What was your very first model aeroplane and what year?

[Peter Jenkins]

When I was 12 I bought a KK Hurricane.  Had no one to guide me and didn't ask the model shop from where I'd bought it.  Built it and covered it but it wouldn't ROG with a fully wound rubber motor!

 

Then tried Jetex and built a Grumman Panther for it but unfortunately set fire to the covering as I was lighting the Jetex!  Doped tissue over balsa burns very quickly!

 

Aged 14, and earning money from a paper round, bought a Mills 75 for £3!  Sadly, it was a Friday afternoon model as the compression stop had been put in with the compression lever 1 whole turn before it was needed!  The result was that it would only run very rich and the Veron Provost I built for it wouldn't move on the ground even with "max" power!  Again, should have gone back to the shop and asked about that.

 

Then a ready to fly plastic control liner with a Wenmax Hotshot (049).  The engine was a revelation after the Mills!  The Hotshot came with a spring enclosed in a metal case that was activated when you turned the engine backwards.  I think it was 1 1/2 turns and release and it almost always started first go.  What power!  Took ages before I got beyond 3/4 lap and crash!  Eventually, I did manage to fly 3 circuits - bliss!

 

The Hotshot when into a KK Radian stunter that had coupled flaps.  That flew well till the inevitable happened.  Then a plan built Early Bird combat wing for which I bought a PAW 249.  Very easy to start but also bit!  The Early Bird was a brilliant design for aerobatics - I never flew combat - and I got quite good - well I thought so - at C/L aeros.  There was so much line tension that you could fly the EB by just feeling where your arm was pointing which came in handy when a kiddy ran into the circle and I was trying to attract the attention of its mother while doing fig of 8s with the EB.

 

Then built a MacGregor valve Tx and Rx and built a slope soarer from plans - the Wizard of Oz.  Strange choice as in South London there were no slopes so it was a tow line job!  Today's modeller would laugh at the size and weight of batteries needed for a valve Rx.  I think there was a 67 v battery for the HT side and a 4.5 volt battery for the LT side.  The "servo" was the Elmic Compact rubber driven escapement that gave left, right and kick up elevator!  Never managed to the the MacGregor radio to work so ended up buying an RCS Single Channel set.  These were all 27 MHz frequency of course.

 

Then in my 6th form, I built a Remcon 6 proportional radio Tx and Rx and just one servo amplifier.  I bought the rest as soldering up the servo amp was a nightmare.  Sadly, despite taking it back to Remcon to say it lacked range - about 20 yds with the aerial extended - they insisted that the range check outside their shop worked fine.

 

By then I was at University with the RAF and could afford a Futaba M Series 4 channel RC set!  Sadly, I found that there was a full size gliding club at my University so that was where my interest switched.  I did build an own design low winger of 5 ft span for an OS30 to take the Futaba kit but never got round to flying it.  Gliding led to a PPL and to a share in a Cessna 150.  There were 20 of us and a share was £220 plus £10 month standing order for the engine fund!

 

Kids put paid to all that nonsense till I came back into RC model flying in 2000.  Boy had things changed in 30 years!

[Brian Dorricott 1]

Another for the Cox Stuka control liner when I was 12 about 1970 , should really have had a helper to fly as the inevitable happened and it didn't survive .

[GrumpyGnome]

When I was about 7, my grandmother gave me 2 or 3 Jetex powered KK planes - minus the power plants!  I'd run around holding them, making noises.  Then I tried to throw them - wildly unbalanced of course! 

 

Following that, I got a KK Polaris (I think) chuckie. That actually flew!  Had a few other KK planes in the next few years, including some of the scale rubber ones that never flew well.  And at least 2 KK Invaders - love that plane.

 

First RC was a single channel McGregor set, in a DB Tern with a little power pod over the wing. Had a modicum of control and thought I'd taught myself to fly. I was about 15 at that point.  I saved, and saved, and got a three channel set. The model shop, long gone now, suggested slope soarers so I got a Cambria Capstan.  And I was then taught to fly properly, over the sea in South Wales. 

