Those were the days. When your transmitter only had one button to press, and your biggest problems were

- did you wind up the escapment enough.
- was your last command left or right
- can i press the button for a short enough time to blip the engine shut
- do I have enough juice left in the batteries.
- will the glue set in time for another flight. [&:]
- is the valve/tube still glowing

Thought some of the more senior members might recognise this technology from the early 60's. I suppose the clockwork escapment was the first digital servo. well you needed your fingers to wind it up.

Happy Days

Compared to what I started with, that's high-tech! LOL

Wow MinnFlyer ,what did you use steam ?

Started with free flight in the 30's and thought that RC would be the ultimate glory.
It is. Sure that stuff looks crude now but it was an inportant step. Considering that it lead to what we use now it's still a glorious past. It was just as much fun because we didn't know any better.

Well guys, it looks like there only 3 of us left that remember. I realised after looking more closely that the transmitter was fairly modern, as it had 2 transistors for the audio oscillator, that was advanced at the time. The transmitter was made by a company who are still around in UK after all these years Macgregor, who are the UK distributor for JR.

My previous transmitter an Emco Ace was all valve/tube and again single channel, and made by the Experimental Model Company in Coventry, cost less than £2 if I remember right, that was about 16 weeks pocket money. [8D]

The escapement was an Elmic conquest and rubber driven, the other a clockwork escapment which had a cam that turned 90 degrees when you keyed the channel and another 90 degrees when you let go made for interesting flying as you can imagine don't know the manufacturer of that one.

I was always envious of the multi channel tx/rx that came out in the 60's i think that used what looked like the contents of a music box, tuned reeds for each channel usually 6. They vibrated when they receieved an appropriate tone and operated a relay to operate an actuator.

the guys spent more time tuning them up than flying but what flying that was, flick a switch left and the plane went left, right and it turned right. something we take for granted now but at the time as a young lad it seemed magic.

happy days, must get back to building my jet

Thanks for the memories.....

While I was learning to fly in the late 1980's, my instructor, who I think flew with the Wright Brothers, brought out a box of his transmitters. I thought I had problems holding my Futaba Conquest. He put into my hands a black box that was 12"x3"x6", weighed about 40 lbs, and had three switches on the top, two buttons in the middle, and a big reostat on the bottom. Inside this transmitter was all tubes, and much of the weight was contributed from the 12v latern battery used to power it.

Then he showed me the receiver. It was about the size of the latern battery as well with a bunch of 8 ga wires comming from it. The servos looked like a couple of can openers with a bunch of the same 8 ga wires hanging off of them. These were definitely not plug and play technology.

The name of the on the front of this transmitter was Acme Ace. He said it was a kit, which, in the late 1950's, he said he had to build all his radios from kits.

He was flying with one of his kit built radios that day. It was a Heathkit he built in the late 1980's and was on a HAM band. As you can tell, he built EVERYTHING, and was not at all impressed with the ARF generation that was beginning to apprear at the field.

I really was interested in what he showed my and was in awe on how you guys who flew during this time could fly with buttons, switches, tubes, and batteries that weighed a ton.

Scott

Still have an old F&M Matador reed transmitter and an old clockwork escapement.

These meandering posts on "nostalgia" have given me some pause to reflect on how far I've come. I consider the mid 60's as to when I got into the RC hobby. And too, lately some of the things peaking my interest makes me think I've almost come full circle.

I remember the Reeds, but never had one, couldn't afford "em. I was a newly wed and my interests were not in model airplanes, if you know what I mean. Later while waiting for our first child I bought a Comet rubber powered J-3 kit in a "Variety Store" to have something to unwind with after work. (what's a "Variety Store" you ask? A store that sold everything...the forerunner of Wally World.) I'd built rubber models in the 40's during WWII, and thought I'd enjoy it again, which I did.

That J-3 led me to designing and building my own models. I bought a few model mags "to see what others were doing" and got interested in Control Line. A co-worker and I built two Goldberg .049 Trainers, and with gifts of engines from wrecked Cox PT-17s we made two flights. Our first and last! The planes survived, but we didn't. Our getting dizzy and falling down was embarassing our wives, so we quit.

I kept buying the model mags and drooling over the RC stuff that I couldn't afford for once again, we had another kid on the way. We had a hard winter. Galloping Ghost appeared and was affordable. I had quit smoking so I put that money into an "RC" kitty. RCM ran a series of articles on building your own "Porportional Radio," but it was way over my head. The designer sold built-up units on a "Layaway Plan" that I considered until I saw a Heathkit ad in Popular Mechnaics on their new "do-it-yourself 3 channel RC radio system available on an installment plan, and signed right up and as it is said, "the rest is history."

A friend and I started into building and flying together. He had built his own World Engines RC radio set so we had a lot in common. We built several "Joy Sticks" from RCM plans (very similar to SR batteries X250) They were two channel, elevator and ailerons, and .049s with no throttle. Our flying site was an 80 acre cow pasture. We
had no strip, but with no wheels anyway all flights were hand launched. We flew wide
open till the engine quit, then glided around looking for a soft bush to land on. Got real good at it too. Later we put in a runway and got into larger models with throttles and wheels. After a while a few other guys came out to fly with us, and I wound up as the official instructor. After 7 years most of the guys quit flying, and when my old flying buddy passed away I put my planes up for a while. No one left to talk "Piper Cub" to.

Time passed till the day one of the old group asked me to go with him to visit a club site. I joined that club 12 years ago and have progressed on up through the complexity of models, but have not gotten into the real biggies. Electrics have begun to interest me again. I had an Astro Flight model when they first came out back in 75
and now that electrics are getting more popular, I got one and have been flying it out in my horse pasture. My grandsons and I are having a ball. Tonight I dug out my old "Joy Stick" plans to see about electrifying it. Wow! Seems as I have now come full circle in this hobby....but it was fun, and at 72 I'm still enjoying it! Ain't gonna quit now!

