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Talk about memories, Those little gas powered COX engines kicked ass!
Used to do figure 8's and loop de loops with those string attached planes. You had to get creative with them and use a longer tether. |
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My twin brother and I got off to a rough start--we got the Cox F4U Corsair. Not a beginner's plane lol, we crashed it badly the first time we flew it. We stuck with it, had more planes and engines, he got darn good at it. He was the right handed twin, I'm a southpaw, I couldn't fly them worth a damn. I finally built a balsa trainer, LH orientation, and flew it southpaw (CW instead of CCW). It was great.
He wound up attending the air force academy and became a pilot. Always wondered if the Cox planes got him started, off the ground, so to speak. |
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Don't remember which plane I had, but it too, crashed as soon as it left the ground. Couple years later, ran across the little can of fuel. Nothing to do but pour some on the ground and light it. Stuff burned green, LOL. Awesome. I always wanted one of the helicopters. Figured they should almost be foolproof. Let em rip and fly up and auto-rotate back to the ground. Never knew how well they worked or not.
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Quoted: Those blades were sharp and hard to see at speed. Flesh wounds for all... View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: I had one of those. It's a miracle that we never lost any fingers. Those blades were sharp and hard to see at speed. Flesh wounds for all... The fuckers always caught you right behind the fingernail on the first knuckle during starting too. Mine was a Texan that I built from balsa and paper and dope. So much work for such a short service life. At least it was repairable for a few times. |
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About 1974 I had the P-51 going great. Around and around. I could go all day until the fuel would run out. One time my brother who was 4-5 at the time wanted to fly, so he ran into the circle to take over before dad could stop him. Made it about halfway when the plane came around. The string caught him on the neck, and started to wind around his neck. Faster and faster it went as the lines got shorter and shorter until it pegged him upside the head and knocked him down. I’ll never forget the sound roar roar roar faster with each revolution.
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I had the Navy Trainer. All the older kids in the neighborhood had the real cool ones. I begged for nearly a year before I got one for Christmas. I was so excited.
My mother refused to let me run it near the house because they were so loud. My father had to take me up to the high school nearby on Christmas day, freezing cold and it wouldn't start. I played with it in my room since I couldn't ever get it running. I had the big neighbor kids try and help me start it and it never would. My mother is famous for uncluttering. I came home from school and noticed a bunch of my stuff was gone, again. I took a quick inventory, it usually sat in my closet on the shelf and it was gone. |
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Quoted: My twin brother and I got off to a rough start--we got the Cox F4U Corsair. Not a beginner's plane lol, we crashed it badly the first time we flew it. We stuck with it, had more planes and engines, he got darn good at it. He was the right handed twin, I'm a southpaw, I couldn't fly them worth a damn. I finally built a balsa trainer, LH orientation, and flew it southpaw (CW instead of CCW). It was great. He wound up attending the air force academy and became a pilot. Always wondered if the Cox planes got him started, off the ground, so to speak. View Quote |
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My first, iirc, was a Fokker DVII. Then we built some from balsa stock we bought at the hobby shop and hardware salvaged from crashed planes. One time I couldn't wait for the glue to dry and I thought adding some wood screws would be strong enough. If my brother didn't duck he would have been taken a direct hit from a fuselage missile.
