Memories of a mis-spent youth - or How to Move in the Right Circles………..

The past few years have seen a noticeable resurgence in the discipline of aero-modelling called Control-Line Flying, probably because people appreciate & recognize the fun-per-pound aspect and realise there is much to be gained by trying something different. The following is one persons’ account of how he got there (and stayed there!)……………..

Hey! All you stick-benders out there! Fancy a go at some real aero-modelling for a change? Ever thought of Control-Line Flying? What’s that? Gasps of shock and horror all round? Well, you know what they say - don't knock something till you've tried it. I bet most of you over 40's dabbled in your youth anyway (control-line flying that is!). Believe it or not there are probably more C/L model designs to choose from than R/C, and models can be built (and repaired!) much quicker and cheaper. Most of the engine advancements and improvements in modern R/C engines are pioneered by control-line engine designers and builders. You might think your wizz-bang cooking R/C ‘.40’ two-stroke is a hot number, but in control-line speed models it is possible these days to coax well over 3 bhp out of a 2.5 cc (.15) engine at close to 40,000 r.p.m.!

Back in the early 60's all the kids were into aero-modelling as a principal pastime and hobby - sadly these days it’s mobile phones and computer games. It was a part of growing up, and in aero-modelling control-line flying was the only option open to us young lads on our meagre pocket-money. We couldn’t afford R/C. The old LMFC flying field (where the lake is now) would be host to 20 or 30 C/L flyers on a Sunday afternoon - you don’t see that many radio flyers now. You rarely saw an R/C plane in those days due to the high cost – much higher in both comparative and real terms than now. As a kid I distinctly remember our current LMFC Chairman when he had darker (and more!) hair as a member of the local Sharpley Rd C/L Club as being one of the ‘old hands’ who used to help and assist us young lads with our models. We always had trouble starting the engines, and the life-span of a new, un-flown model, if left to our own devices was often measured in seconds as it climbed to the maximum height allowed by the lines following the launch, only to plummet vertically earthwards to plant itself into the ground and be reduced back to kit-form. But it was great fun and I wouldn’t have missed those early years for the world.

I started aero-modelling in the early ‘60s at the age of ten. My first model was a Mercury ‘Picador’ flying wing. I can’t remember the kit price but the engine was a Frog 1.49 Diesel which cost £2.17s.6d ( £2.87 to you under 30’s ) Sounds cheap now but believe me - I ran my legs off for months doing errands to earn that in those days. There were implicit instructions supplied in the box about ‘running-in’ the engine for an hour or so. I didn’t understand the need for this but decided to comply so my Dad made me a steel plate to bolt the engine to, which was then screwed to a garden fence post. I couldn’t start the wretched thing initially, and I hawked it back on many occasions to Reg Fetch at the Loughborough Model Shop (remember Reg?) who would simply bolt it into his test stand on the counter in the shop, fill the tank, prime it through the exhaust port and have it running in two flicks, deafening everyone and filling the shop and our lungs with those wonderful diesel exhaust fumes – oh happy days!

Whilst the Picador was being built I used to run the engine in the garden every Sunday morning for a few tankfuls. Neighbours were much more tolerant in those days than they are now, and would lean over the fence and comment on their model aircraft experiences as a youngster – again – everyone had done aero-modelling at some point.

I ran the engine in, on the fence, for several pints of fuel (I used ‘Shell’ brand in a red & yellow tin – 3 shillings and three pence per half pint – ‘KeilKraft’ brand fuel was dearer – three shillings and sixpence – every penny counted then so I stuck to Shell) until I decided it must have been run in. The ‘Picador’ took me about 6 months to build with the limited facilities at home  either on the kitchen table in between Mum needing it for preparing meals/doing the ironing, or on an 18-inch square piece of plywood on my bed.
 

As advised in the instructions I covered the model with Japanese silk (six shillings a square yard) which I stuck on with home-made paste made from just flour & water – I couldn’t afford tissue paste, followed by several brushed-on coats of thick dope. I decided to paint it to make it ‘look nice’ and thus followed several coats of heavily leaded red and green paint (I think it was ICI ‘DURADIO’ gloss? – forerunner of Dulux?) which I found in Dads’ garage. I painted it whilst my parents were out one morning without their knowledge and have vivid memories of them returning in horror to find more paint on me than the model! A very hefty, swift clip round the ear and an unbelievably painful, vigorous scrubbing down by mother of my afflicted areas with a large bristle scrubbing brush and ‘VIM’ powder for several hours afterwards more than anything else did wonders to improve my model finishing techniques in later years!

Not impressed with the look of the model, basically because of the ‘curtains’ in the paint (not surprising), I covered over the existing silk/dope/paint with some bright orange tissue, thinking this would hide the original colour and disguise the mess. Dismayed at finding it didn’t, I doped the tissue and painted over that (a bit more carefully!) with more of Dads’ paint - bright orange and black this time, and thus deemed the model ready to fly. It must have weighed a pound over the recommended weight.

We arrived at the field one Sunday afternoon – me, my Dad and a work-mate of his who had done control-line in his youth. You’ve guessed it – we couldn’t start the engine, until a crowd of the aforementioned Sharpley Rd lads came over and soon had the Frog 1.49 singing. I remember one of them remarking “ayup lad, you’ve made a good job of the covering” which I took as a great compliment – if only he knew what lay beneath the top coat of paint! The 35 ft lines were sea-fishing twine, rather than wire, with fishing swivels as line connectors, all from the local pet-shop. One of the lads test flew the model for me and passed it as ok, then let me have a go by making me stand in the centre of the circle with him and passing the handle over. It was an experience I’ll never forget and I’m sure many of you have felt the same – seeing something you have built with your own bare hands take to the skies. Its’ a thrill I still get with every new model, even now.

Of course I was now an expert pilot……. or so I thought. Several of my mates had also recently built their first models, and at every opportunity we raced to the field at night after school on our bikes - models strapped to our backs, and fuel/lines/tools etc. in our school satchels. I never did work out till many years later why my school sandwiches always tasted funny! I had many flights with the Picador until it met its demise when I tried my first loop (hands up those who’ve been there!). Undaunted, I went on to build many more models – some from the Argus Plans Service (latterly ASP then Nexus I think), such as ‘Splatt’, ‘Unlimited’, ‘Duellist’, ‘Cleaver’, and others whose names I can’t remember. I recall a friend of my mother giving me an old nightie made from a WW2 parachute. I think there was enough nylon on it to cover about 6 models None of us kids ever reached any real semblance of flying ability, but it didn’t matter – we were happy doing what we were doing. After home-work we would go round to each others houses to assist in building models, and break times at school usually involved groups of us huddled round the latest KielKraft/Mercury/Veron pamphlets arguing the virtues of the kits offered for sale. Saturday afternoons would be spent in the local model shop chatting and idling the time away whilst waiting to be served (funny – that bit doesn’t seem to have changed a lot – except now we get coffee while we wait!)

The final C/L model I built, before the hormones cut in and the smell of the barmaids’ apron led me astray, was an own-design profile flapped stunter for a PAW 2.49 based on a discarded wing-rib I found at the field after someone else's’ misfortune. I never finished the model but gave it to my nephew who I recall ceremoniously set fire to it some time later! It was this, all those years ago, that first sparked my interest in designing my own models. Count to date is two R/C and about a dozen control-line models, all of which have flown well in accordance with their type. Some years ago I  was chuffed to have one of my C/L designs published as a free plan in one of the mags, and several people who built the model have since told me how much they enjoy it.

Other memories of those halcyon days are the diesel fuel – what a gorgeous smell! If women wore it behind their ears we would never go flying! I bought a Davies-Charlton control-line handle with ground spike for seven shillings and sixpence (38p) - I think I paid £5 for one recently at a swap-meet! Then there was Balsa cement - again - what a smell and just the thing to help you drift off to sleep after an evening building session in the bedroom. H & S officials these days would be horrified. I still use Balsa cement now, particularly for building wings. It sands easily, dries faster than PVA, and sorry, but I just can’t get on with Cyano. Its rubbish.

