Daddyo57

My Feedback: (15)

I never really thought about real airplanes and their effect on my being in the hobby but that is because I have lived around them my whole life. I remember sitting on a trycycle in the sun watching the F-100s, F-105s, B-58 Hustlers and many more fly right over me popping their afterburners in the pattern for Edwards AFB here in So Cal. My Dad worked in Aircraft and I have also for 31 years now. What got my interest was as a youngster my friend down the street being about 4 yrs older was into the Cox type U-Controls, I used to help him and hold the little airplane for takeoff. then there was this older (to me) guy and his wife that used to go to our local Fairgrounds and fly his big U-Control, every time I heard it I would ride as fast as I could to go watch. His wife wasnt too keen on holding his airplane while he ran for the control lines so he let me do it, I will never forget the sound, the smell and the feel of power on that huge (at least to me) airplane. I tried on a few occasions to fly U-Control myself and I am ashamed to say I dont think I ever had a succesful flight! but I must have ran gallons of Thimbldrome fuel in my Dads garage. I always knew I would get into some sort of model flying but when I went out to the local flying field in 1980, I saw the club flying the big RC models and knew it was for me. I asked the local instructor what airplane, engine and radio combo to get and he steered me to a Sr. Falcon with a KnB .61 and a Futaba G series Radio. I built the Sr Falcon with little trouble except the covering, I used a big Iron like you iron your clothes with and I had no idea how to deal with the seams as I thought they would just melt together or something... right. Well from 15 feet it looked great and it flew even better! I learned fairly quick and had a Midwest Sweet Stik on the board and even used the new fangled Super Glue to build it.

I took a year off flying when I married my wife and pretty much sold everthing to help pay for our wedding, that just wouldnt do at all, i was hooked! so I bought a beater trainer and started building again and really never stopped. To me it is as much or even more the building of the airplanes, the feel and smell of Balsa and Plywood, the Glue smells and the wondeful aroma of new Monokote and of course the gratification of flying succesfully something you built with your 2 hands. I am not an exceptional pilot but one thing I am very good at is landings... I noticed when I trained new pilots and others trained them, they worry about the landings. So I figure if you are very good at landing, you wont dread the touchdown and then can concentrate on learning how to fly. I find myself doing at least one whole flight for each airplane I take out doing touch and goes, I love landing. 4 stroke engines are another thing that kept my interest up through the years, when they first came out many people were fearful of them due to being different and occasionally needing a valve adjust, now they are common thank goodness. I enjoyed reading all of your posts guys and girls, I always tell people that RC people are a very eclectic bunch, every walk of life and we all have this Hobby in common.

garydogwood

i was at an airshow in around 1969 or so. saw my first rc plane flying; couldn't believe the plane was flying without wires. i wanted one so bad. finally several years later in bought a Ranger 42. i was so proud of that plane; of course at that time, radio equip was very expensive so did not do much with the plane other than fantasize. finally after college and a couple years of working a "real" job, i finally got to start doing RC; this was around 1982 - 1983. started with a couple gliders (gentle lady and olympic II), then on to a sig kadet then falcon 56; from there built many MK (model kato) kits - curare, arrow, cosmos, joker, aurora, beetle, etc.. i finally did dig out my old ranger 42 in 1984 and got a few flights on it but by then i was into the pattern type planes. been flying off and on ever since. currently have an extra 300 50cc gas planes as well as a venus 40 and the venus II as well as several TREX helicopters (450, 500, 600Nitro). also a foamy electric yak; just can't get into the electric planes. the electric helis are great though.

edit: forget to mention i did try control line but was never successful; could never get the engines running; the small town i was from i was probably the only person that had a control line plane so didn't really know much what i was doing and the internet had not yet been "invented".

gw

clpahodges

My Feedback: (3)

I got started in control line in 1960 when my mother bought me a Sterling Ringmaster Jr. and a Fox 15 at Barry's Bicycle and Hobby Shop on Bridge St. in St. Augustine, FL. The kit cost $2.95 and the engine cost $4.95. I got introduced to Donnie Thibault and he taught me how to fly. BTW, we still fly together regularly and he is still my best buddy. I finally got into RC in 1985. I currently fly both CL stunt and RC here in St. Augustine with the X47 Flyers and in Lake Wales, FL with the Ridge Barnstormers.

