I wanted RC, but my parent's were unable to afford that for christmas so I got a corsair with a cox pee wee .049 on the front.. it had enough power to circle once, take off, and at the first sign of a headwind it took a nosedive and that was it. I never bothered to repair it. I was devastated but not interested in gluing 100 spars back together. Heard nothing but horror stories about them ever since.

Not that my first forays into true RC flight were any better

Dan,
Most of us have had similar disasters... A little help from an experienced flier helps as much as it does in RC. Beginners always seem to be shy to let other see them fly until they become accomplished, Tragic and unfortunate! We've all "been there, done that" and we're glad to help anyone across the threshold.

The kit box Cox Corsair flew best if you swung it around like a rock on a string to get and keep airspeed up. It was packed more for "pretty" than for fly-ability. Probaby the best, and easiest flown plastic Cox model is/was the PT-19. Even that is/was marginal, but it flew!

Luck! and hope you are soon flying "in the best of circles!"

Well Thanks Lou, and you're not kidding. My first flights at the RC club I fly at , RCCD, were clandestine and before anyone else showed up for the day. I think I used the field about 4 or 5 times before I was comfortable enough to fly with other members around.

I think the most devastatning thing for me about that kit plane was the hours I spent assembling it. I mean it literally took me most of the winter to get it ready to fly, and when we did take it out it was probably about 15 mph winds outside. The craft was not powered for that kind of weather, and I really enjoyed lauging about your david and goliath sling style swing method of launching the thing.. how funny, and completey true lol.

Now that I'm the RC world with the radio and mulitple planes and choppers and stuff I'm really kind of set on my selection of aircraft, but I will say the control line hobby looks fun and maybe a little dizzying

I always enjoyed watching two pilots go head to head in that circle and try to cut off each other's tail ribbon.

Doug made up this video for beginners. The planes are about $50, and a real hoot. A bit hard to just get one. I fly a couple of them just for a buzz, on my own.

Holy !@#$ those are fast!

Got my heart pumping. Not sure I could do the circle dogfighting thing though. That's a little scary. I'd surely tangle every time, but on my own.. wow! That's not "your father's" CL bird.

They do loops and all that! I am in awe.

They are about 100 mph I think, using the Fora .15. There is a slow class of 80 mph where most guys use an LA .25 or ASP .21, or whatever they have around. They are on 60 ft. lines instead of the FAI 52 ft. For line tangles, it is better to do whatever shape 8s than loops. Still most flights end in some sort of carnage. All the guys are pretty good, and have been doing it since I was a kid, so they kind of are 'our fathers', or someone's anyway. Some guys from Detroit, Dresden, Toronto to Chicago and New York, are into that stuff and come here to play. There is a field around River Rouge park Detroit somewhere. I have never been to it, as it is kind of sketchy with no gun. An LA .15 on one of those planes is really pretty good, and doesn't hit as hard when crashed. They are pretty tough, and survive well except for midairs. There are some stunt grunts, racers :-) and the 'odd' scale guys play too.

That's very impressive speed, and I saw the lines are steel cable also lol. I supposed it has to be with that kind of force.

The only way I'd be caught at River Rouge park is dead. Scary area. We're an open carry state, so you can go down there carrying legally, and I think it becomes a visual deterrent for the thugs. Though I like concealed carry because then you're not scaring everyone. The senate has yet to vote on it but making concealed carry legal across the board without is probably coming soon. Time will tell.

Seems that most of the bad rap Cox/Wenmac/Testors plastic fantastics got was a result of the inexperienced having a one-time poor experience that then spread easily by word of mouth. Without being born with the knowlege and skill-set to operate small glow powered engines, let alone then possess the reflexes to fly these fragile airplanes, on top of human nature having little patience to read an owner's manual, its no wonder they got this kind of label. These airplanes were sold more directly as toys to the uninformed masses rather than to modelers and as a result ended up in the garbage can shortly after Christmas.

Always thought the box stock, Cox Corsair I had actually flew better than a Cox PT-19, probably because it was somewhat lighter in not having to be designed for impact resistance... If the engine wasn't running then yes, slinging may be the only option to get any of them to fly.

Based on what the OP said, sounds like it was a balsa kit of a Corsair in this case though.

Yes, mine was a balsa kit. And I still didn't have any clue how to control these things. I could stay aloft in chuck yeagers advanced flight trainer in an F18 and land anywhere you told me to with precision and grace, and I couldn't get a flick of the wrist down to safe my life, or my poor little wooden plane. I remember using wing dope to stretch the skin.. man that stuff was nasty. I am surprised my parents let me use it inside the house in an enclosed space. Probably explains more than a few of my problems.

I can't count the number of Comet kits I put together and put an Cox.049 on. every one of them flew for only a short time. some made a few laps some never completed one, but they all flew so erratically that success was always a gamble.

Some have said that the non-shatter resistant plastic RTF's were probably more responsible in discouraging entry level fliers from ever pursuing the sport further than anything else. A kid shaking at the knees would have his first time at the handle of the lines while the dad started up the airplane. Away it went making a half circle ending in a wing over and crash that totaled the aircraft.

I totaled several RTF's until I built and flew a Sterling Beginner's Fokker E-III Eindecker. I crashed it many times learning, but it was very resilient and survived many with only a broken prop and bent landing gear. When it did break, it was easy to repair and fly again. It had flat wing that was neutral lift, so it didn't climb into the wind and sink with the wind like the heavier RTF's with high lift undercambered wing to give more lift to the heavier plastic airframe.

Those who learned through an experienced flier were blessed. I learned the hard way. An inexperienced friend launched the plane and I'd take my knocks until I learned. But at least I learned.

Now, I'm not an accomplished stunter, but still enjoy the sport flying aspects of CL, now that I fly the .35 sized ones.

as a kid, I have never seen one time a Testors/Cox (or whatever brand)plastic flying nightmare ever actually fly under control and I've seen many and had many friends who know how to fly the big u-control planes try them.. they were a toy,....a poor one at that,.....designed for parents to spend (waste) their money on. we actually would buy them as a challenge amongst each other to see if we could control one. the game was to count laps and the highest number won.

I never had a plastic one, but lots of f friends had them and broke them quickly. Nearly impossible to fix for a little kid. I think Guillows put the phrase "balsa flies better" because of that. Since then, foam and coroplast have come along. Foam is maybe somewhat better than balsa, plastic anyway.. Guillows planes turned into toothpicks quickly, but could fly better I suppose.

yah, if you did crash, you bought a new kit !, but I had plenty of successful flights with them compared to the plastic planes. i'd rather get a bunch of laps on a balsa plane and have the crash be my fault rather than try to fly something that simply won't fly. as said,... they were the reason for most of the discouraged kids that I knew. I have to admit, I had a good friend who's dad flew r/c and he suggested I try the balsa kits right off the bat. I was a young "builder type", with building talent far beyond my age. ( my dad had a complete woodworking shop and I was using the machinery at a very young age) so the kits were no problem. I don't think I ever owned one of those plastic nightmares !.

As a child,among many other,I had a PT19. I believe its probably amongst stuff in my parents attic(nightmare mess up there). I recall having hours of fun with that. Rubberbands.