aggieman

Just wanting to know does anyone know where I maybe can locate a manual for my Midwest Starduster I have had in my closet for a long time (don't know why or where the manual went)

OldScaleGuy

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If you don't find any one here you could try contacting Midwest directly http://midwestproducts.com/pages/contact-us

aggieman

I did contact them, and they said they no longer had the manual available. but thanks for the info

GallopingGhostler

It resembles the low wing sport planes of the era, sort of reminds me of the Ace R/C Bingo (I think that is what it was called). You might be able to do a careful layout of the die cut parts and shaped pieces to sort out relationships and fits. Then do some sketching on the back side of a large sheet of paper (old plan, etc.) True it up with a ruler and right angle. Wing seems constant chord, which simplifies it along with slab sided / bottom fuselage. With a little imagination, I think one could make it work using the pieces.

BeauMiller

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Funny...I just pulled out my partially built Starduster to finish this winter. Once I finish reformatting my desktop, I'll scan in the manual for you. Shot me a PM with your email and give me a couple of days.

Beau

Edit to add: I scanned the manual, but it is rather large. If anyone in the future needs a Starduster 40 manual...please PM me and I'll email it to you.

tailskid

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Isn't the Internet great?

I-fly-any-and-all

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THEY ARE IN MY CLOSET SOME BUILT AND SOME NOT!!!!
I'm in the process of collecting and cloning royal / marutaka kits.
royal Stinson reliant 80% built got it that way.
royal staggerwing built but needed ailerons cut out on upper wing
royal aka marutaka bear cat in original Japanese box
royal aka marutaka .40 size raiden in original Japanese box
royal 1/2A spite fire half built
royal b-17 waiting to be built
royal Cessna 310 built but needs glassing
royal .60 size corsair built
royal .60 size corsair in box
royal spirit of saint Louis, bought it built and covered in silk
think that's all???

FlyerInOKC

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I think I see aa Royal pattern here Fly any and all!

tailskid

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Well I found another kit sitting at my door after the UPS man left....darn, how did that happen?????? And why so often?????

RACE 66

Isn't it great though !
RACE 66

flyoz

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Gee tailskid how unfortunate ! That UPS bloke is a terror leaving kits all around your door. Hang in there and dont feel oblidged to build em all at once.

jayd3

Well I fear it is like many things we grew up with the world has changed! making these old ways obsolete, for better and worse new materials and maybe the the most influential of all changes advances in electrical / electronic technologies have made what we have known and loved obsolete. New materials foam and plastics.... made the ARF and RTF not only possible but economically a boon for manufacturers; no more high cost wood or cutting of all those parts!
Think how little it cost to make the typical ARF & RTF sold today? and with low cost made in china radios it only gets better. We were raised on the technologies of 1930 to about 1970s maybe after that most changes in engines and construction had been discovered and done, the big changes were in electronics making radios smaller, lighter, more dependable. Then there is the social changes when most of us were growing up with stick kit and plan built planes there was a whole lot less to do: there were not nearly so many choices, few things were open on weekends, computers and the games did not exist, even sports were fewer. The making and repairing of things by hand was much more common.
So the market has changed and shrank significantly. Luckily we have so much access today to products old and new .

Jay

donnyman

jayd

You speak the truth! Change is inevitable And I can only feel sorry for those that exhibit the false pride of assembling and arf as if it was a major undertaking worthy of praise. and not knowing the the satisfaction of maybe designing and building from properly selected materials then see it soar through the air. (or lawn dart into the ground).

