Hello.........

[Paul Bray]

Hi Everybody,

finally got 2 minutes to type a ‘here I am and this is who I am’ post.

Not really a Control Line flier to be honest and so I can imagine that most of you are now a bit confused!!!


Wind the clock back to October 1974 and me getting a Cox’s Spitfire for my 14th birthday, probably the coolest present that I ever got and I just KNOW that you will understand how excited I was. The guys at the LHS sensibly suggested that I should go to the local ‘club’ (bunch of guys in a field) to fly as they would be able to help me which although I could barely wait I decided to be sensible. Read, re-read and learnt the instructions by heart whilst gazing lovingly at my Baby and it said to use lines between ? and ? and as I didn’t have a clue I jumped on my bike and rode across town to ask at the shop. Guy there said that he also didn’t know for sure but that using the whole roll of should be OK, WRONG!!!!!! They also sold me a tin of fuel, called Scorpion, stung on my fingers but no Nitro back in those days and we now know how Baby Bees love fuel with no Nitro!!! To cut a long and painful story short, didn’t fly, wing snapped and I didn’t have the experience to fix her successfully. Really annoying part was that a guy turned up (after the wing was cracked) and spotted the problem, he got 2 laps with the Baby Bee singing and stuttering alternatively before it cut which led to hitting a tuft and ‘killing’ the model.

Jump to 1981 and I had always retained an interest in models but the ones that smell so nice had kept me occupied and I started playing with RC, 36 years trying to fly everything and anything but I never again tried Control line but it was always at the back of my mind.


Couple of months ago and a couple of Flying Buddies mentioned that they had gone to a fly-in and seen a Control Line demonstration which they had not seen (or even heard about) before so I figured that the time had come.

In a Nutshell (pun intended) I modified a 26” diameter ‘Nutball’ (RC Groups for more info) and used a 2.4 Gig car RC for controlling the throttle. I have a video posted on YouTube if anyone is interested (my ‘name is PaulB121090). It flew, not well but it flew but the important thing was I HAD A BALL!!!!!!!!! Next up were a couple of GeoBat’s made of Corroplast which weren’t quite the success that I had hoped for (yet, still working on it) and I am currently converting a HobbyKing GeeBee, I had one in the cellar which I haven’t flown for over a year (RC) and I found instructions on doing it on a European web-site.

NOT planning to become a Hard Core twirly whirly flier, just adding another ‘hobby’ to my hobby……

Paul

[John Rist]

Be careful you can get hooked.  The difference is that with RC you are just an observer, with control line you are actually flying the airplane!!!

[Paul Taylor]

Yea I was just a guy reliving my childhood with my son punching holes in the sky.

Now I check the weather everyday looking when I might get a flight in. You will get hooked be careful. 😝

Checked out your video. Kind of cool.

[Tim Wescott]

Looks like fun.  I've got one of the cheap HobbyKing car radios that I use for Carrier -- it works great.

[Tim Wescott]

If you're a serious You-Tuber then you'll like Shug Emery's CL stuff: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shugemery+control+line.  His channel has a wide variety of films, so starting with the search I linked to may be best.

[john e. holliday]

Well Paul you did it and remember to have fun.  I flew RC for a while when I couldn't get out and fly CL by my self( or so I thought).  After a while it got boring except when I would get a new student for RC.  Hung uo the RC planes and got out the old stooge and have been having fun ever since.  Oh there have been time when an engine would give me a fit.

[Paul Bray]

Not really a Super YouTuber but I had not only found Shug but even searched for him. Not only interesting videos on C/L, 'entertaining' commentary to go with it, good fun.....