The Bad Old Days

[FLOYD CARTER]

We often hear how the model building hobby was so great back in the "Good old days".

Not so.

I began building models (the small ones I could afford) in 1943.  A trip to the hobby store in those days(if you had one) found:

*Very few control line kits-- and none of them capable of stunts

*Only a few engines available during the war.  Many of poor quality

* Spark ignition was the only option in the U.S. AA-size carbon-zinc cells were weak and didn't last long in spark ignition service

* You had to accept whatever balsa wood available.  Usually hard and pre-warped

* Before Ambroid finally appeared, you had to use weak cellulose glue made from dissolved nitrate filmstock.

  Be thankful for the high quality materials we now have!

[John Rist]

They also don't make cars the way they use to and I am glad.  My first car was a 1951 Doge.  It always used oil. AT 60,000 miles it burnt a rod.  At 100,000 miles it went to the junk yard.  My current car, a 2013 Equinox, has 90,000 miles and runs like new..

[Ken Culbertson]

We often hear how the model building hobby was so great back in the "Good old days".

Not so.

I began building models (the small ones I could afford) in 1943.  A trip to the hobby store in those days(if you had one) found:

*Very few control line kits-- and none of them capable of stunts

*Only a few engines available during the war.  Many of poor quality

* Spark ignition was the only option in the U.S. AA-size carbon-zinc cells were weak and didn't last long in spark ignition service

* You had to accept whatever balsa wood available.  Usually hard and pre-warped

* Before Ambroid finally appeared, you had to use weak cellulose glue made from dissolved nitrate filmstock.

  Be thankful for the high quality materials we now have!

Those were the "Just Old Days", the "Good Old Days" started in the mid 50's and ended in the early 80's.  I chewed the first Ambroid off of my fingers in 1954.  I guess you would call me a newcomer. 

Ken   

[GERALD WIMMER]

Hello I think I started aeromodelling when it was still the Good days at the end of the 1970's. Currently there are no CL kits or CL engines (but plenty of electric motors) in New Zealand's few hobby shops and very few CL suitable props and no balsa cement. But we have the internet now and a worldwide supply of goodies.
Pity so few young people are involved now compared to my Good Old Days of my youth when it was almost fashionable to fly models.

Regards Gerald

[kevin king]

For me, the good old days started around the time Tom Morris started pumping out to 100 page Stunt News, and colour front and back pages, and offering all known Control line stunt articles at 25 cents a page. And Windy pumping out 2 hour video tapes for 15 dollars and 5 dollar shipping. So many cottage industries selling parts, major manufacturers producing stunt engines, never ending Contest grade balsa, that you could buy locally, Those were the days for me.

[Will Hinton]

For me, the good ole days started in 1948 and continued until 2013 when I had to step out of modeling.  Thing for me is this, I LOVED building and flying models and the trials of finding, replacing, jerry rigging, outsmarting a lack of materials, applying good old ingenuity to compensate for any lack of whatever WERE and still remain the good ole days.
I have been blessed to be able to submerge myself in something I love so much that there, for me at least, have been no "bad ole days" regardless of any lack of parts, balsa, stuff, or whatever. I have been privileged to be part of one of the greatest hobbies ever and I refuse to allow anything whatever to smudge that joy no matter the obstacle.
Be blessed guys, be blessed.

[Paul Walker]

I think it comes in two parts: the memories and the performance.

My fond memories are from the 60's and 70's. Those were my good old days.
Today the performance in stunt power systems is totally unlike anything in past years. If you want glo, Great engines are available. If you want electric, the power systems are incredible now.

I like them both!!

[john e. holliday]

Yes some think those were the good old days.  I started control line in the mid 50's.  When the folks moved to the farm I had Americas Hobby Center for stuff.  Other wise it was one of my brothers that get and bring stuff I needed.  Now with only two hobby shops I know of so I search internet for stuff they don't have on the shelf.  But I have stuff should last me until I reach 100.

[Brett Buck]

I think it comes in two parts: the memories and the performance.

My fond memories are from the 60's and 70's. Those were my goo old days.
Today the performance in stunt power systems is totally unlike anything in past years. If you want glo, Great engines are available. If you want electric, the power systems are incredible now.

I like them both!!

