A taste of the real old days

(snip)

The "good old days" never left as far as I am concerned.

I build all my models (mainly slope soarers) from plans and planks of balsa.

(I do like the electronic mixers for flaperons and elevons, however!) (Also, the textured shrink on coverings are great for rough treatment on the hills are good.) J.

Oh I have to agree with you J. I don't miss the dope fumes and again the many hours covering a plane. With the new Fabrics or plastic covering it sure speeds up covering and really looks good. Mistakes! Tear it off easily and recover. Its a pleasure to do repairs on holes in wings with just plain wide scotch tape to keep on flyig for the day. Or the instant glues that you can use in the field for quick repairs also. Engines are more realiable and inexpensive when comparing cost of yesteryear to today's market. Yes and the radio's have really come a long way and flying has become pleasant with the amount of control over the plane. There are less fly aways today then in the pioneer days. And frequency checkers for those stray signals is another example. Doc Ferguson

I agree with all of the above, and yet many of the younger generation don't seem to get the same pleasure out of it we used to. Its all too easy. I remember when, if you got one flight where the engine stayed running, and the radio gear actually worked for the whole flight, and the model landed in one piece it was a feat that everyone knew meant meticulous construction, attention to detail, exhaustive testing trimming and tuning, and really did deserve a round of applause. And a day like that was something you remembered for ever.

Well, as far as I am concerned, the good old days are being replaced with instant gratification model airplanes. I have been building kits and scratch building all my life (I am 81) and we have a large R/C club here, and I, and possibly two other people are the only ones who build any more. Half the fun is building it yourself and then flying it. Our local hobby shop no longer carries kits and even the monokote stock there is very sparse. He complains that we all order from Towere\, but what the heck, he doesn't have it anyway!! I can understand the kit people who can get a plane built and beautifully covered made in Taiwan, VietNam or some other Asian place and sell it for less that I can buy a kit and covering and accessories. There is no answer, and those of us who still build and love that part of the hobby are getting fewer and fewer. The US magazines pander to the ARF reviews but the British Magazines still carry construction articles and some of them have full size plans included every month. I have built a number of planes from these plans and every one has been a super good flyer. Well, progress marches on...if that is what you call it.... Regards to all, Frank Schwartz.... who builds everything from Lazy Bees to Quadra powered planes and all in between...

I know what you mean. I have always built my own planes ever since I started RC in 1986 as a teenager. Since then I have built at least 350 planes, and less than 10 of those have been from kits. The rest have been from plans or my own design.

When I was getting started I used to order an RCM plan that interested me, and then I would build two planes at the same time. I would sell one and fly the other, which made my hobby very inexpensive if not free. Sometimes I would build a plane from plans and then simply sell it brand new if I was afraid that I might crash it. After doing that for a few years I started building planes to order for guys who didn't have the time or inclination themselves. This business was really good for a while, but then two things happened. First ARF quality came up, meaning you could buy a good plane without hiring a custom builder. Second, they started making almost every plane you could think of in ARF form and selling them for $100 or less. This was bad for business, but it also said a lot about the RC community in general.

I find the whole situation kind of disappointing. I don't understand why most modern people don't seek the satisfaction of a job well done. I have derived a lot of satisfaction from learning to build a plane from raw wood and knowing that I can do it. I know just a few people who still build anything. Even the old guys around here have stopped building and just buy ARFs. On the other hand, I have one friend who taught his son to build. I ran into those guys a couple of years ago when they were test flying a small Taylorcraft that the kid had built. He was 18 and had built the whole thing from a magazine plan with no assistance from his dad, and the plane was beautiful. It was covered with some kind of super light covering, with panel lines drawn on, and it flew perfectly. In fact, the kid had just about one-upped me.

Somebody on this group asked the other day where everybody has gone. I don't know about you guys, but I have just about lost interest in discussing a hobby where nobody builds anything any more. I used to post here a lot about ten years ago, and it was mostly BS and stupid drivel then just like Usenet has always been. But there were some interesting conversations about model airplanes. There is less and less interest in what you would call good old fashioned aeromodeling as time goes by. There just isn't much to talk about any more. I sound like one of those old-timers, and I'm only 38.

I have a friend who found several boxes of old magazines from the 1970s and 1980s. I thumbed through them and saw the original articles of some of my favorite RCM planes, as well as some MAN and MA articles. There was one construction article by Ken Willard where he built a formation of four planes tied together by dowels in the wing leading edges. The engine was in the lead plane, the ailerons were in the outer wing of the airplanes on either side, and the elevator was on the rear aircraft. Is there anybody around today who is so innovative and serves as such an inspiration to the rest of us?

On Mon, 27 Nov 2006 15:51:42 -0600, Robbie and Laura Reynolds wrote in :

I'm sure they're out there.

The fellow who built a true scale rotary engine and a plane to go with it is in upstate New York. What a modeler!

I'm not persuaded that there's much to be gained by telling people what they should or should not enjoy. I've got hand-build, kit-built, and ARFs in my hangar. I see folks having fun with all three kinds in my club. I don't lecture the all-ARF people about how much fun they OUGHT to be having. I do, from time to time, show some of the stuff I've learned or am working on.

