tri-pacer

Gene,

Love the Harley hat, Futaba shirt & of course the Bombshell: Nice combo! By the way it looks like a Harley sitt'n in the garage.
And yes, I too am a builder, mostly from plans, oldtimers.

Chuck

gene6029

Chuck, they are just something else to build!, but thats a different forum.....Gene

gene6029

I managed to get the grandson building too! When i can get him away from his computer games.

8178

My Feedback: (17)

My fleet is BARF free! I must admit that I had a couple of BARFs that I snapped together many years ago, but I gave them to my club to get rid of them. Nice to look around my shop and know I built every aircraft.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Perhaps a point to ponder.

My first love is controlline and maybe unlike some I never completely abandoned it when I had my first successful RC flight about 1957. I became extremely active in RC but always managed
perhaps a few flights a year with my favorite handles.

It was very disheartening watching the sport/hobby/venue dwindle to almost nothing around 12 years ago and to do my solitary flights it became even neccessary to make a launch stooge (something never really neccessary in the past with many to share the sport with).

Only a few Cottage suppliers were hanging on at that point with many other new generations of folks gleefully using derogatory terms and predicting the death of controlline. Into this dismal scene came a forward thinking company and the introduced the first real stunt controlline arf, the Great Planes Nobler.

This was soon followed by ARF's from another forward thinking company and cottage industry supplier, Brodaks.

The introduction of these ARF's in my opinion has performed a miracle, nothing less. Completely reversing the almost extinction of controlline and starting a gradual climb back to respectability. Of course it will never be as it once was but none the less will never die.

Am I a builder? Yes of course. That was really the only way to survive for so long and I am nothing special but I am a survivor. However you will never hear me use derogatory comments about ARF's or any other venue for that matter.

When I Pass I wish my old EZ-Just handle and my old Orbit tranny (which I can fly now legally after 20 years thanks to the miracle of 2.4) to be included.


John


Picture is with two of my treasures one of which is an ARF

Avaiojet

Absolutely and thanks for Posting this.

Reminds me of how I feel also.

I stayed with controline till about the early to mid 80's, I guess I started RC late compared to some others. My first CL flight was in 1962. Yes, I still build CL models and I'm actually converting models I built for RC to controline. A good thing!

My feelings are the same and a bit different. The change in the hobby has created "Different Attitude Models." Or "DAM." I'll coin this fraise in "fun." Hope there's humor?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with them, except they missed an entire lifetime of modeling when the hoppy was PRIME. I believe the best of what the hobby was, is long gone. I strongly believe, some not all, resent old timers like myself. Am I wrong? Not seeing this trend clearly?


"derogatory terms." I guess at least one other noticed something in attitudes?

Enough cannot be said about Brodaks. Their should be more mention of this Company and in more Threads.

I'm in total agreement with this observation. I also believe the ARF's have also, in some ways, helped the RC industry greatly.

"As it once was." In my hearts of hearts, I wish other modelers could have experienced, what I did as a young boy participating in this hobby. That is gone forever! However, and as it should, the hobby and interest will continue.

HEY! I am too!

HEY! So am I!!

Especially that "nothing special" part. I'm just a guy doing my thing as I have for over 51 years. Giving back, where excepted, what was given to me by so many "special guys" that gave me their time and knowledge.

I will stay true to that statement, but there are "things" that I see and experience that "bother" me. "Bother" being a just a quick choice of words. I keep this to myself. God knows what would happen if this was shared?

Gee, a Thread on "What bothers you?" "What ticks you off?"

Could that work to repair or change things to be better? Possibly?

Popeye said, "I am what I am." Well, I say, "It is what it is."

Just don't wish for it too soon.

John, thanks for that letter and I hope you don't mind my rhetoric? Also, thanks for the photos.

Here's one of my treasures, A modified Paige Aviation Gee Bee Z soon to be CL.

Charles

gene6029

Go Brodak! The pic below is Vicman & his son, & me & my grandson with two of the models John Brodak supplied for the kids at last years 1/2a reedie event in NC. The pics above are of my grandson building that model the following day ( after a sleep over). It sometimes takes only a little spark to get a kid motivated....Gene

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Charles no I do not mind at all[8D]

Your Gee Bee conversion is very exciting and I certainly plan to follow your project closely. I have done a few simple RC to controlline conversions but nothing that nice.

