Old RC Aviator

My Feedback: (9)

Everyone remembers their first time(flying R/C). Tell us about your first time at the sticks.

I'll start.

In 1974 a friend I haden't seen in a while dropped by and the usual conversation started "What you been up to"? He said he had been flying Radio control planes and he asked me to join him and a friend flying off a lake in upstste Ny. So we went to the lake. The temp was about 20 degrees that day but no wind. After watching him and his friend fly their planes the friend asked me if I'd like to try it. Reluctently I accepted his invitation to have a go at it. Back then there were no buddy boxes. He was flying a Swizzle Stik 40 with a Fox 40 and EK Logictrol single stick radio. He kept an eye on me and I was doing pretty good for a while then my friend Tom asked him a building question or something and that's when all went sour. He took his attention off me and the next thing I knew the Swizzle Stik was in a series of tight loops that I could not get it out of. I hollered HEY Al!! And before he could get to me I looped that Stik into a tree in front of a cottage. The sound was deffening. Like throwing pebbles into a spinning fan. Then silence. He looked at me and started laughing. I felt terrible. I offered to buy the mess right there. He said I didn't have to but just help him retrive the plane off the ice. The ice was thin close to shore there because of a creek that flowed into the lake but we walked over there and began picking up all the pieces. Now there arn't meny pieces to a Swizzle Stik but the servos and reciever were blown completely out of the box fuse. We started to retrive the radio components ahd that's when we found out just how thin that ice really was. Al went through the ice into about 5 feet of water. I grabbed his hand and pulled him out. Then Al says "Where's Tom"? We looked out over the ice and he was running for the opposit shore hell bent for election. We laughed our a**es off. The three of us are still friends and I fly with them both. Tom lives in Ny and Al lives in Alabama. I'm in Ny but visit Alabama as much as I can. I'm going there next week to see Al and fly with him. I bought the radio and motor and also the flight equipment from him that day for $175.00. I had to take the servos and reciever to Lon's R/C in Mattydale, Ny for repairs. That radio served me well for many years. So common guys tell your tales. It'll be fun.
Jay.

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

My first flight was in 1971 in Tucson Az. Had just finished a Falcon 56 and headed out to the open field down the street. Got the engine running and taxied it out like I knew what I was doing. Applied power and she lifted off, went about 100 ft and down she came. It was a very short first flight, but it was the start of my RC hobby that thrives today. Dave

safeTwire

My Feedback: (2)

My first time was late 1960's at the Armonk Airport, Westchester County, NY. The plane was a Midwest Astro-Mite, Radio was Controlaire Galloping Ghost / Rand LR-3 Actuator, Engine was Enya.09.

The plane had been checked, rechecked and test glided what seemed to be a hundred times, so it was really ready for flight. Hand launched, she actually flew very well all by herself (basically like a free flight) except for the occasional control inputs from a very nervous first time owner/ pilot...me!

outdoorhunting

Ah, my first time!!!! I was 16 & she was 16 &, whoops,,, wrong first time !!!! Sorry, at my age, the old mind wonders sometimes. I'd just got my trainer,- Hobbico, (don't remember what model). The friendly guy in the big brown truck brought it. I found the complete deal, TX & everything on the Bay for a good price. I had practiced for hours on my sim & was good ( I thought).. Went across the road to an open field, started it up, took off, & made 2 or 3 laps, (no kidding) Don't get me wrong, I had the plane all over the sky. It was like; CRAP how did it do that,- Ok it kinda straightened out & then CRAP,;; it did it again !!!!!! I decided that maybe the sim was a little easier than the real thing. I thought, ARGHHHH, jeesh, now I have to land this thing !!!! OK, no problem, I do it all the time on the sim. HA!! I landed 3 or 4 times, touch-downbounce, touch-downbounce. Long story ,short that was a VERY ROUGH LANDING. It took a week to repair that. The old Hobbico was repaired sooo many times afer that, it looked like camoflage. After 5 yrs , I have improved, now I only bounce twice.

Tommygun

My Feedback: (2)

First time? Summer time, 1986, Flitecraft Solo 1 from Tower Hobbies with a Kraft radio. Some guy pulls up in a 71 or 72 black Dodge Challenger, and mentions he'd flown these things before. He goes on and on about how if you add real gasoline to the fuel, that you'll get more power. So he's yacking away the entire time about how great the 70's were while my dad and I are setting up the plane. Still, I wished I could have crazy mopar guy maiden it for me, since I'd never flown before and he at least had stories about flying. Oh I had hours of taxi time- I think that OS .35 FP had 2 gallons of fuel through it before this day. Well, we finally got it started, I pointed her into the wind and I advanced the thottle. Up she went, so far so good. Time to turn around...now everything goes to heck. I got disoriented, and the plane snapped and stalled, then augered straight in from 50'. Bits and pieces...oh well. Same thing happened with a Sureflite Cub a couple months later. Then a Cox Canario a few months after that. Wasn't sucessful until a year later when a friend and I rigged up his Cox Hawk glider with a larger wing and a Black Widow .049 on a power pod. Looked like a heap but man did it teach us to fly! The moral? ALWAYS get an instructor!

