RC catalogs were the BEANS. It was always fun discovering what new planes and products were getting released. I’d day dream about which I’d buy first all the time
So true. Chinese websites will never fascinate me the way printed catalogs used to. Fingers crossed, maybe someone will find a business opportunity there.
58 year old here. Placed my first Tower order in 1980. Placed my most recent Tower order in 2019. And the catalog was filled with builder's kits. ARF was not yet a term. ARC wasn't even a thing. Giant Tartan glow motors were a thing. Circus radios were high end. MK kits were in stock at Indy RC. Central Hobbies was the place to go for pattern. Lump in throat. Tear come to eye. ❤
The Tower Hobbies catalog was great but even better were RCM and Model Airplane News magazines! They also had kick ass Tower ads that went on for pages. I had memorized the delivery day for each magazine to the stores. And I was a grown ass adult at the time. Would rush home and read them cover to cover. Clarence Lee and Duke Fox were gods!
A part of me really misses those days. Something about the sound and smell of glow fuel (when it was not super pricy) and long flight times is a time that almost does not exist anymore.
I miss the people from those days. There was a more sense of community with one another. I miss the grumpy oldtimers who would get mad but still love to help you and treat you like a stepchild. It was great. You can sense they were good guys even though they were grumpy. lol
@@charleybarber86 Then I want to thank you for keeping the genre alive. I love the smell and the sound all the flight line tricks too, but I have to fly from my yard for lack of a proper field these days, and I fly nothing but FPV now, so I try to keep the vibrations, the goop and the noise to a minimum. Which is probably just a lame excuse for being too lazy to do all the hours of kneeling and cranking and swearing that I used to go through in my glow days. I certainly respect those of you who still do it. Happy flying!
Oh memories! The slimy rubber bands, forgetting to charge the G.D. Glow igniter, and bashing a Tower Trainer making a tail dragging, trexler rolling cluster with a .46 O.S. Max swinging a 11x5…
My dad when in college got into building balsa models and 15 years later when I became old enough he bought a foam trainer to fly with me (he had never seen one before and is a compulsive buyer) and the most ironic part to me now looking back at it is although he built 2 balsa models installed the gas engines and all he was too afraid to ever fly them so when he got that trainer 15 years later it was the first time he ever flew
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see balsa building make a resurgence at some point. Flite Test has helped popularize scratch building with Foamboard, which has given newer hobbyists an opportunity to learn building techniques at low risk. And the next stage to make bigger, lighter airplanes is balsa As an added bonus, balsa is theoretically _better_ than carbon neutral, because the main building ingredients are CO2 and Water, and the trees grow fast for how tall they get: that means a demand for growing more balsa can suck a lot of carbon out of the air. Sure, foamies and ARFs have taken over, but I can see a culture soon forming of "if you want something built right, build it to your own specs".
I will add a few that a few OG's will remember but don't probably miss all too much: NiCD batteries, NiMH batteries, Gremlins, Idle bar plugs, die cut, Quadra, servo lead chokes, plastic servo gears, power panels and last but not least....range checks.
Range checks should still be performed radios have procedures listed and low power modes for that. The difference is that radios are more reliable and planes seem to be cheaper or less of an effort to get in the air, so less care seems to be taken
Well done. Sadly, I'm old enough to remember all items mentioned. I did not know the Byron story. Interesting... I just donated my Wemac 049 and Green head Torpedo 19 to the AMA museum. Both had never been run. Have a great weekend THP!
I got the complete Model Builder magazine collection and read every one. In the one where glow ducted fans were just out on the market, the user was instructed to start the engine and let the fan and duct wear into each other.
We had a club member pass away decades ago that designed the ducted fans for BVM. I bought a OK Models SupraFly 45 that he owned and it had so many custom parts he had made.
@@daszieher Hat sich an den Gesetzen etwas geändert, oder sind diese Frequenz jetzt frei. Also weil all noch oben abgewandert sind. Gibt es irgendwie regeln bezüglich des Protokolls? Z.B. dürfen Amateurfunker auf ihren Frequenzen ja nichts verschlüsseln. Wie sieht es aus mit digitalen Daten + CheckSum/Signatur, um eine Kollision auf einem Kanal zu detektieren und auf Safe-Mode zu schalten?
@@ArneChristianRosenfeldt aus dem Gedächtnis (ohne Anspruch auf Richtigkeit) 40MHz war in DE schon in den 80ern für Fernsteuerung allgemein, also sowohl für Luft als auch für Boden (Land/Wasser) freigegeben. 27MHz war eine internationale "Trash-Frequenz" wo wirklich jeder Schrott funken durfte. Also Spielzeug, schnurlose Telefone etc. Meidete man so gut es ging. Für R/C Cars gerade noch gut genug. Eine Unterteilung in Boote und Autos kannte ich zumindest formal nicht. 72MHz war in DE für die Anwendungen nie aktuell und galt in U.S.A. 50MHz ist m.E. (und dem Beitrag nach) eine Amateurfunk-Frequenz und Bedarf einer Lizenz. Ich war nur MilFu, kenne mich mit Amateurfunk überhaupt nicht aus. 35MHz war in DE der Fliegerei vorbehalten und bedurfte (noch?) einer Anmeldung, Sinn dahinter war, die (grobe) Zahl der Sender zu kennen und die Funkqualität aufrecht zu erhalten, um Funkaussetzer bestmöglich auszuschließen.
