Honestly, I don't remember. I think it was a Guillow Trainer III with McCoy 35. The first plane I flew inverted with was a PDQ Clown with no landing gear and an Enya 19 screaming it's guts out. First full pattern was a scratch built Dick Mathis Coyote with Enya 35.

Hi Matt,
My first was the family trainer, a Ringmaster Jr. with an old Japanese engine called a Hope 19. Dad had a UReely handle and we lived in the Windy City of Chicago so he would adjust the line length to match the capability of the model against the elements. Everyone in the family learned to fly on it except my brother as he was spoiled (he is the youngest) and got to learn on a Magician with a Fox 35. The Ringmaster is named Pinky, because mom and dad didn't have a ton of dough when they built it and mixed the white and red dope they had to paint the model. I still have it in my shop, I think it was built in 1956. It needs recovered but it's still in one piece.
Chris...

My very 1st plane had to be a 5 cent chuck glider from the Five and Dime, used to get one every time I could scrounge up a couple pop bottles and a few pennies. Then the Sleek Streaks, Strato Streaks etc. Good fun for a kid.
The 1st C/L plane I flew was a friends Cox PT-19. His family had fewer kids and a bit more dough - so he got the cool stuff before I did. I had the apptitude to read instructions and make stuff work + I had been running toward the sound of any model engine I heard for a few years and watched the bigger guys start and fly their planes. When Gene got his PT-19 I was right there to help, I had the basics of the routine to start and tune a Babe-Bee. 

My 1st C/L plane I owned was a Cox P-51, I crashed it on it on the 2nd flight - Christmas Day around 1969-70. Dad flew the 1st flight and made it look easy. I did a classic figure 9 and broke the wing. Never was the same after that
That Mustang was not as friendly to newbies as the PT-19, too fast and dropped like a rock when the engine quit.

The Sterling 1/2A sheet profile Warbirds were what really got us flying, sometimes the dope was barely dry when we took them down the street to the culde-sac to fly. Cox Super Power fuel would strip the fresh AeroGloss off in an afternoon- but who cared! We flew the wings off those things- literally. Several came apart in flight to our great amusement.

I still have a Sterling ME-109, plus some CG Wizzards for kids to crash when they show up at one of my secret flying sites ( the Park and School boards don't let something as dangerous as model airplanes on THEIR property). Much safer to have herds of kids kicking each other in the legs and running each other down while playing soccer, or build a concrete and steel skate park so they can break bones and get concussions - after they sign a waiver.

  - but I did pay fees and sign waivers so my kids could play soccer and skate at public parks, then have been run off for flying a C/L model in a back corner away from everything else.

My first flying plane was a PDQ clowm with a Cub .09 on it.I craked it up doing a outside loop It would not turn tight enouigh to do it. I repaired it and learned how to do outside loops with it. My brother told me before he died that a friend of his amd him also flew that plane and never told me. I bought a set of solid lines in 1947 and they came on a cardboard real and when i roled them out and i accidently droped the reel and screwed the lines all up. so had to order new set. when got the new set they were cables. I then was able to fly. I was 17 years old then.

'got kind of carried away on the 1954 thread, where I posted a picture of what probably was (is) my 2nd CL plane. the first must have been a Dil-Bod that I didn't get to fly - lots of bright red dope and a golden #2 on its side, but a recalcitrant Wen-Mac. As with some of my other early models, it's probably good that it did not fly; I don't think my idea of how to use Ambroid on the firewall would have pulled the plane with it for long. My Scientific "Atomic" and some reminiscing are on the other thread. Here's the Dil-Bod ad again, since that's how I wanted it to look.

SK

If I remember I will check the shop and see which one I have still in the box.  DOC Holliday

Ringmaster Jr. with a Fox 15.  Bought both from Leroy Barry who owned Barry's Bicycle and Hobby Shop in St. Augustine, FL. I was fourteen at the time.  Leroy sent his helper in the shop to my house to teach me how to cover with silkspan.  He also introduced me to something called sandpaper.  Geez, who would have ever thought that you need to sand the thing? 

When you walked across the wood floor in the hobby shop, it made a hollow sound.  I can still hear that sound.  Good memories of that place.  Leroy and his wife were great people.  They didn't care if you just came in to hang out for a while without buying anything.  They knew we had to save up our nickles and dimes before we could buy anything.

