The Golden Olden Days.
As a newish member of the club I thought I would write a bit about the early days. To the oldies in the club it will spark a few memories, to those new to the hobby, you may think, "What the hell is this guy talking about?".

Let me start at the beginning. I was about 8 or 9 years old, I saw a flying machine on the old TWW Wells And The West. (This was before HTV). It was a free flight multi engine airliner or bomber, (memory fading a bit here). Well, ever since that, I was hooked.

I was still at junior school when I bought my first aeroplane. It was a jetex model. Not very successful , but a least it flew. For some of you relatively new modellers, a jetex motor was a small rocket motor, about 1 1/2 inches long and the diameter of a 10p piece. It burned solid fuel pellets and was lit by a fuse. Despite what you may think it was very quiet in operation.

I did like to control my models and having seen control line (CL) models flying at Rodway Common, in my home village of Mangotsfield, that was the way to go. A paper round brought in enough money to buy a DC Merlin .75 cc Diesel engine. This was the most successful yet, flying a Kiel Kraft Phantom Mite and other home designs, mainly profile models with a plank of balsa for the wings. Have you noticed how thing come around , now with the all sheet 3D R/C models?

My control line flying lasted for several years, then…...I saw a man flying a Radio Controlled model. I saved like mad. And bought a Mc Greagor Kit. This comprised of the transmitter (not crystal controlled).and was powered by a 90volt battery and a 1.5volt battery for the heaters for the valve.

Yes, it was a valve set. The receiver was also a valve set, powered by a 22volt hearing aid battery, a 1.5volt battery for the heater and a 4.5volt battery for the escapement. The escapement was a rubber powered or clockwork type of servo. The only battery available now is the 1.5volt AA cell.

The transmitter was built and mounted in an old small biscuit tin, and was duly returned to Mc Greagor for setting up on frequency.

This would be mid 27 mhz band. On it’s return I set up the receiver. I played around with this for some time. Not really having a big enough engine for flight in a poorly built home design, I gave this up as a bad job.

Time progressed and I bought a transistorised Mac Greagor single channel ready built system The receiver was tuned in with a “triddler”, still no crystal in the receiver only in the transmitter

These systems were “regenitive” type, that is only 1 model at a time could be flown. The transmitter powered by a 9volt battery (still available) and the receiver powered by a tiny 3.6 volt Ni Cad made by DEAC Great Britain Ltd. The Price? £9/19/6 that is 2 1/2p short of £10. Oh, did I tell you about the licence? This was £1 but lasted for 5 years, I still have both of mine that lasted for my first 10 years of my model flying. This was abolished when the dreaded CB was legalised.

For those of you who haven't flown single channel “Bang Bang”, it was as said Bang, full left and Bang full right. The transmitter had just a single button. Press once for left and twice for right. Throttle and elevator you ask? No, not yet.

A latter addition was the quick blip throttle. Give the button a quick blip for low throttle and the Escapement would skip to a second escapement on the throttle, blip again and we are back to high again.

All of this was fitted into a Kiel Kraft Mini Super. This flew as they say straight off of the building board. It started life with just the rudder powered by a Fok 1.5cc Diesel. A throttle became available for it and I then used a clockwork escapement to work it. Having flown a lot of models with no throttle all our landings in those days were Dead Stick so we had lots of practice.

Talking of manoeuvres, we were not limited to left and right circuits, oh no. If I told you that loops and rolls were possible would you believe me. NO, Wrong.

To do a loop with just rudder what you would do is hold on right (right is always a tighter turn than left). The plane would go into a tighter turn and then into a spiral dive, hold for about 3 turns, now release the button and straighten out with opposite rudder into wind. The excess speed would take the plane over into a nice loop. A roll, well a barrel roll would be carried out exactly the same as a loop but except after the spiral dive, straighten out cross wind, a barrel roll would be the result. Stavely brought out the single channel automated system with a lever and a button that gave the required blips and pulses.

Other radios I have owned include the Simprop Alpha 5, my first 5 channel digital radio just like today’s gear but the receiver was not the size of a match box but it was the size of a pack of 20 king size fags. The plugs for the servos were the size of today’s indoor receiver.

Futaba brought out the series M so I had one of those, things were getting smaller now.

The Change to 35 Mhz came and the change of band gave us all a headache. Radio was still quite expensive and a £150 set was the equivalent to £450 in today’s money, all because of the 10 4 good buddy brigade. I went down the road of making the RCM &E kit of parts. The receiver was very small, I don’t think my eyes would let me solder this kit together now without a big magnifying glass. It worked a treat and I flew it for many years.

With my family growing up I had to find a more acceptable hobby. After all I couldn’t be up at the flying field and let her indoors look after the kids could I ? So I became a Radio Ham. I am now a radio Ham and a model flyer. Can’t be bad can it.

I hope you have enjoyed my look at the early days, I hope to see you at the club so we can have an exchange of views.

Byee for now

Dave.

Many thanks to Dave Bendrey for writing this article.