Old Remote Control P-51

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

I remember seeing these control line models flying as a kid. At the time, most people had never seen a powered model in flight, even in the model making community. The things seemed to go like the clappers, and I came away from the demo thinking "I want one those!!!"

Never happened unfortunately

I cant recall if they can be looped. If it was possible y there would need to be a really qhick hand and grip change.
 
This one being metal reminds me of a rat racer. Big disp. engine, hardly any wings or tail and about a 20 deg off set to the engine and real fast flying. However, I know I that this is a bit more than just off set scale. Real nice workman ship.
 
What do you mean, as a kid. I'm 77 and still in my childhood. They are not plastic any more (since 1955) but balsa and fly on 60 or 70 foot lines. And I walk away from every landing.
I don't do R/C, I don't need servos, transmitter, receiver, batteries etc. Just one battery to start the engine. I'll send photo of Dolgushin's La-7 I'm waiting to fly when the heat wave is over.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_5929.JPG
    IMG_5929.JPG
    1.6 MB · Views: 148
What do you mean, as a kid. I'm 77 and still in my childhood. They are not plastic any more (since 1955) but balsa and fly on 60 or 70 foot lines. And I walk away from every landing.
I don't do R/C, I don't need servos, transmitter, receiver, batteries etc. Just one battery to start the engine. I'll send photo of Dolgushin's La-7 I'm waiting to fly when the heat wave is over.

That is a right smart looking plane. but the last time I flew any C/L planes was in 74 and it was the Goldberg P-63. At least I think it was the Goldberg one. IIRC it was .60 size and had a massive symmetrical wing. If I flew one of those now I would get too dizzy. It would be fun though.
 
I think the P-63 kit may have been by Midwest products. At the time, they had a line of large wingspan models that flew great. I still get dizzy if I stay away from the field to long. Your body will adjust quickly. It appears that our legs are the key components. If you want to see a bunch of fat, bald old men who still fly C/L, visit the Ring Masters flying club.com some of whom also fly or have flown full scale aircraft.
 
We have the Tulsa Glue Dobbers here. They do mostly R/C stuff but I haven't seen C/L in years but I am not opposed to getting back into that hobby either.
 
The Tulsa Glue dobbers still have a large group of C/L flyers. They're C/L section appears to be larger than our club. Venture out to watch sometime.
 
One of the reasons I feel that model is older than the 50's is the torpedo engine was originally advertised as early as 1941 in model magazines. At that time glow plugs had not been invented and all engines ran on gas/oil mix with spark plug and coil for ignition. That engine has a glow plug which dates it to late 40s or early 50's after the introduction of glow plugs in about 1948.
 
I cant recall if they can be looped. If it was possible y there would need to be a really qhick hand and grip change.

Michael read some of my earlier posts. With a stunt type plane any number of stunts could be performed. My profile stunter with a .40 engine easily did loops. No hand change involved. The 60 foot control lines were fine wire and easily slid over each other even when twisted.
 
If you want to see control line flying that makes me smile each time I see it, go to youtube and enter Brodak's Dueling jets. Two guys flying Dynajet powered stunt models in the same circle and doing loops and wingovers.
 
Michael read some of my earlier posts. With a stunt type plane any number of stunts could be performed. My profile stunter with a .40 engine easily did loops. No hand change involved. The 60 foot control lines were fine wire and easily slid over each other even when twisted.
I think that Mustang would fly like a truck if it flew at all. I'm with Mike, it looks scratchbuilt to me. Structurally, it looks like a miniaturized Jeannie's Teenie, an aluminum and pop rivet home built plane from the 70s.
I built a profile YAK stunter when I was in Navy tech school. Had a McCoy Red Head .35 offset about 15° to the right and about same on the rudder. It had flaps that worked opposite to the elevators mounted on the trailing edge of the tapered symmetrical airfoil wing. This caused it to pivot sharply in response to control inputs.
It was a joy to fly on 50 ft lines and would do overhead figure 8s until its fuel ran out and maintain good tension on the lines. You just needed to get it quickly down into the circle at the first burble or misfire as the fuel quantity got low, or it would fall in on you.
A fun way to get my "flying fix" when my next flying lesson had to wait for my next paycheck.
Cheers,
Wed
 
Last edited:
It is not too late to do it again. Our club is mostly fat bald old men and after our pres had to use a walker, we built an office chair on bearings to put in the circle center. At launch, he can push start the rotation and our resident stunt flier has done most of the pattern. The plane will pull you around (good bearings) and unless too sharp of a half loop, will actually change direction for inverted flight. Most of the club are retired and some are R/C fliers who are getting back to fun flying as well as R/C.
 
I'll try to send a picture of some of the club at the field. They think my humor is off when I title this "Our highly experienced membership is eagerly waiting to assist you".
20170409_172936.jpg
 
Never managed that, up-and-over was as close as I got. In fact that was my first stunt getting more and more vertical each pass. Did do "8s" but not over head. The next stunt was inverted so I could stop spinning.
Three tricks for overhead work:
1) Power to weight ratio. No overweight underpowered model is going to hack it.
2) Plenty of offset. About as much thrust line offset as you can get without significantly impacting propulsive thrust. Rudder offset 15-20° max. You want maximum horizontal "lift" consistent with acceptable drag. Too much rudder offset can stall the airfoil and result in your model making a Kamikaze run on you.
3) Airspeed. Keep it going fast as possible for the centrifugal effect. I used 50 ft lines on a model that really called for 60. Made for rapid turning at lower altitudes, but wasn't bad for overhead. Tight figure 8s right overhead will cause airspeed loss and invite a "drop in". The trick is loose, lazy 8s bottoming out at about 45° elevation both sides of the circle.
Y'all have fun, now, hear?
Cheers,
Wes
 
The younger guy on the right with the box flies the combat wings at the bottom rt corner. He also flies airliners for model money. His dad is in the black coca-cola shirt. When junior was about 8 or so, he would come right up in front of you to talk and I would step on his toes and bump him backwards. Now at 6ft 4in I just call him"sir". He still flies better than I do.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back