Yes. I remember 😂. Now I'm thinking that I'm flying on 868mhz frequency and the range is ... well, let's just say 10+ km is no problem. I've built an fpv plane with GPS and it's a blast. But it's not just the long range but also the short range object pentration that's gone so advanced. 😅 Wow.
I came into the hobby in 2012. I still remember the puzzled look on my face when the hobbyking skipper I ordered came with a balloon and no instructions. Receiver balloons are not dead. I still use them, especially on those planes that I know are gonna end up ground(water) looping
Australia had 27mhz, the very same as the early CB radios here. Same issue, the lawn dart. Caster soaked rubber bands were kept in a jar with talcum powder in it. I started in the late 60s, wow, how things have changed now.
Robbe and Graupner catalogs here in the EU, but yeah... Always great when the new ones arrived, spending a few afternoons thumbing through them. With loads of stuff that I couldn't afford.
So many old things that disappeared, like frequency pins, hobby shops, missle like pattern airplanes, Ambroid glue, wire antennas, the shouts of “I don’t have it”, the ever present spray cleaner and paper towels. We have also lost some good things like the great airplanes like the Kaos and the Ugly Stik that actually flew instead of flopping around the sky like the styrofoam toys today.
So many folks have only flown foam planes that I don't think they understand how floppy they feel. Just check the reviews of the balsa Timber. The rigidity seems to blow people away. New pilots that have flow balsa are nearly exclusively flying ARFs wich are heavy pigs compared to a well designed kit. It seems like planes these days are designed to crash, not to fly
@@Random4RC Balsa flies better no doubt and I'd rather have a kit plane now days, Falcon 56 is up and running with OS FP.60 and scar cat OS .40 FP ,I'm restoring my Extra 300 .120 OS 4STK and Dad is building an Astro Hog, we've missed Nitro and balsa 😅 I still think if you're going to do jets EDF is great and there are some good jet arts available, but prop planes should run on Nitro because it's just proper 🇺🇸👍🏼
I'm currently helping a local kid build his first plane, and it's a balsa high wing trainer (his choice). Just electric rather than combustion. Foam planes can be made rigid too, a bit of pulltruded carbon fibre rod goes a long way in that regard... assuming you put it in the right place. I've flown some planes where the carbon would make the wings twist the wrong way above a certain speed, leading to a sudden nose dive.
Grew up with my dad and his buddies flying all of the things you mentioned in the video. I still have my "40 size" Eagle 63 that I built as a kid. It still has the ENYA .46 on it. I flew again 7 or 8 years ago after being in storage for 30 plus years. It still had the same Monokote covering on it that I installed when I built it as a kid. The first flights after storage quickly taught me that Monokote gets pretty brittle after sitting in the attic all that time. It's sitting in the corner of my "hobby room" right now. I'm going to recover it and put it back in the air with modern electronics and modern covering. I still what we would call the "flight box" with the battery and control panel as mentioned in the video. Everyone at the field had one back then. My Dad still flies to this day. None of his old planes are around but a few years back he built a new 60 size Ugly Stick and put a 90 four stroke on it. Most of what he flies now is electric for all the reasons you listed but he still loves (as do I) the sound, and smell, of the nitro glow engines. Once tuned properly they are extremely reliable. The modern nitro fuels and the oils they contain, are much better than the old caster oil based stuff. Many, many great memories of the planes, people, and fun Saturday or Sunday afternoons at the flying field with my Dad and his buddies.
Despite flying FPV, electric, automated drones and otherwise keeping up with technology, I somehow still fly my nitro planes on NiMh. I feel like I missed a memo.
To start flying RC planes back in 1988 to 1993 was a magical time. At the perfect age to be part of almost everything flying to current in the hobby has ever had to date. This video is really cool to capture all of it to current. This brings back a lot of amazing memories. I have experienced all of this and still learning today. I am thankful for where we are today for the hobby because while all of this is really cool,… I’m glad we are where we are today. I wouldn’t go back.
I loved those tower catalogs! I prefer my field box with a gallon of nitro and my power panel then a giant bag full of hundreds and hundreds of dollars of batteries and I still have my Zagi!!!
Great video.O started R/C back in 1980.I miss nitro engines and tuned pipes.My retracts were air operated.My first radio was a 5 channel MRC 765 which I still have in my parents attic.I also had a 2 channel Cox Sanwa radio.But I will say,that flying electric R/C planes is a much nicer experience.You charge your flight pack batteries,fly,and your finished for the day.No cleaning the oily mess off you model.
