Wow, some interesting reads here!
I got my start in the early 70's with the usual plastic model airplanes. We had an old family friend who built plastic model planes and sometimes he'd give me his older built ones to play with. My grandpa gave me a 1:32 A6M kit to build which was way too complex for me (I was probably in 1st grade?), so Dad built it for me, complete with glue smeared all over the outside, giant gaping seams, etc. but eventually I was building them myself and then I couldn't stop. Spent all my spare coins on them.
Guillows and Comet stick and tissue were next but none of mine flew very well. Most of them just rolled over and crashed. Plus they were so dang fragile! I always dreamed of being able to control them. For me the promise of flying these was just barely enough to overcome the amount of frustration they produced. Fragile and finicky for a little kid with no guidance.
Then an uncle gave me a Cox P-51 for my birthday. Again I was too still to young so Dad took it out for it's inaugural crash (total destroyed). He felt so bad we went out and replaced it with another one that had a metal clip to limit the elevator throw. I had a few successful flights with it but it didn't really stick - something about just going around and around in cirlces.
In middle school, our neighbor's son started the Marin Model Rocket Club and he mentored me. Some of the coolest low power rocket designs from Estes and Centuri came out of the 70's. I still have 2 of the rockets I built from that time.
In the early 80's I saw some older kids test gliding an Oly-2 in a park. They were unsuccessful and I never saw it actually fly, but I did see them move the rudder/elevators and I knew that's what I "needed". I spent my life's savings on a Gentle Lady and a 2 channel Futaba set (How was I supposed to know it was for ground use only?). Taught myself how to build, fly, crash and repair it, and then progressed to slope, glow, helicopters and other stuff.
Fast forward to when my own kids were born: I stopped flying glow (too much time "wasted" in setup, cleanup and breakdown) and I transitioned to electric.
When my son was in grade school, I helped him (it was mostly me) build a Guillows Cessna 180 This one actual flew pretty well.
Pretty soon my son and his friends were flying the UMX rtf/bnf planes from Horizon Hobbies. They basically learned to fly on these. My son and I made our minor repairs with tape and foam scrap but in general, it was more a buy replacement parts kind of thing.
When he was in middle school I built a Wanderer with him (50/50). The next year, I convinced him and 2 of his friends to do a group build from plans of the old Hobby Shack Ridge Runt. It took a whole year to get them finished but in the end they all flew. For my sons' friends, it was their 1st time building anything themselves. School, sports, clubs and other things eventually got in the way so none of them progressed beyond to the stages of crashing and repairing which is also so important.
I got my start in the early 70's with the usual plastic model airplanes. We had an old family friend who built plastic model planes and sometimes he'd give me his older built ones to play with. My grandpa gave me a 1:32 A6M kit to build which was way too complex for me (I was probably in 1st grade?), so Dad built it for me, complete with glue smeared all over the outside, giant gaping seams, etc. but eventually I was building them myself and then I couldn't stop. Spent all my spare coins on them.
Guillows and Comet stick and tissue were next but none of mine flew very well. Most of them just rolled over and crashed. Plus they were so dang fragile! I always dreamed of being able to control them. For me the promise of flying these was just barely enough to overcome the amount of frustration they produced. Fragile and finicky for a little kid with no guidance.
Then an uncle gave me a Cox P-51 for my birthday. Again I was too still to young so Dad took it out for it's inaugural crash (total destroyed). He felt so bad we went out and replaced it with another one that had a metal clip to limit the elevator throw. I had a few successful flights with it but it didn't really stick - something about just going around and around in cirlces.
In middle school, our neighbor's son started the Marin Model Rocket Club and he mentored me. Some of the coolest low power rocket designs from Estes and Centuri came out of the 70's. I still have 2 of the rockets I built from that time.
In the early 80's I saw some older kids test gliding an Oly-2 in a park. They were unsuccessful and I never saw it actually fly, but I did see them move the rudder/elevators and I knew that's what I "needed". I spent my life's savings on a Gentle Lady and a 2 channel Futaba set (How was I supposed to know it was for ground use only?). Taught myself how to build, fly, crash and repair it, and then progressed to slope, glow, helicopters and other stuff.
Fast forward to when my own kids were born: I stopped flying glow (too much time "wasted" in setup, cleanup and breakdown) and I transitioned to electric.
When my son was in grade school, I helped him (it was mostly me) build a Guillows Cessna 180 This one actual flew pretty well.
Pretty soon my son and his friends were flying the UMX rtf/bnf planes from Horizon Hobbies. They basically learned to fly on these. My son and I made our minor repairs with tape and foam scrap but in general, it was more a buy replacement parts kind of thing.
When he was in middle school I built a Wanderer with him (50/50). The next year, I convinced him and 2 of his friends to do a group build from plans of the old Hobby Shack Ridge Runt. It took a whole year to get them finished but in the end they all flew. For my sons' friends, it was their 1st time building anything themselves. School, sports, clubs and other things eventually got in the way so none of them progressed beyond to the stages of crashing and repairing which is also so important.