I truly marvel at the advances made by man. But I am concerned that we may get shut down completely if and when the battery power is lost and no one has the knowlegde to fix the problem. I know many who cannot change a fan belt or tire. Anything outside their field of expertise and they are totally lost. This buy, use, throw away, mentality is going to bite us in the ---. you might be amazed how many people can not point out their home town on a map. and think the size of Kim's behind is more important than why the terrorist want to do us in.

jayd3

Donny
Love the yard dart comment; Reminds me of a CL model that got away and became just that !
And I also am very concerned with the buy use throw away consumer mentality: Check out the video on UTube "the story of Stuff" it shows how the promise you don't need to worry that we are using to much stuff, and that it's all getting recycled is very false. Then there is the fact that we not only no longer make stuff: now you can't make a living fixing stuff. IE when I started in the electronics/ communications field equipment repair of electronic equipment was a big part of it today that's all gone you can't even find a local parts supplier except a very small amount of less than great quality parts at Radio Shack, And I don't know of anyone making a living actually repair electronics.

Ready or not the future is here

Jay

jayd3

One good thing is those old kits you been Hoarding have gone up in value,
I have been out of the hobby a few years looking to get back in now that I have some time and was surprised at the prices on kits and wood.
Not sure what you paid but that collection of Royal Kits is worth a few bucks!

Jay

donnyman

Hi jay

Amen Brother! AMEN! I have been trying to repair a tv converter box forever. I need one component To finish it and have been catching H... Ain't no body fixin nuttin.
I miss Heathkits, and have had several blockwood Royal kits, chunky, but good flyers.
I scratch build mostly and copy all my kits and never get rid of the plans. Since Lonestar balsa co. has called it quits I am afraid to order balsa, but I have quite a bit from swap meets. hang in there this oldtimer is NOT throwing in the towel for now.

I-fly-any-and-all

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the royals ive got were purchased fairly reasonable for example, b-17 that was built came with 4 royal .25's and all servo';s except aileron servo fixed gear and no flaps! DOH!!! paid $250 but she does need wing sheeting fixed.

FlyerInOKC

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I miss Heathkit to Donny! My first RC radio, bought in back in 72 or 73, was the old blue two stick three channel with the throttle on the back and the Heath version of Kraft KPS-9 servos. They were some size servos, its a wonder the airplane was able to get them off the ground compared to what we use today. My second radio was a Kraft 6 channel I bought it used in 76 and it still cost me more than a new Futaba 7C in 2.4 Ghz would cost today!

jayd3

Yes I to have fond memories of Heathkit, Layffette, and the others.
And stuff did cost alot more back in the day but it lasted and could be fixed, and maybe best of all gave you something to dream and save for as you looked through the magazines.
Once you finally bought that radio you didn't just throw it away soon as anew model came out or there was a problem!
Like my other hobby Classic Cameras they were built to last and be repaired I still use Kodak Retinas that are from 1950s incredible machines marvels of the mechanical age.

I'm just an old wire dog that likes to see things work and keep working

Jay

GallopingGhostler

I know what you mean, jay. Those days are forever gone, we are now in a throw away society. I still have my Yashica film camera lenses and manual cameras. Yes, they were made to last. Heathkit was during my high school days and to afford $209 for their 5 channel kit system as a little out of reach in 1971. I opted for the Ace R/C Pulse Commander System, which although single channel could be stored in a foot locker and was nearly bullet proof, metal case and all.

I built a Charlie's R/C (Bill Cannon's wife) Cannon 810 4 channel kit back in the late 1970's, still have it, may upgrade the RF deck to 2.4 GHz. It was not as heavy duty as the Heathkit, but it was affordable.

My boom box in high school was a battery operated reel-to-reel Radio Shack Realistic capstan 1/4" tape recorder, used 6 D batteries. I'd connect the speaker output from the phonograph to the microphone input of the tape recorder, and make tapes of the 45 rpm records. It was the size of a pair of boots box, but about half thick.

One would pull all the tubes out of their TV set and take them down to the local TV shop, even some department stores had tube testers. Only when the picture tube went bad then one considered buying a new one. My parents kept their Sears Silvertone AM octal 5 tube radio from the 1950's into the late 1960's.

