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

[Peter Christy]

1965 - Veron Mini-Robot, MacGregor single-channel, Elmic Conquest escapement and Cox TeeDee .049. It had one successful flight, crashing on the second!

 

 

 

On the second flight, the sequential escapement skipped, going left instead of the anticipated right! I was too slow to realise, and when I released the button, the wings folded!

 

I built a replica from the original plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary back in 2015, and flew it from the original site. This one had a compound escapement (now replaced by a servo) and is still flying today.

 

 

 

I also beefed up the wing spars, using spruce instead of balsa! The Mini-Robot had notoriously weak wings...!

Edited March 7, 2021 by Peter Christy

[John T]

Veron Sky Scooter for me, back in the early 1970's. Macgregor 2 channel on rudder and elevator and a DC Sabre to make it go.

Due to my dubious building skills it needed a large chunk of nose weight to make it balance, which I achieved by fixing a convenient stone in place with araldite!

Despite 'strengthening' the wings with button thread bracing to the bottom of the fuselage, it met it's end in an ever enthusiastic spiral dive, when one wing decided it was time to get off. I remember the engine ran well all the way to the ground though...

[Simon Chaddock]

A single channel home design all balsa glider using a kit built MacGregor Tx and Rx with a home built (by my Dad!) rubber driven escapement working a V tail rudder.

It glided well enough but any form of steering control was virtually non  existent. 

I still have it stored 55 years on.

  

[Geoff S]

Mine was a Precedent Electrafly.  I already had a Futaba 27Mhz 2 channel transmitter and receivers I used in my RC model yachts so the perceived advantage of getting 3 channel control (motor, rudder, elevator) was tempting.  The main problem was that the mechanism that coupled the elevator to the motor switch was difficult to set up and even when it was, it was almost impossible to know if the motor was working or not when you were flying. 

 

I think I built it in about 1994 and it didn't last long!  I replaced it with a Global SST (Super Sport Trainer) kit which I built and replaced the Futaba 2 channel set up with a Micron 4 channel transmitter and receiver which I also built.  I also made the mistake of powering it with an MDS 40 which no-one could get running reliably - in my ignorance I thought I knew about engines having been involved with motor cycles for many years and assumed a simple 2 stroke, regardless of its make, couldn't be hard to run. I ended up building another Precedent ( a FunFly) but made a more sensible decision on an engine - an Irvine Q40 - with which I passed my 'A'

[ken anderson.]

MFA Yamamoto,enya 40,Futaba challenger....poor thing got me learned eventually....was like triggers broom,new fuz's,wings.....

 

ken anderson...ne...1..happy/ish days dept.

[Toni Reynaud]

Veron Sky Scooter with an OS10 up front and McGregor 1+1 R/C set. For some reason I used a bit of thin aircraft grade aluminium sheet to fashion a noseleg cum engine mount - worked well. Flew it with the Grimsby club for a couple of years, then moved on to a DB Tinker and a Gem 4 - one of the first low(ish) cost proportional radios.

[wingcoax]

Megamodels (Roy Lever) trainer. Built as 4 channel, Sanwa Vanguard 6 channel, Enya 35. Still learning when aileron servo failed on full throw, Ended up with a bag of matchsticks. Then DB Mascot to solo and "A"

[Brian Hammond]

Ohmate with Cox 09 Medalian and homemade Gallaping Ghost  radio ,flew very well,used a Rand actuator,quite expensive in the day!

[John Stainforth]

5 hours ago, john stones 1 Moderator said:

Mercury Matador O.S 10 in, made a pigs ear of it and wings folded, hit the only piece of concrete in sight, and obliterated itself.

Snap. In 1965, my brother and I built and modified this Mercury Matador for single channel. It flew really well, including one uncontrolled 11 mile flight! It did many flights over a two year period and never crashed. I gave it to a younger relative when I left home for university. I think it was powered by an AM 10 (1 cc).

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

In my late teens and with sufficient disposable income to contemplate radio control model flying, I spent weeks building a Sterling Cessna 180 and fitted it with a "Wee" McGregor single channel receiver and "servo" for the rudder - no fancy proportional radio for me...although it did have a quick blip facility to give the option of full throttle or idle to the mighty Enya .09 engine.  Thinking about it, I know some modern flyers who wouldn't find this any handicap...

 

 

The day dawned when I arrived at Nomansland Common with a bottle of glow fuel and the able assistance of my friend Brian (still a very active modeller and sometime contributor to this forum) who was just getting back into RC flying after a short break.  I recalled the advice on the plan to test glide over long grass but couldn't see any so decided that nothing could possibly go wrong and started the engine.  After declining the offer from him to do the maiden (what could possibly go wrong - it only goes left and right) a friend gave the model a good chuck and it reared up, stalled and plummeted from 15 feet into the unforgiving turf.  The result was total carnage back to the cabin.

