aimmaintenance

I was just wonderin who started this addiction with the good ol control line simple planes.
We used to whack these out of $2 bucks worth of balsa about once a week. (I was about 12 yrs old then) (about 1980 or so)
Fortunately we had some older gents that basically donated balsa left over from their projects to us so we could crash to our hearts content.
(hehehe we kids loved it)
The older guys would be flyin RC a little ways away from us kids but after awhile they'd congrigate near us to watch the antics of 12 yr olds tryin to kill our planes.
The only sad part is I have'nt seen a kid flyin one since.

Phi3l

We (my cousin, a friend and I) used to make them out of leftover pine boards. In my uncle's workshop we re-sawed the pine to 1/8" for wings and tail feathers and 1/4" for fuselages. We made motor mounts from tin can metal and hinges from scraps of cloth. The ones we made were all 1/2A size and I think we had less than a dollar invested in most of them (after we had engines, of course). All we ever had to buy was some small bolts from the local hardware store. I think we were around 15 at the time.

We never painted ours, just built new ones when they were too heavy with oil to fly well. they went together in about an hour.

We had a TON of fun with those thing!

Phil in MN

GrnBrt

My Feedback: (5)

Oh ya, done that for sure. Flew my first U/C in 1954, a Firebaby my step Dad bought me for my birthday, what fun that was.

FOD MAN

I lived so far out in the country that i think my 1/2 A was the first airplane(real or model) that my neighbors had ever seen. i didnt have anyone to fly with so it was tough to start engine,let go,run,feed out line,duck airplane doing 90MPH,fall down while running backwards in a circle and hope that you could get it far enough out before it outran you and wraped the line around you and hit you in the ribs or back.but it was worth it. if i ever go bald i will post a picture of the top of my head so you can see what a 6/3 prop at 16000RPM can do on a low pass!!!

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Ohhhh yeh! I have all the same stories (and great memories)!

ballgunner

My Feedback: (1)

Flew free flight prewar and started U-control just post WWII. First saw it during a furlough and couldn't wait to get back to modeling. First Ukie was a revelation. No chasing. Designed and built everything. Engines were a bit scarce but unbelieveably low priced. Used whatever balsa or bamboo or spruce was at hand. First kit built was a Stanzel Super G Shark with Jim Walker control setup. Not too much cash available so lots of stuff from scratch and many profile types. It was great fun and filled the gap until radios became usable for the average modeler. At least I could give up the paper route and mowing lawns to get modeling stuff.

Flypaper 2

Used to fly the Firebaby too, OK Cub i think. Flew them till the wing was so fuel soaked it finally collapsed in the middle. Didn't take much to keep us happy back then. Oh ya K&B 1000 and Missile Mist fuel.

S1Pitts

My Feedback: (4)

My first plane.........1967 WenMac Aircobra
Went on to build just about every Goldberg, Sterling,Topflite & Scientific c/l , f/f made.
1973 started r/c .............seems so very long ago!
KR

tunnelvishon

If it wern't for the old .049 control line planes in the 70's when I was a kid I don't think I would be in RC now. Started with a plastic Junker Stuka that flew like a brick and took an hour to start and ended up building great balsa aerobats like the L'il Jumpin Bean. I feel like getting one now just to show the kids what we used to endure to see flight with our meager $ in those days. Most kids now are dissapointed if their toys dont fly or drive out of the box when they open them.

CMAN

I started with a SIG rubber powered profile model, with covering only on one side, what a cool airplane, well at the time it was cool, i had built somethign and it actually flew.

Then i built several sig rubber models, that i would recieve for christmas, and one day, i recieved a U-Control, it was a gift for cutting the lawn all summer, a SIG 1/2A skyray, I used my dads old cox /049 babe bee and after awhile he bought a control line then i got busey but this summer i'll pull them out again and see if i can get dizzy and fall down,

Happy holidays

PT21Flyer

My Feedback: (1)

I started flying 1/2a control-line about 4th or 5th grade (9 or 10) with Baby Ringmasters and scratch built wings of my own design. Our club used to have indoor baloon busts in a building with a 10 foot ceiling. Lots of planes ended up tangled in the roof trusses. Some friends and I were flying combat with our flying wings one day when a guy from the neighborhood that I had seen at the local elementary school flying stunt with a "Smoothie" came over to help us start engines and launch them. He left for a little while and came back carrying a box which he handed to me and told me to build something I could have more fun with. In the box was an O & R .29 glow engine. I built my first Ringmaster for it and sure enough it was a lot more fun to fly. these pictures aren't very good but the first is from 1960 and the other is from 1962.

Jerry

stomper

My Feedback: (20)

I started flying C/L around 1963-64 I was eight years old. Remember flying Cox 049, Sterling Baby Ringmasters in front of our house( tee intersection ). Great fun and simple times!

Azcat59

1946: sixth grade....K&B 29 on ignition, Goldberg "Zing" U/Control. Flew it in the cow pasture, but the noise would attract and annoy our bull, who would come from afar, giving me just time to make a flight, then skinny under the barbed wire fence, pulling the poor plane through behind me. Tried to get dad to butcher the bull.....

Later on, designed my own planes, placed 5th in the Nats with one of them. Didn't get into RC until 1976, after some 14 years out of modeling. Fond memories of U/C, but RC is more exciting I think.

Clair Sieverling
AMA 15654

Jim Messer

My Feedback: (2)

We started flying U-controls back in 1942. At that time they were converted free flight models. However, I designed a couple of models specifically for U-control, and here is a photo of one of them. It is a Stinson 105 with a Tiger Bunch .45 engine, designed, scratch built, and flown in 1944 at age 14. You can see the bellcrank in the window.

aimmaintenance

No doubt about it RC is way better, but I'm bettin if it wasn't for cox .049s and ambroid glue, I wouldn't be here right now!

GrnBrt

My Feedback: (5)

Man oh man do you have that right!!!! I must have went through gallons of ambroid glue!!![X(]

Flypaper 2

Still have my old Austin glue gun around somewhere, just in case.

imavmax

these brought back lots of memories. used to get babe bees at kuhn's for 3.95. hard to find glo fuel but they would run great on vitalis hair tonic. don,t remember how i found this out.
imavmax

Combat Addict

I got started with wind up, rubber band power. Those were fun. I think that I might try to build one of those U control or FF airplanes. Would be much easier than scratch building RC. Spring Break project?