Power panels and fuel pumps were usually attached to car battery powered field boxes, which were probably the heaviest items we regularly managed to forget on our way to the field - unless spouses count. I do miss those days, but I'm in no hurry to repeat them.
@@orbitalair2103 Many did use MC batteries. So did I for a few years, but I got tired of the low capacity. Large bikes were not very common in my part of the world back then, so the ones I had access to were 2 or 4 Ah. Not always enough for a weekend of winter temperature starts. So I didn't mind the extra kilos of a small car battery.
Good memories. I still recall that the trend of sharing props changed a bit into trading props, because itvwas cheaper to buy in bulk and sometimes you had too many of those GWS props of a certain size. Folks at the park often used 8x4", 8x4.3", 8x6", 9x4.7", 9x5", 9x7", 10x4.7".
What a surprise to see my Zagi video cited! They owned the wing market when I got into flying, the Zagi's pure toughness made it a solid trainer for me even though it wasn't the easiest thing to fly. I was out of the hobby for nearly 10 years, and when I came back EVERYTHING had changed. LiPos and Brushless motors had replaced brushed and Nicads. I took the best guess as to what Lipo/Brushless would power my rebuilt Zagi and boy did I ever miss. I totally overpowered it, and it flew like it was on meth (as seen in vid). It flapped at full throttle and I finally stopped flying it since I didn't want to destroy the plane I learned to fly on. I'm really kind of bummed they just kind of slow-faded out of RC, I really have a fondness for the company that got me into flying.
I fly zagis often, a friend of mine has a hot wire rig where he can make zagi wing half’s and build the wings. I have a 6 foot battle wing with a lead nose and it weighs 11lbs. It destroys everything in its path while combating other battle gliders. Also have the hand launch 3 footers. Great for light thermals or soaring.
@@ElijahMiniBikes That's pretty awesome! I hung my Zagi in the garage and replaced it with a Crash Test Hobby Grim Reaper. Still my go-to on windy days or if I feel that I need a warmup flight. 🍻
The Nighflyer episode, lol. From watching Dave's' channel, I know you guys steam Aero Fly together, which is pretty wholesome, Dave seems like a lovely fella.
This brought back some memories, im 53 yrs old and from the age of 6 I was raised on an RC field, usually running around with an old 049 in my hand, my dad started flying at a young age, started with U control, dad built everything in those days, built some beautiful planes that are still hanging in the basement, still has a lot of his old radio too, that yellow Kraft, couple of them he still has, my first plane was a Piece of Cake, they called it, giant bent wing glider with and an 049..... Always getting that Tower Hobbies catalog in the mail..... miss those days....
Awww man I've been thinking about those Zagi wings for a few weeks now! Back in 98 there was a bunch of guys that flew them off 80amp brushed motors and 10s nimh they were surprisingly fast!
I got into RC in the late 90's and fondly remember getting the Tower Hobbies catalog. I still have my old Tower Hobbies Trainer with it's .40 ABC Tower Hobbies Engine in it. I remember learning to fly with a trainer cable hooked up to someone elses remote. I got back into the hobby recently and am surprised to see how far electrics have come and how easy it is to fly some of these models now.
Flew R/C allot back in the mid 1980s as a teenager. Man it was so fun building balsa kits like the Kaos or Toppo. Flew in some pattern contests and went to the AMA Nats one year. Those were fun times!
Still a sucker for glow engines, even though most of my fleet is electric now I still make sure to keep a couple glow powered planes on deck. That darn nostalgia will get ya.
Don’t miss most of those, RC hobby is now better than ever. Cheaper and better radio systems, better planes and electronics, etc. What’s going down is that there is not enough young people in flying clubs !
thats because it tended to be filled with snobs. i remember after i learned rc planes in college, graduating and moving to a new town. the local rc field was filled with upper crust types. i quit flying at fields then. i would occasionally go to a schools field on a sunday afternoon and fly for a bit, but my stuff is now ceiling decorations. i remember using or seeing all the things in this video.
If you do this again EZ aircraft would be a interesting one. An early ARTF range and they came from japan's OK model company. Basically wood covered in depron covered in vinyl. They were great (now collectable) with a large range but prices were very high, even back then.
He's the GOAT! I started my original channel in 2008 (RedDevilSquadron) and even back then he was already several hundred videos in it seems like. He was and still is a big inspiration for me. -Zach
I always wondered what happened to Byron Originals. Their P-51 Mustang with the gear reduction four bladed prop was the coolest thing ever when I saw it as a kid back in 1983. It's still cooler than just about anything out there today.
I remember RCM&E 1995 issue having a custom plan for an EDF jet called a Tyto - it used an Estes D class rocket motor to enable takeoff from the ground because NiCads and brushed EDF just didnt have the guts. Five minute flghts were a good result for an electric thing in the 90s, so if you wanted a jet without a loathsome engine sticking out of the nose it was the only practical option. I do like that modern stuff has made aeromodelling more accessible. The zen of turning a box of sticks and tissue paper into a flying machine is a precious experience as well.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Seems to me at one time I had a "throttle collar" for both a cox.049 and a Cox .09. Ran the .09 a Sig Colt. 3 channel failure at it's best. One other thing you forgot to mention was the RC magazines of the day. 200 pages of magazine, 176 pages of ads...........
