K.O.

My Feedback: (16)

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K.O.

My Feedback: (16)

This sounds exactly like my experience. Same plane and about the same year. I flew it in our high school gym.
God forbid they wouldn't allow that now. To dangerous, someone might get their finger cut on a prop, etc etc and sue the school etc. sad. But we had fun at the time. Fond memories.
K.O.

K.O.

My Feedback: (16)

You might be surprised. I had the opportunity to fly a C/L this year after 60 years. I was amazed. Like riding a bike, you never forget.
K.O.

Tom Nied

It wasn't even my plane. A friend got a Cox PT 19, and he and I learned how to start, and fly a controline airplane. It was 1966, I was 13. It was nice of my friend to share that airplane. We would take off from a 4'x8' piece of plywood with the end propped up similar to UK aircraft carriers to get a bit of a jump into the air. Great fun.

gene6029

I was 12yrs old, back in 1970. Worked all summer long cutting lawns for the neighbors to buy a plastic Cox AD-1 Skyraider. My dad got it running and I got it to make about a lap before it met its maker. I used the engine off it and added a baby bee tank to it. From that day forward I built everything I flew out of balsa. I learned to repair what I busted up along with a lot of skills I used throughout life. That engine flew on a lot of those Sterling profile kits, and a few of the flying logs. I still fly those Cox engines to this day, just not the same ones I had in the 70s.....Gene

Dzlstunter

K.O. said: "AJ Firebaby, in 1954, or 55. I was 9 or 10. I learned to fly it until the fuel ran out."

Ditto for me. Mine had a very nice Wasp .049 up front. I grew to hate the balloon fuel tank, though.

Dzl

GREG DOE

I should have mentioned my Firebaby was powered by an OK Cub .049.

Rubbernecker

My Feedback: (22)

Was probably 1976 (12 years old) and a Cox electric Spitfire. Had to whip it in the air and no stunts. Then a Cox Rivets with an 049. It too would not stunt. Then all the Goldberg 1/2 a kits starting with the Wizzard. It's been down hill since building and flying, rc and control line.

John

d_bodary

My Feedback: (85)

Sterling Ring Master 11 years old around 1973

fizzwater2

My Feedback: (61)

cox PT-19, around 1968, I was 11 years old. A buddy of mine also had one, we flew together and had a blast.

Mine was the yellow fuse/blue wing version, sort of like this one setting on my desk at work now:

Tom Nied

Oh man, there it is. The plane I learned to fly Controline on. That and a box of rubberbands, and you could fly until you learned to not crash. I remember we once lost the pushrod and came back the next day with a magnet on a string to find it. And we did find it and flew it again without trying to order or find a replacement.

fizzwater2

My Feedback: (61)

We used to scour the neighborhood driveways for rubber bands people had removed from their newspapers

Tom Nied

Ha! That's great. We both had newspaper routes. Funny, that wasn't a really great plane to learn on, but it was a great plane. Right? Goldberg Lil Wizard was better. Friends later on had those.

raptureboy

68 or 69 a Cox PT-19 smashed it up the first time out. Had a Stuka also. We flew in the street on a cul de sac. Eventually I went on to RC, but those were the days. I still have some of the engines around if anybody collects them PM me.

H5606

First C/L airplane - best guess '70-'71 at age 9 or 10 - Cox PT-19 w/ metal tank - father bought for me at a military PX and one of three available in Belgium some months before returning to the States - would have preferred the P-40 or Stuka but probably the best choice for success of the three in retrospect.

When I became confident flying the PT-19 back in the States, I remember showing-off to neighborhood kids by swapping control handle back and forth between right and left hands while in flight in a tiny field behind a church; confidence turned to embarrassment when centrifugal force carried the airplane, lines, and handle away from me in short order. It didn't fly long when it left my hands. BTW, there was no adult supervision when we flew model airplanes then. A humbling experience and lucky for me, the airplane didn't hit one of those kids...

Also interrupted a wedding in progress with that airplane at the same church to the point that attendees came running outside to ask us to cease operation. Good times for sure.

xby-1

It was about 1950. The plane an American Boy, Spitzy .045. While my first CL flight, I really learned on a AJ Firebaby with a Cub .049. The Firebaby was the first I ever looped. Still flying CL today, but mostly electric.

Tom Nied

I looked up the AJ Firebaby because it was before my time. Looks like it was a great little plane. Although it might not have the crash durability of the Cox PT-19, it looks like it would have been a lighter design. Lighter being a better flyer. Although the OK Cub from what I've been told was not the greatest. Maybe for the time period it was pretty good. Anybody ever fly one and do a loop with it?

paw080

Hi Tom, The Firebaby, was a model that actually flew, compared to the rock on a string Cox PT-19.

In spite of having an undercambered sheet wing, it had a very light wingloading. Also, because

of the balloon fuel tank, engine runs were perfectly constant, regardless of flight attitude.

So, my Firebaby was powered by the ubiquitous Anderson Baby Spitfire 045. I

managed to do inside, outside loops, overhead eights, and sustained upside down flight.

I later acquired a Herkimer .049X and I flew one of my Firebabys with that engine also.

Horror of horrors, My Firebabys came with a sheet metal prop in the package of accessories.

I guess you could say the Firebaby was another brilliant design from the mind of Jim Walker.

It was a model that was introduced during the infancy of 1/2A engines that produced only

mild power. The soon to be introduced Cox.049 Senior, if installed on the Firebaby would have

threatened to rip the wings off the AJ model. The .049 Senior was the twin brother to the Thimble Drome Thermal Hopper.

Being lighter than all the plastic ready to crash models(Dale Kirn's words, not mine) ; My

Firebaby would simply bounce or tumble when flown on grass fields. I learned to fly from

a hand launch because of this. I cannot even remember all my Firebaby antics, nor do I

remember what happend to both of my planes, it was just too long ago, and too turbulent

a time for me. I thank god for having a passionate interest in modeling back then; modeling

kept my head on straight; living in the Los Angeles inner city and South West LA.

Tom, I hope I painted successfully, one person's experience with the AJ Firebaby model.

Tony

Tom Nied

That's a pretty good description of your experience. Although I was an inexperienced flyer when I was flying my friends Pt-19, I don't ever remember us doing more than climbs and dives and maybe the occasional wing over. The engine was good but the plane was pretty heavy. Later on when I was more experienced, I put a Cox Golden Bee on a Baby Ringmaster. It flew pretty fast but could fly all the aerobatics one could wish to do or try to keep up with. It's amazing how marketing and price point can dictate what actually is released. The Goldberg kits were good matches for the Cox .049, but one had to have the desire to build one. Thankfully I enjoyed that process and to this day will build a kit.

gcb

Tony, the actual name of that engine is the Space Bug. Shortly after it was introduced for CL the Thermal Hopper was introduced for FF. Next the Space Bug Junior was introduced.

To avoid confusion between the Space Bug and the Space Bug Junior, some referred to the original as Senior.

A Space Bug Junior was my first new engine. I later acquired a used Space Bug and a new thermal Hopper.

The SB Jr. powered several hollow logs. The Thermal Hopper powered a plane called Bluetail Fly. Full size plans were in a model mag.

George

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

A couple years ago Blackhawk Models did a bunch of repops of quite a few of the old Scientific hollow logs. This is the Red Flash which was my first back in 1954 with the Spitzy .045 so naturally had to have one.

John

Tom Nied

That's pretty cool. When I was a kid (12) in the mid 60's, I remember going to the library and taking out one of Walt Musciano books. It described the many forms of model aviation. I read it like it was a bible. To this day I bet I'm still using some of the techniques described in it. That kit must be a "gem".

If anybody is interested here's link to an A.M.A. Autobiography of Walter Musciano. https://www.modelaircraft.org/files/MuscianoWalter.pdf

Gizmo-RCU

My Feedback: (27)

The Firebaby flew the best, period. My first one had a Spitfire 045 and later the others had Cox 049's as I recall. The good thing about the Firebaby was you could buy replacement parts. It outflew all the "Plastic" planes, hands down due to huge weight differences and once one of those broke the engines ended up on other planes. Many of the Plastics had to be "slung" to get them off the ground.

Tom Nied

Yeah, my experience with the Cox PT-19, was exactly that. I did learn to fly on it, but a balsa plane would have been better. But what did I know at 13?

GREG DOE

Gizmo. Plus 1. My Firebaby had a OK Cub .049. It was my first successful CL model. Age 9 or 10.