Nobody forgets "their first" and model engines are no different.

Sometimes it's fun to get people talking about how they got started...there's some interesting stories out there!

What was YOUR first model engine? When did you get it? In brief...what happened?

Let's see just how far back we can go here!

'Race

My first model engine: Cox .049 powered Stuka C/L model in 1969. It was a present on my 7th birthday. I never got to try it...my dad dorked it before I ever got a chance to....<G>

A multitude of .049's after that...strapped to anything that would go.

My first R/C engine was in 1976....a Fox .25. Mem-O-Reees....

**Model aircraft, and the people associated with it are directly responsible for re-directing the lives of countless young people who would have otherwise been lost to the vices at hand. It is incumbent upon each modeler to do his/her best to assist and mentor a beginner....No man stands taller than he who stoops to help a boy...."

'Race

well it was an LA (worst engine know to man) and it was hell to start... finally got it going and was starting it with a new tank of fuel and a bead of fuel shot in my dads eye.... thats my story of my first time


5 years ago...

-Mike

In the early 50's my dad gave me his all silver McCoy 29 and all silver K&B Torpedo 19. I used the Torpedo first on an unknown plane and then the McCoy on a Sterling Ring Master. I never did wear them out. I eventually horse traded them away 20 yrs later. My first R/C engine and plane was a, just out, Fox 15 in a Sterling Mambo with an Ace radio in 1959.

Jim

I got my first engine in 1946, a K&B .29 on ignition. Put it on a U/C "trainer", straight up and straight back down. Sent it in for new parts, and talked my older brother into financing a K&B 24. Same story. When the .29 got back I put it in a hot little plane and soloed...been fun since then!

Clair

....was a K&B Stallion .35 control-liner....'69....

(early plastic Testors planes w/.049's notwithstanding) ,
I guess there was a reason for calling them "Testors"...

....anyhoozle, a friend had built a "Nobler" CL'er, and
had never flown it. A couple guys and myself decided it
was time to jump into model airplanes....big time...and
my friend gave me the brand new Stallion....$9.95 at the
time. I went down to the LHS and bought a Cosmic Wind
profiler.

It was a great plane, and flew well...many, many times...
until I balled-up for the inverted flight.... ....
....heh heh heh....

....3 or four laps inverted ....gettin'dizzy....disoriented...
pulled "up" (expecting up)....Splinter City....oh well, live
and learn. Needless to say....I didn't give up....

BTW....my friends name is Bill Evans....from the "mighty
890"....I've been searching for him for about 10 years....

....I hope he somehow see's this....

Dave.

Cox .049 on a C/L P-40

My First R/C Engine was a OS 40 FSR - Kadet Mk II (1984)

man how things have changed. hehe

Back in about '57 I bought an ETA29 ( a British racing engine) from a modeller down the street from me. He showed me how to build a solid sheet wing trainer and taught me to fly. That engine taught me how to fit new rings and the necessity of checking ring gaps.

In 1980 my parents brought me a TF Contender 40 kit (as my first model...), with a Futaba FP-4FN R/C and an HB .40 PDP engine.

Still into the break-in process, the engine threw the TF 10x6 wood prop and jumped to over 20K RPM; apparently, no damage.

A starter cranking attempt, with the engine flooded, resulted in a broken crankshaft and a pretzled con-rod.

I fabricated a crankshaft from steel, straightened the rod and the engine ran, but too little stroke resulted in low compression, so it couldn't idle.
After using an original crank and rod (+ ring, + rear bearing, which shed its retainer; probably because of the thrown prop), the engine ran and it was a real bear. the entire field came over when they heard it run.

The Perry carburettor idle disk made adjusting the idle difficult. The high speed needle couldn't hold its position either and always vibrated open. This resulted in many "dead sticks". So I scavenged a carburettor from an OS FSR engine, filed the spigot to fit into the crankcase and all my problems were solved.

The HB lasted and was installed in an Aviomodelli Tango, until I sold all my R/C stuff and went into 6 years of hibernation...

I am sorry, but I cannot consider the multiple Testors and Cox .049s, as real engines. Besides, they were not R/C, but non-flyable U/C engines.

Sincerely,

my dad's first engine was of coarse a cox .049 that was forty odd years ago after that came a red head 5cc MC coy and then an enja 40 and then a k&b 25. the latter we still have and run now in a tt Olympic. this was my first engine.

My first engine was an MDS 40, ooh way back in 1999.

I ended up with this engine as it was what the shop owner gave me at the LHS when I was buying my trainer (Precedent Hi-Boy).

Took it to the field of the club I had joined, and they all looked at me like I had the plague. Still we got it running, with one of those silly floppy Kyosho props (10x6) which it spun maddly, and generated almost some thrust.

So back to the LHS to get all things that I needed but no one tells you when buying the stuff including a proper APC prop.

Well the engine (and the plane, and the guys at the club) taught me to fly, but the main lesson I learned is that the MDS was awful (I had plenty of deadstick landing practise!), and it is worth paying more for a decent engine.

Sprink

Hello; My first engine was a Webra 40, which made lots of power but never ran right, it was too loud so I bought an OS 40FP with a mute kit in the muffler which worked much better. I used that engine for 4 years with no problems at all. Then I discovered 4 strokes and got an original Saito 45, which I put on Plane after plane after plane, I used that engine exclusively for 8 or 9 years, then I got a little richer and started to collect 4 strokes, I have quite a few now (more then 30) and don't use 2 strokes at all any more

Hobbsy, spent six months on the corner of my work bench, then went to the scrap.

