turbo.gst

My Feedback: (8)

Late 60's I flew controline. I started with 1/2a stuff. Loved my CG Stuntman 23. I can still remember my dad flying his .10 and it looking so BIG. I look at that old .10 now and smile to myself. My how my perspectives have changed. R/C came about for me as soon as I could drive myself.

ratshooter

My first plane was a Cox control line Bonanza. I looked on the Cox site and they show several color schemes but not the color mine came in. I had a cream and brown color scheme. I was 6 years old and got it for Christmas. That was 1963.I couldn't fly it so my dad flew it for me. It didn't go half a circle before he slammed it in the cement. That was the end of that plane. I then flew control line planes when I got to be 12 or so. I flew those till I got married in 1978. My uncle was getting into RC and so I went and watched them fly at the river bottoms on the Trinity river in Dallas. The first plane I saw was an Ugly Stik done in transparent red. It was the most stunning thing I had ever seen fly. He was cruising around real slow. I was hooked. I have liked Stiks ever since.

I bought a Cox Cessna Centurian with a 2 channel radio. I flew by myself. I crashed of course but not so bad I couldn't repair it. Then I bought a wrecked QTee for 5 bucks. I repaired it and put the cox gear in that plane. I flew it till one day I hand launched it and forgot to turn on the reciever. I never found it.

Next was a Das Little Stik. I just about wore it out. I built a second Little Stik and flew it for a couple of years. I can't remember what happened to it. Then I built a Sweet Stik. Wow what a flyer that was. I still like Stik planes best. I have owned and built about 45 different planes. I still come back to that style of plane. Here is my new one built from plans someone posted on thissite. I need to put the radio in it and its finished.

sidgates

My Feedback: (2)

My first R/C model was Trixter Beam in 1952. I don't think it ever completed a controlled flight, I chased it all over North East Wichita, Ks. My first successfull flight was 1956 at Rome, NY on the air base. I have some videos posted on You Tube on my earyl R/C days and some later too. Seach "SidGates" on You Tube.

Sid’s R/C Models 1952-1963 (8mm conversion)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OkJfP6ZDeA

ratshooter

Cool vid Sid. I really liked the plane flying around the 7 minute mark. What was that? I looked so smooth and majestic.

LesUyeda

"I built a Sterling Mambo in HS around '66"

Like this one:-)))))))))))

Les

sidgates

My Feedback: (2)

ratshooter,
The fuselage was given to me by my neighbor in Wichita about 1953. It was originally a seaplane but I don't remember the name. I built up the wing and tail surfaces from scratch. The wing had a flat 4ft long section in the middle and then 3ft tips for total of 10ft. It was fairly light weight.

Several years later I built a similar model from scratch. I don't thnik I have any video of it. It was designed and built for Grover Lowry who wanted to fly from the US/Canadian border up the Alcan highway to Alaska. He crashed the second day. Later he repaired the model and it was taken to Toledo show by Fox who had supplied the 74 engine. After Toledo Fox gave it to me and it returned to Denver and it flew for several years. It had a quart hopper tank right behind the engine and a gallon tank in the cabin on the C/G. For the first test flight we got in Grover's VW Bus and went for approx. 8 mile round trip flight.

ratshooter

I knew it looked big but didn't realize it had a 10' wingspan. And we thought giant scale was a new idea.Lol. It was fun seeing what you guys were doing in 1957. That was the year I was born. I noticed some of those planes had ailerons and throttles. I thought most of those were just single channel aircraft with just rudder control.

I have always wanted to do the fly down the road thing. One of the local HS owners said they use to fly from south Ft. Worth to Waco going down I-35. That sounded fun.

sidgates

My Feedback: (2)

Some still pictures. The first two are after Col. Coleman aquired the 10ft model from me. The next 3 are the scratch build we did for the Alcan cross country. Grover Lowry on the left and me on the right.

ratshooter

Picture #3 looks like it has a Bigfoot crawling out of it.

sidgates

My Feedback: (2)

It is hard to see in the picture but it is our Poodle dog. She is sitting where the gallon fuel tank was housed. I designed this model one evening and Grover built the wing and I built the fuselage and tail surface. Took one week to build and finish. The fuselage sides are 1/16" balsa sheet with 1/2 inch of white foam on the inside from the wing trailing edge to the firewall then it is sheeted on the inside with 1/16" balsa.

There was a compartment right behind the gallon fuel jug for two pocket hand warmers. We needed to keep the fuel and radio warm since he was flying below freezing some.

Prairie Mike

sorry to take so long to answer. The servos had a hinge point offset from the rotary output of the servo. That way the first part of the servo rotation didn't give much movement to the control, yet if you held the Tx switch long enough you'd get full throw. It reduced the amount of control movement while "beeping" the switch. That make any sense?????????????

ratshooter

Hey Sid. I sorta thought that looked like a poodle. Did you ever ride him around in the plane? I built a Balsa Usa cub and had a kitten I planned on flying around in it. Dern cat grew faster than I could finish the plane.

sidgates

My Feedback: (2)

The poodle just sat in the plane on the bench, no flying. That would have been grounds for divorce.