Leroy also got me together with Donnie Thibault (I still owe Leroy a debt of gratitude for doing that).  Donnie taught me to fly that Ring Jr.  That was forty nine years ago and Donnie and I are still flying together and I still consider him to be my best buddy on and off the flying field.

Bill Hodges

  Megow ROG.  Cost $0.05 from the five and Dime store (Perry Bros) and came with the covering AND a tube of glue (that always ran out JUST before you got the plane built.
  First CL plane Stanzel Shark, O & R 60,  Flew approximaely 4 feet (Two up and two more down and rekitted itsself).

  Bigiron

 I was BOM,  cranker during start, Adjuster of the timer and needle valve.  My dad turned the plane loose and helped pick up the disassembled "kit" and helped tote it home.

  Bigiron

First bird was a CG Lil Wizard using a Babe Bee .049. Second was this CG P-40. Eliot School, Tulsa, 1966. First big bird was this Ringmaster with a McCoy 35 RH, Tulsa, 1967. Jim Hill, my father, guided and helped with both...and cut his fingers on engine starts until I could do it myself. It made him joke about his "M1 thumb"--

I wonder how many of us on this forum had our careers shaped and decided by this hobby?  I know mine was.  First airplane was a carved balsa fuse, solid balsa wing with an .049.  Next engine was an O&R 23.
I still have an .049 like it screwed to my balsa cabinet as a reminder of those times in the hay field.  (Someone else on this thread flew in the hayfield.)
Will

Serge,

Does anyone know is the meaning of the name "Dil-Bod" ?

I wonder how many of us on this forum had our careers shaped and decided by this hobby?  I know mine was.  First airplane was a carved balsa fuse, solid balsa wing with an .049.  Next engine was an O&R 23.
I still have an .049 like it screwed to my balsa cabinet as a reminder of those times in the hay field.  (Someone else on this thread flew in the hayfield.)
Will

Junior/Senior years of high school and after graduation in 60, would fly T-Square after the hay was in the barn.  Dad would launch for me and he loved the T-Square better than my other planes.

Some where between the age of 4 and 6(about 1960) my dad built this Guillows T-3 powered with McCoy RH .35 for me.
Have film footage of me almost flying it---with Dads help to hold me down.
I think I remember that first time and when the handle was mine about 1/2 a lap of rapid altitude loss and then dad had the handle.
Started serious flying around 8(?) when I would load a gallon of fox superfuel ,battery and lines with airplane onto my bicycle and ride about 6 blocks to the flying field.
I remember wrecking my bike on the way one time and sliding on my chin and belly while holding the airplane in front of me avoiding damage to it.
 
Over a year or 2's time I must have run 50 gallons of fuel through it and stayed in trouble for skipping school to fly.(with my bud Tommy)

Loops and Flattened loops for learning inverted with at least 1/2 of the inverted flights ending in mud during pull out.
Must have bent and straightened that 10x6 TF nylon prop 1000 times.....
Epoxied the motor mount back on only once!
Has not been flow since I recived a Flight Streak kit for Christmas one year.
The McCoy went to the Streak.

Hope to repair/restore one day. the decals and blue on rudder were added by some dumb kid(me)
I will always remember flying this one...

There is pics of a freshly built one and copy of instructions here
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_9227394/tm.htm

Started out with plastic models, graduated to chuck gliders and rubber band models.  Then, my grandmother sent me a Super Sabre with OK Cub 049.  That poor little cub couldn't get that heavy plastic thing around the circle.  I'd get someone to throw it as hard as they could with the engine screaming and got 3/4 of a lap once.  That was with full up.  And no, it didn't stall.

Then came the Stanzel 1/2a trainer.  I soloed on that.  Used to take it to the parking lot at the high school that was being built and flew it until I ran out of fuel, or until dark, whichever came first.  My father bought a Stanzel ABC Trainer and a McCoy "36".  He flew it until he allowed me to fly it.  Then he bought a Firecat that I was not allowed to touch.  He totalled it and gave me the ABC trainer and the McCoy.  I then bought a Ringmaster and flew it with the McCoy.

