Your first RC model

[AVC]

Hi

Apologize if there's already a thread with the same topic, I haven't found it...

What I'd like to suggest here is that we share info, pics, anecdotes, experiences etc with our first RC models. I'll kick it off...

My first model was an ARF version of the Westerly (I can't remember the maker of this version), and it was called Westerly 2000. Not sure why 2000; it wasn't the span (1500 mm, or 59'' ), it wasn't the year of manufacturing (I bought it in 1990),...

Anyway, I bought it in May 1990. The model was designed for a .20 to .35 engine, but the only one I had a the time was a Fox 15 BB RC (I don't remember where it came from...). The radio I used was a Hitec Focus 4, with servos HS-500 CW, made in Korea. I still have the servos, and they still work, 25 years later...

The model had no ailerons (3-channel). I though that with this Clark-X wing, this big dihedral and this "softy" look, I could maiden it with no help, so off I went to the strip with no other support than my girlfriend and a photo camera.

The "maiden" was also the last flight of the day, as you may suppose. The engine started well, and for some mysterious reason, I managed to set it up correctly (maybe it was already set up by the previous owner???).

The take off didn't quite deserve such name: I simply opened the throttle, the plane began to run in a less-than-perfect runway, and suddenly a big bump put her in the air, in a quite steep climbing, underpower, and on top of that, with the rudder hanging off the tail (it seems that in the big hop, she bumped the tail and, because the rudder wasn't properly fitted, the hinges simply flew away and the rudder hanged of the control rod).

In such circumstances, and with me in "control", the maiden was around 25 seconds long. The result was: wing broken, and front half of the fuse totally destroyed.

The good thing is that I had the plans of the Charter the Robbe, similar to this one (like all trainer), so I made a wing from this plan, and managed to rebuild the fuse. Nine month later, the Westerly 2000, renamed Phoenix for obvious reasons, was ready to fly again, this time with a proper .25 (I think it was a Magnum)...and with the help of an instructor.

Here a leave some photos of the Westerly 2000, as well as one of the servos.

Edited By AVC on 17/12/2015 21:04:56

[AVC]

That's me, with much more hair and much less years...

[AVC]

The Hitec servo...

[Daithi O Buitigh]

A Veron Cardinal with an Allbon Dart up front and a bang-bang escapement with a Futaba single channel outfit that set me back two weeks wages (at 1968 prices)

[Mowerman]

FMK Flutterbug electric glider. Kit bought at Olympia model engineering show.

[John Privett]

Tyro Major, Enya .19 and Futaba M6 radio (27MHz) It was around 1974(ish - give or take a year.) Three channels (no ailerons) as was the norm for trainers back then.

I'd built and flown control-line models for a couple of years, so building the Tyro Major from the plan was no problem. Its first flights were on the Town Moor in Newcastle. As I recall, somebody helpfully took it off for me and handed back the tx. I was on my own then - when I glanced round he'd wandered off!

The model survived all my efforts to kill it, and I passed it on to a beginner a few months later. I gather he succeeded, where I had failed, in killing it.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Sometime around 1974 after many weeks of effort building covering and fitting my Cessna out with The Wee MacGregor's finest Codamac single channel equipment giving 3 possible positions for the rudder for comprehensive control, I insisted on ignoring all advice and flying it myself...how hard can it be?...the mighty Enya .09 sent it clawing skywards until it stalled and dived into the ground five feet in front of the launcher, literally exploding into a cloud of balsa fragments and silver dope.

Nothing remained of the lovingly crafted front end but the "detailed metal cowl" (which I hadn't bothered to fit - a clue to the flight pattern perhaps?) and I'm afraid that no photos ever existed either pre or post flight (attached pictures are examples from the internet)

To think that on the box it claimed that "remarkable inherent stability insures(sic) success for even the novice even in radio control."

I still have the Enya somewhere and the cowl is in my loft - and the plans are on "Outerzone" ... should I?

