H5487

There are a lot of forum subjects on RCU and you would think that there's a lot of interesting stuff to check out. So then, how come I always end up back here in the Vintage section? Of course, there's always the nostalgic attraction since most of the planes, engines and radios that y'all talk about are right out of the 1960s and my childhood. And maybe model airplanes were just simpler back then - no onboard glow batteries or fuel regulators to fiddle with, or any of the other complications that the modern models seem to need yet we successfully did without. Heck, my first "field box" was just a wooden orange crate and it served me well for more years than my first wife. (It was cheaper too!)

But possibly the biggest reason why I always come back to the Vintage section is because all the other forums on RCU seem to talk about little else other than CAPs, YAKs, Four * Somethings, CA, shrinkwrap covering, 124-channel radios that will do everything except let YOU fly the plane, and 3D (yuk!)

Maybe I should just get a reserved parking place in front of the Vintage forum. I feel more comfortable here!

Harvey

billmod12

My Feedback: (1)

If you feel more comfortable here then maybe you need to stay for a while! I am 59 and I go to flying field every morning at 7:00 as long as it ain't raining. I am the youngest there. The ages run 70-80 and we fly old stuff and some new but we go early because a lot of the old stuff we fly won't fly in the afternoon winds. There is one gentleman, about 80, that I see every day that has about 50 or better models all made from 1937 to 1955. Some free flights that have been converted to RC as well as early RC stuff. All my stuff is 1949 to 1960 so he calls me "TIME WARP" because all my hobbies involve stuff from 1930 to 1960. I feel more comfortable around them and they appreciate me restoring the old stuff. I feel good there!

H5487

Nice to meet ya, Bill. You can park next to me if you want and we'll chew on some candy cigarettes, drink sugar water from those little wax coke bottles, and talk about how the darned kids these days wear their hair way too long and listen to their weird music way too loud. Good thing we were never like that!

Harvey

maxpower1954

One of the strongholds left in what we consider "modeling" as opposed to ARF assembly and flying, is in the scale electric forums. The spirit of designing and scratch building is there. Russ Farris

Doc.316

Hey Hey...now BillMod12...all of us are not 70-80 (though sometimes I feel like it)...some of us are younger than that (45 for me). I like it here because I relate well to the older generation who hang out around here(most of my friends at the field are older than I am), and to be honest have flown a bunch of different types of models (racing, scale, 3d, twins, big) and I personally was running out of model types to fly that were different (I was basically getting bored). The older equipment was made when a modeler had to learn about building, trimming, flying, and radio electronics. Basically, you had to learn something. Now you don't, you get an arf, get the guy at the hobby shop to assemble it for ya, and then you fly it.

Steve

billmod12

My Feedback: (1)

Steve, I didn't mean everyone here was that age I just meant the guys that I hang with in the 7:00 morning fly sessions . The rest of the club age varies but there is hardly any interest in building anything and no interest in old stuff. Here is my Dad with his Live Wire Trainer 1952 he is 82 now. He doesn't fly much any more since Mom got sick but he will stop by the field once in a while and polish up his thumbs.

pd1

Harvey, maybe it's because the people here are nice.

Paul

H5487

A lot nicer than over at the AMA forum, that's for sure!

Harvey

AutoMike

You know, I get the same thing from alot of guys;"Why do you want to mess with that old and out dated stuff?" and I ask if they have ever seen a car show or parade with a 57 Chevy or 34 Ford or a Model T restored to factory condition and driven. Of course they say yes and something about how cool this one or that one was, and I look at them and say "Well what is wrong with preserving modeling history?" And I still get the blank stare, not every time, but most.

You dont have any blank stares in this forum, we all get it. Not only that, but, in general, the people that build and restore have a certain passion and pride in what they're building because of the selfless labor in truly takes. People with these traits tend to be great "people" persons willing to show others how to do the same thing very willingly. One extremely funny thing I've noticed is that most of use are unbelievable penny pinchers, and tightwads with an infinity toward stinginess. No "Dog and Pony Show" here,as i like to call it. I haven't seen a "Retro Modeler" (OOHH, If no one has used that one before can I have credit for coining it?) yet that brags about the large sum of money it took to build that Comet Fury rubber job or the Goldberg Sailplane. If fact, me and all my buddies get together and one will say "Look what I built for only three bucks!" and someone else would say "Oh yeah? Look what I made out'a the trash can from the flying feild!" LOL..... I think the fact that many, if not all, people in this forum choose to use their skill, witts and patience to build a model rather than their wallets only speaks volumes of their character.

