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We had airplanes, coptors, and a dealer special Camaro.  Fun stuff. My brother collects outboards.

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Cox 0.10! Thimble Drome!

My brother had a red-plastic Fokker with an 0.10 engine ... tiny little power plant but that little red control line plane would SCOOT!!!

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I kinda miss RC flying. Haven't done it since the 80s, but still have my trainer!! Gave away the radio and all the other planes and gadgets!

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2 minutes ago, Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 said:

Cox 0.10! Thimble Drome!

My brother had a red-plastic Fokker with an 0.10 engine ... tiny little power plant but that little red control line plane would SCOOT!!!

The control line ones never made one complete revolution for me! Then the engines powered my Tonka trucks!

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I built this tiny RC Sperry Messenger 50+ years ago - I'm kind of surprised it's still more or less still in one piece, complete with 24 years of dust. I've still got the rudder, but the left side elevator is long gone. It had a Cox .010 and a single channel pulse radio that controlled the rudder only. You experimented with warping/bending the elevator so it flew with a slight climb, then to lose altitude you used the rudder. The radio was unreliable as all get out and the thing was about impossible to fly. It was like a bumblebee on speed, and the few times I flew it was over a field of tall grass because it was impossible to land. 

SperryMessenger.jpg

Edited by Three Foot Johnson
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Had a P40 control line with the .049 engine, thank god for tough plastic and rubber bands holding it together. Got the bright idea I could build a bf-109 balsa kit w/.90 engine (epic fail)-tried again with a Sig kit (failed), 3rd time worked k&b .40 Ugly stik - got.the takeoff right, landing needed alot of work....but the plane held together. Perry carburetor was (not) a joy to tune...lol

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1 hour ago, Father Kit Cool Gun Garth said:

I remember my first airplane. :wub:

 

American_Junior_74_with_dealer_box.jpg.826996cda4f89d50e6352d8cf04876a1.jpg

They used to came in a plastic bag for like a dime when I was a kid!

Edited by Eyesa Horg
Typo
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The finest exhibition of control line flying that I ever saw was put on by two gentlemen flying Cox PT,19 trainers at Ft. RUCKER  in 1965. The flew simultaneously  and I'd loops, wingers, low passes and high, tight circles. How they kept from tangling their control lines I'll never know. They sure put on a good show.

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My brother and I (you can guess how joint ownership worked out) had a dune buggy each, a blue stingray type speed boat, a red P51 and a dragster.

 

The P51's life ended quickly and abruptly, much to the chagrin of the side of the garage. The dragster was a pain in the butt to set up and run with the string deal.

 

Dune buggies ran great and the boat ran good until a windy day when it decided to be like the P51 and fly.

 

At least that's the way I remember it.

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Did the dragster have the zip tie like pull starter?

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7 minutes ago, Dr. Zook said:

Did the dragster have the zip tie like pull starter?

 

I don't remember it having that, it was a Cox engine on a rail type dragster. You had to tack string down from point A to point B that would steer the travel albeit with yaw from side to side.

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I must be thinking of a different style dragster.. I think it was Hot wheels in the early 70's that had one with a t handle type zip starter. You would pull the t handle thru a cog gear and then set it down and would take off... Thinking about it now, maybe was spring wound that when released would unwind the spring tension powering the wheels... That was 45+ years ago for me.

Edited by Dr. Zook
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13 minutes ago, Dr. Zook said:

I must be thinking of a different style dragster.. I think it was Hot wheels in the early 70's that had one with a t handle type zip starter. You would pull the t handle thru a cog gear and then set it down and would take off... Thinking about it now, maybe was spring wound that when released would unwind the spring tension powering the wheels... That was 45+ years ago for me.

 

This is it below. Worth a lot more now...WOW.

 

cox eliminator dragster | eBay

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I built a Guillow's balsa and paper Piper Cub and mounted a Cox .010 on it.  Tried it hand launched without the engine running and it seemed to do fine.

 

Powered was a different matter.  About 10 feet straight,  then straight up to maybe 30 feet, stalled, and straight into the ground. 

 

Modified a Pinewood Derby car to take the engine.   Little suckere was  FAST!

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Those Tonka dump trucks would scream with .049 !

