First flight

[Robert Whitley]

In nine hours and twenty three minutes we will be celebrating the 116th anniversary of powered controlled flight.
Hopefully everyone has some special thoughts of their first flight experiences they might like to share with us.

Mine are my first model airplane (a Goldberg Cosmic Wind, Christmas 1971: first flight next fall) and my first solo in a Cessna 150 July 1976.

Clear skies and wheel down landings to all!

[Robert Whitley]

By next fall I meant the fall of 1972 not next year.

[Ken Culbertson]

My first was a .o49 "Log" all balsa Pitts "Lil Stinker" that my father and I built when I was 5.  It had an OK Cub .o49 in it.  My first real memories are around 1958 with a Baby Ringmaster followed by a whole bunch of Baby Bee's on the front of about every kit I could get at the BX.  A few years later I got my first Nobler and I was hooked.

Ken

[FLOYD CARTER]

My first C/L flight was with a model which was given to me.  It was a free flight model which I converted to C/L.  The plane was called "Spook 48", a kit produced by Modelcraft in Los Angeles.  The gifter showed me how to install a bellcrank and hinge the elevator.  I had a new O&R 23 spark ignition engine which was my Xmas present a few months previous.

This was in early 1945.

Although pretty light, the little O&R engine just barely got it off the ground.  It actually went around a couple laps before the engine died.

For pure nostalgia, I recently built another Spook 48 with e-power and R/C.

[Larry Renger]

As for first flying models, the Jim Walker Hornet and 74 gliders. Several Monogram, pretty but non flying models (they were supposed to fly, but were hopeless).

I had a WenMac Aeromite, but never got to fly it or even try to start the motor.

Finally got a Cub 049, Built a 1/2A Snapper and destroyed it on the first flight. Then designed and built a slab wing trainer and flew it! Fell down dizzy after the first flight.

You had to really want to fly if you were learning on your own!

[Dan McEntee]

   About 1960 or so, on Thanksgiving Day, my Dad and Uncle Ed came through the door and asked, "Who wants to go for an airplane ride?" I think I was waiting for them in the car before anyone else had a chance to answer! My Dad did electrical work for just about every FBO at Lambert Field, my Uncle Bob was a pilot, former service manager at the old Brayton Flying Service there and at that time was flying JFK and the Kennedy family during the '60 campaign and after the election, and my Uncle Ed was good friends with the owner of the old Interstate Air-motive FBO, John Longston. The local newspaper, The St.Louis Post-Dispatch, had a DC-3 corporate airplane, called The Weatherbird,  that was kept at Interstate. It had just undergone it's annual inspection and was going for a check flight. I got to see our house from the air, and fill the airsickness bag that was in the back of the seat in front of me!
   Dime store gliders and rubber powered models were present at that time I think, and I tried to build a Guillow's P-47 profile rubber model, but C/L flight didn't happen until I was eleven or twelve years old. That whole story is up in the "How I Got My Start In The Hobby" section, and the rest as they say, is history!
  Type at you later and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
   And Thank You Orville And Wilbur!
  Dan McEntee

[Mike Griffin]

My first control line flight with me at the handle was in 1959 and I was 12 years old. Dad helped me build a S1 Ringmaster and we put a FOX 35 on it.  We flew at the Mayfield, KY airport on Sundays right on the paved tarmac. 

Mike

[BillP]

I was given a Jr Ringmaster kit and Fox 15 for my 8th birthday in 1956. Dad helped me build it and first CL solo was on grass at Craig Field in Jax, Fl. A Super Ringmaster with Fox 35 followed and I still have both engines. Soloed a C150 in the late 1980s.

[john e. holliday]

A Christmas present from my oldest brother was a Thimble Drome Space Bug .049.  Needless to say he wanted to see it run.  Bro Bill the one who gave it to me and my Bro Bob had it mounted to a block of wood and to the back yard we went.  The next spring I acquired an A-J Aircraft Fire Baby.  I got it assembled with the engine on the nose.  Everybody was at the house and wanted to see it fly.  The area I tried to fly in only let me roll out about 15 foot of dacron line.  Brothers got the engine fired and launched me.   9 laps alter according to my brothers I crashed.  Fell over so dizzy I couldn't stand.  The next plane kit I got at Welborn Hardware Store was the Scientific Sport Racer.  Learned to roll out about 25 foot of line with the kit handle and flew the tank dry.  Lost count how many flights I put on that plane.  The rest is history after I got an OK Cub .049A.  Went through several planes with that engine.