[Daithi O Buitigh]

Just remember that '1/2A' in the US of A is 0.049 cu in (0.75 cc) so don't over-power it . A Mills or a Merlin would be more than enough

Edited By Daithi O Buitigh on 18/12/2015 00:01:00

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Thanks for the advice Daithi, but the plans state OK Cub .099 engine or any other engine from .09 - .15 displacement so I was at the lower end - but of course, these were glow engines they were referring to, not diesels.

[Wiltshire Flyer]

Mine was a "nemesis" glider.

Me and a mate went halves.

First build for both of us and it was awful!! We did it on a carpeted floor... And the covering job was disgusting 😂

First flight? Absolute failure! Didn't balance it and as soon as it left his hands the all moving tail failed at the hinge!

[Mike Etheridge 1]

I have still got mine from 1962 it was priced at 58 shillings for the kit. The KK Junior 60

Edited By Mike Etheridge 1 on 18/12/2015 00:21:51

[Geoff S]

I already had a 2 channel Futaba 27Mhz radio I used for model yacht racing so I built a Precedent Electrafly electric glider. On a whim I'd done a week's full-size gliding course at Camp Hill in Derbyshire and that inspired me to have a go at aeromodelling in my mid 50s in the 1990s

The Electrafly had a weird arrangement to switch the motor on and off with the elevator control so you could get away with a cheap 2 channel radio. The trouble was you could never be sure if the motor was on or off! The result was that my second model was another Electrafly to replace the first

After that I built myself a trainer and made my second aeromodelling serious mistake - I fitted an MDS 40 engine which lived up to its name - More Dead Sticks which probably cost me a year in my learning to fly. Having spent years working on my motor cycle engines I thought glow 2 strokes were so simple it didn't matter which one you fitted. Wrong!!

Geoff

[Don Fry]

Boddington Tyro, free plan RCM&E, FOK 1.5 diesel powered. Had some success, but build skills were marginal, and trim tabs to counteract the warps were not aerodynamic heaven. About 1965.

[Bob Cotsford]

1967 or 68, APS Rhoma, ED Hunter 3.49 and RCS(?) single channel with a high tech Superhet receiver. That one ended up in positional contention with the school craft block - the craft block won.

Then an APS Eros, McCoy 29 rear inlet engine, that survived about 5 seconds before a tree ended it.

The gear was transferred to a Mercury Matador with a DC diesel, the first (and last) flight from Sutton Park saw it disappearing downwind still gaining altitude.

After that I stuck to boats for a while

[David Davis]

Mine was a St Leonard's Models "Galaxy," which could be built as either a three or four channel model. Mine was a three channel (over) powered by an Irvine 21 car engine and steered by a Sanwa Conquest 6, the old black plug radio.It was finished in red and silver Solarfilm, the first time I had used film. I crashed it several times when learning and pulled the engine and radio out of it, fitting them into a Junior 60 which I had built. This would have been in the late Eighties. I learned a lot from that old J60. I swapped the wreckage of the Galaxy for a damaged Telemaster 66 and passed my A on that.

Spool on thirty years and having retired to rural France and nursing a broken heart (!), I decided to make another Gemini, this time using the ESC and motor from a crashed Acrowot Foam-E.

This is as far as I have got. The model will be covered in flourescent yellow film this time.

Earlier this year, I was selling lots of surplus stuff prior to moving. I put several Sanwa transmitters, receivers and servos on eBay. Somebody paid about £30 for the lot, had all of the black wires replaced by an electronics engineer  who tested all of the circuits. The new owner then put the radio into his Junior 60 and flew it until it was just a black dot in the sky. He was really pleased with his purchase and phoned me up to thank me for selling it to him! 

Edited By David Davis on 18/12/2015 11:57:14

[AVC]

Hi David, interesting story, like all other.

A bit out of topic, where about in France do you live now? My wife is French (from Limoges) and we plan to move there in the future..

