September, 1953
My first R/C model was a Lew Andrews Guillows "Trixter Beam" powered by a green head K&B .15 - no thottle of course. Radio was a Aerotrol kit system, using a Bonner S/N escapement for rudder. The finish was silkspan with Testor's dope - white with orange trim. The transmitter was a heavy black box, fabricated by my Dad, with a largish dipole antenna, powered by the battery in Dad's trusty 51' Buick. I built the receiver and had to take an FCC test for the required citizens band license. It took two paper routes to support the purchase of the Burgess dry cell batteries that had to be replaced all too often. I remember using a 36" length of spruce dowel with a carved screwdriver blade shape at one end, in order to get my body as far away from the reciever tuning slug as possible during the tuning phase of the pre-flight preperations. My first flight took place at the Los Alamitos Race Track parking lot in Southern California, a location used by quite a few modelers in those days. The airplane ROG'd from the tarmac without problem and flew quite slow and actually very smoothly. Turns had to be "blipped" and with the S/N escapement, you of course had to go through the next cycle in order to repeat the direction of the turn.

I also remember having some difficulty finding an appropriate fuel tank for my Beam and that I finally wound-up using an empty glass Testors dope bottle with soldered tubing in the metal cap - but it worked fine.

For what it's worth, I just finished a replica of my old Trixter Beam, using plans obtained through Bill Northrup Old Time Plan Service. Believe me, this "new" Beam looks about 3000% nicer than my first one! Great memories - many thanks for the thread.