Got a Cox/Thimble Drome Comanche for Christmas around 1960; not sure sure if Dad got it for me or himself but I was only 6 at the time. He did fly it and I still have the Sportster .09 engine. That was one of the nicest looking plastic CL planes ever. I did try to build a Ringmaster with McCoy .19 but never completed it. I flew a lot of the control line stuff later in high school, mostly Cox plastic models like a lot of other folks. In between there were a slew of Sterling and Guillows rubber powered models, rockets, gliders and a few free-flight. I have few of those kits on the shelf now mainly for nostalgia. It was great having a Dad that also was a modeler and encourager. Several friends had the Cox PT-19 and it was a hoot to see those things fly apart and then get rubber-banded back together!

After the Scientific 1/2-A Hellcat, I built their 12" span Little Bipe with Cox .049 Babe Bee, refinished my brother's Scientific Li'l Devil with Wen Mac .049, Top Flite struct-o-form Mitsubishi Zero with Cox .020 Pee Wee, self designed F4F Wildcat profile, Dumas Li'l Tomohawk, Dumas Airco Aircoupe, Sterling Beginners Eindecker with Cox .049 Black Widow and a Sterling 38" P-51 profile with Testors McCoy .19 Red Head on 52' lines.

Had a slew of ready to flies, but they were basically one shot airplanes. That included a Cox Spitfire, P-51B, and Stinson L-whatever Observation. The plastic was brittle enough that they made spectacular crash scenes. Engines became donors for balsa creations.

My first was like many others a PT 19 from Cox. Also that plane gave me my first stitches. Trying to get the motor tuned and stuck a finger where it did not belong. After crashing it for the 7th or 8th time I put it in a bag and said never again. On the way home my dad saw two people flying an RC plane at the school and we stopped to watch. That was the end of my CL days.

My first plane was given to me by my cousin it had a McCoy 29 glo engine in it
I think it was a T-28 Trojan style plane
I loved getting the motor running and it's sound , got me hooked on glo flying airplanes , FOREVER
I was about 15 years old
Never did fly it , as I would ground loop it , and destroy it ,taking off with up elevator ,not a good idea !
The plane I built and flew many of was the Flight Streak , done in silk and dope ( old school )
My favorite engine was the johnson .35 and yes she would start with ONE BUMP START back on the prop
Made many modifications to improve its flying over the years , and got real good at building and combat with two local boys who had the same interest
One of the boys I would beat a combat on a regular basis , went on to win a major local combat meet
He took first place at the Mirror meet, held by the Mirror News Paper in NY,in the late 50's
I am now 68 years old and flying RC for 24 years
It has been a super wonderful , joyful life experience for me ,and I am not done yet
I ran into one of the boys I flew with when I was 15 at my local RC field, a few years ago , his son now owned one of the local hobby shops
The other became a full scale pilot , and lost his life in a small commercial aircraft crash, which I learned upon my encounter with the first friend after so many years
The first had a god given gift to do great kit modification , and could prop an engine to perform better than most
To say that all the above has made my life a more enjoyable experience is a wonderful fact of life
Once I got into the 35 size planes , I did stay with them as they were easier to fly than the smaller ones
Which seams to apply to the way many RC planes fly,bigger is smoother and more money to do
Best regards Tony Lentini

A lot of great memmories flash back with a thread like this -YES !!!!!!

Many, MANY moons ago while growing up in rural Illinois, I saw ads on the back of comic books stating, "Sell seeds, win prizes!" I thought to myself, "That can't be too hard!", so I send off for the seeds. What came was a package containing 50 packages of seeds!

So, I unpacked the seeds, hopped on my bike and set out to sell the seeds to my farming neighbors. It did not take long before all of the packages were sold.

After scanning the prizes for quite a while, I decided to get a Wen Mac control line airplane. So, off went the "seed money" and before long, my airplane arrived. It was complete with the engine, lines, control handle, fuel, battery clip and battery.

Since I had no one to help, I figured out how to start the engine and get the plane going around in circles. After running burning up all of the fuel, and since I did not have money to buy more, I figured out how to pull the airplane around with the lines and still get to fly it.

That first airplane is long gone, but I still have the engine, over 50 years later.

