Cees, are you saying that you flew it with it in that condition of dirt and grime all over? It looks like you have tied a rope on it and pulled it behind your car for a mile or so. I keep mine polished regardless of the age or lack of working right - which some of the did :-)

Relative to a dual input stick (Telecont) vs two separate sticks (reeds) With reeds if the pilot has ailerons on the right side and elevator on the left, then when blipping the toggles he has complete control of the two surfaces that are used in the majority of the flight, each control surface with one side of the brain. He can vary the blipping on right and left sides as needed fairly well. When I flew reeds it seemed very natural for that kind of system.

With the Telecont 9 if the ailerons are on the left stick and rudder and elevator on the right it gives you the same with respect to blipping and you have dual rudder/elevator for spins - this I would consider a better way. Also rudder/elevator on the left and ailerons on the right seems to work out well. It lets you have both brain sides work well.

But if I make an assumption that on the Telecont 9 that aileron and elevator were on the right stick and rudder is on the left, then blipping the right stick for left and right while and also blipping for up and down seems awkward. It makes me believe the Telecont 9 had ailerons on the single stick.

We accept the dual function (aileron and elevator on one stick) with modern propo because we don't have to blip, we just hold in the amount that is needed in a natural way, the one sided brain has time enough to process everything.

On the good old Ju-52 gyro thing you make a good point there. Certainly if I had paid more attention to the switch setting things would have been a lot better. I had practiced with Bonnie, My lovely wife and mechanic, who always reminds me to do the last second control surface check and right after takeoff she always said are you sure that you turned off the gyro - in a do it or else tone of voice. Without her there that was missing. That has been added to the check list also. It's not much different that having a retracting landing gear or flaps except those show you what you forgot!

I still fully believe that with modern equipment that Man-Machine-Communication is better than it has ever been. The radio no longer is a blockage in getting my ideas to the airplane. It doesn't hiccup or fail at the wrong moment. It does just what I direct it to do. I can think a maneuver and watch the airplane and it seems to do it. Not necessarily well at my practice level but the radio doesn't do anything to prohibit the airplane from flying well.

Ben