Coming up on 50 years of building and flying these things. I think I am beginning to like it. Wife says I am obsessed. She tends to be pretty smart.

Just as an aside, just last week, my oldest daughter and two grand-daughters were visiting with us. We just happened to go down Bridge St. and I was compelled to point out where Barry's old hobby shop used to be. It's a bare lot now, but most likely won't be for long. I can still remember the sound of the wooden floor when you walked in that place and the smile on Leroy Barry's face. Good memories.

Bill Hodges
An old guy just getting nostalgic

Avaiojet

At age five my parents abandoned me. Fortunately they left me at small local airport with a grass strip.

Plenty of places to hide out at small strips and you'd be surprised at how much food is left in airplanes. Thank goodness pilots are wasteful.

Luckily, a bunch of CL and R/C guys would fly there on weekends. I let them believe I lived local except for one R/C guy I thought I could trust. I spent the next ten years captive building this guys scale stuff. Finally, I used his model tools to escape.

I surfaced well as a young man and finally an adult, but the kid in me could never stop building. Maybe it was the smell of balsa in the morning?

Anyway, I'll always remember that R/C guy who gave me my start. He made a good peanut butter and jelly too.

Charles

flylower

removed, wrong thread

AA5BY

I was about twelve and bought and built a kit. It never got an engine or flew but building it was very enjoyable. It hung in my room until leaving home to answer the draft. After the Army, college and then building a house, my wife who painted suggested I reward myself with a hobby... and recalling how much I had enjoyed building that kit , we made a stop at a hobby shop. That was many many planes ago.

zippome

I started at the feet of my dad...

Kaos1964

My Feedback: (12)

It's my Mom's fault. For Christmas when I was 9, "Santa" brought me an Estes Mosquito model rocket. That started me down the modeling path and I've never really been away from it, for some 36 years now.

The rocket was a brick of glue, and the launch proved it - a very disappointing Pttthhhhhttt, and it reached maybe an altitude of 15 feet, but it didnt' matter - I was hooked.

I had fun with rockets for the next couple of years and at age 11 saved and saved and bought myself a Soarcraft Centurion sailplane, which I painstakingly assembled. My Dad, being a full scale pilot, was confident that he could show me the ropes so we set off to the local high school field and hooked that sucker up to a high start. Total flight time was about 8 seconds, which included an inverted "landing" with the high start still attached, dragging my poor creation for what seemed like forever.

I'll never forget my Dad's words just then: "Maybe we should get some help..."

From there I joined the Pioneer R/C club of the Bay Area in California and progressed through the normal trainers, etc. of the day, until I was flying UFOs and Tiporares in pattern compettitions at age 15 and doing fairly well at it. I owe a great debt of gratitude to my mentor, Gene Ageno of the Pioneer club who I will never forget - one of the most genuinely nice people I've ever met.

Anyway, I've been at it ever since, with small breaks here and there for that thing called life - but will always enjoy this great hobby!

rkimmerle

I flew balsa and tissue free flight panes as a kid. 30 years later. I went to the pool supply store. Next door was a hobby shop. Went in and came out with a RTF Parkzone Cub. That was 9 planes, 1 helicopter and 5 years ago. The Cubs rest in a tree. Two other planes died along the way. Still flying the others. I'm building a 1/4 scale Extra 300. Sure glad I needed chlorine!

biam

my youngest son and I were riding bicycles in the local park one weekend and noticed a sign indicating an R.C. airfield, after stopping in to investigate we were imediatly hooked. The rest is, as they say, history That was about seven years ago, and both of us are just as passionate about it, o.k. maybe it is just me now, since he's 18 and found out about girls,graduating,leaving home[] The guy's at the club say he will come back to it someday, here's hoping

DeferredDefect

Hello!

On my 13th birthday my Mom brought me to her friends house - her husband fly's RC, and she thought I *might*
be interested.
It was in the middle of winter, with high winds and during a blizzard, but we still managed to get out.
We flew for a few hours on the buddy box, and even though my thumbs were blue from the cold, I was hooked!

That Christmas, my parents bought me a Kadet Senior, engine, and all the bits.

I haven't stopped with model airplanes since!

Wolflord

When I was 12 my friend gave me a Cox control line plane and been hooked since then.

DustBen

My Feedback: (3)

Like several here, it was as a result of my father. He came home from WW-2 where he was a B-29 mechanic and began his career in civilian aviation. Dad had a brilliant career in real airplanes but had little success with models.