Jake

First one I successfully flew was a Cox sport??? back in the late 70's. It looked kind of like an Edge and it was pinkish or reddish with the number 32 on it.
Later, I flew a Testor's P40 and attempted to build a Scientific Super Stuntmaster (log fuse and built-up wing). I never quite finished it and ended up tossing it before getting into RC. Now at my older age, I got a hankering to try some CL again so I got a few Scientific kits off ebay, Sig Twister, Nobler ARF, P51 profile, and some plans. I like anything that flies whether its RC, CL or free flight. It's all good.
I'm lucky we have a great flying site where everyone's welcome. We have 2 CL paved circles at one side of the park and paved runway for RC'ers on the other side. We have a local CL club too that comes out so watching them wetted my interest again. We also have a long rectangular lake in the park for boaters and sometimes RC's fly off it too. Boating or seaplanes is one thing I haven't tried but would like to.

I used to do something like that. The company I worked with was Olympic Sales Co and they sold cards, stationery, gift wrap, etc. They advertised thru comic books in the 70's to get kids to sell their stuff. I always kept my share of the cash rather than pick a prize, which was pretty good for a kid on a bike too young for a normal part time job. I loved it. I got regular customers who always bought from me and they actually had quality stuff - never a complaint. They went out of business and the way of the comics. What memories those were! I'd give almost anything to go back.

Jake, if it were me, that engine would be almost begging for another plane to revive its stint in glory, perhaps a profile balsa model of the Wen Mac you had back then?

carddfann, not being a salesman type, I did things a little different, worked on a poultry farm after hours during high school. However it provided me hobby money so I didn't have to bum off my parents. That was at $1.25 per hour, which was the minimum agriculture wage of the time. I did everything from picking eggs, to washing feed troughs, cleaning cages, vaccinating chicks, moving chickens from house to truck for haul to slaughter house, shoveling manure, and etc. Although overall it was good to me and I enjoyed it, in some ways I wouldn't give most anything to go back.

Here's another one, belonged to my son, but he's now married and moved on. An uncompleted Sterling Beginners P-47. I cleaned up the "barn find" engine (he and a friend found it out in a field some years back), just need to finish his plane. [8D]

Sterling - Ringmaster
Sterling - P-51 Mustang
Sterling- Yak 9

Just about all of them were powered by Fox 35's.

Were some of my U-contol models.

All of the above with Fox 35's. Also Super Ringmaster, Veco Smoothie, Veco Thunderbird, Riley Wooten's Quicker combat with K&B 35 plus several combat planes from plans.
My first plane was a Stromberg F-86 display model. It was pre-shaped wood with sanding templates. Painted it silver and added the water decals.
My first control line flying model was a Wing Ding (Scientific?) with an OK Cub .074. My dad carved out a wood pilot bust to go in the cockpit and fittingly named him "jughead". Did my first loop with a Ringmaster.

Great thread!

I remember as a kid all of the plastic Testors and Cox airplanes at the nearby Kmart. My dad built lots of stick and tissue and CL planes, but he was not interested in flying. I had a couple of the plastic planes, but they really did not fly at our altitude in CO. I did not have a lot of help from my dad on the flying side, just the building side of the hobby.

I would consider my first successful CL flying was with a Fox .35 stunt, and a Sterling Ringmaster. I know, it is typical. I could loop it pretty good, but ended up hitting the ground too many times to go any further with that airplane. My second big CL plane was a Sig Banshee. My dad had built one when I was really young, so this was more for sentimental reasons. Got a lot of flights with it, but never had the courage to learn to stunt.

Then I found RC in the early 80's. I built a Sig Twister around 1989 and did learn to fly inverted. Having experienced pylon racing and flying in competition, I met a local combat guy in 1990 and went crazy back into CL. My new friend was Dave Henderson, and he taught me how to design, build and fly CL combat aircraft. It was as much fun as I have ever had in any aspect of model aviation. Traveling to contests, including the AMA Nats in 94'. Got to fly with the likes of the Mears bros, Wilcox, Minors and Larry Driskall.

Kind of funny now when I am at the flying field (I fly mostly giant scale warbirds now with gas engines) , I still have an aversion to an electric starter. The RC guys just do not understand that we used to practice our pitting and engine starting procedures. Electric starters are not allowed in many events. They just look at me like I am crazy!

