My First Radio Controlled Model. A Chance For you All To Remember Your First R/C Model And What Happened To It!

[David Davis]

3 minutes ago, Nigel R said:

Age 10 i think, a Precedent fly boy, my dad's 1960s os 19 up front. Lasted about six flights until I discovered what a spin was, mostly by accident. Concrete awaited which sealed the deal, and broke the engine into three large parts.

 

More successful was a junior 60 with an hp vt 25 up front. Still have the motor. The j60 was still flying many moons later after being passed along, at the same time my dad bought me a flair meteor kit for Christmas.

 

Happy days. 

 

This is becoming unreal! I too had a Junior 60 which was my first successful r/c model. It was fitted with a variety of engines eventually ending up with an HP VT!

 

[Simon Chaddock]

Just to complete the story this was my first single channel radio that went with the plane I described earlier.

A Macgregor kit of components.

Solder the loose components onto the receiver circuit board. It needed a 3V supply

The Mk ii had smaller transistors that could be soldered directly onto the board.

Same process for the transmitter but it used a single valve (tube in the US).

Home made case but note the size of the compartment for the dry cell batteries. 90V HV for the valve and 3 'D' cells underneath for its heater.

No crystal so 27 mHz(ish)! You just tuned the Tx and Rx to give the best range by ground level trial and error testing.  

 

 

Edited March 10, 2021 by Simon Chaddock

[Nightflyer]

Could not help seeing others comments following 

5 hours ago, David Davis said:

This is fascinating!

 

I also set fire to a Keil Kraft Ace fuselage by holding it too close to an electric fire one winter's morning trying to dry out the damp tissue. The model was intended as a birthday gift so I had to buy more wood and build a second fuselage. Fortunately the model shop was within easy walking distance of my school.

 

There are also several mentions of the Trueline Custom Executive.

 

In the late Nineties I used to commute to work in Birmingham on the train from Shrewsbury. One evening, a gent wearing an RAF blazer and tie noticed that I was reading the latest RCM&E. He lent across the aisle and asked me where I flew. His name was Frank Wall and we became firm friends. He used to have a Trueline Cutom Executive and he had built two Big Wigs by LS Wigdor. I can't remember which engines he used but Frank he went on to build a powered glider and a Junior 60. He made an excellent job of them, he was a watchmaker by trade but he never really mastered r/c flying. He died of leukaemia in 2004.  

It is surprising how many people had Executive's. I built mine because my dad had built one first. His was tissued and painted with enamels and fuel proofed with Tufkote while mine was tissued and painted with Humbrol Epoxycote which was newly released.

Re the Big Wigs my Instructor had one which was used as a Toffee Bomber. Great model at the time.

[David Davis]

6 hours ago, David Davis said:

 

This is becoming unreal! I too had a Junior 60 which was my first successful r/c model. It was fitted with a variety of engines eventually ending up with an HP VT!

 

 

I regret that I do not have a picture of my Junior 60 with the HP VT 25 in it but here's a picture of the engine for the benefit of those who've never seen one and some more of the Junior 60 with one of several small Irvines which were fitted to it at one time or another.

[Mike Etheridge 1]

I had £10 to spend by Christmas 1962. Having had my own design 5ft span free flight model crash at Epsom Downs and then lose my Southern Dragon on it's first flight in September 1962, it was time to try radio control. So from Heset Model supplies in South Croydon I bought a New Junior 60 kit for 58 shillings and also obtained a Terrytone receiver kit for 5pounds 19shillings and six pence. I removed the ED Racer from the crashed plane as it appeared to be ideally suited to the Junior 60 and obtained a second hand transmitter from a Radio Ham Alan Litchfield. By the summer of 1963 the Junior 60 was ready for it's first flight and it free flighted beautifully on the Downs but with a left hand turn. The plan showed a trim tab on the sub-fin on the plane so I put a right turn adjustment on it. On its next flight the plane flew in fast ever decreasing right hand circles with the right wing eventually hitting the ground and the plane's nose breaking away. At no time had I switched the radio on. After a repair the plane flew very well with the radio on but I needed assistance with the flying as I got totally muddled with the transmitter. On a subsequent visit to the Downs I lost control of the plane and it flew over the Grandstand and was lost briefly. Someone had in fact hidden it in a bush and covered it with long grass. On my return to the Downs I discovered all my flying kit including camera had been stolen. The Junior 60 then spent the next 10 years in a shed but was eventually revived with new Sanwa Mini 2 proportional radio. I then got a lot of use out of it until radio interference caused it to pile in , however I did repair it and it has flown well ever since. I have added an elevator to it and refurbished the fuselage and substituted the ED Racer for an OS 30. It needs more weight in the nose as it stalled rather badly on it's last flight.  