[David Davis]

I live in the extreme north of La Creuse about 50 miles away from Limoges which was the Regional capital until they combined "us" with Aquitaine and Poitou-Charentes. The capital of the new region is Bordeaux!

[FlyinBrian]

My first RC model (single channel) was a converted free flight glider called "Concord". Plans were from "Aeromodeller. This was a towline glider with which I had numerous flights. My first powered RC model, still s/c was a "Sharkface" which was a step too quick as I could not keep up with it.

My first successful powered RC model was a Veron Robot which took me from single channel to three channel proportional, a super model which I had for years.

[AVC]

Thanks David, I heard something about the Limousin being Aquitaine now... it's mad!

[AVC]

I've just realized that my very first model wasn't the Westerly. That was my first RC model, but before that I had a couple of CL models.

The first one, around 1986, was a Cox P40, made of plastic and heavy as hell. It never flew because I could not find in Spain a replacement for the glow plug-head of the Cox engines.

The second one, around 1987, was a model called "Yeyito", made by a Spanish manufactured Modelhob (RIP). It was a "profile" model with a 2.5cc diesel engine upfront (ZOM engine, again Spanish maker) with a wingspan of 900 mm, or 36''-ish, which at the time it seemed to me massive. Unfortunately, in the first flight a gust of wind took him just after taking off, and I had to run to avoid it landing in my head. That was the end of the plane and the engine, although I still have the plan somewhere

PS: Those photos are not mine, I took them from internet

[IanN]

Our first r/c attempt in the early 70s was a Little Little Vagabond with this plan out of Aeromodeller

**LINK**

It had a Frog 80 and second hand Macgregor S/C gear of unknown provenance. Dad fired engine up, launched, and we had absolutely no control whatsoever as the 'plane climbed quite rapidly. My dad set off in hot pursuit and (eventually) returned with the model

I think he persevered with the radio for a bit before concluding it had issues that weren't economically sensible to sort. I don't recall us ever trying to fly it again. No matter, we still flew control line every weekend

[Robert Parker]

Hi All,

My first R/C plane was a Fiesta a 3 or 4 function trainer from either Galaxy Models or Pegasus Models way back in 1990.

OS 25FP up front probably the worst engine I have ever owned, reluctant to start, unreliable running and the only time it ran smoothly was the last flight, due to long grass it had to be hand launched, by me whilst my instructor had the transmitter, as I launched it my fingers knocked the on / off switch to "off" the plane flew in a large arc at full throttle until it went through a wire fence, the type that has squares at around 4" square, well the fuselage went through but the rest got left behind. So I then learnt how to repair models, I was left with the wings and built a new fuselage and tailplane. This time I positioned the switch the other way around - lesson learnt.

Regards

Robert

[Peter Christy]

I recently built a replica of my first successful RC model, to celebrate its 50th anniversary!

--

Pete

[Colin Bernard]

Well I seem to remember starting way back in the 60's with a Veron Mini Robot with a Cox Babe Bee up front.

Radio gear was via MacGregor Kits with a valve Tx which needed a little 90v battery! (Plus a 1.5v heater battery).

The Rx was a Terrytone kit connecting to an Elmic Conquest escapement. Later went on to a MiniMac relay receiver and a Conquest escapement. The escapements were replaced in later models with a Minimo and Minimite actuators - again driven via single channel.

Later experiments were with Galloping Ghost using a Rand LR3 but I never seemed to get the hang of that!

[Chris Barlow]

My first RC model was a Blackburn 1912 monoplane R&E with a 1.5cc diesel engine up front. The plan was given to me by the modelling instructor at my ATC squadron. I had built and flown free flight and DT gliders before that though.

As I recall it was very slow and stable if not a little under powered and was mostly flown on my local golf course after the golfers had gone home! I don't remember what happened to it but I do remember that when I left home years ago the engine and home made tank was on the shelf in my dads garage. Sadly he can't seem to find it again all these years later!