Excellent radio gear is so cheap nowadays that I don't think peeps new to the hobby can appreciate just how big a deal it used to be to 'get into RC'. Expense-wise, it was pretty much the same as buying a second-hand car. As a kid, it meant saving, saving, then saving some more to get into the air. Servos were hideously expensive, so a first model would be rudder only or, if you were lucky, rudder and elevator. It's incredibly sad - and ironic - that getting into RC has never been cheaper or easier, but that our wonderful hobby has been ruined for newcomers by the frenzied introduction of new 'drone' legislation - pilot registration, new taxes, fees, limitations, mandatory memberships, examinations, regulations, and all the rest of the unnecessary (and just plain wrong) nonsense that bureaucrats with no knowledge of or interest in aeromodelling are rushing to impose. [Disclosure: I'm English, based in the UK, and currently only involved with sub-250g models.]
8:02 I was an VERY embarrassed 14 year old, way back, buying condoms for the first time (unlubricated) to waterproof the receiver on my Associated RC-10. Now I roll up to the cashier with condoms, bananas, and baby oil just to start a conversation.
Still has a glow ducted fan in the box, and it's kit, a bunch of hobby king lsd nicad batteries, etc. These are good old days for most of us still keeping kyosho pt19 balsa arf model in its box for my kids.
Yeah I miss all of those. I have a unbuilt Combat Models Falcon sitting in my attic haunting me and yet it's seems pointless to even attempt to build it with all the options out there.
I still use rubber bands on my wings (Flite Test high wings), and remember a glow-powered EDF that just taxied. It couldn't get off the grass. I do miss the catalogues! I held on to a few. Had a Cox .049 motor on a control line plastic Cosmo plane when I was too young to use it. The Flite Test Arrows mimic the Zagi wings. Crystals were expensive! I still use a balloon on my water planes. Sucks losing power and control when the plane flips. I still swap props with my buddies and we bring 6 by 3's, 9 by 6's and 10 by 4.5's to the field.
6 месяцев назад
How I hated breaking propellers every time a landing wasn't butter.
The GRAUPNER katalogue was my bible back in the 70s and 80s in Denmark. That and the Marklin model train katalogue. I worked all summer vacation and bought the black Graupner Varioprop 14S 40MHz radio and Graupner's first 1/8 scale glow race car with the HB.21 engine. I didn't leave money for repairs so it was a short lived pleasure.
PCbway. I quoted them for a small, simple steel adapter sleeve with flange. Basically 3 tool changes and maybe 30 seconds of machine time... 80 euros. I think I'll ask a friend with an ancient manual lathe to make one for me for half that and I'll even get the tolerance right for the interference fit.
Ahaaa my dad had a home made HAM band transmitter when I was a kid. Two channels! It was for a glider that he crashed before I was born, and it got repurposed for a Tamiya buggy with the old mechanical servo throttle. Had them NiCad batteries too. Both the transmitter and the car.
Great content Zack. Thanks for the shout outs. And btw, I do love my nitro helis. 😊Hope to fly with you again Thursday night. Fly easy. ~ Dave. NightFlyyer
Thanks for helping make this video a reality! Unfortunately, my computer is officially bricked. A power surge destroyed the mother board, video card, and power supply. Probably out of simming for the season. :-( - Zach
Yep. I'm old. I still have everything talked about!! Not all is used but I'm only 41!! I still buy and fly all this old stuff. Because people sell them super super cheap!! And then I get rid of rhe old fm transmitters and servos and still fly them. I have a collection of over 150 nitro engines. Just sitting on acshelf, and about a dozen flyable planes and duckted fans. I get that with today's stuff, no one really wants them. But I grew up on them so I still play with them.
The models shown in 15 were Control Line (C/L) NOT RC (Radio Control) and introduced a generation to the joys of model airplane flying with their low cost and being harder to break than balsa models.
RC actually stands for "Remote Control", only later did they become "Radio Control". Remote control still applies to control line, whatever...(There were control line cars as well).
@@MrBIG4D I thank you for your clarification. I would propose that a C/L aircraft is not "remotely controlled" - there is a direct linkage from the flyer to the elevator of the model being flown and there is no other equipment involved. Directly controlled would be my call but not remotely controlled. There are still many contests and flying worldwide divided into two very separate divisions that being C/L and RC. Advocates of C/L flying will point out that one of the advantages of flying C/L is the feedback the flyer receives through the lines from the model which doesn't occur with RC (the closest, I believe, to the direct feedback from C/L flying would be FPV - although the feedback is visual rather than physical).
Control line has a lot more flyers than I ever thought. And if you get to AirVenture, in the kids area at the Museum field, they will let your kid fly a control line plane. its really cool just to stand there and watch the kids and pros fly control line planes.
