21 replies to this topic

[Dave Crevie]

Just a little while ago, I heard a familiar sound. A small nitro burning motor. Turned out to be a neighbor kid, who had found his father's old U-line airplane. Man! I did that when I was a kid. It would be cool if he actually takes it to a park and flies it. 

 

I got into it again around 1980, when my best friend and pit mechanic in sports car racing got his kid involved in the hobby. I still have all the planes I built then. Got me wondering if there were any old videos of that kind of stuff. Sure enough, there are...

 

Started with these Cox Thimble Drome .049 flyers, at about age eight or nine:

 

 

Eventually graduated to these:

 

 

But I was never real good at stunt flying. Combat was more to my liking:

 

 

Eventually we got into R/C, and picked up another father and son in our little circle. Good times!

[Tim Wilkins]

A grass field. Why didn't I (or my dad) think of that?

 

My one and only experience was a Cox P-40 Warhawk that we took to an asphalt school playground. Dad flew it one time around before the plane took a nose dive and broke into pieces. That was the end of that.

[Vay Jonynas]

I flew my .049 Cox Spitfire three times and crashed it almost immediately each time. It broke the first time but I repaired it. There was no damage the second time but it broke beyond repair the third time and I had to send away for an entire new body.

 

[Dave Crevie]

I never had any of the Cox plastic flyers, but a buddy did. He had the P-40 Warhawk, and put a lot of hours on it. It met it's demise when he spilled fuel on it and didn't bother to wipe it dry. It caught fire when he tried to start it and the wing melted. I had two of the AMF planes, a Bell P-39 Airocobra and a Douglas DB-5 Dauntless dive bomber. They were the core of what I still consider one of the best Christmases ever. After hearing for months that it was going to be a bleak year due to poor family finances, on Christmas morning there was only one gift for each my brother and me. I quickly opened my present to find the Airocobra. Later in the day, the whole family gathered for Christmas dinner. It was traditional for each family to bring something for the kids. My Father's brother's family gave me the DB-5. 

 

The AMF planes were made by Wen-Mac;

 

The P-39. The spring loaded rockets actually fired by a third control line;

 

 

 

The DB-5. It actually dropped the bomb by a third control line:

 

 

(photos from e-Bay)

[Vay Jonynas]

How did you manage to learn to fly those without crashing almost immediately?

 

[Dave Crevie]

I had been flying balsa planes for a while. My father was building and flying them since I was a toddler and I might have had my first flight when I was 4 or 5. With dad's help, of course. It was a love of airplanes that attracted him to my mom, who flew real planes. 

 

Those plastic models were heavy, and underpowered. No fancy stunts with those. 

[Bill from NH]

I have a partially built Sig Kadet & someone else's RC glider kit. Don't know if I'll ever fly either. In MA at a nearby state park the local RC club had a level & mowed grass field for a landing strip & a huge, cleared area for launching gliders with lengths of pharmaceutical tubing. The RC planes could be noisy bur the RC events were rather quiet. Here in NH, I have no nearby airplane clubs.

[Dave Crevie]

When I was seriously into u-line models, I belonged to the Tree-Towns Model-aires, a club sponsored by the local hobby shop. We traveled around the Chicago area to meets with other clubs. At that time, U-line flying was very popular, and there were probably a dozen or so fields around the area. Our home field was Butterfield Park on the south end of town, not far from where I live. They still exist...

 

https://www.modelair...town-modelaires

 

There are others still around the area;

 

https://www.modelair...-circle-cutters

[zipper]

Two models transformed to balsa sticks - but still have the motors. They weren't destroyed...

[Bill from NH]

I didn't realize that control line flying was still being done, I'll have to look around to see if any is being done in So. NH or the Lakes Region.

[zipper]

Finnish Championships for speed and combat were organised two weeks ago. Finnish Jussi Forss did win World Championships on combat last August in Muncie, Indiana. On teams the Finns won silver, USA gold.

[Dave Crevie]

Bill; Here's a list of clubs in NH. They are primarily R/C, but if they have a grass field available, they usually have a control line circle. 

 

http://www.xtraactio...google_vignette

[Bill from NH]

Thanks Dave! Auburn, Derry, & Merrimack are all within an hours drive from my home. I'll have to check them out.

[Dave Crevie]

My pleasure. Go, even if all they have is R/C. Watching is a nice way to spend a lovely afternoon.

[Bill from NH]

In the '70s I watched RCs & gliders. A local club in Framingham, Mass had a field about 20 minutes from my apartment. I really enjoyed the glider meets where they launched them with medical tubing, timed their flight time, & had a target about 20' in dia. for landing. Some were very good at it, others fell apart during the launch. There was almost no audible sounds.

[Dave Crevie]

This is why I never got into R/C jets;

 

https://youtu.be/BUV...JzagBaY22z79PF3

 

If a guy this good could destroy a $20,000 plane in 3 minutes of flying, I guess it would only take 30 seconds for me to accomplish the same thing.  

[Dave Crevie]

And for you, Clyde;

 

https://youtu.be/Ck_...8Js_KTp-ONPuL4J

[Dave Crevie]

Ha!. Those were the days!

 

https://youtu.be/q9G...z8zkwIuNv&t=103

[Dave Crevie]

But why not slot cars?

 

https://youtu.be/8BB...0QRFeeO6Hz45mXT

[Bill from NH]

When I was a kid, all the local planes were Cox. I don't recall seeing anything made by Wen-Mac, even though their quality seems to have been higher.

[Dave Crevie]

In the Chicago metro area, Wen-Mac, under the AMF name, was just as popular for flying models as Cox. But Cox had a stranglehold on slot racing at the time, which is probably why Wen-Mac never ventured into that market. I think they had the chops to give Cox some good competition. 

 

By the way, I found the Wen-Mac glow plugs to be the best you could buy. I used them on my bigger engines, too.

[Dave Crevie]

Well, I'm not the only one who reminisces. This picture was e-mailed to me by the son of one of my best Austin-Healey Club friends. That's him, holding a control line P-38 I built when we were doing airplanes. Two Cox Black Widow .049s, balsa construction. Flew great, but not a good stunt plane.  

 

 

The shot was taken by another friend, who joined us with his son. We would sit around a dinner table building planes. Great fun!