My first was a P-51 built from a Scientific Kit Powered with a Cox .049 Baby Bee and painted with Non fuel proof silver paint. My friend Ted and I came home with silver hands on Test flight day! Chuck

GallopingGhostler, I never lived on any sort of large farm with all that but dad had a few hogs to slop and he would set out about 2 acres of bell peppers that I helped pick like peter piper and another acre of stuff for ourselves. That was just enough to let me know I wanted a desk job. The pepper money helped us pay for a few extra things, including getting dad and I started in RC. Being a kid, I don't remember how much peppers were worth but it was pretty good and a couple of neighbors started their own 1or2 acre patches that we helped with.

In the early CL days there where no starters that I knew of. The K&B 35 sometimes liked to whack my finger. I have gone back to using chicken stick on 2 cycle engines. Pump enough fuel to the engine (it needs to sound a little sloppy) and it will start with a few flips. Hand starting can prevent damage to a hard to find scale spinner. I haven't been as successful with 4-strokes, although I'm sure it can be done successfully.

Hand starting was a right of passage back then. Sort of like building everything you owned. The only starters were old aircraft starters with flywheels that the control-line speed guys used.

Chuck, I remember how that enamel spray paint wasn't fuel proof. [:@]

You just jogged my memory.

There were 2 additional Scientific kits I built in the 1970's, a balsa log ME-109 Messerschmidt

[link]http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=3574[/link]



and a P-51 Sizzlin' Liz built-up with clear plastic turtle deck

[link]http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=3560[/link]

carddfann, I never lived on a farm, just worked as a hired hand. But as you say, it was good money. The kids in high school always seemed to be shooting for the premium jobs like working at the golf course or an upscale restaurant, earning $0.55 more than I an hour. However, I was never having to scrounge for money for school events, petrol or clothes. It was dirty and hard work though, which probably scared away a lot of kids.

Sig Dewey Bird: http://www.sigmfg.com/cgi-bin/dpsmar...art.html?E+Sig

The NorthWest Control-Regionals is where I gained an interest in Ukies: http://flyinglines.org/index.html

Flying is fun....

having grew up around my uncles they were already established in the sport.but my first cl was a ringmaster with a fox 35.still have that engine.from 1977'moved on rc but still dabble in clclPoo

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Mine was the Ringmaster.

<h3><font size="4">Bought 2 planes from a 6th grade class mate in 1956. Flew them a couple of years. one had a <font size="4">McCoy 19 the a Green Head Torpedo 29. The planes were Black and White. In <font size="4">'58  <font size="4">8th grade built a PT-19  Blue and Yellow. Never Flew it gave it <font size="4">and everything to my cousin.  Went into the USAF in 64 got an article 15 from Staff Sgt Peters for having DOPE in the <font size="4">barracks some thing about being </font> (FLAMABLE)</font></font></font></font></font>. I was building a Stuka Flew it ounce at Canute AFB and left it there but took the FOX 36X .... Bought my parents place in '84 and my 9 year old son david found a Profile P-51 with the froze up Fox 36X on it and a broken Vertical stab and rudder. He got it running and we started to learn to fly together. Stopped into a local hobby shop and there she was our first R/C Plane ... Pink and Yellow Banana Shaped Great Planes 60 Trainer w/ a K&amp;B 61. Joined the AMA and a club and after the first 19 Dead Sticks by  JIM our instructor we replaced the K&amp;B with an ASP 61 and learned to fly. Well like a lot of young men David found Girls and Cars. He's the proud owner of many Toys with 4 wheels. Particularly his '68 Chevlle . Asked him one time how much he had in it  (Had it since 18) His answer was quite appropriate I thought. <font color="#800000"> "I don't know, I don't care, I can fix it, and it doesn't Whine.</font>  He has never flown again but I can't get in my own 3 car garage for his toys.
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Mine, like most of my buddies back then, was a Cox .049 PT-19. The local hobby shop had a bunch of 'em on the shelf. Then I got brave enough to step up to a Cox .049 "Miss America" P-51.

Fun days!

After reading some of the postings, it just dawned on me.

A lot of old farts here !!

Don't feel bad fella's, I'm one of them. [&o]