You left out the old guy in the club who couldn't hear and thought that Zagi wings were called "Ziggys". I don't miss nitro at all. LiPos are a PITA sometimes but I don't miss cleaning all that crap off my planes, or worse the damn paper towel holder bottle thingy tipping over and the precious 409 leaking into your van's carpet.
-- It was the worst "3D" ARF possible... It was fully capable to make a very good(if not a "professional") 3D pilot look like a total noob, when flying this POS, excuse my "French"...
Every once in a while I get nostaglic for my OS .32 powered JR Ergo 30 CCPM Heli, but then I remember the awful pull start that constantly broke and cleaning the castor oil off after every flight with windex and paper towels. Electric quads are all I fly now, heh.
19. Flying your own airplane: I mean, with SAFE, why fly your airplane at all when you can just watch it fly itself! Before everyone gets mad at me, I'm not saying gyros are bad, in fact, I like them in some planes. However, systems like SAFE teach beginners bad habits from the get-go, like not leveling your wings.
Correct, my friend in the sense that one chooses to not eventually cut the safe umbilical cord. Thanks to safe. I taught myself to fly and over a three year period I’m now flying advanced aerobatic sequences.
what about spark ignition 4-stroke? There are some nice engines with multiple cylinders out there. Maybe the revs of a flat-4 match the revs and torque needed by a ducted fan? Also I really would love to see ram air ducts in the center behind each stator vanes. All 7 of them go to the throttle plate, where again they split up into 4 intake runners. No carburetor nozzle in the way, but EFI for maximum air into cylinder. Also don't need this huge exhaust to stick out of the model. Just a short one which fits into the "afterburner".
I still have and fly my Byron BD5J and Rossi 90 which I bought during a visit to the factory in 1988, then carried home to Oz as hand luggage. I still use nicad's and will not allow Lipo's in my workshop. All my planes are Glow or petrol, No ARF's and no foamies. I love to build and love the smell of methanol in the morning.
RC catalogs were the BEANS. It was always fun discovering what new planes and products were getting released. I’d day dream about which I’d buy first all the time
I wish I had just day-dreamed. Only time I ever maxed out a credit card was using that Tower Hobbies catalog.
It was my Christmas catalog 😊
So true. Chinese websites will never fascinate me the way printed catalogs used to. Fingers crossed, maybe someone will find a business opportunity there.
@@Videolinquencysadly, nobody will pay for that catalogue...
58 year old here. Placed my first Tower order in 1980. Placed my most recent Tower order in 2019. And the catalog was filled with builder's kits. ARF was not yet a term. ARC wasn't even a thing. Giant Tartan glow motors were a thing. Circus radios were high end. MK kits were in stock at Indy RC. Central Hobbies was the place to go for pattern. Lump in throat. Tear come to eye. ❤
I drive by a local RC field once every two weeks on a Sunday. There’s never anyone there no matter how beautiful the weather is. It’s so depressing
The Tower Hobbies catalog was great but even better were RCM and Model Airplane News magazines! They also had kick ass Tower ads that went on for pages. I had memorized the delivery day for each magazine to the stores. And I was a grown ass adult at the time. Would rush home and read them cover to cover. Clarence Lee and Duke Fox were gods!
A part of me really misses those days. Something about the sound and smell of glow fuel (when it was not super pricy) and long flight times is a time that almost does not exist anymore.
I miss the people from those days. There was a more sense of community with one another. I miss the grumpy oldtimers who would get mad but still love to help you and treat you like a stepchild. It was great. You can sense they were good guys even though they were grumpy. lol
The smell was actually burnt castor oil. Gross, but I still love it.
I still fly mostly glow planes. I catch a lot of heat about it from the electric guys, but I like the sound and the smoke
@@charleybarber86 Then I want to thank you for keeping the genre alive. I love the smell and the sound all the flight line tricks too, but I have to fly from my yard for lack of a proper field these days, and I fly nothing but FPV now, so I try to keep the vibrations, the goop and the noise to a minimum. Which is probably just a lame excuse for being too lazy to do all the hours of kneeling and cranking and swearing that I used to go through in my glow days. I certainly respect those of you who still do it. Happy flying!
I never flew nitro, but still have a bunch of nitro cars. I also miss the smell of a well running warmed up motor
This was a massive trip down memory lane
Oh memories! The slimy rubber bands, forgetting to charge the G.D. Glow igniter, and bashing a Tower Trainer making a tail dragging, trexler rolling cluster with a .46 O.S. Max swinging a 11x5…
I still deal with the slimy rubber bands every time I fly . I love my old glo planes .
My dad when in college got into building balsa models and 15 years later when I became old enough he bought a foam trainer to fly with me (he had never seen one before and is a compulsive buyer) and the most ironic part to me now looking back at it is although he built 2 balsa models installed the gas engines and all he was too afraid to ever fly them so when he got that trainer 15 years later it was the first time he ever flew
My first plane was a Goldberg Gentle Lady with a Goldberg power pod and a Cox .049 glow engine. The radio was a 72mhz JR 4ch FM radio. Good days!