 

After some outward laughing and inward crying, I scooped up the wreckage, watched Brian fly his model and returned home.  I couldn't face the prospect of rebuilding the fuselage but then invested in a sheet of 1/2" balsa and "crafted" a simple frame to hold the engine in an approximation of its correct placement.  Brian had rejoined the Watford Wayfarers club by this time so I followed his lead and presented myself at Croxley Moor with Frankenstein's second creation.  Some approximation at flight ensued but the wise heads at the club, notably the chairman Tony Rose and regular forumite Pete Christy (IIRC) advised me that I was wasting my time with the (no longer) scale Cessna and to build myself a Lumpers.  A what?  Send off to MAP for the plan and you'll find out...

 

Lumpers_oz2469_article.pdf

 

I duly sent off the required 50p or whatever and received the plan of a traditional cabin trainer, designed for hard use on East African terrain.  Once built and covered (nylon and dope) I returned to Croxley with the model complete with a 2 channel digital proportional radio (a week's wages) plus a new to me second hand Enya .15 - throttle control sacrificed for the sophistication of having an elevator to control pitch. After some setting up and correction of some rather odd incidences (did the plan move?) it was flown and worked well.  A few months of tuition from Brian and many repairs later (in those days before buddy boxes Brian often won the wrestling match with the transmitter just as the model was meeting the ground) and I was getting several flights a session and occasionally taking it home without more running repairs to do.  That nylon covering and strong design meant that although the wings rattled like a pair of maracas, the model had never required any major rebuilding and was only finished off when I rolled my car* onto its side and my tool box landed on it!

 

In the course of checking my facts, I looked up the Sterling Cessna 180 and discovered that Outerzone has downloadable plans and even cutting templates for the ribs and formers. 

 

Cessna_180_45in_oz4984.pdf

 

I also still have the pressed steel nose cowling somewhere in my loft that I never got around to fitting...which might go a long way to explaining that glorious 2 second maiden flight!  I have unfinished business with that Cessna - I never managed to complete a flight with it - so in the spirit of many a Spitfire "restoration" perhaps I should rebuild my first model from the cowl piece backwards!  Maybe create an additional single channel/blip throttle flight mode to give me the best of both worlds with modern radio?

 

 

 

 

*When I say car, I should admit that it was a Reliant Regal 3 wheeler which I'd bought so that I could transport my models on my motorbike licence.  This replaced the "Del Boy" Reliant Supervan III which I'd written off when a Mini pulled out in front of me and pre-dated the Bond Bug which replaced it.  My Mick Reeves 1/6 scale kit box wouldn't fit in that when I tried to collect it!

 

[Dwain Dibley.]

You had the script for Mr Bean right there Martin, you could have been a millionaire by now.

D.D.

[Skippers Walker]

My first F/F Model circa mid 1950's a Vic Smeed's 'Madcap' powered by an ED Bee 1cc diesel. The original model survived until the 1960's before crumbling due to fuel creep into the main structure! The model shown is a recent re-build from a plan but this time electric powered and with 3 channel R/C. Not yet flown and awaiting the 'lockdown' release date. Happy days! 

[Cuban8]

Re Martin's Reliant Regal - my dad had one of the pre-fibreglass reliants with a soft top, probably from the early 1950s. I remember many happy hours as a very young kid with chuck gliders over our local park to which dad had taken me in the old 3 wheeler. One night, it got nicked from outside the house but the thieves must have been so disappointed with it that they dumped it unscathed just around the corner! Not aeromodelling exactly, but one of my firework aeroplanes flew over the house from the back garden and landed on the soft top - no fire though. I have in my mind's eye a picture of dad repairing the hole with some iron-on black fabric.

Three wheelers could be driven on a motorbike licence, but you had to have a blanking plate fitted to the gear stick to stop you using reverse until you passed your car test. I think that was changed later on as being a bit daft and although I remember dad fitting one, I don't think too many were bothered. Reverse is standard on many big motorbikes now of course.

[Matt Carlton]

Mine was an EMP Apex 98" ARTF glider. I remember the excitement of picking it up from Gliders in Newark, as well as a brand new Futaba Attack 4 Tx, in the natty box with Rx, servos and a battery case. First flown in a friendly farmers field using hand towing with varying degrees of success. Did much better flown from our local slope Burrough Hill. Then found a work colleague of my dad's who flew from Curbar Edge in Derbyshire. Much better, with some proper tuition courtesy of Chesterfield and District Soarers! Eventually moved on to a Middle Phase 2, but kept the Apex as my light wind 'floater' for many years until it just became too tatty, the ABS fuselage started cracking and it just lingered in my parents loft until it was cannibalised (I made a swept flying wing from the wings) and I suppose made its way to the bin. It was a great model. Needed much longer and thicker joiner wires and a spar in the foam wing, but I remember it very fondly. 

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Well, my best excuse for not carrying this exercise through has gone - I just found the remains of my first RC (in the loosest sense of the term) model fresh from 45 years or so of "just in case it ever comes in handy" storage!

 

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

1 hour ago, Dwain Dibley. said:

You had the script for Mr Bean right there Martin, you could have been a millionaire by now.

D.D.

Maybe by this time next year?