[Mike Etheridge 1]

Dave S,

 

I assume this is where I reply? The junior 60 is in my loft with about 30 other planes waiting for the lockdown to finish. I have just had an E-mail from EDMAC to say that no decision can be made on flying on Epsom Downs until the end of March so like most of us I am stuck. In the past I have flown the Junior 60 at Epsom Downs first, Croydon Airport, High Wickham, South Norwood Sewage works Site with an Enya 19 fitted, Grantham with the radio switched off in the 'chuck and Duck' event, Bartons Point Sheerness, and the Medway Club Sheerness. I wish now I had left it in it's two channel configuration with just throttle and rudder. Having added the elevator the CG has moved back and more lead needs adding to the nose which already has half a pound of lead fitted. I will miss using the ED Racer and it would have been nice to use it in a veteran plane event. My nephew Nigel who has flown the plane in the past can't believe it still exists. He did borrow it once to fly at a show but flew it without adding balsa strip under the tail plane it needed without an elevator. He was most embarrassed as the plane did not gain height and the show's announcer asked him if he 'knew what he was doing' ! 

[Nev]

Mine was a KK Mini Super. I must have been about 15, so 1975 ish. 

 

 

I got a second hand Simprop 2+1 for Christmas, from Leeds Model Shop I Think. Bought the kit with birthday money and robbed an OS MAX 15 out of control line KK Spectra so no throttle.

Never really did get the hang of it, a combination of me not knowing what I was doing and an Engine  running flat out. Took a lot of punishment though.

Built another a few years ago as part of the Mass Builds and eventually learned to fly it.

 

[kevin b]

KeilKraft Outlaw fitted with gem digital proportional radio on rudder and elevator.

Power was a Frog 1.5cc diesel.

On test glide, didn't so much fly as plummet !

Went round in a big left hand arc (with lots of right rudder) and landed in thick grass.

Second flight (after trimming rudder) was very quick and ended even quicker.

It was about that time my thoughts were turning to a "different" type of "model".

However the novelty of that is now wearing off and I am back to flying aeroplanes.

[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

Oh yesterday leave me alone....!

 

The Mini Super was the first model aircraft I ever saw fly.....powered by an Enya 19....

 

I built one a few years ago & did it in the same colours (Solartex to replicate the nylon of the one I saw)....no Enya 19 available so it got an outrunner in the front....

 

 

[Skippers Walker]

My first proper R/C model I seem to recall was a DB Tern. It had an optional engine pod that was held on top of the centre wing section with rubber bands!  I purchased an OS15 for the power unit but never used it in anger, settling to 'bungee' launch the model as a pure glider. Control was provided by a Skyleader 27Mhz Clubman outfit (max 4 channels). It was a very tough model and survived my rather inept handling for quite a while. I recall that I did manage to land it along two 440V cables (suspended wing tip to wing tip !!). Rather foolishly I retrieved it by throwing a weighted fishing line between the cable and over one wing and then jiggling it free. Not too sure what finally happened to the Tern but I still have the the Skyleader Clubman outfit, it was later converted to 35Mhz and it still functions today- kept in a cupboard! 

[Don Fry]

Sorry, but I’ve got a mind worm. A flash of thunder, and an aero modeler, hair on end, with frizzy bits, wanders out of the smoke, with no memory of the incident.