Marty

Wow, I'd like to see that!

I wouldn't presume to tell people what they should or should not enjoy. You can enjoy whatever you want. It's just that I don't feel a lot of comraderie with people who don't enjoy building.

Must be this one:

On Mon, 27 Nov 2006 17:39:07 -0600, Robbie and Laura Reynolds wrote in :

Here's his site:

OK. "To each his own."

The RC world is splintering because there are more choices than ever--electrics, gasoline, indoor stuff, ARFs, simulators, kinds of competition, etc. I suppose it feels like a loss, but people seem to be having fun, which is, in my view, what the hobby is all about.

Marty

Yeah, that's the one! I've always had it in the back of my mind to build something like that. It's a brilliant idea.

wrote in :

We ordered a new computer last night, and we'll be getting high speed internet next month. This will replace the 8 year old computer and dial-up access. Now I have something new to get excited about. I could download the video now, but it will be more fun with the new computer. I'm eager to check it out.

Yeah, that's true. Everybody seems to be having a good time, which is a good thing. I think that the issue here is the splintering effect that you refer to. Years ago, some of us built airplanes and some went fishing. I didn't have much in common with the fishing crowd. Now there are more hobbies. Some people fly those silly electric contraptions, some fly factory made ARFs, and only a few build. I have more in common with electric and ARF enthusiasts than I do with fishermen, but not much. But that's OK. There are always a few people around to share the hobby with.

Our club has over 40 members and our younger people are really interested in building from kits and from scratch. It really makes for excitement when one of them starts and then asked questions from us old builders. I enjoy giving tips on old methods and the newest materials out on the market. Our Vice President owns a hobby shop and he keeps a good inventory of models, and plenty of balsa and plywood in stock for us scratch builders. Speaking of plans: Has anyone tried Bob Holman's plans

We don't have a lot of builders around here. There appear to be just a handful around the Kansas City area, apparently just enough to keep a little bit of wood stocked in the hobby stores. I've always been the "weird guy with unusual planes". I thought this was funny because my planes aren't particularly weird most of the time, they're just not the same thing that the ARF guys have.

Every once in a while somebody will show up with something I've never heard of, and I've always gotten a lot of fun and inspiration out of those encounters. A couple of years ago two old guys came to the field with 20 size planes in the 1920s air racing style.

I think I would enjoy being around a group of modelers like the ones in your club. It sounds like lots of fun. Do any of your friends go really crazy and build canards, triplanes, amphibians or multi engine models? How about a multi engine canard amphibous triplane, with flaps and a bomb door?

Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these great (and sometimes not so great) words of knowledge:

I like "the good old days".

I like "different/unusual planes.

You can not find kits for them, so you scratch build them.

At present in the hanger:

FW-56 (Stosser ) Bellanca Airbus (circa 1930 type ) Transavia PL-12 (Airtruk ) [spelling is correct] Bingo Lysander

and the more mundane:

Rascal 40 Skyshark Hawker Tempest World Models Rambler 30 Speedy Bee

You forgot the delta wing planform and the ducted fan powered by a four-stroke radial diesel model engine.

Ed Cregger

Our club members are involved in all aspects of RC modeling. They build scratch built Electrics such as the Great Pumpkin and Yard Bee. We have our helicopter guys and then we have the sailplane guys ( Electrics) Its always fun in the group to kid about Nitro Freaks VS. Electric Ampies!!! And helicopters should not be able to fly, Where are there wings. We all kid back and forth. No one is against ARF's they are great for getting into the hobby. Some have gone from single engines to twin engines ( Nitro and Electric ) Some have taken older models and converted them to electric because of the light weight and they make great electric flyiing models with minor modifications. Yes the primary purpose of this great hobby is to enjoy it anyway you like. Doc Ferguson

The message from Frank Schwartz contains these words:

Hi Frank, I live in the Uk and in my impetuous youth scratch built everything due mainly to a lack of money, my purse didnt run to radio control gear as it was rather expensive and easily damaged so I stuck to gliders flying them on a large schools recreation ground just a few minutes walk away from my home. I drifted off model airxcraft although I kept my interest in the full size beasties and spent some years with the RAF Cosford Aerospace Museum which is about ten miles from my present home, my hobby turned to static sailing ship models for collectors and museums and my latest is headed for your part of the world as I am building a 1:64 scale HMS Agamemnon for an L.A client. I have decided it is time for a change and to build something I want to do and not what a customer wants so I am going back to large slope soaring gliders and had a dig around in the bottom drawer and came up with six plans for big gliders that date back some 35 to 40 years - The Orange Box, Syncopator, Clio, Wee Kee Wee and others up to 80'' span. I have seen many ready built foam and plastics gliders on eBay but to me that takes all the acheivment out of it and to fly something you have put together piece by piece and created with your own hands is what it is all about, people who buy read built fancy plastic models I do not class as model makers to be honest because the only technical knowledge they need is how to charge some batteries. The ship models I build can take as much as 3000 hours so building even complicated airframes is a breeze in comparison, I am really looking forward to finishing this latest commission and getting back to some fun modeling soon as I figure out how this new equipment works, seems like they dont use dethermaliser timers any more,

regards, Terry