    Mine were in the late 60's on. Some things are so remarkably better now it boggles the mind. I grew up in places with no hobby shops and with no other access (not to mention limited funds) it was nearly impossible to the point I got a kit for Christmas one year, and couldn't start building it for something like 6 months because I couldn't get a tube of Ambroid - and my dad told me to never use that Titbond stuff, it will ruin the airplane. Nor could I ever find anyone to fly with. I couldn't take up stunt until I had my own car and could drive, and fly with a stooge.

   That's one reason I built rockets - all mail order (I could get engines locally...) and took no other people to make it practical.

     There used to be *a lot* of stuff, but most of it was pretty marginal.

     Brett

[John Park]

I was born just at the end of WW2 (on Adolf Hitler's 56th. and last birthday!) in a small English town forty miles from London.  By 1949 I was hooked on aeromodelling, in the form of little slip-together chuck gliders, and by the early '50s I'd progressed to the small easy-to-build rubber model kits by FROG and Veron that you could buy in any one of the four hobby shops within an easy walk from my front door.  They all sold kits, balsa, tissue, cement, dope, rubber and anything else I needed.  In the next town, three miles away, a really serious model shop sold anything the most committed modeller could wish for (or afford), and an hour's train ride took you to London and the superb 308 Holloway Road model shop run by Henry J Nicholls, of Mercury kits and Allen-Mercury engines fame.  This happy state of affairs peaked in about 1965, when a slow but steady decline set in.  The last model shop anywhere near my town closed for good a few years ago.  To sum up, the Golden Age of aeromodelling in my world was from 1950 to 1965.  All gone, nothing but memories and a huge pile of AeroModeller magazines, a dwindling stash of balsa and a drawer full of worn-out engines.

[Dennis Adamisin]

I did Billy a disservice by lifting a single line from a very good chorus:

"You can get just so much from a good thing
You can linger too long in your dreams
Say goodbye to the oldies but goodies
'Cause the good ole days weren't always good
And tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems"

 - Billy Joel
Keeping the Faith

[Dave Harmon]

Perception.....it can be a good thing.....or not!
IMO....the reason why we all think 'the good ol' days' were so good is.....we didn't know what we didn't know.
Its been so long ago...so many years that we forget just how hard it was to get successful flights that we all take for granted now.
We didn't have any other similar experience to compare with.

[Steve Dwyer]

It's always fun to think what we would have thought back in the 50's if we opened a modern refrigerator vs the Kelvinator with the small ice freezer to hold several ice cube trays or stepping out of a 54 Ford Fairlane into a 2024 Lexus, mind blowing for sure!! Having toured the Brodak Museum at the recent fly in assured me the Good Old Days are very far gone but as archaic as everything back then now seems I wouldn't trade the experiences then for anything

[Will Hinton]

It's always fun to think what we would have thought back in the 50's if we opened a modern refrigerator vs the Kelvinator with the small ice freezer to hold several ice cube trays or stepping out of a 54 Ford Fairlane into a 2024 Lexus, mind blowing for sure!! Having toured the Brodak Museum at the recent fly in assured me the Good Old Days are very far gone but as archaic as everything back then now seems I wouldn't trade the experiences then for anything

My point exactly Steve!! You said it better than I.  Amen

[Doug Moon]

I consider myself very lucky. My good ole days start in 1991. Stunt was alive and well and everywhere! There are so many fond and funny memories. If me and I my brother made it home with our one prop intact it was a good day!! Our mom and dad would come out a watch us go round and round and upon landing we get smiles and some cheers too. My dad still makes it out to watch us fly from time to time. But those early days are long gone now. What wasn't fun was battling FP40s and the dreaded runaway. Looking back on it now it was a right of passage. If you could make it work with one of those engines things were looking up.  We were lucky to have Halls Hobby House in Dallas TX that had been open since the 50s I think. It was a huge model train shop for a long time. But they also had a plane side to the business. I remember Steve and I begging our dad to buy us a profile shoestring and some supplies. He acted like he was thinking long and hard about it but we knew and he knew he was buying before we went in there. And by the way Steve and I were grown adults at the time, hahahahaha  , we were just broke... hahaha. What a different time. But a very fun time for sure.

[Larry Renger]

Back in the 40s and 50s people had SECRET techniques and stuff. Today everyone shares all the knowledge we can. This forum being a prime example.

