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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) Going in circles in the "Happy Days" (Read 21912 times)
simpleflyer
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Re: Going in circles in the "Happy Days"
Reply #6 - Apr 10th, 2015 at 9:59pm
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Thinking that a slightly larger engine would work better we got a McCoy 09.  We built a couple of models for it.  A simple sport trainer from the generic plan shown below, and the Spooky stunt trainer also below.  Don't remember much about either one except that both crashed.

Was building more Comet models, a 20 inch F4U Corsair and a 9 inch F-86D.  Tried the F4U as a swinger as shown on the building plan.  Balanced it and attached a bit of thread and it flew great.  The F-86D had swing control rigging shown on the plan and we tried it and it flew well.  FL Hendren had written a series of articles on Swing Control in the mid 1940s.  Had I read them earlier, I might had switched to SC back then and not continued with UC Undecided

May as well try Spooky and the sport trainer as swingers?

To be continued - Fox 35 and Guillows Trainer II comes to the rescue........
  

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simpleflyer
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Re: Going in circles in the "Happy Days"
Reply #5 - Apr 10th, 2015 at 9:24pm
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By now the K&B 049 ceased to run and it was time for a new engine.  The OK 049 was a cheap and good enough for our needs so we got one.  Scientific had a two-in-one kit of a profile P-51 and F-86 for $1.50.  So this was our next attempt.  We built up the P-51.  It looked like it wanted to fly but snagged tall grass and crashed.  While doing the CL models we were also doing S-n-T and some free flight.  Had a AJ Interceptor folding wing glider and it flew great, even catching a small thermal.  Built a Comet Sparky, glided great, but I could never get the prop and rubber part sorted out.  Built a ROGue from MAN plan and put the OK 049 into it and it flew OK.

Found Musciano plan for the profile P-51 and will also revisit it as a swinger.
  

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simpleflyer
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Re: Going in circles in the "Happy Days"
Reply #4 - Apr 10th, 2015 at 9:03pm
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So with the demise of the first Fire Baby, we were left with some parts and tired K&B 049.  Browsing thru an Air Trails we came upon a review of the Joy Pee Wee Pup.  It only cost a dollar and the local hobby shop had one.  So on one of our weekly shopping trips to town the folks took me there and I bought the Pup.  The John Deere shop was across the street from the toy and hobby store, so while dad went to the JD shop, i would go across the street and drool over the models & stuff Wink

We built the Pup and fiddled around with it for a while.  The K&B was getting cranky to start and ran poorly if at all.  However, it did lead to an important event. 

Stuff at the farm was changing.  Sis and I were growing and it was getting more expensive to raise a family, so mom went and got her GED Hi-School diploma and got her Practical Nurse license and went to work at the hospital in town.  There was a CL flying field in the city park in Alexandria, LA.(amazing for a small town of 50K population-we'll get back to the story on  it, later)  Sometimes, I would go to town with mom when she went to work and I would hang out at the park and flying field.  One sunday, there was an aviation movie("Above and Beyond" the story of Paul Tibbets and the Enola Gay) at the theater.  So I packed the Pup and flying gear into a paper bag and set off with mom as she went to work.  She dropped me at the theater and went off to work.

  I watched the movie and enjoyed it.  The model field was on the way to mom's hospital.  So I walked to the field and tinkered with the Pup and see if a modeler would show up and might help me.  And sure enough, a guy showed up and gave me some tips, pointing out that I had improper guides for the wing leadouts among other things.  In time, I would learn him to be Donald Smith who becomes a lifelong friend and mentor(more about 'Smitty' in another thread).

Like the Fire Baby, the Pup did not succeed as a flyer.  However, we will re-visit it as a 'Swinger'.

Al
« Last Edit: Apr 10th, 2015 at 10:33pm by »  

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simpleflyer
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Re: Going in circles in the "Happy Days"
Reply #3 - Apr 10th, 2015 at 8:13pm
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After a time of working with the engine and model we learned how to start it and keep it running.  Next was to find a place to fly.  At that time and the location and the farm environment did not present any suitable flying area.  The space was OK, but  no suitable take off area.  The closest thing was the feeding area where chickens ate and kept a portion of farmyard bare near our house.  There were clumps of tall grass in the area and we did not clear enough of them out, so on take off the lines would snag or if we got the plane up we over-controlled and the plane would crash and we never did learn to successfully fly it. 

However, 50 years later we found a beat up Fire Baby at a plastic model vendors table at an IPMS show in Port Arthur TX.  We bought it for a modest sum.  By now we were into Swing Control and we had an old run-out Cox 020 TEE-DEE that a friend had given us.  We attached the 020 to the old Fire Baby and rigged it for SC.  Took it out into the back yard and it flew great Smiley  Success at last with the Fire Baby.
« Last Edit: Apr 10th, 2015 at 10:27pm by »  

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simpleflyer
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Re: Going in circles in the "Happy Days"
Reply #2 - Apr 10th, 2015 at 7:50pm
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The following year, Christmas 1952, we found a long box wrapped under the tree for me.  Opening it we were delighted to find a Fire Baby with a K&B 049.  We assembled the model and began to learn how glo-engines worked.  We lived on a small family farm and my parents were busy in keeping it going, as all of us were, including the grandparents.  So my education came from model magazines and other available sources.  America's Hobby Center published a series of neat booklets that were cheap or provided as freebies in mail orders.  They were about 3 by 5 inches and we often kept one near at hand for reading when we had a few minutes of spare time.
« Last Edit: Apr 10th, 2015 at 10:24pm by »  

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simpleflyer
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Re: Going in circles in the "Happy Days"
Reply #1 - Apr 10th, 2015 at 7:34pm
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In that Sept issue of Air Trails we read a review of the Jim Walker Fire Baby and that it was a good entry model for control line model flying.  As we continued to building models the desire to fly a CL model grew.  Hints were suggested to my parents that it would be a very welcome Christmas present.
« Last Edit: Apr 10th, 2015 at 10:21pm by »  

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simpleflyer
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Going in circles in the "Happy Days"
Apr 10th, 2015 at 7:27pm
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It was about 1951, when my classmate, Gerald, showed me a ten cent Comet S-n-T kit that he was building.  It looked like a neat fun thing to do.  So we started to build and found it to be enjoyable and fascinating. 

After building a few models we bought a copy of Air Trails magazine.  It was the September 1951 issue.  It had a neat colorful cover done by S Calhoun Smith as you can see below.  This got me hooked on Air Trails and in later years to Model Airplane News and Flying Models.  During those years these magazines were a rich resource of aviation knowledge, both models and actual aircraft.  They were excellently illustrated by a number of excellent artists and illustrators:  Calhoun Smith, H A Thomas,  Joe Kotula, Harold Stevenson(my favorite), Paul Plecan, Paul DelGatto, and many others.

Al

  

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