I finally learned to fly inverted with a Lion Tamer wing, the rest of which had been totally trashed, a TLAR Firecat fuse with a 1/16" horizontal stab and elevator, the outside portion of which flew away on the first flight.

And so on ad nauseum.

After a number of years of flying things like Cleveland rubber powered, Walker gliders, Hornets, and Cieling Hoppers, and building a number of Enterprise and Scientific kits, I finally learned to fly CL with an Enterprise profile P-51 with an older O. K. Cub .099.  Even leaarned to do wingovers with it.  Could never keep the LG on it, so I got most of my flying with it hand launched.

Mine started with a plastic P-40, don't remember whether it was Cox or Testors either way, I flew it, it didn't fly great but it did fly quite a few times.  Dad would fly an old Sterling SE-5A (Mccoy .35) and later a Sterling Corsair (Fox .35). 

The first one i built and flew was a Sterling Mr. Mulligan, I found that  at The Depot hobby shop on Lantana road probably about 1980 and paid $2.50 for the ancient used but unbuilt kit.  I flew and crashed it a few times, its been rebuilt at least twice and I still have it after not flying for 25+ years.  Now I'm trying to get back into flying and it may be one of the planes I use again, so it just won't go away!

33 years, that seems like yesterday to me now.  Bet the area the picture was taken doesn't look that now.  The place I first flew control line is still there where I lived.  The people that now own the house have added to it.

My first control line model was a "Spook 48".  For those of you not acquainted with vintage free flight, it was a gull-wing cabin free flight plane.  It was a gift, and the doner showed me how to install a bellcrank and hinge the elevators.  Although a free flight, it was pretty heavy and covered with "bamboo paper" and a whole lot of nitrate dope (or maybe super Kem-Tone?).

I installed my new Ohlsson 23 with all the spark ignition stuff.  Well, at 48" wingspan and all that weight, it just barely got airborne with that little engine chugging away.  It flew mostly with slack lines and dubious control.  Being a free flight plane, it pretty much went around by itself, regardless of my control input.

That was in 1945.

Floyd

Dick Shannon....Hmmmm....I don't recall ever meeting Dick Shannon, but did once fly a combat match against Henry. Some playfield over in WS. He had a Voodoo with a .35GH on it, and didn't get it started. I only recall having two matches against .35GH's, and neither got started.

I flew speed around Seattle in the middle '60's...Rollie Hillesland, Keith Loutocky, Jerry Wagner, Chuck Stohlmeyer, Brian Mace, Chris Sackett, Bill Case, Glenn Holm, Bill Bradley, and some I have forgotten. Knew Jerry Thomas, but not Ted Fancher. Finally met Ted at NW CL Regionals about 8 years ago.

Were you the Shannon of Shannon & Delaney speed team? And was that Gordan Delaney, of Utah, by chance? If so, it's really a small world afterall!    Speaking of small worlds, Dan Rutherford hasn't recently told the story about running into you in a restaurant in Albany, OR. Let's just leave it that way... 

I have a large framed picture of the original Seattle Skyraiders members from 1963, courtesy of Steve Stevenson's niece, Gem. I could be wrong, but I think you might be in it? There are some in the picture I remember very well, and don't remember the name to go with the face. I'd like to fix that. Maybe Homer Smith, or Al Likely, would remember the names. Welcome back!  Steve

Hmmm....Berkeley Mini-Zilch, Cub .049, circa 1950.  Never left the ground.  First "real" attempt was a Fox .29 Ringmaster, c.1952.  Half a lap, straight overhead and into the ground.  Had NO clue about proper control.

Next up: Sterling Yak-9...same Fox 29.  Made two laps before "going in".

Things improved after that, although (as "friends" will attest) by not all THAT much.   

My first plane would have been a North Pacific skeeter -- we had those around the house since day 1, thanks to dad (who never flew models seriously, but kept us supplied with those North Pacific things).

My first stick-built plane was a Comet Neuport 11 -- no one told me you were supposed to spritz the tissue with water after covering, so it was a bit wrinkled...  I think I was 11 at the time!!

My first control line would have been a Sig something -- probably a 1/2-A Skyray.  Second was a Sig Beech Staggerwing, and third was a Sig Dewybird (I've got another one sitting by my elbow, waiting to be built, and a soft spot for CL planes with dihedral).