One that he didn’t mention was balsa builds. It’s super hard now to find real kits for balsa birds now due to everyone buying ARFs
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see balsa building make a resurgence at some point. Flite Test has helped popularize scratch building with Foamboard, which has given newer hobbyists an opportunity to learn building techniques at low risk. And the next stage to make bigger, lighter airplanes is balsa
As an added bonus, balsa is theoretically _better_ than carbon neutral, because the main building ingredients are CO2 and Water, and the trees grow fast for how tall they get: that means a demand for growing more balsa can suck a lot of carbon out of the air.
Sure, foamies and ARFs have taken over, but I can see a culture soon forming of "if you want something built right, build it to your own specs".
The desktop laser cutter has a real chance of bringing these back due to the easy of "printing," kits with the push of a button.
Love to see another WoF fan here, lol!
@@malachiteofmethuselah9713 it's certainly the only reason _I_ feel confident enough to design something
4:12 Wow, that sputtering angry-hornet sound takes me back!
I will add a few that a few OG's will remember but don't probably miss all too much: NiCD batteries, NiMH batteries, Gremlins, Idle bar plugs, die cut, Quadra, servo lead chokes, plastic servo gears, power panels and last but not least....range checks.
Range checks should still be performed radios have procedures listed and low power modes for that.
The difference is that radios are more reliable and planes seem to be cheaper or less of an effort to get in the air, so less care seems to be taken
Also most of my servos are plastic geared... And on purpose, they're just lighter.
Wonderful look back at my teenage modeling years. Thank you...
Well done. Sadly, I'm old enough to remember all items mentioned. I did not know the Byron story. Interesting... I just donated my Wemac 049 and Green head Torpedo 19 to the AMA museum. Both had never been run. Have a great weekend THP!
I got the complete Model Builder magazine collection and read every one. In the one where glow ducted fans were just out on the market, the user was instructed to start the engine and let the fan and duct wear into each other.
We had a club member pass away decades ago that designed the ducted fans for BVM. I bought a OK Models SupraFly 45 that he owned and it had so many custom parts he had made.
We had 27MHz for cars, 35MHz for Aircraft and 40MHz for boats in Germany. Never heard about 50 or 72MHz 😂
Ami-Frequenzen.
Mit 40MHz durfte man sogar fliegen.
Ich habe diese Einschränkungen nie verstanden.
@@daszieher Hat sich an den Gesetzen etwas geändert, oder sind diese Frequenz jetzt frei. Also weil all noch oben abgewandert sind. Gibt es irgendwie regeln bezüglich des Protokolls? Z.B. dürfen Amateurfunker auf ihren Frequenzen ja nichts verschlüsseln. Wie sieht es aus mit digitalen Daten + CheckSum/Signatur, um eine Kollision auf einem Kanal zu detektieren und auf Safe-Mode zu schalten?
@@ArneChristianRosenfeldt aus dem Gedächtnis (ohne Anspruch auf Richtigkeit)
40MHz war in DE schon in den 80ern für Fernsteuerung allgemein, also sowohl für Luft als auch für Boden (Land/Wasser) freigegeben.
27MHz war eine internationale "Trash-Frequenz" wo wirklich jeder Schrott funken durfte. Also Spielzeug, schnurlose Telefone etc. Meidete man so gut es ging. Für R/C Cars gerade noch gut genug.
Eine Unterteilung in Boote und Autos kannte ich zumindest formal nicht.
72MHz war in DE für die Anwendungen nie aktuell und galt in U.S.A.
50MHz ist m.E. (und dem Beitrag nach) eine Amateurfunk-Frequenz und Bedarf einer Lizenz. Ich war nur MilFu, kenne mich mit Amateurfunk überhaupt nicht aus.
35MHz war in DE der Fliegerei vorbehalten und bedurfte (noch?) einer Anmeldung, Sinn dahinter war, die (grobe) Zahl der Sender zu kennen und die Funkqualität aufrecht zu erhalten, um Funkaussetzer bestmöglich auszuschließen.
Yes. I remember 😂.
Now I'm thinking that I'm flying on 868mhz frequency and the range is ... well, let's just say 10+ km is no problem.
I've built an fpv plane with GPS and it's a blast. But it's not just the long range but also the short range object pentration that's gone so advanced. 😅 Wow.
I think more distinction needs to be drawn between ideas that were never good, and ideas that were good, and then superseded
I came into the hobby in 2012. I still remember the puzzled look on my face when the hobbyking skipper I ordered came with a balloon and no instructions. Receiver balloons are not dead. I still use them, especially on those planes that I know are gonna end up ground(water) looping
i got a Skynetic dragonfly last year and it had a balloon as well
Started in 78 with a 4 channel 27mhz futaba
Moved to ff9 in 2000
Changed module to 2.4mhz
Still using it.
I do like a 50cc gas motor
Australia had 27mhz, the very same as the early CB radios here. Same issue, the lawn dart. Caster soaked rubber bands were kept in a jar with talcum powder in it. I started in the late 60s, wow, how things have changed now.