AutoMike

Oh, BTW...I fell on the floor laughing at that one...

WEDJ

Well, maybe you guys read my Jr Skylark twin build thread. Always wanted one of those, now I can have it. Same for the Perigee.

Oh, and I have a GTO parked in the garage, too.

Just turned 60 this summer.

BobHH

My Feedback: (18)

Well, at 52 years old I kind of like various disciplines of model airplanes. Yes I enjoy and have done quite a bit of the vintage RC stuff both with the models and the radios. I also like 1/2A designing as well as giant scale projects. Here recently I’ve been designing and racing Quickie 500 racers.

It’s all fun to me. I’ve been able to incorporate what I have learned in the past in relationship to building and such to both the racers as well as the giant scale. My racers are out of balsa and foam with fiberglass and/or polyester coverings and all tend to come out weighing less than the required minimum weigh. This helps when trimming and such. I attribute this again to lessons learned through building the vintage models where weigh was an issue when the radios weighed quite a bit more.

Unfortunately the participants in racings are down because many in the new age group are accustomed to ARF’s which do fly but most of the time place behind the hand built model designs.

So it goes with giant scale. The varieties of designs seen at the flying field are limited to the numbers of true builders. Again the majority of the flyers use the ARF so it appears everything is either an Extra or Cap with different color schemes.

I don’t want to sound like I’m down on ARFs but what do you truly call an “Expert� modeler who asked how to repair a broken firewall in an ARF? Is he really a modeler or assembler!!!

Bob Harris

aerowoof

Hi,
I am 54 ,watched my dad and grandfather struggle to fly controline at the Springfield airport back in 57-58. Dad got a wen mac Dauntlass for Christmas in 59, started it up in the basement later that day .boy was it smokey down there with the engine running.I built a lil bibe c/l with cox babe bee in 65 and was hooked,drooled over all the c/l and r/c kits in aam .started r/c in 1970 after 2 years of cutting lawns at $5 per .hate to think how many that was to buy the new Kraft series 70 set that year and a falcon 56.after running mccoy .35's,fox .36x's ,stallion .35's and torpedeos the OS .35 was like an instant break in. I still fly the Kraft radios and get funny looks at the field.all are narrow band am and fm and kept in top shape.I can also use my JR tx's [10x and 8103] with my fm setups.I don't consider these to be disposable like alot of fliers these dys.reminds me of the computer wars where everyone had to have the newest and fastest even tho what they had still did the job.I learned along time ago to trim everything mechanically and while I have some computer radios I rarely use the throw or trim adjustments or even model memmory.I get a kick at some of the questions and answers given in the beginners forum .there are alot of parrots repeating what they heard or read but have no experience themselves.
I used to build heathkit servos as they were cheaper than factory Kraft units.Back then we engineered and designed solutions to the problems we encountered as there were not alot of commercial solutions available.

Doc.316

Ok billmod12, I was just joking with ya.... I vote for PD1's answer, the people are really nice in here, and they are true modelers so if you like building/trimming/flying you will like it here....and you will actually learn a bunch.

Steve

buzzard bait

I turned 60 in May (hi WEDJ). When I recently got a prescription and the pharmacy slip said "Age: 60" I thought they had the wrong guy. Then, "oh, yeah".

So like a lot of you, I have fond memories of Cox .049s, Wen-Mac (well, for that one maybe not so fond), A-J Firebaby, Lil Satan, Baby Flitestreak, little wax coke bottles and candy cigarettes...and were those things really that long ago? I have a deep weakness for the RC planes and engines of that time that I couldn't afford then.

But its nice to see some younger guys appreciating the old designs, and the fact is that I like Buzzard Bombshells and the like that were before my time too. And many of us love full scale designs from long ago. So it's not just nostalgia, there is also an aesthetic to those old planes that we appreciate. And yes, the do-it-yourself spirit is big part of it too. I like a lot of 1970s designs for that reason. It was a period when radios were getting affordable and magazines like RCM were just bursting with designs people were cooking up in their shops, sometimes 4 constructions articles in one magazine. I'm planning my imminent retirement!

Jim

aerostar55

There are still a lot of "kids" who build, Iwork in a hobby shop and they come in from time to time. There is nothing like the saticfaction of seeing something that you created with your own hand fly!

Iused to get my mother to drive me out to the flying field on a nice Sunday afternoon, Iwould take my Sterling "Mambo" with the OS Pet .099 in the nose.

There might be 4 or 5 other fellows there already. One or two of them would have an airplane that was flight ready. A Hallco Galloping Ghost
radio or a Heathkit four channel maybe.

Three of us might fly, two would crash, one would walk away happy. It was a good day !

Maybe I would go home and run my Cox Dune Buggy for a while!

You are not getting old.. just better!

jfuller

My Feedback: (8)

I think that it is a sign of getting old. I started flying R/c in 1960 with a deBolt Rebel. It was a steep learning curve back then because you had to build your own aircraft, learn to trim it to fly right, learn to make radio installations, etc. I still remember the fright that came with launching a single channel to check the glide before the first power flight. It was hard to run and launch a couple of months work when you weren't certain that the incidence, CG, etc was going to work. On the other hand I still remember hearing the ratcheting of the escapement when coming in dead stick after a successful flight. Since that time I have flown almost every kind of R/C big and small and while enjoyable it still doesn't compare.
Or maybe it's a sign that I'm just getting old...

Jamesf

billmod12

My Feedback: (1)

Hello James! Hows it going? This is the original power supply for my Dads LW Trainer escapement and my Jr falcon and Lil Esquire.

skybill

My Feedback: (6)

Hi H5,
Old?? Oh well so what?/ I'll be 65 on my next b'day. Too bad my planes don't fly as fast as the time has. Maybe it's best they don't!!! What is it about this stuff. I went thru a box of old M.A.N.'s (early 60's vintage) the other day and wondered why they looked brittle and wrinkled (like me??) seemed like yesterday they were brand new and shiney!! Well I still like balsa wood models and clear dope!! I still have a tube or two of ambroid but I'm not kickin CY glue or epoxy out of the way!! To really bend a line from an old movie,"That smell, that glo-fuel and clear dope smell early in the morning.... It smells like...altitude!!!"

Blue Skyz!
skybill AMA-87838

Quigleywins

Its great to find the most friendly site on the web I am 62 years. (that was hard to type) Now I had a holiday I quit flying to go full time girl hunting at 18 now 3 years ago I came back. I think that a gap of 42 years ,and what threads do you check out yes this and the kit thread. Now I know you all have a story to tell may be a photo etc will save time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBw5qk4NiGY Thats me

Bass1

If I bring the Bonamos Turkish Taffy, Can I join you guys? We can relive those days when we use to pull out our fillings with that delicious candy!

H5487

Bass1,

I don't believe I ever heard of Bonamos Turkish Taffy. However, Ju Ju Bees would cement your teeth together just as well.

Harvey

proptop

My Feedback: (8)

Ju Ju Bees...wow...haven't heard that in a long time Remember the dots on the long strip of paper? Slim Jim for a dime and 5 cent popcicles...I liked Cow Boy Joe's beef jerky (15 cents )

When I got into R/C in the mid 70's, there was a WWII vet (Navy ) who took me under his wing. He had been modeling since 1936 and had accumulated a LOT of stuff. He appreciated my enthusiasm, and gave me escapements, a few rx's, a ground based Tx. and all sorts of stuff, I guess because I asked him about it and was excited to hear about it...gave me several U- Control airplanes (I still flew C/L as well ) and engines.

Some of the other guys closer to my age (mid teens ) used to think I was nuts for messing around with 50's airplanes and radio stuff...especially since I didn't really know what I was doing when it came to radio equipment

It might have been because my dad was born in 1912 and mom in 1916 and were a lot older than my "peers" parents (I was born in 1960 ) so growing up, I was exposed to the Big Band music and stuff from the 30's, WWII and the 50's and just thought it was normal to like older things...[8D]

psuguru

Flippin 'Eck
Nostalgia just isn't what it used to be.

AutoMike

AAAHH...Yoo-Hoo from a pull top tin can and Moon Pies...