 

Been flying, on and off, ever since.

[Learner]

Just remembered I built a glider from a plan after watching a tv series called Model world in around 75, never got to fly it as it was damaged in a house move . Still have the plan in the loft along with

The plans for a battleship and a yacht.

Instrumental version of Trains and boats and planes was the theme tune .

I was supposed to go to school on Saturday mornings in those days but strangely I had a migraine on Saturdays for most of the series!

[Engine Doctor]

My first was model was  kk rubber powered Spitfire. Bought from our local bike shop for 3 / 9 thats three shillings and nine pence , a lot of money for a boy in 1957/1958 ish . It was a total failure beside a clip around the ear as i cut the new carpet with a broken razor trying to cut the bits out ! Iater a boy a few years  older than me who lived in the flats across the road built another for me and showed me how it was done. He got it to take off fly a circuit of the yard in the flats , no cars to speak of then , and land. He also taught me to trim a model , somthing you never forget.

Edited August 8, 2023 by Engine Doctor

[leccyflyer]

58 minutes ago, Learner said:

Just remembered I built a glider from a plan after watching a tv series called Model world in around 75, never got to fly it as it was damaged in a house move . Still have the plan in the loft along with

The plans for a battleship and a yacht.

Instrumental version of Trains and boats and planes was the theme tune .

I was supposed to go to school on Saturday mornings in those days but strangely I had a migraine on Saturdays for most of the series!

Bob Symes 🙂

 

 

 

Boddo at 8:54

 

 

Edited August 8, 2023 by leccyflyer
Added clip

[Cuban8]

I know they look a bit dated now, but those modelling TV programmes from the 70s and 80s were usually very good in showing the world of modelling in a positive and non-nerdy light. I have quite a collection of TV recordings made over the last 40 years, but I don't have The Model World of Bob Symes' although I do recall it being broadcast.

One of the very best programmes was a half hour special about the LMA made by Sky News made 25 years ago or so - don't have a copy of that either.

[Stuart Z]

10 hours ago, Peter Jenkins said:

 

When I was 12 I bought a KK Hurricane.  Had no one to guide me and didn't ask the model shop from where I'd bought it.  Built it and covered it but it wouldn't ROG with a fully wound rubber motor!

 

Same model I started with but I got some more rubber and achieved ROG when it promptly got to half length as the rubber overwhelmed the balsa.  Great fun though.  
 

[Richard Acland]

My first model was a Keil Kraft Pirate given to me by my Brother who was a Cosford boy entrant at the time. He then proceeded to fly it for me insisting that it really was mine. I think I was about six or seven at the time. My first build was a Veron Bomb Bat control line powered by an ME Heron diesel. I am now 77 and still

 building and flying RC scale aircraft so it was my Brother who lit the torch all those years ago.

[Eric Robson]

Started in 1941 age 6, first one a 1/72 scale Spitfire carved not very well from a balsa kit. During the war I built many solid models the went to rubber power Keelbuild kits produced in Gateshead for the Model shop in Newcastle who did claim to be the first one in the world. My first engine was a Frog 100 which I never got to run properly next an ED 2.46 a great little engine, fitted it in a tethered car with used to run around the base of a WW2 static water tank at Sunderland, a 12 mile bike ride from home. Chasing girls was found more exciting than Chasing free flight aeroplanes. When my eldest son was 6 he started building plastic models and became very good at it, I suggested he should build a proper model from balsa and bought him a K K Me109 his favourite plane. He did not do to good so I challenged him to build a  better one than me so with two K K kits and my guidance he made a very good job and for years after did become a better builder than me. 