Move forward to around when I was 11 or so and began flying U/C. I took to it like a duck to water and soon began building ALL the time!

In that era, everything was very costly! Radios cost then what they cost today but had little reliabilty and hardly any flexibility (no computers to "setup" throws, direction, or anything "easy". Engines were costly too and made about 1/3rd the power at the prop what they do today, barely idled, and didn't have mufflers (Keep in mind that a model designed for a .60 25 years ago can now be powered by a strong .46).

Ambroid glue was THE stuff. Epoxy was so expensive that it was used only rarely, and the idea of instant setting CA wasn't even known.

I built a ton of U/C models from scratch and learned eveything about building light and true. As advanced materials came along with the space age materials, I slowly adapted to using them in my tried and true processes. Our first R/C planes were essentially free-flight models that we could steer around and keep in the county. The plane had to fly, on its own! Every landing was a dead stick landing.

Maybe that time of my building career was the best because I learned, the hard way, how to overcome design issues. My first "full house" radio had an airborne battery pack that weighed 15 ounces! Each servo was about the size of a ciagarette pack, and the receiver wasn't much smaller. The OS 30 I used barely swung a 10-4 prop at 10,000 rpm so it took "more" to fly back then. But it was all worth it because I learned the values of competent builds!

I also had a tiny, Cannon 2 channel that I built 30-40 1/2-A's around. Everyone nowadays talks about a Kaos but mine was powered by a TeeDee .051 screaming a 6x3 at around 18,500 rpm. I always had a 1/2A plane around (I still do; a scratch built Jr. Falcon with a Norvel!).

You'll see me at the local flying field. I still fly in a funnel (I won't explain it to those that don't know why). I'm the guy that has the mild looking model that flies on a quarter of the budget most guys do, with an airplane that doesn't get too far away, and I quit going fast (boring... and "no, going verticle isn't a talent").

I also keep a Kadet LT-40 on hand for buddy box flying either for newbies or a student. I taught 17 people how to fly on this one. It's bullet-proof, and easier for me to maintain and prepare than making a beginner suffer thru the horrors of some ARF that is designed to be replaced a couple of times. I only have two transmitters but 7 receivers and 40-50 servos.

It's almost all gone for me now. I can't see well enough. The carpal tunnel in my right hand limits how long I can build, and the kicker causes my heart to tighten and go into arythmia. I could go to ARF's... but I won't!

I'd rather build.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

I fly ARF's but change them all around from the way they were in the box

thailazer

Just ran across this thread and it has been fun reading many of these stories. I grew up in the Ontonagon MOA and used to watch a half dozen F-102's and who knows what else from KI Sawyer Air Force Base dog-fighting above the house with the afterburners coming on and off. Fishing a few miles out in Lake Superior one day a B-58 flew by and made about a 5 minute turn to buzz twenty feet right over our little boat. All those sure made an impression on me as a kid so airplanes were always on my mind. Visits to the airport where always tops as my pic below shows!

Got a control line PT-19 for my birthday once and then used the .049 on my first kit, a free-flight Ranger 28. Now that was fun!

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

MOA = Military Operation Area ?

Ontonagon - In Western Michigan ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontonagon_County,_Michigan

cwasik

My Feedback: (1)

I got my start at the age of 5, not only in RC but aviation in general. My grandfather and grandmother would take me and my brother to airshows every year in Williamsport Pennsylvania. My grandfather was also a great builder who I had the pleasure to watch build many airplanes over the years. Static, rubber powered as well as RC, he built it all. I remember him building a third scale Flybaby bipe as well as junior and senior Falcons back in the early 80's. Before he passed in 2006, he built me a 1/4 scale Balsa USA Sopwith Pup which is still hanging in my mothers garage (I don't have the heart to fly it). I started flying RC in 2000 after I finally made enough money to support this hobby and I also started a career in aviation in 2004 working for a regional airline. Those early airshows are what really inspired a lifelong passion for aviation and not a day goes by that I do not feel a great sense of appreciation for what my grandfather instilled in me.

thailazer

W8YE.... Yes, that is in the Upper Peninsula on the west side. The MOA was very active there in the 1960's. By the way, I was a ham up there as well. WB8KYK

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

I had a friend for a few years that was from that area. He spoke very highly of home. He lives in western Ohio now.