Thanks for sharing that Grampaw, I had forgotton about galloping ghost, quite a breakthrough at the time.

There have been an increasing number of vintage models flown, in our club, bags of dihedral no ailerons you know the sort. When you speak to the pilots after a flight you can see from the relaxed grin on their face how much they enjoyed it. Makes a change from tearing around the skies.

Hope I am still flying at 72 and glad to see you are still enjoying it.

John

Although I am not old enough to rememer the times when push button radios were the thing, reading through this post has brought me some nostalgic memories of my own. When I was a young boy growing up(70's), My grandfather was a serious r/c addict. I remember building my free flight planes along side him as he built his r/c planes. I remember my biggest thrill as a 5 year old boy was taxiing his planes around the runway when he took me out to the flying field. But times change and as I got older (teens) I also thought it was more fun chasing girls and working on cars and lost interest in planes. Now I have come full circle and am a die hard scale enthusiast with a passion for the planes of war. It is just unfortunate my grandfather is not here anymore to share this with me once again. Dont take anything for granted and enjoy what you have right now and the memories of days gone by.
Kind of ironic, but I moved down south about 10 years ago, and got into planes about 4 years ago with a great club in SC. Now I have moved back to NJ and fly at a field with a bunch on my grandfathers old pals.
Thanks for the memories!

Warren

i have one of those tx,s in the photo, its a early mcgregror, right?any offers/.i flew in the tube days[valves]at the swindon club[wroughton airfield]i wasnt lucky enough at first to own a built set , i made my own, when i did it was r.e.p.stuff, i bought my first valve reed/relay set in 59, an o.s.8 [copy of the orbit 8] then in 62 after brett & brooks tied for first place at the world champs i bought a f&m10 off of brooks with transmites, late 66 i bought my first kraft s/s propo[i still have it]most of my sets since have been s/s orbit, x2 millcotts one 6 the other the full blown 8.ace commander 7, s/s/. plus my museum here sports many variants of s/s, including geoff pikes 'space control".thanks for reading, they were the days, brian, westralia.

I think he pulled it with a horse....

I was in my teens and do remember them, just couldn't afford them. I still remember Jack Stafford bringing his own design plane to a club meeting and when I looked inside and saw all that radio gear I was in awe that it even worked. I was heavy into photography then and I took some pictures and did an essay for english class on my hobby, blew the teacher away. Sure wish I still had all those photos! I am glad that we still don't have to built our radios as I am a dummy when it comes to electronic thingy boobers!!!!![X(][]

Vaccum tube that had to be replaced, Carving planes out of drift wood, building own radios from kits , boy I wish I could have saved some of those good old days. Had more fun just dreaming of what was to come , did not think I would be here to see what would been used know! Every thing is so easy now, kits, arfs, and the radios are out of this world, I wonder what is to come! Still have some stuff left my pride is a mono coupe from the 40's and a 8 channel Heath radio kit I built in the 70's! I think I better stop now ,you people got me started !

Who remembers when the latest advancement in proportional was the Logictrol Little Red Brick?
I was so happy to get one and fly a sailplane with it. I didn't think it could ever get better after free flight in the 30's and control line in the 50's. This was finally where we all intended to go when we first started. Nostalgia helps keep us old codgers in the game and surely makes us all more appreciative of what we have now. Who ever dreamedof computer RC. Maybe Leonardo or Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, but they had bigger things in mind. They just didn't realize they were helping us.

i find my self looking at old footage, ww2, ww1, old sparts cars, and putting myself in the frame of mind that those things were the Eurofighters, the b2 stealth bombers, the F1 racing cars of their days. i hope that in 50 sommit years i can look back and feel the same thing for the technologhy of my time.. somehow tho, i don't see it happening. I think the "golden" age is just like the stone, and iron ages, a one time deal.

Yep after all these years I am still winding the escapement!!! And YES that rudder does flap! And YES there is no elevator!!!

Bob Harris
Early RC Models
www.earlyrcmodels.com

We had one of those "Mule" transmitters, but it was the more "advanced" model with a kind of paddle like control on the top right of the box to work an Adams actuator. I kept getting in trouble because the controls were so soft compared to the escapements we'd been flying, so my dad added two push buttons, one for hard right and one for hard left and I felt more at home! [8D]

I definitely belong to this group, and I could write a book about my experiences relating to model avaiation, first with rubber, 1937, gas free flight in 1941, U-control in 1943, and R/C in 1958. As a matter of fact, I have written a book - it is entitled "A Lifetime in Model Aviatiion".
The book is 80 pages long, and contains photos, and events as I remember them, beginning in 1937. I wrote the book to give to each of my nine children for Christmas 2001. Also sent a copy to AMA, but they just stashed it in the library. Nobody there was impressed enough to do anything with it - not even a mention in MA magazine, even though I have been an AMA member for 62 consecutive years. Oh Well!

I purchased my first radio in 1958 - it was manufactured in Germany. There were no radios that I know of in the US at that time. Soon afterward, the Citizenship 465 hit the market, and I got one of those. Also had a Bramco 3-tube single channel radio about the same time, and if I remember correctly they were a 1U4, 1U5, and 3A5 tubes.

Compared to what is available today in the line of radio equipment, those were not what I would consider to be "The Good Old Days"!

Flew escapement GG with the Rand actuator. Next was reeds with that humongus big box I could hardly get my hands around. Forget the name of it. First propo was PCS. Couldn't pass up that long haired blond that advertised it. I think she was the wife of the guy that designed it. Forget his name too.