RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

I also had a Falcon 56 in 1982 with an OS 45 FSR ABC and a Futaba 7 channel. Didn't belong to a club and crashed it the first season. Joined a club 10 years later and learned to fly. The OS 45 was a fabulous engine and the Falcon flew great!

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Midwest Tri-squire Enya 19 and Kraft Signature series 7 channel radio.

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Berkeley Rudderbug with Super Aerotrol single channel vacuum tube receiver and transmitter.

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Joe Bridi Trainer 40 with O.S .40sf.

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Lanier Comet with Merko .60 (I loved that motor) EK Logictrol 5 ch

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Lets see, taught myself to fly gliders with a gentle lady..Then taught myself to fly gas with a sig seniorita..Learned the hard way that having a wingtip warped about +15 degrees is not the way to go ...and more throttle doesn't help !

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

I lost mine pretty much the same way. Luckily the soybean field it dove into softened the impact a bit. I still have the fuse. I also have the wing from a second LT40 that got mangled in a midair. They both rest in my garage, waiting for me to mate them up.

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Alright, as Paul Harvey would say, here is the rest of the (my) story.

Took my Champ and Heathkit radio to the local school yard. Taxied into a goal post. Replace broken prop, and line up for take off. Roll and lift off into the wind. Clime out briskly into a loop and totally out of my controll 5 seconds after take off. Continuing to loop, now about 40ft at the bottom of the loops, down wind (east) and it is carrying over I77 which runs right next to the school. My brother climbs over the fence for the freeway and is now giving chase across the intersate! I give up on the controlls and jump in the car. We catch up with my brother on the other side of the freeway. We are now the chase car, asking people working in their yards and some guys doing a new roof, which direction it was heading. Driving down cross roads, I spot the plane, now on a picnic table about to be disected by the kid who found it as it swooped down in the middle of the only empty lot in the whole developement, almost three miles from where we started. Yes, another broken prop, but it hit just as it leveled out at the bottom of a loop, and that is the only damage! I reclaimed my property and exused myself from the neaborhood. We were done for the day.:)

Next day, I took it to a secluded field, hand launched it, and was flying on the second attempt, honestly.

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

In '93, I got an Aircorpse (yes, corpse, not core) Trainer with a Supertiger GS40 and a JR 4 channel. That plane was a pile of poop, and I can't believe they're still around. It was like a Chrysler K car... it was the biggest pile of crap, but no matter what you did, you couldn't kill it. After buddy cording the thing for two months and still not being "signed off" by the field instructor, I said screw it and took it to a base ball field. The flight was uneventful.

Then I moved from FL to VT (I was 15 and didn't have a choice), and my parting gift was a Midwest Hotts II from my flight instructor. When I got to VT, I figured I had nothing to lose, so I threw the 'Tiger and JR gear in that and had at it. Would you believe that the Hotts II was easier to fly than the Aircorpse? Well, it was. Love love LOVED that plane and was actually sad to see it go due to "one more flight before I go home."

Next up was a GB Eagle II with two bays clipped from the wing, anhedral, double sized control surfaces, same 'Tiger and JR gear, and done as a taildragger. It was fun, but nothing special. Radio glitch did that one in.

After that, I was ready to try a GP Super Sportster 40 bipe. Absolutly fantastic plane, and beautiful to match. I'd love to find one that hasn't been built yet. I flew that one for a looooong time. Over time, glow fuel got in to the wood hoding the upper cabane struts in, and they softened to the point of not being able to hold the wing on. It shed the top wing during flight, and kept flying for two more weekends as a monoplane 'till it high speed stalled coming down the backside of a loop and rekitted itself.

Next was a Super Sportster 20 that never got finished. This is spring of '96 now... I was graduating high school, going to college, getting my real pilots license, and kinda lost track of RC planes. About two years ago, I discovered the SS20 in my parents basement and finished it and put a Saito 50 on the front. Hell, I was a hotshot pilot ten years before, and knew how to fly real planes, so this should be no sweat! hah... Ooops.

Two years elapsed and I finally got around to buying RFG3, and a GP C182 ARF. I haven't flown the plane yet, but am logging some considerable simulator time. When I come back from the desert in the fall, I plan on flying the plane for the first time. :)

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Midwest Esquire with a Fox 15, 10x3 1/2 prop, Bonner Varicomp escapement , WAG 3 tube receiver built from Ace kit, Marcytone transmitter bulit from ACE kit. This was rudder only, no throttle. We had TWO frequencies, 27.255 and about 465 (no one around here ever flew on 465).

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

GWILLIE.

Great picture! How many lawns did you mow to buy that? I bought my Falcon 56 kit in about '74 and bought the engine in about '76 and didn't get a radio till about '82 when I got the job I am currently in. I don't have any pictures of it but I wished I did.

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Mine was a Sig Kadet MKII that I built with Dad's help.Took the dihedral out and made a real windshield from a 2 liter coke bottle.Magnum .45 for power,dont remeber the radio except it had a metal case and no trainer cord.Landed myself on 3rd flight after I stalled the motor and my dad wouldnt take the radio."You killed it,you land it"He had me shooting approaches for the 1st 2 tanks and I think he knew I was ready.I sure miss that plane and the time it gave me and my dad together.Im trying to get him back into the hobby with me.

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Your story really evoked some emotion in me. My dad was a full scale pilot and was killed in 1966 in his plane. I was just 13, and was involved in control line flying, which dad was enchouraging. He was always building a HeathKit something, and that is why, I think, my first radio was a HeathKit. I hope you and your dad can again enjoy this great hobby together. I only wish I had dad back. I know he would have enjoyed what we have today. Thanks for the memories.

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Sig Kadet Senior with an OS 52 Four Stroke that my dad I built together when I was about 12 or 13. I'm 19 now, still have the trainer, and a lot of other planes! [8D]

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Man, this should be called the nostalgia string. Your Esquire made me think of my Fox 15 powered Esquire and of all those times I was flying single channel all alone.
It had a Babcock compound escapement for rudder and a Citizen-Ship escapement for throttle.

I also had a K&B .049 powered Lil Esquire. It had a 3 volt transistorized Citizen-Ship LT3 super regenerative receiver and compound escapement.

That's my green and white Esquire in the photo and it's MRC Arcon Company transistorized relayless superhet receiver and Citizen-Ship 3-tube transmitter.
One transmitter photo shows the DC to DC converter built from an Ace kit that eliminated those two expensive 67.5 volt batteries and the 1.5 volt lantern battery.
Six volts was supplied to the converter by cheap military surplus Ni-Cad wet cells and converted to 135 volts DC.

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Or the "how the hell did you guys fly with that stuff" thread

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Lanier Comet with a Veco 50 and Orbit 6 channel 1970.

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

My first plane was a Thunder Tiger Trainer 40, with an O.S. 40 LA and a Tower Hobbies Radio, I still have it to this day and continue to fly it.

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

LOL@that
It wasn't easy. It was like gambling. If you kept trying you might get lucky and win a successful flight.
Fortunately those few diehards stuck with it until modern radio control equipment was invented or there might not be an RC hobby today.

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

avistar.... still got it...im going to keep it forever;)

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Goldberg Falcon 56 dope& silk then painted red, with Enya 38 (?) and a Space Commander 4 channel (green case)

it flew by itself but i was swetting like a hog! i still remember :D:D:D (circa 1974?)

i wish i had a pic!;)

post more old pics if you have ...

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Thanks for hanging in there. You are so right. Even in the 60s, I can remember many times, going out to fly and coming home having never even gotten the darn engine to start. No electric starters back then, and it wore us out. Sometimes, we would just give up and go fishin.:D I can't imagine how much patience it must have required with escapments and vacum tubes.

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

Avistar .40
OS 46 AX
Hitec HS-311
JR R700 RX
JR XP 8103 TX

Followed by the following all of which are still flying like new:
Ultra-Stick .40
H9 P-51D Miss America Mustang .60
Twist .40

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

[X(]At age 50 of last year I bought myself a Nexstar Select.I spent a lot of time on the sim that came with it and went to the club field and flew it sucessfully 5 times before I dumb thumbed it.Repaired it and took all the learning aids off and flew it for about 5 gallons of fuel.I finally lost it teaching a buddy how to fly.No buddy box.[:o]Dumb idea.Totaled it in the stand of pines behind the flight line.Then I bought a Big Stik and a Dura Plane.Still have both of those and a trainer cord and buddy box.I have taught 3 more folks sucessfully the right way!;)

RE: ? Your first RC plane
 

My first airplane was a WM Frontier 40, sold it, bought it back (from the same guy) and repaired/re-covered it, will re-maiden tomorrow :D

This pics are before / after repairs