Off Topic: H Plus lured me into RC Fixed Wing Aircraft

[Ty Pilot]

LOL yeah ain't that the truth. I don't know what happened to my old Kraft Tx's but those things looked like they were made in a garage and truth be told they may have been. Its funny but the transmitter of the H was probably one of the largest selling points for me probably because of experiences with those old transmitters. But then the 80's hit, Futaba made the 'Attack 4' and the rest is history

 

[rdonson]

Yeah, I was just delighted to have 3 channels. The right stick everyone would understand those two channels but only sailplane pilots understood the necessity for spoilers. Talk about flyaways.

We all tried to qualify for the League of Silent Flight. Dang those were fun days.

 

[Ty Pilot]

Indeed.

 

[PatR]

PatR and Ty Pilot (Pat) I dug this out of my wayback machine. My first 3 channel RC. Things have changed a bit since the 70s. [emoji1]

View attachment 10609

That is incredible! I worked part time for Hobby Shack in Fountain Valley and La Habra, CA. They were very busy places in the late 70’s. I still have one of their dry battery 2 channel radios. That Cirrus was actually made under contract for Hobby Shack by Futaba. Hobby Shack later became Hobby People after Paul Bender sold out.

Phil Kraft had a small shop in Orange, CA and all his radios were made one at a time, by hand. I may still have an old Kraft 6 channel laying around. His radios were considered the pinnacle of performance at that time and his servos were cream of the crop. We used to walk in for radio repairs when needed. You old farts have given me cause to go look[emoji4]

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

You know it's funny... I always say I had no previous RC experience, which is true. But I did waste a year when I was 12, building Estes model rockets... just got tired of seeing 15-20 hours of work just fly off, usually never to be recovered. Later they became more interesting as homemade bazookas... and no need to paint... thank god for PVC pipe...

 

[PatR]

I had to stop those after having one come down in the parking area at the local fire department...

Found the Aero Sport 2. The shed was too hot to spend much time in there. Two channels was enough for a Square Soar 72. All it had was rudder and elevator. The radio went on to control a few more two channel models but there was a need to step up when moving up to the Sagitta, Pierce Paragon, and Bird of Time. Those were some pretty good times, flying with a club at a high school neighboring the Santa Ana River that had a great slope facing the afternoon prevailing wind, 2 miles NW of John Wayne Airport... All that just reminded me of how much fun it was building Airtronics kits. Perfect cut small parts but the big stuff was all basically big blocks of balsa you had to carve and sand to shape and fit. Balsa dust everywhere.

 

[biltno]

PatR and Ty Pilot (Pat) I dug this out of my wayback machine. My first 3 channel RC. Things have changed a bit since the 70s.

View attachment 10609

LOL try to bind it to your H

 

[biltno]

LOL try to bind it to your H

You guys got me beat with those museum pieces!

 

[PatR]

They’re both close to 40 years old[emoji44]. I had not really thought about that until thinking about when I obtained the 2 channel radio and reflected on where we were living at the time and that my youngest child had not yet entered the public school system. That radio was purchased in 1978.