Spin Less Pilon

[Dwayne Donnelly]

I saw this on RC Canada's Control Line page, I've never seen it before, anyone tried one? The poster is looking for a value so it may be for sale.

[John Carrodus]

Yes. I have seen one in the old Control Line Manual, book first published about 45- 50 yrs ago. It has a plan for one where the pilot sits outside the circle and controls up and down with a joy stick. How good ? Who knows. My guess would be basic climb and dive, wing overs and loops would be about it. Although I can be wrong- occasionally, my wife disagrees, "often" she would argue!

[Dennis Toth]

Now days if you wanted to do that you would use a small RC system and just a tether line. Some have done that a few years ago, a guy had a ship that he would fly as a free RC but also had a tether line setup that had it flying in a circle. Not sure what maneuvers you could do but with practice I guess one could do a lot.

Best,   DennisT

[De Hill]

There were at least 3 of these "Control from the outside of the circle"
contraptions Made in the USA.

Two were for large models and one was for 1/2a models.

They are pretty rare items.

Their big disadvantage was you could not run backwards while using one of them.

A lesser advantage was that you could not "feel" the model on the lines.

[Dan McEntee]

There were at least 3 of these "Control from the outside of the circle"
contraptions Made in the USA.

Two were for large models and one was for 1/2a models.

They are pretty rare items.

Their big disadvantage was you could not run backwards while using one of them.

A lesser advantage was that you could not "feel" the model on the lines.

   I believe Wem-Mac had their own version of this. They turn up on eVilBay now and then. I would like to see one up close just for giggles and grins.
   Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Carl Cisneros]

Dan;

WenMAc did have one of those that I remember when I was little (oh,so many decades ago).
Saw it working with a WenMac display at a shopping center in So. Cal.
That was the first time I saw a model airplane fly and I was hooked.
If memory serves it was a Corsair being flown.
Dang, that was back in the very early 60's.
Funny how somethings you remember vivadly.

Carl

[Bruce Shipp]

Back in the 90s a pair of guys showed up at a Tucson contest with one of these systems. They were marketing the system and had a few for sale. They set up a demo circle across the park and flew it off and on all day. It was a smaller model, .15 or .35 powered. It flew pretty much like a sport model-I doubt it was trimmed very well.

I walked over to visit and take a flight. My thoughts were that it was novel, had potential as a sport flying system but I couldn’t see any contest applications.

My biggest critique was the control “mode”.  The control was a stick anchored to the ground by a low lawn chair. Ergonomically it was actually set up quite well. Reminded me of a side stick controller in the F-16. Pull back away from the circle for up and forward towards the circle for down. The stick had a spring to provide artificial feel but the spring was only one direction-down. There was no center or neutral position. You had to constantly maintain back pressure regardless of elevator position. Go up? Pull back. Go down? Pull back less.

My first thought was if they had springs pulling both up and down, and the neutral position could be adjusted to “trim” for level light it could be a reasonably realistic rendering of traditional flying.

Apparently they did not implement my suggestion as I’ve never seen another one fly and I haven’t received any royalty checks. It’s been almost 30 years…I’ve given up on the checks.

[John Park]

Yes. I have seen one in the old Control Line Manual, book first published about 45- 50 yrs ago. It has a plan for one where the pilot sits outside the circle and controls up and down with a joy stick. How good ? Who knows. My guess would be basic climb and dive, wing overs and loops would be about it. Although I can be wrong- occasionally, my wife disagrees, "often" she would argue!

Ron Moulton's Control Line Manual was first published in 1961, and I'm fairly sure the reference to a system devised by a certain Captain A C Dudgeon was an abridged version of an article published in AeroModeller at some time around 1960, iirc.  The system was actually built and flown, and I think the model was a scale-ish Percival Provost trainer, with a DC Merlin .76cc diesel, flying on 25-30 ft. lines.  Interesting, but strictly limited in its possibilities.

[Dave Hull]

I've seen a picture that allegedly shows a US Navy system probably during the 1950's where a much larger test plane was flown on very long lines using a tether post and control setup. Probably was some type of flight testing of plane design features, and done in lieu of wind tunnel time, which is very expensive.

Dave