glydrjocky

Wow! Have we come a long way from when I was in highschool!

Check out this link that was posted on Youtube! Vintage 1982........GMP Competitor!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX1gTG_2l_Y

PlaneHeli

Thats a great video. Haircut, Flares and period music.

Very precise flying for those old models.

Also like the scale type flying of the dark red model and the guy with the video followed it very well with a video camera from that era. He should have got a job as a TV cameraman.

blade_killer

LOL, you guys say "from that era", make me feel old.

Those pants were called "bell bottoms" back then and the wider they were the cooler they were. I also like the scale flying that was really smooth and that "3D" was pretty tame by todays standards for sure. Make me wonder what that guy is doing with helis these days.

techrtr

Very cool. I did't know that helis from that era were capable of 3D flying. I wonder if it was a lot harder than it is now with new setups and programmable radios.

PlaneHeli

I would imagine it was a lot more difficult then.

No computer radios
No idle ups (what the hells that)
No CCPM
No gyros

Very smooth flying.

I had a GMP Cricket about that time. Hard work flying and getting it to fly right.

As said on previous threads always overheated.

If I could have mastered it like that guy and managed to set it up as well I may have kept flying helis back then.

The last straw for me was Rx failure (Bad battery plug I think). Old radio equipment been swapped from one model to another too many times.

glydrjocky

I think I saw the first gyro in 1983 but have no clue what the helicopter was. This guy named Dusty Baron was doing loops and rolls with his back then but never inverted. I think they flew inverted by flipping a switch on the transmitter to reverse the collective servo input. I know those old heli radios had lots of knobs on the top and I"m sure they had some form of idle up as I was reading about it in an old RCM magazine from the same year. I think they called it "High Idle" back then. They actually had alot of the base knowledge that we have but far fewer composites and strong light materials. The radios, servos and gyros have really changed the playing field forever.

But passion is passion no matter what the year or equipment is your flying.

DarkSide41

Wow , I remember seeing my first RC heli at a Dothan Alabama airshow in '82 . I thought that was the coolest thing ever I can't believe he was flying that thing inverted that close to the highway in the video !

glydrjocky

Evidently the guy flying in the video was a Champion R/C Helicopter pilot and I just saw a bunch of his pictures in some of my 1982 RC modeler magazines! I wonder if they could have done that crazy 3D stuff back then or were the heli's not strong enough to take the abuse?

Dig the Camaro that stops to watch the action!

T