I got one of these from my Godfather when I was too young. I wanted to see what the rocket launch would look like from above, thinking I could duck my head out in time. I had to go to the eye doctor after that. No permanent damage.
Posted on 07/24/2025 7:51:23 AM PDT by Red Badger
We had a lot of airplanes. From my early days in the 60s with a Piper Cherokee and a tri-wing my Uncle gave us that were control line with rather large engines to stick built free flight models with Gasparin CO2 engines, elegant little things those are. Then there was the RC trainer Dad built for my son. In the test flight it went up spectacularly and came down the same way bursting into matchsticks. Shortly after that he graduated to the Cessna 150 and did his cross-country flights starting at 14; he moved on to fly the venerable T-38 and F-15E and is coming up on retirement.
Prop sticks save fingers.
My father got me one for Xmas, a P-51.
- , =
F4-U Corsair here - my Dad was a Korean conflict vet. We even had a big open field to fly it on two minutes walk from the house.
When I was growing up, my best friend up the street had
a Stuka dive bomber. I don’t recall what happened to it,
but he was certainly bitten by the aviation bug; he became an airline pilot.
That cox was LOUD! Loved flying it though.
I saved my chore money and was incredibly excited to buy a Cox plane. Baa Baa Blacksheep was my favorite TV show so it was to be their Corsair model.
I don’t remember if it made more than two or three rotations before it plummeted into the ground and snapped off one of the gull wings. There was no repairing the damage nor replacement parts available from Cox. It was literally less than a minute of fun!! I ultimately threw the plane away and used the leftover fuel in an irresponsible manner.
” It was literally less than a minute of fun!! “
LOL! I was watching my father. I got a few seconds of thrill as I started the engine and it took off.
Followed by a second of terror as ot looped back in my direction.
I had one. The wings were held on with rubber bands, so the inevitable crash wasn’t too destructive. Found the wrong end of it more than once, but it wasn’t that bad.
Fun times.
I started with the PT 19 and a Stuka and then P40.ended up rebuilding real P40s for almost 30 years.very fond memories.
Glo-fuel
Fun reminiscence, but “gasoline”???
The author never fueled a Cox 0.049! I used special Glo-Plug fuel that burned and lubricated the engine.
“Cox .049 engines, also known as 1/2A engines, typically use a special glow fuel mix. This mix usually consists of methanol, castor oil, and sometimes nitromethane. The exact proportions can vary, but a common recommendation is around 20% castor oil and 10-40% nitromethane, with the remaining portion being methanol.”
We used to fly combat where you tried to cut the streamer off the other plane.what a nightmare that was and then we would try to cut the control lines off of each others planes sometimes resulting in midair crashes which were spectacular.
Boy, did I have a flashback!
Long walk home with the pieces...
I had one with my brother. Lots of fun, and lots of crashes. We also had a Stuka, but that broke apart early on.
Ah, yes. Another brilliant product from Mainway.
I think it was a nitro methane mix. Funny car fuel.
I had one of these...for about 30 seconds!
I had a Cox P-51 that flew exactly twice before I crashed it.
Then I moved on for Estes rockets.
I’m pretty sure I sent one into low earth orbit once. I managed to jam a D sized engine into a rocket made for A engines. It took a bit of modification but I actually got it to launch.
Lost sight of it somewhere over Summit County OH heading north towards Lake Erie.
Don’t get me started on the chemistry set my grandfather bought for me. I’m sure the EPA would send a SWAT team to get it today.
L
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