My first R/C model was a Mercury Gallahad 2 channel Sanwa mini 2 radio. A large field at the bottom of the garden was ideal for flying, there was a steep slope after the garden to the flat field, launching the Gallahad powered by an OS 09 it flew straight and climbed away a little rudder and I managed a circuit on the second circuit a loop then a dead stick landing. Thinking this is easy next day  there was a lot more wind  and launching the plane the wind lifted it into a loop and it flew up and over the house and crashed into the back wall after repairing it I found a club where I found out my first flight was pure luck. 82 years later I am still building and flying planes, latest is a Mick Reeves Spitfire. Unfortunately I lost my son aged 46 he was a great and very enthusiastic modeller.

Edited August 8, 2023 by Eric Robson

[John Stainforth]

15 hours ago, GrumpyGnome said:

When I was about 7, my grandmother gave me 2 or 3 Jetex powered KK planes - minus the power plants!  I'd run around holding them, making noises.  Then I tried to throw them - wildly unbalanced of course! 

 

Following that, I got a KK Polaris (I think) chuckie. That actually flew!  Had a few other KK planes in the next few years, including some of the scale rubber ones that never flew well.  And at least 2 KK Invaders - love that plane.

 

First RC was a single channel McGregor set, in a DB Tern with a little power pod over the wing. Had a modicum of control and thought I'd taught myself to fly. I was about 15 at that point.  I saved, and saved, and got a three channel set. The model shop, long gone now, suggested slope soarers so I got a Cambria Capstan.  And I was then taught to fly properly, over the sea in South Wales. 

 

Been flying, on and off, ever since.

When my brother and I were something like 9 or 10 we tried small Jetex models, but basically got nowhere with them. We found Jetex to be totally feeble, at least that is what we thought at the time. (Mind you, this was an era when one could buy rather large fireworks cheaply and make some fairly large explosions, alongside which Jetex was nowhere.)

[Edgeflyer]

Mercury Picador control line with AM 15 diesel. Doped tissue. Flew nicely 1960 I think. Amazingly now rekitted. £60!! Mine probably 7/6. Had various Keilkraft rubber powered and gliders. The Nomad I remember. 

Our first Jetex model took off and caught fire, flying off in flames. Yes Jetex pretty unreliable. 

My brother built a Mercury Matador with a homemade Rx suspended on rubber bands with a DC Sabre I think. At 48 inch seemed huge back in the day. I don't remember it ever flying but was a display piece!

Isn't the Internet amazing?

[Ron Gray]

Lots of rubber powered models but my first IC was the Dux Test Pilot. Dad bought it for me as a Christmas present, must have been circa 1960 - 61. It was plastic and had a DC Bantam glow up front. I remember dad insisting that he carried out its first flight (neither of us had flown control line before - I was 8 at the time!), it completed ¼ circuit then went into the tarmac breaking a wing which dad tried, unsuccessfully, to repair using something like Evostik. It never did fly again but I used the Bantam in other models.

 

 

Another model that sticks in my mind was this one which I built in 1965, Wing Ding powered by a Cox Pee Wee 020. I remember its first flight vividly, after launching it went straight into a loop of about 20ft diameter and me and my brother had to dive for cover! After a retrim (more downthrust) I launched it again and it went up at an angle of 45° and disappeared. I put a note in the window of the local post office and 2 days later someone had found it in their garden ½ mile away, undamaged!

 

[Jesus Cardin]

My first ever contact with a model plane: my lovely mom presenting me a control line trainer from my late aunt Pepe Cardin. I do not know the model name and, actually, it may well be an own design from him. It was in December 1965 and I was just 1 year old......

 

 

And my first pesonal flying model: A Sirocco from Modelhob (local Spanish model plane manufacturer, distributed for many years in UK by Micro Mold). It was during Christmas holidays in 1971 and I was 7 years old.

 

 

[Jake Bullit]

The first plane I had that actually flew a little was the F R O G Buccaneer rubber band powered plane ,when I was around seven .