The tower hobbies catalog hits hard😢😢 miss those days.
Robbe and Graupner catalogs here in the EU, but yeah... Always great when the new ones arrived, spending a few afternoons thumbing through them. With loads of stuff that I couldn't afford.
So many old things that disappeared, like frequency pins, hobby shops, missle like pattern airplanes, Ambroid glue, wire antennas, the shouts of “I don’t have it”, the ever present spray cleaner and paper towels. We have also lost some good things like the great airplanes like the Kaos and the Ugly Stik that actually flew instead of flopping around the sky like the styrofoam toys today.
Me and Dad brought the Falcon 56 back to life and my old scat cat Nitro is kinda coming back here🇺🇸✌🏽
So many folks have only flown foam planes that I don't think they understand how floppy they feel. Just check the reviews of the balsa Timber. The rigidity seems to blow people away. New pilots that have flow balsa are nearly exclusively flying ARFs wich are heavy pigs compared to a well designed kit. It seems like planes these days are designed to crash, not to fly
@@Random4RC Balsa flies better no doubt and I'd rather have a kit plane now days, Falcon 56 is up and running with OS FP.60 and scar cat OS .40 FP ,I'm restoring my Extra 300 .120 OS 4STK and Dad is building an Astro Hog, we've missed Nitro and balsa 😅 I still think if you're going to do jets EDF is great and there are some good jet arts available, but prop planes should run on Nitro because it's just proper 🇺🇸👍🏼
I'm currently helping a local kid build his first plane, and it's a balsa high wing trainer (his choice). Just electric rather than combustion.
Foam planes can be made rigid too, a bit of pulltruded carbon fibre rod goes a long way in that regard... assuming you put it in the right place. I've flown some planes where the carbon would make the wings twist the wrong way above a certain speed, leading to a sudden nose dive.
Grew up with my dad and his buddies flying all of the things you mentioned in the video. I still have my "40 size" Eagle 63 that I built as a kid. It still has the ENYA .46 on it. I flew again 7 or 8 years ago after being in storage for 30 plus years. It still had the same Monokote covering on it that I installed when I built it as a kid. The first flights after storage quickly taught me that Monokote gets pretty brittle after sitting in the attic all that time. It's sitting in the corner of my "hobby room" right now. I'm going to recover it and put it back in the air with modern electronics and modern covering. I still what we would call the "flight box" with the battery and control panel as mentioned in the video. Everyone at the field had one back then. My Dad still flies to this day. None of his old planes are around but a few years back he built a new 60 size Ugly Stick and put a 90 four stroke on it. Most of what he flies now is electric for all the reasons you listed but he still loves (as do I) the sound, and smell, of the nitro glow engines. Once tuned properly they are extremely reliable. The modern nitro fuels and the oils they contain, are much better than the old caster oil based stuff. Many, many great memories of the planes, people, and fun Saturday or Sunday afternoons at the flying field with my Dad and his buddies.
Despite flying FPV, electric, automated drones and otherwise keeping up with technology, I somehow still fly my nitro planes on NiMh. I feel like I missed a memo.
Ohhhhh. I’ve been really confused why the F-86 sounds like an OS prop engine. Thanks for solving a 20 year mystery
-- It was probably a Kyosho with OS-15 DF and pull starter...
To start flying RC planes back in 1988 to 1993 was a magical time. At the perfect age to be part of almost everything flying to current in the hobby has ever had to date.
This video is really cool to capture all of it to current.
This brings back a lot of amazing memories. I have experienced all of this and still learning today.
I am thankful for where we are today for the hobby because while all of this is really cool,… I’m glad we are where we are today.
I wouldn’t go back.
I loved those tower catalogs! I prefer my field box with a gallon of nitro and my power panel then a giant bag full of hundreds and hundreds of dollars of batteries and I still have my Zagi!!!
Great video.O started R/C back in 1980.I miss nitro engines and tuned pipes.My retracts were air operated.My first radio was a 5 channel MRC 765 which I still have in my parents attic.I also had a 2 channel Cox Sanwa radio.But I will say,that flying electric R/C planes is a much nicer experience.You charge your flight pack batteries,fly,and your finished for the day.No cleaning the oily mess off you model.
Power panels and fuel pumps were usually attached to car battery powered field boxes, which were probably the heaviest items we regularly managed to forget on our way to the field - unless spouses count. I do miss those days, but I'm in no hurry to repeat them.
car battery ? we used a small motorcycle battery. or 2 6volt lantern batterys. say theres a thing i've not seen in years either.
@@orbitalair2103 Many did use MC batteries. So did I for a few years, but I got tired of the low capacity. Large bikes were not very common in my part of the world back then, so the ones I had access to were 2 or 4 Ah. Not always enough for a weekend of winter temperature starts. So I didn't mind the extra kilos of a small car battery.
Catalogues are what I miss the most. I still have an old Hobby Lobby catalogue that I read every now and then...
Tower Hobbies and the Sears catalogs....YEAH BABY!