Then a Ringmaster, then I got distracted by RC, college, and kids, in that order.  I'm coming out of it now.

Jamie, sahme on you,  don't you know the Cox PT-19 and the Corsair were the worst flying planes around, if you got them to fly. LL~I have lost count how youngster I helped get to flying with the Cox planes and a couple of Testors.  They were meant to get one started, like the A-J Firebaby.  Glad to hear you are back at it.

Actually the PT-19 had lots of wing area, so it flew better then most of the plastic sleds. A freind and I bought one to play with, not as a first airplane, I'd been flying all my life. Anyway, I said 'let's do same carrier landings". So we got some 1/4" flat rubber, (being a rubber flyer I had plenty) and drove a couple stakes to hold the rubber about 2" above the blacktop at the local school parking lot. I made a hook, can't remember how I attached it, and we went flying. We spent hours rolling in the grass laughing every time one of use managed an arrested landing. The rubber would stretch out and the rubber bands on the wing would pop go off and the model's pieces would fly off in opposite directions doing all manner of wild gyrations. It survived our play time and we gave it to a  neighbor kid that showed up to watch, fuel, battery and box, ready to go. He never flew it, I'd see him around the 'hood and ask, but he never did get it out, If I'd known that was the case, I'd have kept it.

I think I may have already told this story. but you may enjoy hearing it again. Mine was a 25 cent comet Structo-Speed P51 mustang kita a 5 cent tube of testors fast-dry glue Hadto go back to the hobby shop to get more a 1/2 dozen gillette double edge blueblades (which I used to cut hell out of myself, so i could get glue in the cuts to make me cry. I tryed test gliding it. All that did was break it. So I wound up the rubber motor, sat it on the front porch to launch it off like an aircraft carrier. well the prop spun it moved forward about 2 inches and quit. motor ran down. next I really wound it up! rubber band broke inside the fuse and destroyed my p-51 >    Still makes me    jim

First plane to go in circles (NOT CONTROL LINE) was this little electric job.  The handle was like a flashlight, holding 2 D cell batteries.  The motor was actually in the handle and the power was transmitted to the prop by a spiral wire encased in a plastic tube.  Don't remember the name of the plane.  Only control was to raise my arm to make it climb and lower it to make the plane dive.  No elevator control.

My first real CL plane was a Scientific Stunt Master with a Baby Bee .049.  Easy to build and fly, but Would not, Could not stunt.  I tried over and over in vain to make it loop.  No soap.  I think the log fuselage was just too heavy.

My first built up plane was the (drum roll.......) PDQ Flying Clown.  I had acquired a McCoy Redhead .35 by then (on sale for $5.95, remember?)  It was just $1.95 and I could aford it.  So I built the clown, silkspan and dope covering.  Blue and clear if I remember right.  I mounted the engine and somehow, managed to get a tank on that short nose.  Of course it flew.  It had no choice with that McCoy .35 swinging a 10-6 Top Flight nylon prop.  The McCoy was cheaper than a Fox .15 so that is why I had it.  My funding was very low, just a paper route to support my "habit".  That Clown could stunt all right.  My most fun flight was one when I flew combat against a bird that wandered into the flight circle.  I did manage to hit it with my lines and it flew away, minus some feathers.

hey DOC.. think you came up with a good with a way to  test run those little .049s. Never thought about screwin to a  door. Beats holding them in your hand.

O.K.,  I'll finally bite here,

My first wood plane was built by a friend of mine Mr.  Roberts is all I can remember now, but he had a bunch of aluminum that came from a shot down Japanese Zero in WWII.  So, the firewall on my little guillows rubber powered airplane converted to C/L was from said Zero.  Who else has had a model with aluminum parts from a WWII  enemy airplane??

Anyone,

Marvin you??

Jim Pollock   

I started flying very early - went solo at 4 attended my 1st Nats at 8 - nothing was better in those days we seemed to have an endless supply of models - albeit they were not full stunt ships with 20 point finishes, but they were fun to fly - and they taught me the fundamentals of flying.. Like ground = bits..

