Grampaw

Great reading guys! Brought back some memories. I came into this hobby just before the Ghosts Galloped up on the scene. I wanted a radio in the worst way but three kids literally ate up all my loose change so it had to wait. When Galloping Ghost radios came out with a price in my area I made plans to save some loot and get one. Before I got started saving for my GG, RCM ran the piece on Portportional radios that we could put together ourselves. That peaked my interest.

I read it through, but didn't absorb a great deal, but I wanted one. Then the writer of the piece, can't remember his name, began to sell Transmitters, Receivers and Servo parts for self assembly at a reasonable price, so my savings were Retagged for a RCM radio. About that time I saw a Heathkit ad about a 3 Channel Porportional radio kit, and it could be purchased "On Time!" I sent a money order for my first payment right then! They also offered a 4th Channel Conversion kit and I ordered that. This radio was that Vertical "Walkie Talkie" looking set, with a Single Stick configuration.

In a few weeks I was well into assembling my first Portportional RC rig, and a 4 Channel at that! The 4th Channel was added to the top of the Single Stick via a knob with a Pot inside. This became the Rudder. The stick itself controlled the Ailerons and Elevator. The radio sat in you hand which passed through an Elastic strap underneath. The middle finger of the left hand fell over a Trim type lever on the right side which was the Throttle. Very comfortable. I put in a lot of airtime with it over the years until it was outmoded.

A friend had assembled a World Engines 4 channel with a Single Stick about the same time. When he saw my Heath, he had me order the Heath Stick and Pot Add Ons and it fit the WE hollow stick just fine. He then had the identical control set up as on my Heath. He had a left over stick on the left side which was unplugged and unused, but he learned to live with it, as he like the single stick mode as I did. Reminded us of the stick on a J-3, so we learned to control our models a lot faster in that mode. I eventuall learned to fly two sticks when I began to Instruct others who were bringing me their 2 stick Airtronics. Had to learn to fly them before I could teach them! But we had fun, thanks to the guys who put all that wonderful stuff together for us to play with.