That brings to mind another thought. I have in recent years done a few RC Electric ARF conversions to RC glow! Hmm perhaps we are forever commited to go through life backwards So many of these wonderful little electrics in what would be up to perhaps .25 sized airplanes are just ideal for kit bashing.

Gene yes so often that spark can be so simple and its great to see your kids and grandkids involved.

Yes Brodaks have been instrumental in this Pheonix called controlline but unfortunately I have not yet sampled any of their products just yet. That will soon be cured and am hopeing to yet try their Smoothie and/or the Oriental ARFS.



John

ratshooter

Gene. Is that a Lil' wizard in post 57? It sure looks like one. I never thought I would ever see another one of those the rest of my life. Boy howdy did we go through those planes. We would build a new one every couple of weeks. I started shortning the nose to get them closer to balanced and they sure flew better. Does it have the little spring to keep the main wheels on? Thats a hoot.

I have a control line .049 sitting in my youndest son's room. It has never been flown. I have no idea what its called anymore. Maybe I will post a photo.

I remeber the box said it would fly on 52' lines. I never tried any lines that long.

gene6029

Ratshooter, yes it definately is a lil wizzard. My grandson & i built it together as a first build for him. I taught him how to fly with it, & yes we fly it on 52' lines all the time. Thats another one in the background that Vicman & his son built too. Those kids had a blast with them. Bob Harris brought one along & was teaching kids how to fly it on like 15' lines! We have the wheels rubberbanded on & yes the springs came in the kit....Gene

Jim Thomerson

I build own designs, from plans, and an occasional kit. At present I'm into flying Old Time Stunt. This is pre 1953 airplanes flown to the 1951-52 AMA pattern. I cover with silk, silkspan, and tissue, generally a transparent paint job and letters and numbers cut out of black tissue paper. My big event is the Vintage Stunt Contest in Tucson, March 15 -19. We fly OTS, with 60-80 entrants, and Classic, up through 1969, and the modern pattern, with 80 - 100 entrants. We generally go out a couple of days early for practice and getting used to 2500 ft elevation. If you go to the PAMPA web page and go to the photograph index you can see pictures of OTS, Classic, and modern stunt airplanes. Control line stunt is alive and well, and there are as many contests as I care to attend.

Jeff Foley

My Feedback: (45)

Boy....I must have built half a dozen Lil Wizards. I flew them so much in the front yard that our neighbor lady leaned out her front door and screamed at us to quit flying that "thing"! Naturally we kept flying until it was so dark you could see the glow of exhaust in the exhaust ports of the .049. When the grass was too tall to take off, we used the picnic table sort of like a carrier. Just take a few steps back after launch. Never in history of kiddom was so much fun had by a 12 year old.

gene6029

Jeff, So thats where that lady came from, (your neighborhood)! She moved into my neighborhood & in addition to yelling at us to stop flying, used to flash off & on her pourch light for us to stop flying at nite. ......Gene

ratshooter

I would have snuck over and unscrewed her light bulb.

Jeff Foley

My Feedback: (45)

She must have gone to your neighborhood when she got little sympathy in mine! I nearly caused her a meltdown when I rode my dirt bike through her yard on the way to the airport.

Avaiojet

Anyone in my neighborhood that can help me finish this stuff?

roaddog2

Does transportation to Fla. come w/th' job?
Oh yeah; you DID mention your neighborhood... shux!
:O)
RD

ARUP

I see five Gee Bee and one Weddell-Williams structures! I have the same situation but have made a vow to finish what has been started or I will throw it away! I'm frugal, too.

50+AirYears

I started building by sneaking a kit I got for my 4th birthday in 1948 into my bedroom and building it after my parents were asleep. That was the start of my life-long addiction. My first (B)ARF was a Wen-Mac plastic control liner about 1949-1950. Fuse broke without ever getting a pop out of the engine. Got a lot of CL and FF flying in with kit and scratch built before I ever got an ARF to fly. Nothing new about ARFs!

