Radio Control (R/C)

My mother was concerned about my precious piano fingers, so I was not allowed to purchase my dream engine, an O & R 23. Instead I bought a fleapower K & B Infant Torpedo glow plug .02 engine in 1948. This clunker was so weak that I stopped the engine by putting my bare hand in front of the metal propellor! I built various free flight models, and finally upgraded to the epitome of small power in those days, an Atwood Wasp .049.

I built a "high performance" free flight plane for the Wasp and every good day after school before practicing on the piano I took the airplane to the end of Margaret Street where there was a several hundred acre open field. I filled the small tank with just enough glow fuel to run the engine for 30 seconds and launched. The airplane was trimmed to turn rapidly to the Left due to engine torque as it climbed to about 200 feet. Then the motor stopped and the airplane slowly glided to the ground in a slow Right turning spiral. I retrieved the airplane, brought it back to my launch site, and lauched it after filling the 30 second tank and restarting that throaty Wasp engine. Even the neighborhood girls were impressed. Well maybe a few were.

The fatal day arrived the Summer after I had just graduated from the 8th grade. It was a little windy that day, and very warm, I recall. But when the engine stopped the plane started its usual slow spiral to the Right. But some very wrong was happening. Instead of circling down, it was circling UP! It was caught in a thermal. I hoped on my trusty Rollfast and followed it for about 10 miles, getting higher and higher. It finally disappeared in a high cloud never to be seen again. What a crushing blow. My first really significant loss. I gave up airplanes of several years, unconsoleable. Aeronautics ceased to appeal.

But after College, I met a ham radio operator named Tom Laclave, K8QWC, who lived about 5 miles from my parents house. Tom was several years older than I, and. Tom had great skills with mechanical things, matching my electronic skillls. Together we made quite a team, so we bought an OS .09 engine and another free flight model callled a "Butterfly" Then we purchased a small super-regenerative Radio Controlled Receiver, and that summit of R/C progress, a single channel escapement powered by a rubberband running through the fuselage.

Interstate 75 was being built a few miles from my house, so after completing the airplane, installing the R/C equiptment, and building a transmitter we flew from I-75 before they got around to pouring concrete on I-75 and opening it to traffic. The escapement added a new and welcome dimension to flying models. There was a chance, mind you, just a chance, that we might land at same field we took off from. Frequently the rubber band unwound in flight and we had to chase the airplane down. But we always brought it back, occasionally needing a few minor repairs. Those were fun, fun days.

One day we heard about an R/C field near Utica, Michigan and Tom and I drove over to watch this group of R/C fliers. We expected to see some pretty planes gently floating around. WRONG! These guys were GOOOOD. They could do loops and rolls deliberately! and they landed right at their feet when done, with the engine still running. Amazing! One fellow, the club "Hot Shot", was an active fighter pilot who flew a full scale Delta Wing Jet for the Air Force. Well he made a scale model of his delta jet, and installed the biggest piston engine available in 1960 instead of a jet since R/C Jets had not been invented yet This guy just loved making long low passes at full speed, probably near 100 mph,over this field in Utica, and at the last moment, just in front of the woods surrounding thd field, he pulled straight up, rolling and flew back inverted. WOW! What a show.

Tom and I went back several times just to enjoy the show this guy put on. But one day, he misjudged the distance to the woods and flew halfway, emphasis, halfway through to woods. When the guys brought back the carcass it was not a pretty sight. We sadly returned home but decided that an engine upgrade was appropriate, even if the Butterfly still would not do all the tricks we had seen others do. We bought an OS .15 engine which was about 50% bigger than our puney .09 and installed another escapement which controlled not only the rudder, but also the engine's throtttle. We were now thinking bigtime. My transmitter sat on the ground with a big antenna sticking upward and a pushbutton switch at the end of a long cable entered the flight commands. One push and the rudder turned such that the airplane turned to the right. Two pushes, and the airplane would turn Left, and 3 pushes would change the throttle from idle to full power or full power to idle.

So we went back to I-75 and started up the engine. Everything looked OK so we took off. We cruised around a bit, then turned up the motor and tried a loop. Big mistake. The over stressedwings folded together in prayer when the main spar cracked and down it came. It totally demolished when it hit the ground. End of phase 2 in my aeronautical career.

Time passed. I got married to Mary Jane Hartnett in 1966, and Tom was my best man. MJ and I moved to Colorado the day after our wedding. Since we got such a late start in the baby game, being married at age 29, we concentrated real hard and had our 4 childen in 5 years.We moved around a bit, like to Florida to get my PhD in Systems Analysis, back to Colorado for a few years and then to Virginia where I was made Chief Scientist at GTE in 1980. My oldest boy, Dennis, was 13 now, and one day he came to me and announced that he wanted to fly R/C airplanes.After a brief discusion I agreed and located an R/C flying field on the West side of Dulles airport. The field was run by some ham radio operators. Enter phase 3. We picked up and built another Butterfly kit, this time with a stronger wing mid section. We stuck an old Veco 19 engine in it, and picked up a used radio from somewhere, which had real joysticks for aileron, elevator, rudder and throttle. And proportional servos." This is too easy"., I thought," things have really changed in the last 20 years."

(to be continued)