🤠

[fred cesquim]

i started to fly/build in 1985, in the northwest of Brazil, back then, no information, a poor national model industry and hard to find imports ( back then we had a forbid law to import stuff). The nearest shop was a 2 hour plane fligh and we had to by mail order by phone and wait 3 weeks for delivery.
What i miss from that time? my youth and the field with lots of modellers
 
nowdays itīs the golden age for me, i can fly every weekend, engines are flawless ( at least my e-power models), great kits are easy to have with laser tech, knowleadge is more than i can absorb and i can learn and talk with modellers worldwide, even with my Stunt Heroes. as long as i can still build and fly thatīs golden age anytime.

[Andre Ming]

For me, my "good old days" in C/L truly were. I had tons of fun building, flying, and dreaming. LOTS of dreaming.

Shame about y'all's!

Andre

[Paul Smith]

The Golden Age, for me and many others was 1962 to 1968.

The G21 made all men equal.  Anybody with $20 to spend had a fair chance to win combat, rat, stunt, or carrier.

Voodoos and Combat Cats were two for $4.95 and a Harters rat or protospeed kit was $7.95, pan included.  Don's (of Dayton) had all the wheels, tanks, and fuel you needed to close the deal. 

There were enough entries to where nobody expected a trophy every contest, even in Junior.

[Dave_Trible]

I think I have eras rather than days.   As far as modeling goes-no bad ones,  just very different ones.   Each era found it's own problem or problems but seldom would I have ever thought to move on to do something else.   At different periods the hobby was about all I really DID have to enjoy and find fulfillment it.  These days we are challenged in new ways but we keep going.  The worst now is our dwindling numbers.   I doubt anything will turn that around.  The world simply has far too many (and easier to do) distractions and we have so little product and equipment left to work with.   At some point in the not too distant future the Nats may become a fun fly and perhaps at some local field.  Let's stretch that out as long as possible.....

Dave

[Reptoid]

For me, my "good old days" in C/L truly were. I had tons of fun building, flying, and dreaming. LOTS of dreaming.

Shame about y'all's!

Andre

I totally agree Andre;
         I started flying and building model airplanes when I was 8 years old (1954) and I don't think I ever had a "Bad" day I could blame on modeling. The hobby at that time was growing rapidly and there were Hobby shops and modelers all around in my area. Were the engines as powerful and well made as today? No but they were certainly adequate to have a great time with and being a "motor head" I always enjoyed learning and tinkering to perfect them.
       While the engines back then were certainly not up to todays standards you could buy one almost anywhere and fellow modelers or Hobby Shop owners could recommend tips on how to run/maintain it. McCoy's, Fox's, K & B's, Enya's, and OS's were all easy to buy and you could buy fuel, glo plugs, and props at any local shop suitable for your type of flying. You could also buy all the building supplies locally; including real paint (dope), glue, tissue or silk, fuel tanks, bellcranks, wheels, etc. While everyone complains about the quality of the older engines, I and many others had some that had 200+ full patterns on a stunter and still ran like new (McCoy's and Fox's run on Fox Superfuel)
     Unfortunately, "progress" finds us now with only one engine manufacturer left in the US; Dub Jett. If you're flying controline, that's it, and with the exception of a couple overseas options you can't buy a brand new controline engine for sport, stunt, racing, or speed. F2D combat engines all come from over seas as well.
     I still fly every week, enjoy it a lot, and occasionally enter a contest but I have to say that sadly the hobby is dying and the best days of model airplanes is in the past. High tech is fine but it can't replace the learning experience, the mutual enjoyment of hours spent with friends trying to "Make it better" and the sheer participation numbers of contests in the past. To me, the "Nats" hasn't really been the Nats since the Navy quit hosting. In my area, (SO Cal) in the 60's there was a contest within a couple hours drive every month, sometimes 2 a month. We used to do training and demonstration flights at full size airshows (some were sponsored by Cox) Cox also did daily airshows in Tomorrowland in Disneyland where my friend Bart did demo flights at the time.
    So yeah.......for me, I think the "best" is the whole experience, but I do miss teaching and helping new people (there are none or very few) and the higher participation levels in the past. I treasure all the friendships that I made and feel very fortunate to have been in the hobby all these years and to have learned so much from some of the greats over the years.