What is a control line airplane?

Control line is a system where the pilot holds a C shaped hand grip with two cords connected to the airplane. The speed is contast ( no throtle control) and you don't need rudder control because the pilot turns around in a circle. The two cords are connected to the elevator control and the pilot can raise or lower the plane by titlting the hand grip. The plane is hand launched by an assistant. This not radio control.

Control line was the first successful means to actually control a model airplane in flight. Before that, models were free flight.

There are usually two lines from the handle to the airplane. They connect to a bellcrank that translates the movement of the two lines into a push-pull movement of a connecting rod that goes to the elevator. The two control lines work very much like the pull-pull rudder setup that is popular in RC nowadays. If you pull one line, the elevator goes up. Pull the other line and the elevator goes down.

The lines are usually fine wire nowadays. It's actually pretty awesome wire. It's usually around .015" in diameter and is actually 7 strands of braided wires. That's the size you'd see controlling a .35size model. And the lines would be around 60feet long. Strong and flexible.

The airplanes can be described as going around in circles but that's a pretty weak description. Speed models have flown over 200mph. We had racing events with 4 airplanes at a time in the same circle flying races that required refueling stops done by pit crews that could refuel and restart and launch the plane back into the race in seconds. We fly a couple of models at the same time in combat events where both have crepe paper streamers yet are going way over 100mph. They try to cut each others streamer. There are Carrier models that simulate WWII aircraft carrier airplanes. And some clubs have built the carrier deck to fly off. CL scale was the first time modelers could build museum quality into a model and have a hope of getting the sucker off the ground AND back down in one piece. CL Precision Aerobatics is amazing and unbelievable. You won't believe the maneuvers. All done on 60' lines. And you will be blown away by the craftsmanship and quality of those stunters.

There actually are still a bunch of guys flying CL. The middle size town I live in has a park with two paved CL circles in it. It was built in the 60s and has had flyers using it ever since.

CL is still amazing stuff.

Fly-by-wire

You are actually physically in contact with the plane, throug the lines.
There's no electronics, unless you want to go electric. Cannot blame your crash on a radio hit either ...

I would be ill with dizziness if I had one of these models!

This is my own design CL stunter. It's almost completely built from 1/16" balsa including the fuselage, about 63" wing span with 830 sq inches and weighs 59 ounces with an ST G51. The lines connect to the left hand wing so they can't be seen in this photo and mine are 70 feet from handle to the centre of the fuselage which is the maximum length allowed.

One of the joys involved with flying CL is that you can feel what the model is doing, how it reacts to a gust of wind and of course how it reacts when you fly through your own turbulence on a calm day doing consecutive manoeuvres.

But if you want to see the most spectacular and hair raising flying in all of modelling you simply can't get anything more exciting than a good combat bout. Or more crashes either.....

There is a control line forum on RCU. When you first learn to fly it is good to have a slow, stable trainer with a small fuel tank. Best deal is to have an experienced flier in the circle to hold your hand for the first couple of rounds and take the handle back if you get dizzy. Most people get over being dizzy. Once you learn to fly some and get a more capable airplane; you can stand still and fly inside and outside loops and figure 8's so long as the fuel lasts. Control Line Precision Aerobatics has a sequence of maneuvers which you fly and the judges score your fight on how well the maneuvers match the rulebook diescription. If you go to the AMA website and click on publications, you can find the AMA rulebook and the CLPA section where the maneuvers and scoring are described. I have heard of several RC pilots who are learning to fly the CL pattern with an RC airplane and finding it quite interesting to do.

Ok I got it. I remember them from when I was a kid. I thought that might be the case but I could not remember what they were called.

control line was the first powered airplane type I flew as a kid a great place to start to learn about glow engines, and a heck of alot of fun.

My dad had so much fun flying the old Cox control line planes. We would buy the plastic planes and we would take turns flying it. We used the the cardboard from a refridgerator flattened out as the runway in our yard. We would spend countless evening flying the snot out of those little planes. If you crashed we just used plastic model cement for repairs and was back out flying the next night!!!!

Ken

Jim Walker filed for patent on control line in 1940. He may not have been the first to fly it. However, RC for airplanes predates 1940 by at least 3 or 4 years. And Tesla had a RC boat in '98. That is 1898.

Here is the reason I posted this thread to begin with. I was searching Ebay for glow planes and came across this auction for a control line plane from the 1970s thats still in its original bubble wrap. Pretty neat.........heres the link for it below and a picture.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...0915&rd=1&rd=1

Actually, radio control preceded control line - or at least the form we know today (sometimes called U Control or "ukie" for short). So the order is free flight, radio control and finally control line.

In 1942, Jim Walker from the Portland, Oregon area devised a control mechanism consisting of a handle the pilot grips, two lines connected to a bellcrank mounted in the model. Sometimes a 3rd line is used for throttle control. If you like the feeling of being directly connected to your model and can feel every bit of feedback caused by speed, wind, attitude, power, etc, control line flying is an exciting form of model aviation.

http://www.americanjuniorclassics.co...trolpatent.htm

those testors planes were great they were the competitors for COX planes I think they sold for about 15.99 at K-Mart if you wanted a control line plane to mess with you can get a better quality one from BRODAK mfg. they took over the Carl Goldberg line of .049 kits as well as a few ARF and kit control line planes.
www.towerhobbies.com is also a source of control line planes and equipment as well as your local hobby shop, ebay has some offerings and there can be some good deals if you want to depends on what you are looking for