So what was your first control line plane, and what was the year, and age that you...
03-25-2019, 04:09 AM
#152
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Clark in the mid 60s was a bustling place. It was the HQ of the 13th Air Force. F-102s (and later the F-4Cs) stood 24 hour alert.. The new hospital (my old man was the Aeromed Evac officer there) had just opened and was the largest U.S. hospital in all of SE Asia. Yeager commanded a squadron of B-57 Canberra bombers and flew missions over South Vietnam. Bob Hope would come in with his USO tours. I was in Boy Scouts and participated in the 50 mile Bataan Death March reenactment twice in successive years.
There is an online alumni group Welcome Home Again (Wagner HS Online Alumni) which has period photos and yearbooks.
The Ringmaster was followed up with a well-finished silk-covered Jr. Nobler. Fox .19 power.
One of the memorial markers on the route of the Bataan Death March
We teamed up with Filipino Boy Scouts and hiked the entire distance from the surrender site in Limao on the Bataan Peninsula inland to San Fernando. USN and USAF provided logistical support.
There is an online alumni group Welcome Home Again (Wagner HS Online Alumni) which has period photos and yearbooks.
The Ringmaster was followed up with a well-finished silk-covered Jr. Nobler. Fox .19 power.
One of the memorial markers on the route of the Bataan Death March
We teamed up with Filipino Boy Scouts and hiked the entire distance from the surrender site in Limao on the Bataan Peninsula inland to San Fernando. USN and USAF provided logistical support.
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Flicker (04-01-2022)
03-25-2019, 04:45 AM
#153
Great photo of the Ringmaster. Those were the good old days but we didn’t know it then. Of course, in 1965 we were only 20 years past WW2 which is Ancient history to many people nowadays
Hope you find more photos
bob
Hope you find more photos
bob
03-25-2019, 07:21 AM
#154
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First control line was a Cox Stuka in about 1960. I sold greeting cards to get it. Anyone remember doing that?
Then on to Baby Ringmasters that flew in the street, we lived on a corner. A Cox Pitts "Little Stinker" .020 great fun, sitting on a box in the back yard doing loop after loop!
Then a Goldberg "Buster" with a Johnson Stunt engine. Loved that plane. Me and my friends flew those combat with streamers at the Jr High.
Thanks for bringing back a lot of memories.
Then on to Baby Ringmasters that flew in the street, we lived on a corner. A Cox Pitts "Little Stinker" .020 great fun, sitting on a box in the back yard doing loop after loop!
Then a Goldberg "Buster" with a Johnson Stunt engine. Loved that plane. Me and my friends flew those combat with streamers at the Jr High.
Thanks for bringing back a lot of memories.
03-25-2019, 06:52 PM
#156
Someone must have a Cox catalog from the 60’s with all their U control planes we loved but never flew. I think I had a Curtiss Pusher U-Control by Cox too. If someone has the catalog I hope they can scan and attach
Regards
Regards
03-28-2019, 06:25 PM
#157
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Great memories here. I can relate to so many of your stories!
First, 60's Cox plastic. Yep, more "dragging it around in circles" than flying. As I recall it, it was a feat to accomplish that!
Engine went into Wizards, banshees, baby voodoos, (yeah, me and my brother built the twin kits) I seem to recall a "baby" ringmaster? Wombats, can't recall all the names!
Then I "graduated" to a Ringamaster jr. OS Max 15. Flew the heck out of the thing. Still have it hanging in my workshop.
Don't know if I'd trust the 50 yr old Ambroid to dare fly it. Still have a handle and lines though......
Built and flew many others and went R/C for some years. Visions not so good any more though.
First, 60's Cox plastic. Yep, more "dragging it around in circles" than flying. As I recall it, it was a feat to accomplish that!
Engine went into Wizards, banshees, baby voodoos, (yeah, me and my brother built the twin kits) I seem to recall a "baby" ringmaster? Wombats, can't recall all the names!
Then I "graduated" to a Ringamaster jr. OS Max 15. Flew the heck out of the thing. Still have it hanging in my workshop.
Don't know if I'd trust the 50 yr old Ambroid to dare fly it. Still have a handle and lines though......
Built and flew many others and went R/C for some years. Visions not so good any more though.
03-28-2019, 11:44 PM
#158
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1970 - 8 Years Old. Ringmaster with a worn out McCoy .29 Redhed. Bought the kit at Orange Blossom Hobby in Miami. Nothing like the smell of Ambroid & Dope😀. It had more repairs than a ‘58 Studebaker!
03-28-2019, 11:55 PM
#160
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Great memories here. I can relate to so many of your stories!
First, 60's Cox plastic. Yep, more "dragging it around in circles" than flying. As I recall it, it was a feat to accomplish that!
Engine went into Wizards, banshees, baby voodoos, (yeah, me and my brother built the twin kits) I seem to recall a "baby" ringmaster? Wombats, can't recall all the names!
Then I "graduated" to a Ringamaster jr. OS Max 15. Flew the heck out of the thing. Still have it hanging in my workshop.
Don't know if I'd trust the 50 yr old Ambroid to dare fly it. Still have a handle and lines though......
Built and flew many others and went R/C for some years. Visions not so good any more though.
First, 60's Cox plastic. Yep, more "dragging it around in circles" than flying. As I recall it, it was a feat to accomplish that!
Engine went into Wizards, banshees, baby voodoos, (yeah, me and my brother built the twin kits) I seem to recall a "baby" ringmaster? Wombats, can't recall all the names!
