I probably have some of these "Learn To Stunt" sheets around here somewhere and I used them to learn the basics as a kid along with some books I checked out of the library. My late little brother and I did most of the usual kits, and it was surprising to me them, and even now that some of the ones we wanted never showed up on the hobby shop shelves. I have managed to collect most of the ones we had or wanted back then and plan to revisit them, especially the ones I had problems with. My biggest regret is I never sent off for one of Goldberg's Pilot Certificates after I achieved what ever requirement there was to earn one. If anyone out there has one of those I would like to see what they looked like, if possible, just to see what I missed. I do have a set of Cox "Wally Wings" they I collected off of eBay in recent years.
I didn't have much trouble with any of the engines we had as kids. Cox engines and the Testors/Wen-Mac products tended to operate just like the instructions said. We got a few other kids from the next block over interested and they would come over to fly in the field behind our house. it was a Union Electric power line right of way, and we shouldn't have been flying there, but we never had any issues flying with the Dacron lines. It was that mythical field of tall grass that was always mentioned on the plans as the place to fly the models! We had to hand launch all the time but that wasn't an issue. We would pool our gas supplies and have a ball on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. One particular Sunday there was about a dozen of us, and we managed to get 9 1/2A models in the air at one time! One got loose, went up and over the trees by our patio where my Mom was BBQing and in smashed into the concrete right next to her! She never even flinched and just yelled, "Hey Watch it!!" While I apologized and retrieved the wreckage! I often wonder who fo that bunch may still be involved in the hobby or if they still have any of there stuff yet??
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee