A smart modeler would refuse to fly a model without first recruiting a couple of buddies to suspend the model loosely by rubber bands around the wingtips while the engine was run at full throttle and all control functions were checked out. Reliability seemed to be under the control of capricious gods. Wes always offered to hand launch my models, and he was always mystified why I, his good friend, always turned him down in favor of launching the model myself, despite the increased risk of managing the heavy transmitter with my left hand while running and launching. The major parts were held together by rubber bands, which minimized the damage somewhat, but an overnight repair session was usually required before the model would be airworthy again. The anemic engines of the day couldn't haul the heavy models up at that angle, so the model inevitably stalled, rotated nose down, and plunged nearly straight into the ground. The farmer's fields we flew out of were invariably too rough for take off from the ground, and I was in high demand because I was the only guy who could reliably hand launch the models, a delicate process involving running as if all the hounds of hell were in hot pursuit, all the while maintaining the delicate control required to hurl the model into the air straight ahead with the wings level and at just the right angle of attack for a nice climb out.Ĭrazy old Wes (actually my classmate in junior and senior high, but the appellation made sense at the time) could run just as fast, but always came to a dead stop before losing his hat while giving the model a Herculean heave - at an angle of at least 45 degrees up. A lot of other modelers were still using heavy tube type receivers, heavy batteries, heavy control mechanisms - the beleaguered models could just barely stagger into the air. I got my start flying RC models in the late '50s by buying used tube type equipment that was cheap but heavy. McEntee, wrote articles on radio control for several model aircraft magazines, starting back in the tube era, and published booklets and books on radio control.
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