A Long Hello...Again

Re giant scale monsters...wait about five years and electrify them. Use a small linear amp and mp3 player to transmit engine noise from the airplane...there will be plenty of battery power.

Ken

Oh, come on now. We know that no airplane can have too much power. You need all that power to get you out of trouble. Just throttle back. (A little sarcasm, there.)

There seems to be less to carry around w/e-flight, doesn't it? I knew a glow flier once that went to the flying field and by the time he set up his flying stand, support box, tie-down screw, and the like...he discovered that he had left the model behind. (Well...it coulda' happened.)

Wait! All models are supposed to land dead stick. If it still has power, why are you landing? (Says an old glider guider.)

I find it tiring to finally hook a thermal and get about

1,500' altitude and way, way back over on the other side of the field (behind the divining line) and then have someone come out and point out that I am flying too high and on the wrong side of line. The model is a speck, but I still need to come back. (Why is all the green air behind that line?) The last thing I want when flying power back and forth over the field is to have a glider lolling around there...there might as well be a helicopter hovering out there. When flying gliders, I announce take-off, and immediately climb out of the box and go off somewhere to not trouble the guys going back and forth.

Things have to change...look at the traffic light...if it didn't change we would all be in trouble.

Ken Cashion

>

Went from a Citizenship that gave illusion of actually controlling a plane to a Heathkit. Full control at last. Krafts were pretty spendy, but did have some of those Blue Tx that I got for free: they had survived a house fire, and were only slightly scorched. Should not have tried to re-use them, but I put the flaky performance from being smoke damaged. Did have one of their Expert in the tan box, and that worked pretty well.

Was EK stuff Red? Used to be each had their own colors, like Black MRC, Yellow Kraft, Red Ace, Ivory for Proline, as since they were in similar shaped vinyl covered boxes, and time passing by, lets me recall colors, but not the names any longer.

Had good luck with the MRC TX, though flight packs were barely adequate. Noticed that MRC used Futaba TX guts, and decided to try that next Tan colored Japanese radio- and that they were a bit cheaper $$$ wise didn't hurt, either

Finally a radio you didn't have to dick with retuning all the time. Other than keeping the Batteries up, they were fine performers, the first ones that really had better than the heathkit servos, in being reliable, powerful while having a decent rotation speed and little buzzing or jitters. That those S-7 or 12(IIRC) were 2/3rds the size and weight was an added bonus, and you could buy them for almost the price of a kit servo from the others.

Did miss not having the linear arms on the servos, as well as the wheel on the center though, and no scratchy feedback pots.

** mike **

You need them big to see them up in the air, though those parkfliers you can keep within Control Line distances.

Got to keep aircraft where they don't look smaller than your thumb when flying them anymore.

7 footers let you get a little further away than a 24 incher while being the same 'size'

most important, they sound better with a big 4 stroke 120 up front-- 'real' airplane noise than just prop blades whacking air

** mike **

Ah, come on now. No way you could have forgotten Orbit and Micro Avionics. Much more popular than Citizenship in the proportional age.

But does anyone remember SLS? They came along in the early Seventies, IIRC.

Frankly, our Blue Max worked just fine. No problems with lots of flights on it. Until I shredded it through a stand of trees. That's what happens when you fly on the coldest day of Winter with the flu. I was sweating so badly from fever that I was delirious. Of course, some folks claim that was my normal state. The really bad thing was that it was my wife's radio and plane. Both nearly new. I was demonstrating R/C for a friend that had driven across several states to see one fly.

The radio was dangling by its components. Fortunately, the Club's president's kids climbed the tree and recovered all of the components. The model was rebuilt and flew again. A Falcon 56. To this day I can still recall the sound of the Monokote impacting those bare tree branches. What a sound.

Were the first MRC radios made by Futaba? I know later MRC rigs were. They were nice rigs.