 

When I was about 11 I built a Keilkraft Soarer Baby,after that I started building a bigger glide though I din`t recall what it was .I forgot to put the dihedral in and abandoned it.

 

That F R O G IS FOR SALE AT £250 on an auction site,wowzers!

[Nigel Armstrong]

My first model was a Kamco Kadet, powered by an OS 25. Way back in 1976!! Radio was a second hand set of Simprop, previously used in one of my Dads boats. 

[Nightflyer]

Mine was a Keil Kraft Sportster easy build rubber powered model in summer 1974 when i was 8, which led to my having a Cox 049 powered PT19. Which was my first cl model which eventually met its end in 1975, and my first rc model was a Truline Custom Executive in 1977.

 

[Ron Gray]

Going on from my post above, my first RC models were a Vic Smeed Chatterbox and a Ken Willard Roaring 20 both of which were single channel (RCS Guidance System III). I’m very tempted to redesign the Roaring 20 as a Depron build.

 

 

 

[Martyn K]

My first kit was a KK Soarer Baby - 1970. Not very successful as I painted it in coloured dope rather than shrinking dope...

However, what got me interested was a home design 'hang glider' which used a polystyrene apple tray for a wing and fishing lead tied to 4 corners but slightly forward of centre. Slope soared it off the edge of a cliff and amazingly it flew - quite well..

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Mercury Matador, 3ch O.S 10 in it, bent, badly built/covered, climbed like the clappers n folded in flight.

Taught me a lot. 😉

[Stuart Z]

Following my earlier post I moved to R/C in the early 80’s or late 70’s with a DB Mascot.  A brilliant model on 3 channels.  I built a S60 as well and that was a real confidence builder before the days of buddy boxes.  Moved on to a Hi- Boy after that and learnt about heavier models and 4 channels.  Always liked to build from kits rather than pre-built.

[John T]

Apart from an assortment of chuck gliders my first real model was a Mercury Gnome free flight glider, probably (badly) built around 1969.

I took it to Bradgate Park and, being 12, climbed one of the old, gnarled oak trees on one of the hills to launch it from about 10 feet up. I can still remember the mixture of excitement and apprehension as the model caught an updraft and flew up over the ridge and into the valley behind.

All we could see of my dad was the bald patch on top of his head as he went to retrieve it from the 6 foot high bracken 😀.  I've never lost that sense of magic at seeing a model defying gravity.

I built my first R/C model when I was 14, a Veron Sky Scooter with a McGregor Digimac 2 radio on rudder and elevator . It was overweight and I had epoxied a large stone under the engine bearers to get the C of G forward 😲.  Despite bracing the wing with thread to the bottom of the fuselage it met its end when I ripped a wing off it during a spiral dive.  With no throttle control and the engine (a PAW 1.5cc) on song there wasn't much left after it came down.

 

[Jesus Cardin]

After my first own model, the free flight glider Sirocco, I built and flew with great success a few more of the type like the Cierzo and the Mistral from the same Spanish manufacturer. The I tried rubber power with a semi scale FW-190 which I built together with my late father and which, unfortunately, we were unable to make an even short flight......

 

Then I switched to control line with a 2.5cc diesel powered sheet trainer named Yeyito -a LEGEND here in Spain!- and a lot more, all from Modelhob. Just a few: Semi scale sheet Mustang, semi scale Aeronca Champion, sheet stunt trainer Smousen (I built and flew 3 of them!), competition stunter Baron and Mig-3 scale model.

 

Finally I advanced to R/C flight with a 2 channels thermal glider, the Nemesis, which I to the skies with a tow line. In the following photo, taken in the summer of 1981, the Nemesis shows all his "experience" and hard life with a lot of repair patches both on the wings and the elevators (more evident due to the patches being in white silkspan!).

 

Edited August 15, 2023 by Jesus Cardin

[Ron Gray]

My first true multi channel powered model, the Cambria Instructor, what a great plane.

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by Ron Gray