First time I've seen someone call control line, RC. haha
I do because I have several rc ukies on my channel.
Reference what Dave said. 👍
Good memories. I still recall that the trend of sharing props changed a bit into trading props, because itvwas cheaper to buy in bulk and sometimes you had too many of those GWS props of a certain size. Folks at the park often used 8x4", 8x4.3", 8x6", 9x4.7", 9x5", 9x7", 10x4.7".
What a surprise to see my Zagi video cited! They owned the wing market when I got into flying, the Zagi's pure toughness made it a solid trainer for me even though it wasn't the easiest thing to fly. I was out of the hobby for nearly 10 years, and when I came back EVERYTHING had changed. LiPos and Brushless motors had replaced brushed and Nicads. I took the best guess as to what Lipo/Brushless would power my rebuilt Zagi and boy did I ever miss. I totally overpowered it, and it flew like it was on meth (as seen in vid). It flapped at full throttle and I finally stopped flying it since I didn't want to destroy the plane I learned to fly on.
I'm really kind of bummed they just kind of slow-faded out of RC, I really have a fondness for the company that got me into flying.
I fly zagis often, a friend of mine has a hot wire rig where he can make zagi wing half’s and build the wings.
I have a 6 foot battle wing with a lead nose and it weighs 11lbs. It destroys everything in its path while combating other battle gliders.
Also have the hand launch 3 footers. Great for light thermals or soaring.
@@ElijahMiniBikes That's pretty awesome! I hung my Zagi in the garage and replaced it with a Crash Test Hobby Grim Reaper. Still my go-to on windy days or if I feel that I need a warmup flight. 🍻
I still have a Zagi downstairs. I loved the coffee candies the kits came with.
The Nighflyer episode, lol. From watching Dave's' channel, I know you guys steam Aero Fly together, which is pretty wholesome, Dave seems like a lovely fella.
For modern Zagi wings I would very much recommend Crash Test Hobbies and specifically the Assassin. Lots of fun and inexpensive. Not for beginners.
this channel deserves way more than 47k subs
Dang, I never noticed that, feels like it has like 900k
This was nostalgic AF
This brought back some memories, im 53 yrs old and from the age of 6 I was raised on an RC field, usually running around with an old 049 in my hand, my dad started flying at a young age, started with U control, dad built everything in those days, built some beautiful planes that are still hanging in the basement, still has a lot of his old radio too, that yellow Kraft, couple of them he still has, my first plane was a Piece of Cake, they called it, giant bent wing glider with and an 049..... Always getting that Tower Hobbies catalog in the mail..... miss those days....
Awww man I've been thinking about those Zagi wings for a few weeks now! Back in 98 there was a bunch of guys that flew them off 80amp brushed motors and 10s nimh they were surprisingly fast!
I got into RC in the late 90's and fondly remember getting the Tower Hobbies catalog. I still have my old Tower Hobbies Trainer with it's .40 ABC Tower Hobbies Engine in it. I remember learning to fly with a trainer cable hooked up to someone elses remote. I got back into the hobby recently and am surprised to see how far electrics have come and how easy it is to fly some of these models now.
You just made me cry, on a good way.. Thanks for the memories
Remember Depron Airliners? I do and I also miss the RC nitro choppers that carried around full sized cameras before drones
Flew R/C allot back in the mid 1980s as a teenager. Man it was so fun building balsa kits like the Kaos or Toppo. Flew in some pattern contests and went to the AMA Nats one year. Those were fun times!
Still a sucker for glow engines, even though most of my fleet is electric now I still make sure to keep a couple glow powered planes on deck. That darn nostalgia will get ya.
Gonna catch heat for the PT-19 dis.
The Tower Hobbies catalog was the best. Then HH bought them out and killed Great Planes
I still fly nitro ducted fans. Best thing there is and cheaper than gas turbines.
My catalogs were usually in the guest bathroom with my gun magazines. When guests are gone guess which I found laying out the most.
Don’t miss most of those, RC hobby is now better than ever. Cheaper and better radio systems, better planes and electronics, etc.
What’s going down is that there is not enough young people in flying clubs !
Check out our video titled, "Kids don't fly RC Planes. Here's Why."
thats because it tended to be filled with snobs. i remember after i learned rc planes in college, graduating and moving to a new town. the local rc field was filled with upper crust types. i quit flying at fields then. i would occasionally go to a schools field on a sunday afternoon and fly for a bit, but my stuff is now ceiling decorations. i remember using or seeing all the things in this video.
Even down here in Australia I loved my RCM magazine with the Tower Hobbies section...I miss paper. 🇦🇺
If you do this again EZ aircraft would be a interesting one. An early ARTF range and they came from japan's OK model company. Basically wood covered in depron covered in vinyl. They were great (now collectable) with a large range but prices were very high, even back then.
I have my second EZ Dago Red sitting downstairs unflown. OS .91 four stroke and retracts! Loved that plane.
Thanks for the videos.
Thanks for the support!
What I miss more than anything is the monthly tower sales Mags. They just made me happy.
Love your vids ