Ran across these old pictures from 1967-68. Magician built for me by my dad and was about the 7th .35 size airplane and by far the nicest. I built the other 6>LOL
This was one fantastic flying airplane and lasted for many years. One day will build another one.

Just happened to be listening to music on You Tube and found this from same time period. Hope you enjoy it!

David

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur30b...eature=related

I still have a Midwest kit magician I built in high school back in the mid-70's. Its been recovered 3 times, had a couple of cloth hinge replacements, and one control system/leadout refurb. Still flies well and has never been crashed in many hundreds of flights. Its been repaired, but only because it was flown sooo hard with some stout combat engines the softish main spar cracked a couple of times.

Lovely pictures and thanks for posting. I wish more would post their old photos.

Thanks

John

Ok John
here are few more!

These from later years around 1975
These and a few more guys are who we flew with at least one almost every day.
A couple of us (ME too!) flew every day, well almost for 6-7 year period.

The blue building is WWII Civil Defense tower that we had the local flying field.
I understand it was the last one.
Handy for running contest from

My little brother and his P-40 Goldberg/ .049


David

Great stuff david, I love seeing that old stuff especially controlline. Photography was so difficult then and expensive compared to what we have now and it just was not that common I have only a few prints from those times with no way to scan.

So fella's join in with any old pics ya got and share!

John[8D]

Even if you don't own a scanner you can have any picture digitalized on disk in many places

found some more.
Mom, Dad, Dog , Trickster with Forster .29 ing.
I came along later and kicked the dog out.

An Uncle and Me with Flight Streak or Pace Maker.

Moma please don't let your sons grow up to be long haired hippy lookin crazed combat fliers..........

The 6 bolt Fox Combat being thunk up at 75 Nats.
I killed the Baldie idea that day.

Left to Right
Front to back.

Dad and Duke Fox.
Me and Sherwood Buckstaff(?)
Tommy.

I've also spent time under Duke's sun shade at contests, but the thing I remember most from about then is how upset Duke was that he'd killed his popular needle bearing 36X to replace it with the plain bearing 36, and the Slow Combat hadn't gone that way after all.

I had three of the baldy 36Xs, all of which broke shafts, and I got new shafts for two, but needed more than that for another one, which I sent back to Fort Smith to rebuild. I didn't get it back right away, and then the early model 6-bolt engine came, with the reddish-looking color to the shaft. It blew that one right away, and a next one. I went through 3-4 of the different shafts he was trying in a short time, and he kept telling me to send the remaining Baldies back so he could melt them down, he was so unhappy with them said he's give me new 'Mark IIIs" for them. I didn't know that he was doing other changes besides shafts until then.

I still have the Baldies; I only have one Mark III, and one Mark IV left. My last Mark VI is long gone, and I never had a Nelson 36. I don't have any G21/35s left, and no ball bearing 36xs, but I do have one ST 35C (no venturi).

Kiwi

That was our shade next that Duke lived under.

Yea the baldie was not much good for AMA fast, My problem was one good run and they were shot! They did make a fantastically fast slow rat engine with a 9X8 TF PP run a click rich.
I kinda hurt Dukes feelings with my comments on the Baldie and he confessed to me that he really didn't understand what was going on with the Schnurel porting.
I was running a K&B 6.5 in Rat and had done some reshearch and some talking with
John B at K&B and had some ideas.

The front and rear port passage angle was my idea and the case finish I had told him it would look nice if he could simulate the Magnesium look of formula car castings in aluminum.
Once he grasped the porting his main concern was that the casting/machining of the angled ports were going to run the cost to high for real world combat fliers.
THEN he said
"David, I see how to do the ports"
How?
" Top secret and not going to tell you"
Please?
" No, you will see in a few months"
Well the idea he had was the tall 6 bolt back plate!
Killer engine.
The cranks that broke at the back of the thrust washer was due to no radius on back of thrust washer to match the radius on the crank and the washer would cut into the crank radius causing a stress riser.

The bushing .36-what can you say?
The only good one I saw was hand built by Duke For Tommy(one of out team) and ran great..........as long as Duke started and needled it!

I had a case of Baldies and bushed .36 that I stored in a 5 gallon bucket of oil and they developed some kind of black oxidation and are now maybe good for parts.
THESE WERE NEW ENGINES!

I do have some stock of Fox and ST and other parts plus the oil ruined engines so let me know what you need.

Dad tried to convince me to try the K&B stallion as it was basically a Green Head.
Just didn't sound like it was worth the trouble to me.
He was happy with the ST .35C

The OS .35 I used were the stunt engine-massaged of course.

