I Remember When

[Flaps 30]

Sometimes you forget the 'good' old times (if you have reached a certain age) when you first started in the hobby of radio control.

Here is a small snippet of my memories. - We have the good old days of 27MHz Amplitude modulation with a super-regenerative receiver so only one aircraft could fly at any time. Yes I do remember those times when the RCS Digisix was the set to have at a low price of £180 odd with an airborne weight of about 15 ounces, it was the thing of dreams as I was earning four pounds sixteen shillings a week at that time. Even back then I was playing with radio along with experimenting with centre loaded and bottom loaded aerials.

It was also a time when the 'E' in RCM&E meant something, as it had lots of articles concerning the construction of receivers and transmitters, they even had a Galloping Ghost project you could make. That was followed a year later with the RCM&E digital system. Now that was something I did eventually build that worked fairly well. Servos were a problem as they were expensive and they required most did back then) a centre tapped battery supply.

Batteries back then were nothing like what we have now as to choice or capacities. It was dry batteries or nicads. Round DEAC button cells were the standard for many. The nicad capacities back then were somewhere around 400 mAH for an AA cell and they would self discharge within a couple of weeks..

There is more.. But it is your turn now...

[ShowMaster]

I built a kicking duck system for a boat. Single channel tx with a pulser controlled by a pot. The rudder was driven by a DC motor with a centering damper spring that a pulsing relay could drive the motor CCW or CW on a proportional way. Actually worked. World engines I think made the galloping ghost system I flew.
I had graduated from a tube Tx and regen tube RX and was all solid state for the plane. Being on 27mhz when 6 mil CB'ers discovered our RC channels was a real bad time in RC history. Pretty much grounded me until 72mhz came along. I wasn't a ham then.
A $55 HK TH9x on 2.4g would have sold for thousands at that time.
I don't think anything could tx on 2.4 at all yet. Took 40 more year for that.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk, small keys and a big finger.

[deaconFlyer]

There was something special about the smell of model airplane dope ... tissue covered planes, white glue and balsa, rubber bands and a modified hand drill. Ambroid anyone?

I remember freaking out the first time I saw CA glue ... like when epoxy no longer was 12-24 hours to cure.

And a Cox PT-19 trainer that simply flew and flew and flew, round and round and round with a sound one never forgets.

[Bill]

Yes £180 was the mortgage payments for the year in those days!
I spent 6/6p on the galloping ghost handbook bought a mighty midget motor from Victory industries and built a 2 valve pulser that I added to a MacGregor single valve transmitter I hammered out a crude stick unit from aluminium and steel plate and made a transmitter box out of ply and a plastic sandwich box with a bit of mechano as the earth plane, the whole thing with two enormous HT batteries must have weighed a couple of Kilograms!
The mighty midget came with a convenient gear which you had to drill and put a peg in for the spring centering the receiver was initially a MacGregor 3 transistor and one soft valve, but that was off tune so quick that a ABC transistorised unit was substituted.
I then built the RCM&E galloping ghost transmitter and in a new model had an unbelievable 48 flights with control (of sorts).
Clearing out my workroom a couple of years ago I threw the whole lot out!

[timrowledge]

Hah! Well I can remember being at school in 1973 and being taught the basics of RC Flying by Mike Blandford!

[MikeB]

Nice to hear from you, still flying then?

I think you'll find it was a bit later than that as I didn't start teaching until September 1974!

I was even flying 1 electric model around then!

Mike.

[timrowledge]

Well I'll defer to your recollection on the exact dates Mike. It was a loooooong time ago, whichever way we take it. I've been flying pretty much continuously since then with a short break whilst in London getting some degrees. I flew gliders and electrics with the Meon Valley club whilst I lived in Winchester, with the South Bay Soaring Society in silicon valley while I lived there and now up on Vancouver Island with the PDQFlyers.
I can only thank you for getting me started on a lifelong hobby and one of the drivers of my entire career.