AndyKunz

I don't know exactly when I started, but I was already gluing balsa together before I started kindergarten. My Dad and big brother (5 yrs) built stuff, FF at first. Later Dad got us into CL (he had done that as a teen), then he got into RC and it wasn't long before we all had radios. He still has his original Heathkit 3 channel that he built. I have the most advanced radio he ever bought, a Futaba 5 channel from about 1977.

When I was in college, I lived with my grandparents. Grandpa had a deBolt Champ with an OS. 20 on it and an old (even at that time) Kraft 4-channel, and I built a Drifter 2 while there with him. My radio was a World Engines Blue Max on 27.045. My dream as a kid was to grow up and work for Top Flite.

My two younger boys can all fly well (one VERY well), the oldest just never had any interest. That's OK, we're all different.

Things have ended up doing even better than I could have dreamed way back then.

Andy

PipeMajor

My Feedback: (1)

Grew up as a dependent of a USAF dad (non-pilot) but knew LOTS about airplanes. By age 8, I started building the plastic static kits: Monogram, Revell, Airfix, Aurora, etc. Built them by the dozens. Age 10 or so Dad brings home a Cox .049 powered L-19 Bird Dog. Dad took me out to fly it but I didn't understand the controls so never got more than a ΒΌ lap with it. Tried starting it at home unsupervised and an excess of fuel all over started it aflame so it was destroyed. A year or so later I got the Cox P-40 (the tan version with the inverted Babe Bee). Never flew it or ran it.

We PCS'd to Clark Air Base in the Philippines when I was 12. Got the Cox PT-19 which came with flying instructions. Got it to ROG and managed to fly out the tank every time. My uncle shipped over a Sterling Ringmaster C/L kit and McCoy .35 redhead engine. Built the Ringmaster, got the engine to run and with dad's help, got it airborne. I was blown away how well the larger models flew. Built and flew a Top Flite Jr Nobler C/L w/Fox .19 - it flew GREAT! RC was next with a Sterling Minnie Mambo using the same engine from that old P-40. Some Asian brand single channel 27 Mhtz radio and escapement. Got one flight on it before my "instructor" - a USAF colonel offered to take it to bring it in for a landing. He destroyed it.

Fast forward some 30 years later and I'm still building and flying C/L and RC. My son won 1st place in CL Beginner Aerobatics at the 2006 Sig CL contest.



My original CL ships, the Ringmaster and Junior Nobler circa 1965. Anyone remember those yellow Tornado nylon props?


Ringmaster shown in flight. Mountain is Mt. Aryat in the Republic of the Philippines. Bldg is the Clark AB Medical Center where my dad was assigned



2006 - My 14 year old son posing with his 1st place Sig Primary Force CL ARF at the Sig contest



2005 - Son preps our Sig LT-40 trainer. We both soloed on this trainer and amassed over 300 successful flights

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

You are saying all the right stuff.

My experience was a lot like that but 10yrs earlier and my dad and his brother were already out of the airforce. The first planes were the Walker stuff and about the time the Cox's came out, I went to the Ringmaster and not long after the regular size Mambo etc.

cfircav8r

My Feedback: (1)

I have always loved airplanes. When I was about 13 I decided I wanted a glider. This was So. Cal. in 1981 and radios were very expensive for a 13 year old. Two weeks after my anouncement of my desire to get an R/C glider, my mother returned home from an interview with big news. She informed me that she just got a job as an engineer for Kraft. Within a month I was the proud owner of a brand new Kraft 2ch and a Bridi Soar Birdy. With my fathers help (he only flew C/L years before) I taught myself to fly, and have been loving it ever since.

bouncebouncecrunch

cox control line as a 10 year old, then walking home from school at 13 found a two metre, undamaged glider wing and a mangled fuselage on a pile of rubbish for council cleanup, off home i went and traced said fuselage to newspaper built a new one and installed an accomms 2 channel car radio system and that was my first radio controlled model plane.

Terry Bolin

My Feedback: (7)

I got started 43 years ago when I was ten! One of the best things to ever happen to me. I lived in a house that just down the road a man who became one of my life long friends would fly 1/2a planes in their back yard and I could ride my bike down to watch.. Well I got a Cox model for my Birthday..Been at it ever since and I get soooo much Joy out of the building, flying and friends in the Hobby! Most are just good people! Have a great hobby! Terry Bolin, Neosho, Mo.