Posted on 07/24/2025 7:51:23 AM PDT by Red Badger
Aviation Ping!.....................
I remember this.
My father got me one for Xmas, a P-51.
We set it up outside.
I told my father the instructions said to set min throttle till one got used to it.
He ignored me. Plane took off, went vertical and looped noesdown into the ground.
I can still smell the Cox Gas!..................
He mentions model Rockets. I really enjoyed the Estes rockets with my kids.
Had many of those as a child.
Several of the P-19 flight trainer as well as the Stuka dive bomber and P-40 War Hawks.
Crashed and destroyed all of them eventually. No child was ever injured by mine. Glad I grew up in a time where I wasn’t overly protected and actually had opportunity to explore and experience unique things.
My first flight with this airplane it immediately crashed nose first into the ground. Repaired the broken wings as best I could. A couple of weeks later ...again nose first into the ground. there was no real control of the craft with those controls.
We eventually mounted the .049 onto a block of wood, and attached that to a roller skate. That went poorly.
Lawn darts
>>>...there was no real control of the craft with those controls.<<<
I think that was intentional!....................
Klik klaks
I also had the P-51.
It briefly flew once before disintegrating on impact. I still have the engine.
We had a couple of those back in the day, and I built a balsawood model (P-40 Warhawk). I think at one time I had three .049 engines in my collection.
A friend of mine tried to hold the engine while it ran............Didn’t...............
These go back much earlier than the 70s. I tried to fly them in the early 60s. Well it did fly, but not for long.
Oh man I remember these. My dad bought one when I was about 5. Around 1972/73. It was not this aircraft, it was a P-47. The fuselage was basically two dimensional, just a balsa cutout. But looked really cool. My dad did a nice job, painted it silver and put on all the decals. Lil’ Brown Jug was the nickname painted on the cowling. He flew it pretty well but I cracked it up numerous times. He would patiently repair and repaint it. He even repaired it when I really augured in hard and fractured the plastic firewall for the .049 engine. Good times.
I had one of the Cox propeller-driven tether cars for quite a while. I still remember the shattered thumbnail from getting a bit careless when adjusting that little mixture screw. What fun.
While in high school, I passed by the school yard and saw a friend flying a control-line model plane with a .049cc engine. I went over to watch him perform loops and saw that he was pretty capable at handling the plane. He said it was easy and told me to give it a try with one of his two planes that he had with him. After he re-fueled the one he had been flying, he handed me the control lines and started up the engine. Two seconds into flight, it went up and then down into the ground. While I was apologetic and embarrassed, he seemed to not mind at all and insisted that I give it another try with the other plane he had with him. I was reluctant, but two seconds into that flight, another nose-dive and crash. I think he was a bit upset after that, but I don’t recall him trying to strangle me with the limp control line...
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