[Serge_Krauss]

My first flying (sort of) models were rubber-powered "Cleveland Quickie" and similar Top-Flite models. My first CL plane was a slick looking, blue plastic, Wen-Mac "Night Fighter," but I never got it started. The engine though went later into my scientific "Atomic" (posted previously), which flew, but also wasn't my first to fly.  My first CL build was a pretty (in box and plans photos) "Dil-Bod" 1/2-A team racer. It never flew.

I first flew a Cox Babe Bee powered Scientific "Stuntmaster." I was in junior high school, when I visited my friend John Butterbaugh and brought along another Wen-Mac model, this time a race car that seemed to come off the same molds as a late 1940's wind-up toy model of the Thorn-Sparks Indianapolis cars. His father took a look at it and just said, "Hmmmm" . So they then showed me their collection of Ringmasters (all but the Baby one), a Sterling Mustang, and the "Stunt Master." I liked the "Stuntmaster," and we later went out to the back yard and flew it on 30' lines. THAT was my first CL flight. I didn't even destroy anything!

That's when I bought and built the "Atomic," which flew OK. I then put an O&R "Midget" .049 on it, and it was a real rocket.  My next CL plane was the Sterling "Yak-9" powered by a $5.98 McCoy .35. I loved that plane, and it is why I came back to the hobby many years later - most model plane fun I ever had. I just followed the directions, and it flew fine - every day until the pieces were too small to re-assemble.

[Shorts,David]

My first was a Goldberg Swordsman on a black widow .049. I was about 5 so 1980. By the time I was six it was a giant lump of hot stuff and went in the trash.

David

[Dennis Leonhardi]

As for first flying models, the Jim Walker Hornet and 74 gliders. Several Monogram, pretty but non flying models (they were supposed to fly, but were hopeless).

I had a WenMac Aeromite, but never got to fly it or even try to start the motor.

Finally got a Cub 049, Built a 1/2A Snapper and destroyed it on the first flight. Then designed and built a slab wing trainer and flew it! Fell down dizzy after the first flight.

You had to really want to fly if you were learning on your own!

Amen, Larry!  I was blessed / cursed with ridiculously quick reaction time.  Wonderful for Combat, but horrendous when you're just learning to fly!  I was all over the sky ...

Thank goodness for several friends that followed along, community efforts work well!


Dennis

[TigreST]

First flights:  Around 1973-74,  Mattel Dareplane Stunter, which taught me the basic's of controlled flight. First c/l flight was the the Cox PT-19. Many Sterling and Scientific  1/2a's followed.

For a great read about the Wright brothers leading up to the historic event and after, check out David McCullough's  "The Wright Brothers".  A great read.

https://www.bookspdf4free.com/the-wright-brothers-pdf/

[Peter Grabenstein]

First flight...1969, COX Baby Bee + 3 sheet Balsa Trainer, R.Wollmann Design.
12 yrs young after School ,working (delivery guy) for a laundry shop to collect 20 Cents/Pfennig/Pence Tips
to buy all that stuff needed , like COX Fuel , Battery etc .etc. .
GRAUPNER was asking 32,50 DM for 1 COX Baby Bee back then.
Money was VERY SHORT because "MY VERY BEST DAD" passed (Cancer) 2 years before.
After a few interruptions 83-98 /other Sports like playing Squash, Bicycling, E.R.C.A. Rodeo Bareback,
250cc Licence Motorcycle Road Racing ,
Team Yamaha TZR 250 Heester Heidelberg @ Hockenheim + Nürburgring Race Track.

BACK in CL saddle AND still having FUN BIG TIME 

 
Peter
GER-1223
it ain't smart to be faster your Guardian Angels are.