Then I "graduated" to a Ringamaster jr. OS Max 15. Flew the heck out of the thing. Still have it hanging in my workshop.
Don't know if I'd trust the 50 yr old Ambroid to dare fly it. Still have a handle and lines though......
Built and flew many others and went R/C for some years. Visions not so good any more though.
Combat Cats & Kittens, Flightstreaks, Sig, Fox, Veco. My brother brought me back my first O.S Engine, when he was on leave from Vietnam in 1969. An O.S. .09
03-29-2019, 05:29 AM
#161
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Cox engines are not finicky
Looking back we usually didn't understand what these engines needed to run properly. You need Nitro to make them perform, Now days a great place to start is to use the currently available Helo fuel at about 30% nitro range
Most won't burn a gallon of the stuff so get with a Glow helo guy and see if you can buy a QT from him. A good battery that will glow the plug makes a big difference as well.
Fun engines if provided the proper fuel and a modicum of care.
Sparky
Looking back we usually didn't understand what these engines needed to run properly. You need Nitro to make them perform, Now days a great place to start is to use the currently available Helo fuel at about 30% nitro rangeMost won't burn a gallon of the stuff so get with a Glow helo guy and see if you can buy a QT from him. A good battery that will glow the plug makes a big difference as well.
Fun engines if provided the proper fuel and a modicum of care.
Sparky
04-01-2019, 01:14 PM
#162
You can run them on 15% nitro, which was the standard Cox fuel of the day. Hotter and better is 25%, but they'll run fine with less. Oil content should be at least 20% with half as Castor (needed for piston ball and socket joint for the connecting rod, hottest part of bearing surfaces as being closest to the combustion chamber).
If finicky can be a number of things going on. Glow element gone bad (even if glows, sometimes contamination, also was a period where Leroy Cox had a bad lot of heads with substandard platinum coating on the nichrome wire element). Weak battery, dirty in reed area, intake blocked by dirt / grass, even sometimes an unbalanced prop.
In general, really never had a problem with them. All mine were reliable runners.
If finicky can be a number of things going on. Glow element gone bad (even if glows, sometimes contamination, also was a period where Leroy Cox had a bad lot of heads with substandard platinum coating on the nichrome wire element). Weak battery, dirty in reed area, intake blocked by dirt / grass, even sometimes an unbalanced prop.
In general, really never had a problem with them. All mine were reliable runners.
04-02-2019, 05:21 PM
#163
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Wenmac
My first U Control was a Wenmac Turbojet. #2 was more fun Plan for Tennie Genie by Roy l Clough Jr. This was about 1955 I am now 76 and still building and flyng.
07-28-2019, 04:36 PM
#165
First CL was a Christmas present someone got me, a plastic RTF with a Wen-Mac engine. Somewhere around 1948-49, I think. Got the engine started ONCE, at least 10 years later, using Fox Blast (40% Nitro?), a 7-4 prop, and a Walker Balloon tank. After the couple minute run, the engine was VERY free turning. After a few other kits, built an Enterprise profile P-51 with a Cub .099, which FINALLY got me quite a number of flights. But, for some reason, as soon as I tried for my first loop, the engine got quiet, plane became toothpicks, and I still have that Cub. Slightly less apparent power than a Cox Black Widow.
08-20-2019, 06:59 AM
#166
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I had a Cox PT-19 with an .049 on it when i was about 7. My dad wasnt terrible good with engines and we never did get it to run. Fast forward 38 years and now I fly giant scale all around europe, but that first airplane set a spark that never went out.
10-09-2019, 06:49 PM
#168
My dad taught me at 5 years, and the whole family to fly control line on a Sterling Ringmaster Jr with a Hope .19 and thankfully a UReely since we lived in the Windy City. he could adjust line length for the wind velocity.
I was given a Wen Mac Day Fighter for Christmas when I was 4 years old and a Cox PT-19 for my birthday when I was 6. I flew the PT-19 a lot in my own front yard. I'm on the right, my friend Johnny on left, my dad's Warrior with Enya .29 in there too. I flew that in Jr High with a Stallion. 35.
Last edited by stuntflyr; 10-09-2019 at 07:04 PM.
10-09-2019, 07:09 PM
#170
10-10-2019, 03:34 AM
#171
We grew up poor outside of Pittsburgh, Pa. I swept shop floors, cut grass, washed cars to help my Dad pay for the model. My first controline model was the Yellow and Blue Profile Cox Trainer. Wings and Elevator and Motor were all held on by rubber bands I think. It took alot of beating but certainly lead me into a great hobby. Chic
10-10-2019, 04:40 AM
#172
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I think hands down the best CL trainer ever made was the Cox PT-19 trainer held together with rubber bands. I wore mine out sometimes i sprung for a new part but most of the time I used my woodburning tool to melt the plastic and add or stitch back together the broken parts.
I upgraded the engine to a Golden Bee.049 so I had longer flights. The black widow motor hadn't been introduced but it would have provided added performance as well.
Sparky
I upgraded the engine to a Golden Bee.049 so I had longer flights. The black widow motor hadn't been introduced but it would have provided added performance as well.
Sparky
10-11-2019, 05:33 AM
#175
OK, I wasted half an hour researching them. Maybe an hour. Sounds like the Skylon Thimble Drone handle. I can't figure how to adjust it in the air. There was a Handy Reel too. It would take wire lines. The Skylon has two reels that look independant from each other and have a clip to lock them. I would think that would work well with the newer Spiderwire. https://www.coxengineforum.com/t8880...ghlight=handle Are you the famous Sparky Stunthanger guy?