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I just looked up all of the items I used to have on E-Bay. All of it is selling for $400 and up. Of course, I would have had to keep it for 50 years and never use it.

 

One correction, the airplane was a F4U Corsair. Don't know why I thought it was a P-51.

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I learned the control lines with the PT-19. We removed the pilot figure and the windshield,  glued some very thin plastic over the opening to streamline line it

 

 

Bought a P-40 with a .049 from a friend.   Very slow.  Modified it by cutting off the big chin, removing the pilot,  and removing some of the other geewhiz stuff to lighten it.   

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Before I could afford RC, I built a free flight plane with a Cox .049. I put a little fuel in, cranked it up, and launched it. It went straight up, ran out of fuel a few hundred feet up, and glided back to Earth, just as it was supposed to. So I filled the tank up and tried it again - it went up... and up... and up... and up... and up... and up... in short order, I couldn't see or hear it anymore, and never did find it. :blink:

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That happened with a few of my Estes rockets! Apparently there's a reason they suggest small engines in the little ones. :P

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39 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

That happened with a few of my Estes rockets! Apparently there's a reason they suggest small engines in the little ones. :P

Just use a D12-3 it will be fine they said....

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1 hour ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

This is it below. Worth a lot more now...WOW.

 

cox eliminator dragster | eBay

Wow, never seen one of those in person....

 

This was kinda what I was thinking/described but was a long wheelbase dragster like Eddie Hill/Don Garlits used to run...

www.ebay.com/itm/322497949428

Edited by Dr. Zook
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49 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

That happened with a few of my Estes rockets! Apparently there's a reason they suggest small engines in the little ones. :P

 

9 minutes ago, Dr. Zook said:

Just use a D12-3 it will be fine they said....

 

I played with those a lot in my teens. A few interesting events. 

A Centuri Javalin with what was labeled as B14-7.  Turned out to be a B14-0 with an ejection charge.  At about 25 feet the charge went off and the parachute deployed.   That shock cord looked like it stretched to 10 feet. 

 

A V2 that I did a pretty good job on I tried a C6-5 that was a C6-infinity.  Came down into a green tumbleweed that did a pretty good job of slowing it down.   A little sanding,  trim about an inch from the body and it was good to go. 

 

Estes Starlight.   https://www.seateddimevarieties.com/BAR/kitpages/k32_1968.htm

 

k32_69.jpg.72413d46631505814e05cc6010f4c298.jpg

 

Painted international orange with white nose cone and rings.  Again,  no ejection charge. Came down in a VERY wet field. Buried itself almost two the first ring.  All I had to do was wash the mud off.

 

I just checked....they still make it.   MSRP of almost $40.

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I think the 1st one i built was the Estes Alpha3, plastic fins and nosecone.  Longest that I ever built was the Mean Machine #1295 & the Mercury Redstone #1921.  Built the Estes Phoenix missile #1380 - wasn't brave enough to fly it though.  Never could afford the scale Saturn V model #1969. Did anyone ever fly the Astrocam rocket with the camera (110 film cartridge) in the nosecone?  What was the other model rocket company [1980's] that I believe has since gone out of business or bought by Estes?

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7 hours ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

I don't remember it having that, it was a Cox engine on a rail type dragster. You had to tack string down from point A to point B that would steer the travel albeit with yaw from side to side.

I had a Ford GT-40 with the .049 engine. You could run it a straight line as described above, but it was a lot of work for a couple of seconds of run time. My dad rigged a set up with an anchored string so it ran in a circle, similar to the control line airplanes until it ran out of gas. It was yellow blur!
 

Starting it was harder than the airplane because you had to spin the right rear wheel between index finger and thumb. Once running, you had to snap the body into place which was hinged on the front frame. I vaguely remember a pull starter wrapped around the rear wheel, but I could be mixing memories with other toy cars. 

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that first 1961 video reminded me of the 1950s newsreels and the 1949s training films ive seen - think that narrator did them all , but it was fun , i had some of those engines and flew some planes back then , but that was a short lived thing for me , kinda like the slot cars we raced for a year or so , fun for a few months then a fad that faded , i think girls had a lot to do with it in hindsight , 

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