As a youngster I remember watching the Sharpley Rd lads fly combat. Two pilots in the circle – the models have 10ft tissue streamers attached and the objective is to cut your opponents streamer with your propeller – points awarded for each cut or deducted for ‘ground time’ which is almost inevitable. The carnage is unreal, and the action fast and furious - bionic reactions compulsory. It is still popular today, with many classes being flown. At events like the Nationals where many of the spectating public have never seen a model aircraft before, combat bouts always pull a good crowd.

Back to my youth. Across the old field adjacent to the A6 were some huts belonging to Loughborough Colleges before it became a University. One was used as a C/L model workshop by two aeronautical students. I have fond memories of many hours spent gazing longingly through the window of the hut at the Aladdin's Cave of models and engines inside and watching the students fly them on the bit of grass right next to the A6 – I think the ‘T-MAT’ factory is there now.

As said previously, other distractions unfortunately took precedence over aero-modelling, like many of you I guess, but I never lost interest, and when my first-born appeared (1979) I fancied having another go. Venturing into the local model shop I asked for a control-line model, only to be told ‘oh no-one does that anymore – what you need is this two-channel R/C glider ’.Dismayed and very unimpressed I left the shop and several years were to pass until a friend at work told me he was into R/C flying and had a ‘Junior 60’. I went to the field with him one day and he let me have a go – I quite enjoyed it and, believing that C/L flying no longer existed as per the current model-shop proprietors’ comment, and because I didn’t know any different, I raided the marital piggy-bank and splashed out on the customary R/C trainer/radio/engine package etc. I admit to enjoying the next few years of R/C flying, particularly with my eldest son involved – the old father /son thing, and must have built over thirty R/C models. I recall the triumphs and disasters of learning to take-off and land, and the trauma and elation of attaining those elusive 'A' & 'B' certificates.

What joy! So C/L flying hadn’t died out with the dinosaurs! I can’t express in words what memories this brought back and I quickly packed my R/C model away and dashed home, gibbering to the wife about this wondrous thing I'd just seen - she thought I'd gone mad. Andy had said if I could build a model he would teach me to fly. I managed to get hold of an old dog-eared plan of a Mercury 'Viper' stunt trainer an A.M. 35 diesel engine and built the model in about 3 days over the Christmas holidays. The Viper is designed for 1.5 cc engines but the A.M. 35 (3.5 cc) was the only C/L engine I had so it would have to do. It was shoe-horned in and Andy test flew it for me. After the initial flight he came up to me very white faced and knees-a-tremble - 'I say old chap - it does go rather quick' he said (or something like that!) and so began the long uphill road to learn to fly C/L again against the odds of advancing years, dissolving brain cells and over-enthusiasm.

Don't believe people if they tell you model flying is like riding a bike – that you never forget - you do! The 'Viper' actually quite some time considering the abuse it got at my untrained hand, and I destroyed several other trainers without much success until I built a model called ‘Schimid’ which is a profile model shaped a bit like a Mini-Goodyear racer. I learnt the basics of taking off/landing with this and now, about two dozen models and eight years further on the confidence is beginning to cut in and I can just about manage most of the Vintage schedule before the bottle goes, and I start praying for the engine to cut so I can land and get my shaking hands on a mug of tea. Going home with models intact is now becoming the norm rather than the exception I am thankful to say. Any progress or success made is all due to the patience, support and friendship of fellow C/L club mates like Andy Soars, Terry MacDonald, Hughie Sewell, Geoff Stevenson and others under whose guidance I have managed to progress onto larger stuff – .35 - .40 sized flapped stunters, rather than the earlier small diesel models. After much pushing from behind I entered some beginners’ stunt contests at Old Warden and the Barton B.A.S.H. which were a great morale and confidence booster. I have no delusions or aspirations to become a champ – all I want is to be able to go into a room of my C/L flying peers and hold my head up. I enjoy the purity and simplicity of the older ‘Vintage’ and ‘Classic’ style models and engines, rather than modern F2B (FAI), which, like many other model disciplines can get very hi-tech and thus expensive.