Alot of water has passed under that bridge from when I was 5 or 6 and basically all of those models we used to fly have since been destroyed - once again due to the ground.  - Sure ive still got my Nats models from around 1994 Not ALL of them but most.. - Nothing like Billys collection, but some of them were'nt worth keeping in flying condition.


So it got me thinking about Billy's collection, about others on here whom have been flying for ALONG time - Do you still have your 1st Model ?
I dont have my VERY first model but I do still have my all time favorite model .
Its an aeroflight Kit - Hurricane - I didnt actually know that until tonight when I spoke to Dad to ask him some information about it - I always called it me " ding HO " I just thought thats what it was called because that was the sticked that came on the side of the model - Looking today you can just BEARLY make it out.. - The only reference I can find is a Bomber squadron called DING HOW, maybe thats what it was meant to read and the W fell off over time.. Weird..

We dont know what engine it originally was designed for but when I flew it Is had an OS .15. According to dad, it was the very 1st model he ever built for me to fly , when I was 5 yrs old.
We think it was crashed 10 + times mostly just ground shaves nothing major but the wing has been recovered - rebuilt and repainted.
I took it out about 5 years ago for a laugh and it still flew just like I remembered !!

The Photo below is of me holding it when I was about 5 or 6 - I also thought it would be funny to snap a photo of me holding it today - just to compare.



Fast Forward 25 Years...

No I wont restore it - I dont feel the need to alter part of my History. If Id do anythign I'd build a new one.

I still have it but thats the only thing I do have aside from my Junior Nats winning model from 1996.

I've got others I've kept but thats the 2nd oldest.

So it got me thinking about Billy's collection, about others on here whom have been flying for ALONG time - Do you still have your 1st Model ?
I dont have my VERY first model but I do still have my all time favorite model .
Its an aeroflight Kit - Hurricane - I didnt actually know that until tonight when I spoke to Dad to ask him some information about it - I always called it me " ding HO " I just thought thats what it was called because that was the sticked that came on the side of the model - Looking today you can just BEARLY make it out.. - The only reference I can find is a Bomber squadron called DING HOW, maybe thats what it was meant to read and the W fell off over time.. Weird..

Nice story PJ!  Here's my first plane, the Smoothie, that I still have.  I have a picture of me posing with it, that Guerry Buyers took of me at my first contest that I'll try to scan and post in a little bit.  Also, attached is a plane I built 5 years later, just to see how far I've come in such a short span of time.

Testors Silver Wind Circa 1972.
Took all of a year and a half to collect 11 blue chip stamp books.
Went to maiden it at Verdugo Woodlands elementary school. We learned 2 important lessons there.
First flight the lines were adjusted wrong. My brother took off into a wingover and that's all she wrote.
Lesson 1, if you can, fly off of grass.
Lesson 2, find out about fiberglass and 5 minute epoxy repair.
Within a month we had a rag tag club of 6th and 7th graders with Cox Stukas, PT-19s, a Miss America P-51 and our Silverwind.
All of us could take off and fly around, none of us could land. We just sort of returned to the grass where the landing gear would just pop off as planned.
Until one afternoon at Verdugo park, I took off the Silverwind and with someone's radio blaring the Token's "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" the motor quit, and I whipped it into a perfect 3 point landing. No landing gear pop off. Well, the whole park erupted and I was carried off much like Lindbergh at Le Bourget.
Everytime I hear that song I think of that moment.

(snip)
So it got me thinking about Billy's collection, about others on here whom have been flying for ALONG time - Do you still have your 1st Model ?

Hi PJ,

Missed this, but I come real close to having my first C/L model.  I DO have my first full fuselage stunt plane.  A VECO Smoothie. I recovered/repaired and put one "commemorative" flight on it about 15 years ago.  Originally built it in 1963!  I couldn't find any Metallic Maroon Aero Gloss, but repainted it very close to "original"  So no, while I haven't been building/flying as long as "Billy" Werwage, it is approaching 50 years since I built the Smoothie.  When I repaired it I put a Veco/Allyn .35 in the nose (first series with the exhaust stack out the left when upright like the old K&B Torpedo.)  As soon as I get a new camera I will post a picture of it as it is today.