Quoted: I had this one. Uncontrolled but very stable in flight. It survived many flights and Igave it away after I got older and too cool for it. Wish I still had it. Attached File View Quote Had one of those too. Let it go and wonder where it might land. Neighbor's yard, tree, street, who knows. Good times. |
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Quoted: I had a Cox PT-19 Trainer that I could barely fly. Those flights usually ended in crashes. Google 'Cox PT-19 Trainer' and look at the prices!! Some are $350.00!! https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F7YIVg7wWhzs%2Fmaxresdefault.jpg&f=1&nofb=1 View Quote That was my first around 1973. Then had the miss america p-51 then the stuka. Actually built another out of balsa then girls happened |
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Quoted: Great thread, lots of memories...........In 1958 when I was 10 years old I got my first gas powered plane, a Comet Tri-Pacer, in the following years I got a gas plane for every birthday and Christmas. Flew every Cox plane they made almost and early on they had the metal tanks and when the plastic planes were busted up we built the Scientific Balsa planes and put the Cox .049 engines on them and man did they fly great. My favorites were the Stunt trainer and stunt master, the photo is two of the planes in my collection.....Later we progressed to the Sterling ringmaster and Super Ringmaster with Red Head McCoy 36 or Fox 35 engines..........Got my private pilots license in 1976 and just hung it up last year after 45 years and 6,000 hours of Private Pilot hours. Now I fly sailplanes only. https://photos.smugmug.com/Model-Planes/i-WWsQcsM/0/ef2e01d3/X2/014-X2.jpg https://photos.smugmug.com/Sailplanes/i-z86qVCd/0/5f39e069/XL/cropped052-XL.jpg View Quote Wow! That's a great story! |
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Quoted: My brother got a brand new Stuka and Dad hooked the controls up backwards. Of course Dad had to fly it first and it went down when it was supposed to go up. Nose dive straight into the dirt and exploded all the plastic pieces, my brother was crushed. View Quote Huh, my dad crashed my stuka on its maiden flight. It probably lasted 5 seconds. I can still see it happen in my mind. 1970 or so. |
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The neighbor had it set up so mailbox pulled out and got all the kids involved as a hobby. We all started buying them and flying them at his house.
He was a good man. |
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I went through a couple of the Cox PT-19 trainers. Several of us had them in the neighborhood and flew in the turnaround on summer evenings. The plastic pilot and co-pilots were always immediate casualties.
Later we were building Carl Goldberg models. The Wizard was a popular one because it was a solid balsa wing. We cut them down and lightened up the fuselage. They really moved. Built a couple of Voodoos. (or was it Satan?) Those were the combat planes, nothing but a flying wing. Last one I had had a .61 Supertiger engine on it. Scary fast! At the time we didn't realize it but we were learning about takeoffs and landings, stalls and aerobatics. One neighborhood kid went on to fly in the military and later a commercial pilot. I got my ratings and own a plane. |
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Quoted: I had a Cox PT-19 Trainer that I could barely fly. Those flights usually ended in crashes. Google 'Cox PT-19 Trainer' and look at the prices!! Some are $350.00!! https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F7YIVg7wWhzs%2Fmaxresdefault.jpg&f=1&nofb=1 View Quote I had this one too. Once I grew up, I had to have a real one! Attached File |
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I had two or three of them, and they all died in horrific crashes.
It was only years later that I realized that we could have lengthened the lines to slow things down a bit. Oh well, after the cuts from the prop and the burns from the cylinder head, getting dizzy and passing out while flying, was the least of our problems. |
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Quoted: I had this one too. Once I grew up, I had to have a real one! https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/470117/AEE9C482-6AF8-408E-B357-FD62409A288A_jpe-2040585.JPG View Quote Very nice. My 18mo daughter was recently thumbing through the Kitplanes magazine and lost her mind when she came to the Ryan ST. She started pointing and yelling "Dadda!" I told my wife I guess we need to build one. |
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Had the P40. It ran for about 5 seconds, then never could get it to start so the airframe itself never got totally destroyed. No idea what happened to it.
Tried to get into R/C flying in the early 2000’s, when there were some decent electric powered planes. Had a glow OS .40 powered trainer, a little sporty Twist that was fun to fly, and an electric Spitfire. Got bored with it quickly because there wasn’t anyone else to fly with here but a bunch of fudds. Gave the spitfire and twist to one of my buddies. The trainer died a horrible death playing limbo with a power line. |
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When I first read this thred I started looking for the balsa wood models you could buy and build....especially the ones with skin you would stretch and glue on the bibbed wings....
I cant find any....also the Cox engines are difficult to find....I also had an OSMax engine, .35cc, it was a beast |
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Ever since childhood I’ve loved glow engines and planes. Corsair, Stuka, PT-19, etc.
Here is my Rivets I scored on eBay a few years back. They bring big $$$ Attached File In AMA Fast combat the planes go over 125mph and are actual work to hold onto. Fast combat huntersville Here is my Howard Rush Nemesis under construction. Fox .36 combat special Mk. III. Attached File Modern competition glow engines turn in excess of 30,000RPM. F2D is the international CL combat event flown with different rules than AMA combat. |
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Anybody remember the Sprite bottlecap promotion or the plane and car?