[Robert Parker]

Hi All,

My first RC model was in 1990, a Galaxy Models Fiesta a channel trainer with an OS FP 25 up front, (this was the worst motor I ever owned) The plane few great however, getting the motor running was quite a task, I think every club member had a go, but I had no choice but to keep on with it funds were low being a student at uni. I had and still have my first radio it was a Futaba "Attack 4". The model suffered several arrivals during it life until the day arrived of the last flight, my club then Barry Areo Modellers were flying from a farmers field complete with cows who kept well clear of us, on that day I had a couple of flights all be it short due to the motor playing up. My tutor made another adjustment to the engine and it sounded great so due to the long grass it was down to me to hand launch which I was used to and did once more, however, on throwing the model my finger accidentally knocked the "on-off" switch to the off position, from that moment the model was doomed, it flew a long slow arc banking slightly at full bore until it hit the metal fence, the type which has 4" square holes in it, the motor and fuselage went through very easily but left everything else behind. I did rebuild it but it did not last long, back then we did not have buddy boxes and the transmitter was passed from tutor to pupil.

Seems such a long time ago.

Regards

Robert

[Richard Acland]

After many years of control line and a bit of free flight  i was stationed with the Army quite close to RAF Wildenrath. I joined their model club and built my first R/C model which was a Veron Super Robot powered by an OS 40 FSR. My first radio was an OS Couger set. This would have been around 1975. The Robot was a great model to learn R/C with until unfortunately loss of signal resulted in a fly away and resultant destruction. Didn't put me off though as I am still building and flying models

 

[Trevor]

First r/c venture for me was off the slope with an MFA High Sierra. For some reason this was the recommended club primary trainer at the time. It was certainly very stable so quickly got you to the stage of nudging it around the sky but was neither agile nor robust enough for learning to land, so was soon succeeded by a Chris Foss Middle Phase II.

 

Full story of the first forays with the High Sierra is here:

http://www.bartonhewsons.uk/home/modelflying/techniques/anaeromodeller's.html

[Stephen Jones]

My 1st Radio Controlled plane was a own design, a powered glider as i was still at school i could not afford much on what little pocket money i had.

So i design a model around what i had, So a 2 channel 27 Mhz futaba set and a .049 glow engine.

I was designing models in my teens mainly rubber power and control line.

While sorting my loft out i did come across some of my early designs. They are right at the back of my loft now.

Happy sunny days as i remember.

Steve ?

 

 

[Mick Cass]

After several years of control line, my first radio model was a Veron Robot, with an OS 25 and OS Cougar 4 channel radio (had to pay my dad back at 50p a week for the money he loaned me for the radio). Flew at Pontefract Park, I was an original (Junior) member of Pandas, that Robot lasted me long enough to fly solo, but was eventually destroyed when it was shot down by a local model car club giving demo's at the racecourse stand (27mhz in those days) and of course the car demo's were on my frequency, but they never bothered to tell us they were using radio.

[i12fly]

Plan built Tauri (by my father) + Merco 29 converted to RC after lots of control line flying and a set of secondhand 10 channel Roberts reeds (£60) in 1967 or thereabouts. No one to help, my they were difficult to master so dad funded a new Simprop digi 5 (£160 -mother never knew the cost)

[GrumpyGnome]

Wish I had pictures of my early stuff.  From recall, I had these rc models (all gliders) but no pictures.....

 

DB Tern (power assist)

Cambria Capstan 

Phoenix 100s 

Mijet 

Bullet 

Cobra

A 110" built up thermal soarer whose name escapes me

Heron (the Flair aerobatic glider)

 

GG

[Kevin Fairgrieve]

A "Cosmo" paired with an SC.25.

 

Lasted 3.5 flights! As my then instructor was busy reaching another student to fly another club member offered to take me up.

 

He took off gained some height and handed me the TX, the rest is easy to explain. I had no idea what to do and before you could say anything it impacted the wheat field adjacent to the strip with a sickening thud. The kind chap who had offered to take me up said "I thought you were more experienced than that" as he walked off.

 

My normal instructor said that was the best thing for the plane as it flew like a pig anyhow!

 

After that it was a Flair Cub, a model I still have and resurrected last year for a bit of nostalgia.

 

[Ian Dewar 2]

Another mention for the KK Outlaw (often referred to as the MK2). 1975. OS 10 Max. KK box art colour scheme. Initially flown with a Waltron 4 channel set with only two servos on rudder and throttle, which scared the hell out of the guy that test flew it for me in a field behind Butlins in Minehead one winter Sunday. I scrounged some money for a 3rd servo and modified it to add elevator and had several flights, but can't recall how it eventually died, although do remember snapping the wings on Minehead beach! Full of nostalgia I got hold of a kit around 15 years ago, and still enjoy flying it in its original KK colour scheme. Around that time I built a Zeitgeist glider from an RM plan and also flew a secondhand Veron Springbok which cost me a fiver....In 1998 I got the plans and drawings from Phil Smith and built a new Springbok and still enjoy flying it.