Few pics of some old combat engines and even a Fox Rocket (similar to .36X)

David

Whoops!

The two engines, both the Baldy and the first two "Marks" of the 6-bolt engines, went through different heat treating also, in which the brittle ones broke just like G21/35 shafts did, through the intake port. There was a dull-looking black colored shaft (speaking of the threaded portion), the bronze colored shaft, and the final, shiny black one, for both the Baldy and the Mark III.

The only lubricating oils I would have kept aluminum engines in would have been the ATF for Ford transmissions, and Shalers Rislone additive.

If you have one of the suction / "stunt" sprinkler venturis for a 35C Tigre, I could use that, for sure.

I started out with a Nobody and a Torp 29. I got the plan for it directly from Don Still, in 1953, along with a "Victory" stunter plan, when I met him in Houston, added a Half fast with a Torp 35, and a Strawn Streamer Creamer, modified for lightness (no hardwood LE), my first year in competition. I missed getting the first Fox Combat Special at the time, and at first was very hesitant about Johnson's 35s.

The Torps used a fairly soft steel cylinder that needed a lot of castor, and K&B fuel only had 20%. After adding some Blast to boost the nitro, I wore those old Torps' compression seals down fairly fast (add in the dirt they were ingesting in crashes as well, of course). The Black Head Fox was my first of any kind of engine named a "Combat Special", and I had three at one time, the most I had of any engine in the 1950s. I lost all of those one way or another, but got a replacement from eBay (two, in fact). I also had the Series 3 Combat Special, just one of those, and about that time, got a Johnson also (early 1960s).

I still have the same Rocket 35 Red Head (no emblem on the bypass) I got back when it was sold next to the Black Head that it shared cases with. And the modified Sterling P51 it was bought to use on is still around, almost 50 years later. From the Black head through the Mark VI, I had at least one of every Fox engine used in Combat, unless you want to count the 35X and the Blue Ribbon 35 as being seriously different (one had twin needle bearings, was the only difference). I had to replace the Mks III and IVs I'd had with eBay purchaes (one each), and never did get another Mk VI, either kind.

Both of the Baldies I used for Slow Combat are still in my stuff, but one is all apart, while the other is together. The only Mk V that I had was traded for a backup Mk III, before I ever broke it in. I had two or three of th eplain bushing Sport 36 Foexes, and the one that ran best had been a (used) RC version, with a different looking front end on it. But they were the worst unbalanced shakers from Fort Smith since the Black Head Foxes and Rockets. This is the second time I've written this, but what I wrote yesterday never got added into the message thread.

It disappeared after I clicked the "OK" button.

For some (most?) of us, "When I Was Young" was a long time ago. [] [&o]

Here is a young version of me holding a reduced size Ruffy, circa 1959.

Edit: Power is a Max-1 .15. Flew on 52' .012's.

George

Nice looking airplane George. Had heard of the Ruffy but never seen.
You were much taller than I in 59!

Kiwi
((If you have one of the suction / "stunt" sprinkler venturis for a 35C Tigre, I could use that, for sure.))

Just to make sure we have our "C" vs G-21 IDs correct.

This is a bushing crankcase not a Ball bearing engine correct? With a big C on bypass.


Oh yea - the engines were stored in Kano products Kroil. best rust penetrate have ever found. thought they would be safe forever.
Go figure! Tarnished the internals to a black and left a black looking rust in various places differing engine to engine.
Salvaged a real nice 36X rod piston/sleeve , rod/pin the other day.



David

The "real" Ruffy is a Lew McFarland design. This version was done as a University of Kentucky drafting project by a friend (Joe Garrett). I don't think he ever built one. I built several, all powered by Max .15's. Joe drew it with a Webra Mk-1 diesel up front, but that would have been way too much power and weight. A modern glow or diesel .10 would be right. A little effort to build light and an older .09 would pull it. Span is 30 inches, full flaps.

I was 17 at the time...~5'11". Now 68, shrunk (sagged?) to 5'10". [&o]

George

Yea George.
Thats not all that shrinks!


Kiwi
Got your email.
I had similar problems posting when I was new to online and learned to Highlight and copy my message before hitting the send, that was if it got lost I could copy and post again.
I suspect you connection or session or something is expiring and since updating from XP to XP3 this problem seems to have stopped.

Hate to see you leave and go to R/C Groups. Me, I cant deal with the children there that seem to only want to piss you off and then report you. Too many childish liberal games there for me.

Will look tonight at ventures.
I have lots of one and very few of the other just don't remember which/which.

Did someone need a crank for Fox Baldie .36 or is my memory playing tricks?


David