Had 1 of each, awesome. Picked up caps at the ham radio expos. |
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Quoted: Christmas day, Santa brings me a yellow airboat style cox car. We wait for the temps to warm a little. Noon we head out to the local school parking lot. Santa drives the spike into the tarmac. Spins the blade, screams to life, and starts its circle track course. Faster and faster it goes, round and round. After a few loops it decides that it's a plane now, not a car. One or two feet off the ground, the spike pulls out and we are off. Goes about 50 yards or so at a thousand mph and try's to knock down a curb. The curb was not amused. Thanks for the memories and my shortest owned toy. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/486241/not_my_pix_jpg-2025274.JPG View Quote |
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This reminds me of when I bought my Daughter one of those little RC helicopters for X-mags. She was excited to fly it. We charged it and went outside the next morning to start our Father/Daughter adventure. I was going to try it first. I powered=up it lifted off and less than two seconds later it was high in a tree and dead.
We never got it down. The next Summer I couldn’t even see it anymore. |
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My dad and I built a few from scratch from balsa when I was a kid. We used to fly them at the airport he works at. It was good fun. I don't think I ever crashed mine but I crashed his beater before. Pretty sure it's had the wings ripped off at least a dozen times.
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Does anybody sell anything similar to those cox-powered planes? I'm guessing they are too dangerous to our current generations?
Bastards! What has happened to our country? |
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Quoted: Does anybody sell anything similar to those cox-powered planes? I'm guessing they are too dangerous to our current generations? Bastards! What has happened to our country? View Quote R/C is cheaper than ever, especially if you leave out the radio. Anything bigger than a 'park flyer' should be able to drag some Spiderwire around just fine. A crashproof foam something or other would be a good trainer. Seems like mostly you'd need a bellcrank in place of an elevator servo, some thin string and a handle. |
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In the early 1970s when I was about 6, I found my uncle's Cox airplane engine he mounted to board with wheels in my grandparents' garage - he must have built it in the mid 1950s. I tried starting it for at least an hour. My grandparents were doing stuff outside and really weren't paying attention to what I was doing. It finally started and spayed fuel all over including into my eyes, the propeller cut my hand, and it shot down the driveway before crashing into something. I remember crying and my grandparents yelling in Ukrainian! LoL! Funny shit now!
Got a Cox airplane later on and I just remember getting dizzy as hell flying it in circles. After a few crashes that was it for me. But it was always fun starting them up. I can never forget the sound they made before and after they started. Around 1977 I got an RC gas plane. Crashed it in about 12 seconds. Never flew again! Got into LaTrax RC cars after that (those went over 30 mph and I used to race mopeds!). |
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Quoted: Dad got me one and it lasted a few seconds before it hit the storm drain cover. I remember it being pretty damn fast. View Quote Both my brother and I got one for Christmas way back in 1960 I got a Dauntless Dive bomber he got a Piper Cub. Sadly both didn't have very long lives. I still have the motor around somewhere. |
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You people suck. Ordered a Baby Ringmaster kit this morning. It has been over 30 years since I flew C/L.
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Quoted: Post pics of the build!! @broken_reticle View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: You people suck. Ordered a Baby Ringmaster kit this morning. It has been over 30 years since I flew C/L. Post pics of the build!! @broken_reticle @oldbutspry I might do that, kicking around a few ideas for power and covering at the moment. I have WAAAAY too many r/c airplanes, but a C/L might be fun. Trying to decide between glow and electric. |
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Quoted: But nobody said you had to use the control line. We used to set ours free in the road, thankfully the curbs kept us safe View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Fun fact, they make control line cars too. But nobody said you had to use the control line. We used to set ours free in the road, thankfully the curbs kept us safe Used to run mine on the school macadam playground. That SOB would move, especially as it leaned out at the end of the tank. Ruined it when it changed directions and ran into the building. |
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Had a couple. Stuart died a spectacular death.
Moved on to ground models like the Baja Bug, Dune buggy and Shrike. Those props could bang up fingers during the starting process. I have a bucket of .049 parts somewhere. |
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Spent like 2 years of Sundays with my dad rebuilding a wrecked control line P51 Mustang. Crashed on it's first flight after the resto.
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I had an all plastic Cox F15 ready to fly, and their UFO as well. The UFO was a blast. It just went wherever it wanted.
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Mine never made it off the ground. I still have the .049 engine.
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