a list for the kids program.... it's impressive.   I wonder if kids these days know who Armstrong, yeager, Hoover and the likes are?  My 10 yr old Daughter does and we build Gillows kits together.  I have her a cox PT19 we will start flying this summer.  You guys reminded me about all the really awesome older CL kits that were in the 049 class.  She will have good memories when Daddy's gone I hope.  

PWF63

My first model was an Australian Aeroflite Kit "Taipan Trainer"
that was over 45 years ago now.
Three years ago I built replica of the model on the Kit box
withy a Taipan 2.5 glow in it as a piece of Burford/Aeroflite nostalgia.
This model is now hanging in the KMFC club house in Sydney.

Fredo

Speedy-Gonzales

My Feedback: (202)

I'm far from being old. I'm 56 and my Dad is 82 and when he weaned me off the baby bottle he put me in a highchair next to his building board and gave me a tube of plain "No Brand" cellulose glue and some balsa scraps to glue together. He kept an eye on me with the glue but I learned to glue parts to my arms, hair, and clothes. With his help I built my first successful HLG at the age of 4. After that the sky was wide open to my own imagination. I have literally been in the hobby since birth.

1st picture: Me at age 5 with a HI-Flyer rubber job
2nd picture: I still have a tube of "No Brand" glue that is still intact and usable! "Super Glue" ????
3rd picture: One of my current profile Stunters with engine removed for winter. Engine going back in very soon....yeeeh hahhh!
4th picture: Entitled..."Once a Doper...Always a Doper!" A full gallon of AERO-KLAD clear dope. We used to go to the airport and buy by the 4 gallon case.

That little kid in the 1st picture is still inside the man in the 4th picture.

Speedy-Gonzales

My Feedback: (202)

OOPS! Double post....I am getting old!

davidhand

I was a twelve year kid at the time living in Portsmouth England. I got a one cc ED Bee for Christmass I couldn't afford a kit so I bought balsa wood and copied a friend's Keil Kraft Phantom Mite. It flew fine but the tank leaked and the plane got heavier every weekend from soaking up fuel, you had to solder up your own tank in those days. I learned to fly on it though.

sierracharlie

My Feedback: (21)

My first was a Cox P-51. Mom used all of her S&H Green Stamps she had been saving. (Thanks MOM!) I was hooked. !st build was a Goldberg Lil Wizard. Moved on to RC in the 80's I can remember every CL plane and the freinds that came with them.

Launch Pad McQuack

My first was a Goldberg Lil' Wizard built with my father. Had a Cox .049 Blackwidow for power. That was followed up by a Ringmaster with a Fox 35. He flew R/C as well and I gravitated to it over the years. He on the other had has gravitated the other way and now flies more U/C than R/C. We have an active group in our club that still flies so I can see U/C any weekend. My father has already started work on a U/C trainer for my 3 year old son for when he is old enough.

barron

Mine was a Cox P-40 that my brother brought home to me when He came home from Vietnam in I think 1968. He bought onboard ship. He was on the USS Intrepid.

Doug47

My Feedback: (24)

Cox P-40, then about all they made over the next two years. Then I flew a buddies Flite Streak and Cox days were over, sure had fun with them though. First wood built-up kit was a Shark 15 (that I just finished another one from plans and a short kit). It was a GREAT c/l model. Any of you other old boys I recommend building a replica of your first kit...its very satisfying. And sad. More happy than sad though . Doug

Speedy-Gonzales

My Feedback: (202)

Good Lord! I forgot all about S&H Green Stamps at the old "Red & White" grocery store. I got a Cox P-40 Warhawk in tan/green cammo and a Bronson bait casting rod/reel combo. My mom was concerned I would get sick licking all those sheets of stamps so she adopted the "wet sponge" application method instead of spit.

jessiej

What a great thread!

I started building stick-and-tissue at a very young age. It was a great revelation to me when I learned that the tissue could be shrunk by wetting it! I remember building a Goldberg designed Comet Gull and thinking it was HUGE! It flew for several feet, too.

First CL was a Firebaby (wood fuselage) with an O.K. .049. Then I got a Fox.29 and Ringmaster kit for Christmas. Hooked forever.

jess

crashlander

My Feedback: (10)

My first was a "Guided Starlet" powered by OK Cub .o49B. Plane was from Consolidated Hobbies in the Bronx, New York by the 3rd Ave elevated train near 161st St.
I graduated to a Jumping Jack (profile by Consolidated Hobbies) powered by a Forster .31 gthen various combat models,Quicker, Diamond, Renegade etc.
All in the 50's and 60's. Then went on to RC trying to fly pattern.

Orlando

scale dail

My Feedback: (8)

My first was a Sterling profile P-47 Thunderbolt, with a very used Cox Golden Bee .049. Summer 1976, 13 years old. I was building rubber powered planes before that.
I still have that Golden Bee and it runs great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re5qUDud_kg

GallopingGhostler

I believe [link]http://www.hippocketaeronautics.com[/link] has PDF plans of the Shark 15, but you need membership (free). I checked just now, but site is down for one reason or another.

Red_Jeepster

THANKS for causing the memories to come flooding in!!! My first was the PT-19 and shortly later my Dad maidened my first balsa kit -a bipe. He planted it in the school parking lot on his first circuit! I stood there speechless. Now I do that every so often myself - as I plant one.
I had no complaints as he is the one who spent hours with me building just about every Comet or Guillows kit I brought home.
Fast forward 40+ years and I am in RC now.
Those who mentioned selling Christmas cards really made me smile! I sold them too !!! That's how we were able to buy kits, right guys! We worked. 11 years old I delivered 115 newspapers each day including weekends. Did that for years until I sold the route to another kid (my brother) and focused on cutting grass.
My favorite CL was the big Ringmaster. Silkspan and dope, Fox 35 oh the smell of fuel on a hot summer afternoon!

Now I have Grandsons and young fellas at church that I can mentor in the hobby. I hope they make it a lifelong adventure like we have!

GallopingGhostler

I'd be speechless, too. I prefer planting mine in grass. Asphalt is rather brutal. [:@]

If you are interested, you can join the Ringmaster's Brotherhood and forum:

[link]http://brotherhoodofthering.info/[/link]

GallopingGhostler

I've got one of those, it was my son's. Also have pictures of before and after on the field found engine.