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

My dad was in the hobby, so I started flying way too far back to remember my first time.

What I DO remember is: One click for right, two clicks for left.

Old RC Aviator

My Feedback: (9)

104 people have looked at this thread and only 5 can remember their first time? Come on people.

JNorton

My Feedback: (2)

My first time. 1962 - Carl Goldberg Lil Satan U Control with a Cox .049. I was 12. All my buddies complemented me on how nice it looked. A friend wanted to try it - he could fly wing overs and inverted etc. I built it so I flew it. If you could call it that. 2 seconds max - too much up - wing over direct into the asphalt.
John

outdoorhunting

Lazy !!!!

STUKA BARRY

My first time was buddy boxing with Orville when Wilbur told Orville the engine was going lean. Jeez, between these two brothers about to duke it out, I just turned my head back and asked Charles Taylor what he thought? Then I snapped out of it and turned to Toto and said, we're not in Kansas anymore. It was then I learned that Elvis had left the flying field. Damn, I never catch a break. I think this all happened in 1981 in Myrtle Beach where I mastered the RC art of solo and have been practicing ever since.

outdoorhunting

Alright, another person that has mastered the art of digital mastery of the keys that represent the often unspoken but never forgotten words of the " not-so-politically correct" masses of the minority based BSRs. Uhm, I think I lost my train of thought at the last curve of the tracks. what was I saying??? Oh,well.

wobblyflight

Sticks?? First time was with thumb on a button - not sure when it was exactly flying. Would that be when you actually got it back to within 1 acre or so from where you launched it? They went something like this. "Got it?" "Yes, I think so, its turning." " No, that's the wind", "No, look, I can turn it the other way". "Well I though I could just a second ago", "It's getting pretty far away" , "Iknow, I'm trying to bring it back." "Whew, the engine quit - are we lucky." "I think it went down just over that little hill there." Retrieve, repair, retry.

outdoorhunting

Every now & then I still have a flight like that !!!

BUDMAN27

I solod 15 July 1994 . I don,t or can,t remember ( old age) the first time I got to fly. I do remember briging a rc airplane to the field and asking the guys there if they would fly it for me ,because I didn,t have an AMA card. Well all was well untill it fell from the sky. I put it all together just like the destruction said ,but I forgot to read the part were it said to charge the batteries. Don,t think I have let that happen again.

Sasquatchin

My first time, a few months ago. Iwas afraid to even get that little nano coax heli even 3' off the ground my first flight. Iwas into RCcars as a kid, and had them for about 10 years, then moved on to real cars, and motorcycles.

Ihave only been flying for a few monts now, have 5 heli's, and want more. Isee myself flying for years to come.

Old RC Aviator

My Feedback: (9)

Well, The very first time I had experience with a model plane was about 1964-65 when I got a Cox PT19 control line for my birthday. I started it in my bedroom and it got away from me and went under the bed and it tore my box springs to shreds. My Mom wasn't happy at all. I think I still have the motor from that plane somewhere in the attic.

wobblyflight

Do you get to do any float flying on that little lake by Tyrone?

Deadeye

I soloed on my first flight. The club had just got a new field, and I had an LT-40. I knew how to tune an engine from when my brother flew years ago. I also knew radio orientation from RC cars years ago. While waiting for my instructor, I taxied, lifting off the ground. Panicking, I cut the throttle, and it drifted harmlessly into an adjacent field. My friend showed up, took it up and trimmed it out. I took the controls after that, and made several landings and takeoffs while he was there. He left, I flew until my battery was too low to continue.

I've been hooked ever since.

Grampaw

I don't remember the plane but I remember some of it's parts came from a wrecked Sig j-3 with a newly constructed Heath 4 CH radio (Single stick TX.) The new plane had all the required parts necessary for flight, a good engine for power, and a fairly competent pilot (I thought), so once more out to the pasture I went.
With a wary eye on that J-3 loving Oak tree I fired the motor up and hand launched the new plane. Once airborne and in a stable flight mode, I put her into a half circle to the right and straightened her out at about 20 feet up with throttle at about half. The plane was going along in a straight line on a very stable flight path. I was grinning from ear to ear until I realized she had flown across the front of a large old barn and was headed straight towards an orchard of tall Pecan trees on the other side! If she crossed the fence line and got into the trees I was going to be short another airplane!
Having stalled my horses in that barn I was familiar with the surrounding areas on the other side. There were no trees inside the fence next to the barn, and it was 20 feet to the barn wall, so I banked sharply to the right, fed in full up elevator and a tad of Right Rudder and the plane quick as a wink turned and disappeared from view. I could hear her as she headed down the other side of the barn hidden from my view, and in my mind I visually flew her on down to what should have been the back side of the barn. Again I fed in the previous Right Turn controls and heard that Fox engine as it purred along behind the barn. My eyes stayed on the barn as if I had Superman's X-ray vision watching as that plane moved along the back side to pop out into my view over clear pasture! I was so proud and elated I just lost it I guess.
I gave it a good bit of throttle, added a little Up elevator and watched as it climbed straight up. Then I fed in some sort of signal, I don't remember what, causing her to swap ends and head back down! It all happened so fast my brain must have froze as I just stood there watching as she augered in! I swear I'm sure I heard that danged old Oak tree giggling over by the pond!
I wound up with a lot more pieces of airplane, and over the days that followed attempted to repair
that plane, but it was no use. I finally I enlarged some plans from RCM (a trainer of some sort) and with
new wood built another craft with which to teach myself to master this new hobby. Fortunately, I succeeded, and am still at it some 30 years later. But it is fun ain't it? Grampaw