Big Bear

My first stunt plane was a Top Flite Flite Streak with a Fox 25. I was 13 and used to fly it in the side yard at my parents house.  I had learned to do inside loops and outside loops by starting high and diving at the ground flying 1/2 A's but the Flite Streak was the first airplane I ever flew inverted or did a lazy 8 with.  I didnt fly the pattern I just tried to do the same number of inside loops as outside loops to keep the lines as twist free as possible.  The Streak was covered with transparent blue Monokote on the wing and the fuse and tail were bright red Monokote. The canopy was done in gold Monokote and the wing had a gold stripe.  I didnt use a muffler and we ended up taking the single wheel landing gear off and just hand launching the plane because it didnt want to come up out of the grass very well.  Those days were fun.

Rick

     I started CL Flying with a Cox .049 Baby Bee Powered PT-19 with a box of rubber bands for reassembly after multiple crashes in 1959.   Next that same year came a Cox .049 Powered P-40 Flying Tiger.    The Cox Stuka came in 1960 and after one very poor flight, the plane would hardly get  off the pavement, went hanging from my room ceiling.   My parents believed the Cox Plastic Planes would be less frustating for me to fly, stated the hobbyshop owner?! The next lead sled to dorn my bedroom ceiling was the Cox Curtis Byplane Flyer!   1961 I got the Cox Plane that was fun to fly   it was the .15 Powered Piper Commache   I finally got a balsa wood Ringmaster Kit with a Fox Stunt .35 and in 1962   . In 1963, I got a Voodoo Combat Plane balsa wood kit  . . In 1964 I got a Sterling P-51   and in 1965 I got a Sterling Yak-9  . In 1966 I bought a Sterling Chipmunk, but never built it because the U.S. Army called, and had other ideas on what I should be doing with my free time, and I spent it in Vietnam. When I got out of the Army, I came home. and found out that "all" my toy's I left behind, had been given to GoodWill Store, and were gone for ever!    I didn't get into CL Flying until fourty years later. I've bought most of my old plastic planes and Wood Plane Kits off the inernet, or at estate sales, and flea markets, and I'm very happy with my memories, hanging in my garage     .

Subject: A Modeling history


Here is some of my modeling history:

Control line planes first seen: some local guys flying control line planes at the park in Sedalia, Missouri about 1952 and later at the airport east of Sedalia. I distinctly remember an All American Senior with yellow wings flying several laps before losing the right wheel. What a monsterous airplane that was....a giant. I also remember a profile model sitting outside the circle...either a Sterling Mustang or a Yak-9, I think. Exciting stuff!


My first C/L plane was a Scientific Little Ace team racer with an O.K. Cut .049. It was painted white and trimed in metalic blue.  It was purchased at JOHNNIE'S HOBBY SHOP on Broadway street in Sedalia, Missouri.  This was the source for contact with other control line fliers and all kits, building supplies and flying equipment in my early years in the hobby.  Johnny, the owner, was confined to a wheelchair, but was often at the flying field and even built and flew early radio control planes.  It was the mid-1950's.

First flight: I was 13 or so (1953), on my own in the middle of the circle and scared to death when the Little Ace was released and staggered off the ground. It proved to be a real handful because it was tail heavy. This resulted in a very wild flight, but I kept it in the air for probable 3 minutes and landed it in one piece. And so the saga of Control Line Model Aeronautics became a lifetime hobby.

First large plane: Trixter B-C profile with a K&B Torpedo .29 Greenhead. Had a lot of fun with that plane until I gave it away a few years later.


 I have not been very active at the flying field lately. Haven't flown a plane for about 4 years.  I have been dealing with my severe arthritis of both knees, which makes getting around pretty painful.  I hope to get back out to the field one day soon to try out some of my newer planes and fly again some of my older ones. I have completed over the last 4 years, the rebuilding a Sig Akromaster/Fox .l5 slantplug and construction of a new Top Flite Jr. Flite Streak/Fox .15 steelfin. Both of these are unflown. I am currently working on a Sig Skyray .35 which I plan to power with an O.S. Max .20fp. I would like to get my Bi-Slob kit/1950's vintage Fox .35 stunt, finished by Spring, but that is up in the air at the moment. I also have a Sassy Saucer, Sig Super Chipmunk and a Sterling Yak-9 under construction. My problem is I am a slow builder. The bright side is that I seldom ever tear up sport planes and have accumulated many over the 57 years I have been involved in control line flying. I tore them up in grand style back when I was flying combat in the 1950's and 1960's.  Currently, one of my best planes is a Trixter Barnstormer/Fox .35 combination, which I built in 1987. It is a design by Lou Andrews from around 1947 or so and is still a great flying plane   Thanks to Ebay, I have a fairly extensive collection of kits and engines of many manufacturers, K&B, Fox, Veco, McCoy, Johnson, Enya, O.S. Max, O.K. Cub and Cox........TDurrill        