I was a loyal Orbit/Micro Avionics fan. Why? Because I couldn't afford Kraft or Pro-Line in those days. We only had two Dupont incomes then. Remember how expensive radios were back then? They were all hand built in America. Or nearly all of them were.

Ed Cregger, NM2K

I still love my IC powered models. Electrics are a welcome addition for me - not a replacement.

Ed Cregger, NM2K

My most recent plane is a little AT-6 ARF. The cash flow was at a low ebb when I built it, so I went dumpster diving in my old parts bin and came up with an OS MAX .25 (_not_ an LA of FX or GP or anything else, just OS MAX), three Heathkit servos and one Kraft servo.

It flies just fine.

Something primal about lighting off a 2-smoker and ripping the air to shreds with the sound...

Still, electrics are nice in that you toss a couple batteries, your Tx and the model in the truck and go fly. No mess unless you wad up the model. :)

Love flying my little 'lectric helo in the warehouse at lunch...

Funny...

Yes, and had a questionable reputation. Mostly if the honcho liked you and you won with his stuff, you got good service; if just a kid with some bad luck, he would sell you something newer. I remember flying against him and he felt he should have been a real whiz flying since he had his own company. Most of us realized that being a good business man doesn't make you a good flier...he put some unreal pressure on himself. One time he was beaten in scale and he came to each flier asking them to sign a petition to disqualify the guy who beat him. He wanted him disqualified because his ASW-15 had a yellow fuselage. I told him that I knew for a fact that he got zinged a bunch of points in static judging for the yellow fuselage but he simply out flew the other guys...meaning him. He said that a yellow ASW-15 should have never been permitted to compete. He was flying a really, gosh-awful big German kit that was more than he could handle. We thought it funny when some of the EKs...(Elliot - Krause?) were being made in Mexico. I am sure all their servos were for a long time. We considered that very unpatriotic and gave Elliot heck over it. And now....

I still have a tray of Bantam parts and remember cleaning the wipers and elements...bond paper worked good as a light abrasive surface. I have motors and the like...and still in plastic bag servo kit.

I liked the slipping feedback pot shaft that we could reach down the servo arm screw hole with a small Allen wrench or jeweler's screw driver and reset the pot centers while the arms were on the aircraft with the pushrods coupled. The square servo posts worked good coupling to the arms. Good memories, Mike.

Ken

You are a man after my own heart. I am flying some stuff with Bantam servos. I would be using the old World stuff if I had a legal four-wire servo receiver.

Ken

Yeah...I forgot about the trailer and stuff.

Ken

>

You have it dead on, Ed. We become parochial in a hurry and when someone suggests something different, we think "instead of" when as real, all round modelers, we should think "in addition to." I frequent an acoustic guitar group and we always say that no one has enough guitars. We want one of every wood, every scale length, neck width, etc. We claim to have an attack of "GAS" -- "Guitar Acquisition Syndrome." Many of us here have "MAC", I guess. I tell you how I finally stopped taking IC to the field. I would take both. I would look in the back of the Buick wagon and see this squadron of models -- maybe seven and I would just start flying. After several trips to the field, I realized that the ICs were spending their time going to and from the shop...I never got around to flying them if I had e-models there. So occasionally I would take just IC models...then more and more seldom. Now, any IC model I have and like, I figure how I am going to electrify it.

Ken

Or cook a battery pack...or blow the electolytics in the charger...that made a real mess. I might mention that electric models are inherently more dangerous than IC. I have never had an IC start on the workbench of its own volition and start threshing everything in sight. And batteries seem to spontaneously combust; my fuel has never done that.

Ken

I understand about GAS. I just finished up a couple year spree with it. I collected many of the Acoustic amps that I used back in the Seventies when playing full time and a few that I wanted, but couldn't afford back then.

I also bought a few Fenders and lots of Chinese stuff. Many of the Chinese instruments are nearly as good as the real thing, but at much less cost. Now I have to figure out a way of integrating all of this "stuff" into my home, get rid of it, or buy another home to accommodate it all.