frieshoo

My Feedback: (20)

First attempt to fly:
1994
ACE Simple Series Trainer (A box with a tail boom, lots of rubber bands holding the tail, wing, and engine on)
Norvel .049 RC
Hitec 4 channel

The flight lasted a few seconds. I had a friend hand launch it. It went straight up, and came straight down toward us! we both ran, and it smashed into many pieces.

Second attempt to fly one week later.
1994
Goldberg Gentle Lady
High start
Hitec 4 channel

This flight lasted a little longer than the first attempt. Setup the high start in the Roses department store parking lot (they were closed on Sunday). I had the same friend launch the glider.
The launch was perfect, but no matter what input I tried.. the glider just seemed to be doing it's own thing.... It finally crashed on the other side of the parking lot.

We forgot to turn on the RX battery.

Later that year I found the local club... and solo'd using a Hobby People Trainer/ Magnum 46/Hitec 6 channel.

AutoMike

LOL>..

revup

It must have been 1971 or 1972. I was about 12 years old. I had been flying U-control for several years, Cox PT -19, Lil' Jumping Beans, Flight Streaks, and Ringmasters. The urge to fly r/c was overwelming. One problem was a four channel radio was about $400 bucks. I remember drooling over the AHC (America's Hobby Center for you newbies) ads and others for Kraft, Orbit, EK, Heathkit, World Engines Blue Max, and MRC systems. I think you could get an Ace pulse for about $60. This was I time when you bought everything at your LHS and BUILT your plane. Radio Shack and Allied were still electronic parts houses. You could buy Comet kits at K-Mart and the 5 & dime stores. You could build your own radio from Heathkit. The first ARF I believe was from Lanier, although I never saw one. Finally I got a radio, kit and engine at Ace Hobbies on Nordling St. in Houston, TX. The man that ran the shop was in wheel chair and he had the largest ignition engine collection I had ever seen on display in the cases. We narrowed down the radio to an EK-Logictrol, 3 channel, little red brick or an MRC F-713, made by a company named Futaba in Japan, and imported by Model Rectifier(whatever that meant, still don't know) Corp. This was a time when Japanese electronics were just breaking the ice, with loe dollar equipment. We got the MRC 3 channel radio for about $175, a Goldberg Falcon 56. $19.95, and an Enya 29 R/C engine, in the clear plastic jewel case. The radio came with 2 servos, and you bought the third seprately along with dry batteries. A lot of radios came with dry batteries, a friend at the field built us a nicad airborne pack, and made us a charger out of a lamp cord, 2W resistor in one lead and a diode in the other. I can remember charging those batteries and the resister would get really hot. We could have burnt the house down. I carefully built the kit, the plans were confusing, because they showed escapement and reed equipment. I grew up using Ambroid and Testers glues, silkspan, silk and AeroGloss dope and picked the dried dope and glue from my fingers for days. I covered it with a new material made of heat shrink plastic. The Falcon 56 was covered w/Metallic Green Solar film, made in England, and trimmed with white Monocote. The covering would blow up like a balloon in the sun. Some things never change. The radio was on 72.080mhz Brown and White, because 27mhz was being over run by CBer's. At this time you needed an FCC license to operate a radio, but I never applied for one. Ironic as I am now a HAM. At the flying field, the fuel of choice was K&B 100, and Fox Missle Mist in cans, no plastic jugs yet. Noone ran a muffler, not all engines came with one. You flipped the prop by hand, used a fuel bulb to fill the tank, and a Eveready or Burgess 1.5v alarm battery to ignite the glow plug. The plane flew perfectly right from take off. And I was in the air! Had a few crashes, but nothing too bad, that could not be repaired.

The hobby sure has changed, since that first time. Everything now is electric, plastic, foam, ARF, 3D, instant, carbon, lipo, and expensive.

It's fun to go to the field with a silk and dope plane, built from scratch with balsa sticks, single stick Heathkit radio on 53mhz or 27mhz and fire up an old ignition engine w/Champion sparkplug in the nose, running on white gas and 70wt oil. And show some skill and craftsmanship.