Free Bird

My first R/C was a Mambo Special that my dad and I built together back in 1964, used an 8-channel Orbit Reeds. I forget what the engine was. Plane was covered in yellow silk and maroon trim. My dad was an accomplished pilot and was flying a Top Flite Orion at the time and taught me to solo on the Mambo. One change we made was to build another wing that was longer by one rib bay on each panel, model flew much better then! A few years back, I found a NIB kit after searching for several years. Childhood memories!

RB

Michaelj2k

Mine was a deBolt Live Wire Cub (similar to the Champ) using an OS .19 and Orbit (Orbit + Space Control = Orbitrol) single stick with the PS-1 servos. It needed a hand launch each time but I put a lot of time on it. Like FB, I found a kit of it not too long ago and now it's in my stash.

iflyj3

My Feedback: (7)

You fellows that like vintage planes, come on over to http://www.vintagercsociety.org/ and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VRCS/ We have several vintage events around the country during the year. Visit one near you. You do not have to be a member to attend and fly.

Michaelj2k is our VP over in the Northeast corner of the states. He has the Octoberfest at Oxford PA in October (Of course) and I have the Kentucky Bluegrass Vintage Festival in May at Lexington, KY. There are several others.

Free Bird

I plan on going to the Octoberfest this year after being absent [] for the year or so.

FB

sidgates

My Feedback: (2)

I had planned to enter the Vintage meet in Arvada, CO. last Aug. and crashed the day before the meet. Throttle stuck about two clicks above idle, not enough power to fly and too much to land. Finally stalled and destroyed the fuselage.

Probably try again this year.

RevGQ

Not embarrassed to say, my first plane and intro into the hobby was the Carl Goldberg Eaglet. The gentleman who had introduced me to the sport had given me a craft radio, and having no knowledge of servos at the time, I can't recall what was used.
The Goldberg kits were made in such a way that not even I could have built it un-flyable. It was an ugly site to behold, as it was my first mono-cote covering job. But, it flew and landed itself. I remember and cherish that plane. Thanks for the opportunity to share the memories. RCer for life. Blessings all.

Michaelj2k

OK, we have that in print!

There's also the Spirit Of Selinsgrove fly-in Labor Day weekend in Owego, NY.

stuntflyr

My first 60's model was a Wen Mac Day Fighter P-63. I didn't fly it first though, that was a Sterling Ringmaster Jr that my mom and dad built and ran out of color dope so mixed white and red together. We called it Pinky. It had a sand cast Hope 19, dad taught everyone in the family to fly it with a U-Reely so he could differ the line length for the Chicago wind.
My 70's R/C model was my first, but I didn't finish it until 2008! Bridi RCM Trainer 40, OS 46 and Futaba T6AX.
The second pic is dad's RCM trainer in silkand dope, it's a 70's build too!
I love old Pattern ships so am trying to relive the 60's and 70's present day.
Chris...

ratshooter

Stuntflyr I really like the first plane you posted. What color is it? I am guessing its just transparent red but it has a pink tint to it. I like both planes. I guess I like them because they look like a model plane should look. I know the rage in ARFs is for them to be scale models of full size planes and they do a good job of making them look scale. I just never thought a model owed anything to a full sized airplane. A model is an aircraft in its own right and I like it when they look like models.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

It is an interesting color ratshooter I agree. A big fan of the transparent color tinted films also and I don,t know what it is but I gotta guess so here goes:

Could it be the old Black Baron transparent red?

John

stuntflyr

As far as I know guys it is a roll of 30 year old transparent Red Monokote, the long 15 footer I think. Glad you like the old RCM Trainers, thanks. The red one died, BTW, forgot to charge the rx batt. The other one soldiers on.
Chris...

lflf

My Feedback: (1)

My first RC airplane was a Goldberg Junior Falcon. I didn't have money for radio gear so I flew it as a free flight with a Babe Bee .O49. Didn't get too many good flights that way. So then I bought a Lil Esquire, flew it the same way with the Babe Bee, free flight. It flew really well that way and I got many flights from it. I really wanted RC but didn't have the money for it being a young kid. Then a local RC Flyer of the time sold me a Skylane 42 with a radio already built for $5. This was an old beater and the radio was a Heathkit. I think he just sold it to me to get it out of his garage-for a token price. That big old radio took a battery that cost another $5, a lot for me at the time. I got 20 or 30 flights out of this bird, about half the flights were fly aways which I had to chase over hill and dale. My last 60's airplane was an Esquire which I powered with an OS Max 15 and was equipped with a Mule Mark 2 radio outfit and a couple of great big Royal servos. That plane was my pride and joy, but I never flew it. Just started it up on my porch on Saturdays and impressed my friends. I never flew it because the radio had little range and I didn't know how to tune it or get it fixed. By then I was 16, got my drivers license, so I traded the whole rc shebang and $100 for a 1950 GMC Panel Truck, and so ended my 60's RC adventures, until I took them up again in the late 80's.