We returned empty pop bottles for recycling, recycled grocery paper bags as book covers for protecting school books, diapers were cloth, washed and reused, rebuilt car and clutch brake cylinders, had our alternators and starters rebuilt by someone instead of buying new and tossing the old. Young folks think we don't know how to conserve.

JNorton

My Feedback: (2)

When was the last time a tube TV worked for 6 years without problems as my flat screen has done, or 15 as my CRT Sony has. My car 187,000 miles without a tune up or any major problems. Hard for repair people to stay in business if things just keep working.. Yeah I've built plenty of Heath Kits, but surface mount components are hard for the average guy to solder. And the audio quality of a capstan drive tape recorder sucks compared to recording audio on a jump drive. I'm 64 and I don't miss having to tune up my car every 25,000 miles. Just saying.

FlyerInOKC

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Remember when a 25" screen was the big boy on the block? Now you see 100" TVs in the sports bars. I remember the picture tube going out on our color TV (bought to watch the first moon shot in color) after 5 or 6 years. The repairman would hook up a machine that would try to burn away the build up of the electrodes but it rarely worked. It was buy a new picture tube or buy a new TV both being expensive.

donnyman

HeY!

Come on now guys ..... I got memory tears in my eyes thinking back over the last 73 years, I could talk about the past for days.......but, you gotta admit the new tech. stuff is fantastic

Gallopin Ghost..I bet a lot of people think you used to chase Ichabod Crane around instead of waggin the heck out of a rudder (keep em thinkin)

Ya know we ought to start a old timer thread I bet we would get responses to shake up a lot of memories.

donnyman

I added a new thread in the airplane forum sections under the beginners thread. just for use by us seasoned veterans check it out and add your comments.

GallopingGhostler

IIRC tune ups were more like every 6,000 - 12,000 miles. I had a 1968 Japanese Renault, water cooled rear engine 1300 cc Hino Contessa. It required an oil change every 625 miles. Oil was black when 625 miles rolled around. Makes you wonder why they stopped making cars and continued with trucks and buses.

Of course because of our modern sealants and better metallurgy mandated by EPA, we don't have older cars marking territories as much and tune ups have been extended. However, taxation wasn't as bad so more money went to profit, and labor for tune ups and servicing wasn't as bad, either. Just think these days, if your car's engine computer goes on the fritz, you could have a $1,500 repair bill. Replacing an electric fuel pump at 100,000 miles is about $700. Replacing the timing belt at 60,000 or 90,000 could set you back $1,000. Cars remain expensive, and for most replacement after a couple years is not an option.

1/4" tape acoustics wasn't bad then, it was a tad better than cassette. Direct recording provided reasonable high fidelity. This is for a kid who bought the reel to reel on clearance, because the technology at its peak was fading away. I made $1.25/hr working on a poultry farm after school. 8 track tape was taking over, and I couldn't afford the new 8 track stereo receiver/amplifier systems with decent speakers.

Yup, not saying life was ideal. Tube (valve) Color TV was great when it worked, but would slowly degrade over time, costly to operate like ink jet printers these days. (You buy the printer and finance the cartridges.)

Black and white TV was reasonably reliable and cheap. It was good enough to watch programming and football games. We don't spend much time watching the boob tube, and thus bought a 26" flat screen TV on sale to fill the hole in our oak entertainment system that used to have one of those 25" CRT TV's there. Actually, it is high fidelity enough that we don't need that 50" TV screen.

Donnyman, I sowed my share of wild oats as a teen. My rudder only tail wagging days came after I accepted Christ as a young adult. Nothing says you can't have fun in the Lord, I still fly RC.

[You have a good point though, an old timer thread would be appropriate.](delete) - Thanks for starting the new thread.

It's why we have special interest groups such as VR/CS (AMA Vintage Radio Control Society). That group helps to show others how earlier RC flew with the planes flown back then. It amazes people when one can maintain full control over an aircraft with just only rudder and sometimes auxiliary throttle. It is just a different style of flying.