I did work out what was wrong with it. The Orings on the needle valve did not give a good seal, but the main problem was the O ring at the base of the carb split. I tried to replace, but split 4 more trying to get the carb back on, so gave up.

I know you like MDS, and the engine part is certainly powerful. The problem with MDS has always been the carb. Maybe the new carbs work well and are reliable, but no one in our club is willing to try, and all the LHSs near me no longer stock them as they can't sell them.

Second engine was an OS 25 LA. Still have that, and all engines since. The OS is sitting in an oilly rag full of after run oil waiting for me to get a suitable plane for it.

well my first engine was a magnum 36xl which came with my secondhand cougar 2000 i bought this way way back in 2003 (march)

since then i also now own a
irvine 53 in a flip 3d.....west.50t1 in a hype 3d and a os50sx which is now in my cougar 2000

oh and ive just bought a ASP.91 to go in my edge 540

and loving every minute of them

My first was a Vivell .35. Almost wore that thing out cranking on it. Did finally get it to run after learning a lot about coils, condensors and ignition points.

RJ

My first "big" engine was a testors-McCoy .29 (the series 21, w/ the square-ish finned case) in a Goldberg Shoestring stunter. That was '72 or '73, after the many Cox and Testors .049's...My first R/C engine was an Enya .29 TV ('74) in a Falcon 56, then a K&B .40. Still got most all the engines I've ever owned (it's an addiction) and the collection's still growing at 78 larger than .049...(got about 20 of those, and a few .020's and a .010) Biggest is a 3W 70cc. BTW, I soloed a 13 yr. old student (good kid) just the other day, and I agree, some kids need a "mentor", especially if their dad's don't get into airplanes, and the kid really does...

I loved my McCoy (Series 21) .35!!!!

Just a noisy paperweight by todays standards, but...the darned thing ran religiously. Bad fuel, crummy plugs, lopsided props...didn't matter...it still ran.

'Race

My first engine was an OS 25 FX for my first plane, a Jamara cessna 172. I always runed it with 82% methanol and 18% castor oil and was an excellent engine.

Daniel Maia

My first engine was an Enya 40 2 stroke which was fitted to my trainer. I got both of these in about 1989 I think. The best part is both model and engine still going strong.

I think I was about 12 whenI saved up for a Cox Sopwith Camel and a "Super starter kit". I never got it to run. I think the starter battery was weak from the start and I got frustrated and flew the plane without the engine running. (Just slung it around) Later, my brother and I bought a Cox Jeep and it was a blast! I still have many bones from my cox years. Sure wish they still made some of the good ones.

ZB

My first engine in 1946 was a Canadian made Super Hurricane .24 on spark ignition which cost $24.95 of my hard earned paper boy money . It was installed in a Canadian designed free flight called the Commando, then a Playboy 56, then a U control "Goat" with stick fuselage and free flight wings for use as a trainer to learn U Control, then a "Flicker" which was a U control that used flaps instead of elevators to control attitude. I believe this latter was an attempt to get around Jim Walker's patent on the U Control system, and it did not work very well.

Next came an Ohlsson 60, a Madewell 49, installed in a variety of stunt ships, a Baby Spitfire .045, an Arden .099, which was foolishly traded for a Rocket .46 which never ran for more than 30 seconds because of overheating.

In 1969 I built a Heathkit radio and bought my first R/C engine, an OS 30 R/C, which has been followed by many OS 2 and 4 strokes during the past 34 years

On looking back, this hobby is one that can stay with you a lifetime and still remain challenging. There are few other endeavors to which this statement can be applied.

My first was a GHQ that cost 9.95 and wouldnt run. This was in 1947. The I bought a Rocket 46 gas engine that ran like a bat out of hell, but I couldnt fly, so I crahed it first time out. Then went to O&R, and ultimately to a Super Cyclone. What a great engine that was. That was in 1948 or 49. Out of the hobby till
1985.

OS40FP on a CGEagle2, Futaba Attack4AM. Started in 1994.

Great engine, a lot nicer and better than the 40LA.
After many years of hard running the bronze bushing was worn and it spitted a lot of fuel through it. It sleeps in its box since 1998.

My first engine was an Enya .19TV Model 4006.

I remember to this day the sweet odor of the exhaust the first time it ran. Almost brings tears to my eyes now as I think about it I also remember the horror I had when it spit oil all over my new airplane (This was the first time I had ever run a model engine, and really had no idea at all about what I was doing!)

I put it on a Sig Colt, which I also had no idea what I was doing when I built it. It must have weighed 5 pounds. Anyway, the little Enya got that airplane up into the air about 4 times, with an average duration of about 6 seconds for each of the 4 flights. Rest in Pieces, Little Colt.

Then I got smart and got someone to teach me to fly on a .20 size Swizzle Stik. The little Enya did it's job well on that airplane. I don't remember any deadsticks, except intentional ones, or else from running out of fuel.

Now the little Enya is packed away in it's box on the shelf, pickled in after run oil for the past 18 years or so. I just checked it a few months ago, and it's still ready to go!

That engine will be with me until I'm gone.

My first R/C engine was an OS 40FP on a Midwest Aerostar in 1988.

I still have the Aerostar hanging from the rafters in the garage. I gave the 40FP to a friend who is learning to fly.

Phil in MN