I do have a stable of ARF/RTFs. Some of the smaller ERC foamies are ok. Most of the mostly wood ARF/RTFs I've had over the years have been generally mediocre at best. Sometimes good fliers, but can't say too much good about the assembly quality or longevity. Never had a wood ARF last more than about 3 years. Wood just became fuel soaked, or inadequate glue joints failed in flight. On one, the two wing panels had missmatched airfoils. Plane flew, but definitely had noticeable roll coupling with elevator and throttle. And when I stripped it for rebuild, found it had so little glue used, it was about ready to disintegrate under engine vibration. And who ever heard of mounting the LG blocks in the balsa wing ribs without reinforcement? Also, I've seen numerous ARFs have problems with tail surfaces coming loose from flutter, soft LG wire, loose fit on clevices, firewalls made of such soft wood, the engine was pulling the T nuts through. My last one looked and flew great, but pulling out of a loop, one almost complete wing panel just slid off the center ribs. The balsa sheeting tore away from the center epoxy and slid off. Seems that a crack developed on the wing spar just outside the third rib, and the glue was so spottily applied to the ribs, the sheeting just slid off, leaving an almost intact wing panel to flutter down, while the rest of the plane toothpicked itself into packed clay.

By comparison, I have had several kit and scratch built RC planes last over a decade. In fact, I still have an original kit built Veco Smoothie I built in 1968 that is still flying. Third engine.

My general attitude is fly whatever you like, have fun doing it. You might be missing something if you don't want to build. Between FF, CL, and RC kits, I have over 140 planes to do. About the only ARFs I have that I have high confidence in are partially home-builts that someone gave up on for one reason or another and sold or gave to me. I also have a collection of nearly 2000 plans either in E-file or paper, and a 35 pound stack of balsa.

I still build and fly RC, CL, and FF. In fact, during FF competition season, I've pegged as much as 8 miles cross country walking, making my quack very happy with my overall condition and health. And he and the people running the stroke survivors group I'm a member of agree that model BUILDING has been a major factor in my almost 98% recovery over the last 5 years.

roaddog2

50+, you're th' only other stroke vic I've ever seen on here. I've got a boatload o' ?'s for you, if you don't mind.
:O)
RD

50+AirYears

Roaddog, fire away. I guess I bring it up in forums as a result of what I've seen from other people who've had strokes, people I've met in therapy or even in conversations who seem to think that life after stroke no longer exists. It was depressing to a point to see so many people who've given up, won't do the work to bring back as much as possible. I just like to show that stroke doesn't end life.

I was out of work for three months. My doctor tried to tell me not to waste time and money on therapy. I went to every session, worked up to or beyond what the therapists asked for. When I got back from the hospital, first thing I did was to take some planes across the street to the park. If I were a thumber instead of a pincher, I couldn't have flown that RC plane. Took me a month to be able to throw a hand launched glider without landing flat on my face. By the end of that summer, I was back in competition. Took two years to be able to fly a control liner. Two of us in the Stroke Survivors' group I'm in showed up at a meeting the same day. The other guy had built a banjo from a kit, even though he couldn't play, I showed a full rigged wood sailing ship model I built during convalescence. That ship was later displayed in a couple local libraries for other programs. Within 3 months I was back to building circuit boards using nearly the smallest components available, and passed my DOT physical to keep my CDL. Earned back my former position as one of my company's test drivers, as well.

Telemaster Sales UK

I suppose we're a dying breed but we're not going down without a fight!

Right bretheren?

If you go to my website www.telemastersalesuk.co.uk and click on "Our Telemasters" then on "Original Design" you'll see my Barn Door Wing Senior Telemaster which I've built over the last 9 months or so. This model is built with the original German designed wing with inset, so called Barn Door Ailerons as opposed to the strip ailerons of the Joe Bridi redesign. It's the straightest model I've ever built and it flew with virtually no trim adjustments.

There is even a poor quality video of the maiden flight, the dead stick landing was caused by our not having adjusted the slow spped running of the engine properly.

I claim that this was the first maiden flight by a Barn Door Wing Telemaster this Millenium!

Happy Landings Gentlemen

50+AirYears

I think we are still a decent sized number, but our proportion in the whole hobby/sport is shrinking.

skylark-flier

Charles, in your post (with all the pics) - top right pic - - is that a Great Lakes 2T1C I see framed up? Landing gear definitely has "the look".

(pics below, my 2T1A)

Yeah, these planes definitely don't come ARF or RTF. Have flown a few of those "newfangled" birds, wasn't impressed. I fly my old (built in 1974) Goldberg Sr. Falcon A LOT and I'm pretty sure it'll outlive most any ARF that's bought today. Building (and learning how they're built so they can be repaired) is 2/3 of the fun of this sport.

Pic below of the Falcon after its last recovering, and flying.

Dave

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

I'll bet that if someone wanted to resurrect the old RC Modeler Magazine and publish it with the type of articles that it used to have, it would have a faithful following with the type of folks we have right here...

Bob