It never crossed my mind, or my brother's, that we had to "LEARN" to fly! We received a Cox P-51 and Cox Stuka, after some sincere promises were made to our Mom, about how well we would help around the house, not fight with each other, and generally wear our little halos with pride, if she bought us the pair of planes.

Each box was complete with everything we needed to start and begin our flying carrer. We had already built plastic model planes, Centuri and Estes rockets, but WOW! here are real planes with engines, you can REALLY FLY! I was 9 or 10 years old, he was a year-and-a-half older. We weren't messing this up! Read and re-read the instructions for assembly and starting a thousand times, Figured-out how to wrap the string around the peg on the handle, to trim the elevator to neutral. Mostly, that flying starts at your elbow, not one's wrist.

Mom drove us to the school parking lot, that was about 3 blocks away, and helped us fuel and try to start the engines. Sputter, no run. She was a real enthusiast for us, though, and let us decide that it was time to call it a day. We get home, unload the car, and talk to some neighbor kids. Then she comes running through the front door, with my Mustang in her hand, and the thing is screaming full blast! She didn't give up, and was working on it in the dining room, and managed to get it running! Oh Boy, now we are PILOTS! I think it was too dark to resume activities that evening at the school. The next time at the school, I performed the classic PPC- Plastic Plane Crash- Launch, Straight up, and Straight down. Hmmm, no feel of flight, or an airplane at the end of the lines. Minor damage, if any but we decided to not fly Roger's Stuka, anyway. Hey, we have the engines figured out!.

So, now a research project began, and I checked-out a book from that school, which was all about building model airplanes from balsa wood. Now, I become the REAL compliant son, as now I have to convience Mom that I can be an even better kid, when she buys me the list of lumber and Dope that this new wooden plane needs, and mostly... A NEW COX BABE BEE .049 ENGINE, with integral fuel tank. What a cool score! Get this built, and fly it! A few thick planks of wood, deftly shaped by an eager kid, modified the nose of the plane, to accept this new, fuel tank-type engine. Bend the wire for the landing gear, and then remove it for hand launches-over the grass-according to the book! We learned the starting procedure, Roger learned to launch, and it all came together in one afternoon that we actually became pilots on the same day! That flying was going around in circles, now, I'm trying to learn how to get around the circle with some style, and stunts. This story began in 1972, or 1973, and has just started, again. I'm building new airplanes for us to become profiecient with, because flying is so fun!   

My first CL plane was a stand way off scale Walt Musiciano Scientific F6F Hellcat with built up silkspan wing and built up fuselage with that clear plastic turtle deck to be painted. I mounted the Pee Wee Cox I received with the kit as a present. I was around 11 YO at the time. I didn't fly it, but it provided inspiration for other CL half-A kits.   

The first "real" CL plane was a 38 inch span Sterling profile P-51 with Testor McCoy .19 Red Head, unmuffled of course. I think I bought the kit from Pete's Model Hobbycraft Store in Ala Moana Shopping Center in the early 1970's. The McCoy I bought from America Hobby Center's flyer in the model magazine ads. I think I paid $6 for it.   

It was a big difference between the half-A's in the way it flew, with better wind penetration, less rotational speed, heavier pull.    

My first plane was one of the PDQ series, don't remember which one as I built them all in about 7th or 8th grade. The first plane I actually flew for any length of time was a Flight Streak in the late 60's with a ST. .35 on it that I had  bought from a friend in my senior year of high school in 1965.

The plane I was really proud of was a Stills/Ambroid Stuka stunt that I wish I still had, my first built up built in 63 or 64.