I don't have the interest in building models that I once had, so much of what I have these days are ARFs. Poor vision (close up) and sore joints are what I blame the lack of building ambition on.

Ed Cregger

Let's not forget the good old Royals in their blue boxes (until you got the high end custom made Royal Omega in the cream box).

Cheers -- \_________Lyman Slack________/ \_______Flying Gators R/C___/ \_____AMA 6430 LM____ / \___Gainesville FL_____/ Visit my Web Site at

I thought I remembered these things...I guess I was one of the bottom-feeders. Owing for house and car, one income check, four kids. I was lucky to have Controlaire and move up to World Engines' single-channel proportional. I had as much fun with that as any system I had. Remember the "little red brick?" This was a EK Logitrol with a single servo and receiver in one box. The Mule was that way but had an exposed receiver board. Proportional rudder (non-Galloping Ghost) was a major step up in my flying. There is a picture of me holding the Mule on a model launch...most likely one of the Nomads.

Ken

Acoustic amps...you aren't talking tube amps for hi-fi are you? Or amps for guitars.

I have no solid guitars, just lots of acoustics. I am in love with the Chinese guitars. They make more music per buck than anything. I went into a music store recently in Kingsville, TX -- it was part of a service station (my kind of place). I wanted to try some new speed thumb picks and Alaskan finger picks. They didn't have any. So I bought a blue, cut-away flat top with Barcus Berry onboard preamp and EQ...Chinese, of course, and its workmanship is better than on my Gibson rosewood J-45 I bought a year ago...and that was more than 10 times what I paid for the Chinese guitar...and then I had to pay $150 setup on it...

I have gone through these options and finally decided that a living room was the most wasted space in the house so it is now a music room.

I want to build but don't have time...you can see the toys I am enjoying lately.

Ken

| Or cook a battery pack...or blow the electolytics in the | charger...that made a real mess.

Well, except under the worst conditions, electrics are far less messy than gas/glow :)

| I might mention that electric models are inherently more dangerous | than IC. I have never had an IC start on the workbench of its own | volition and start threshing everything in sight.

There is much truth to that -- I have more scars from electric motors and props than I do from glow engines and props.

(I also have one scar from a non-powered glider, but that's another story entirely.)

| And batteries seem to spontaneously combust; my fuel has never | done that.

I've never had a battery spontaneously combust -- I have had a few cook, but there was never any flames. And don't put loose AA NiCd/NiMH cells in your pocket, as your keychain can, under just the right conditions, short them out and you'll suddenly have something very warm in your pocket. You'd think I'd learn after about four or five times ...

"Ken Cashion" wrote

No, these were pro level musical instrument amplifiers. I owned an Acoustic Control Corporation Model #371 bass amp in the seventies and used that for a good portion of my playing during that decade. It was a big rascal that utilized a 375 watt head, 1x18" woofer in a folded horn enclosure. They were "the" pro set up back then. It was powerful enough to never sound pushed. Bass is one instrument that sounds best when clean and with lots of headroom. The 371 could do that with ease. I now have another one, after being without one for twenty some years. A friend that I made on the internet gave me the enclosure (thanks, Dennis). It cost me $200 to have it shipped from Tampa, FL to Ringgold, GA. I found a head on eBay for less than $300. My original set up cost me $1,500 back in the Seventies. It felt like finding an old friend.

I also play guitar, but mostly electric. Acoustic guitars are a little too demanding for my polio stricken hands, but I do love their sound.

That is what I keep trying to convey to the younger folks in various guitar groups. Instead of spending a fortune on a brand named instrument, buy a decent Chinese guitar or two to find what style you are looking for. Then, once you know, you can spend a lot of money on a brand name instrument - if that's what floats your boat.

These days I am spending a lot of time in learning how to record music via the computer. That keeps me busy enough.

Ed Cregger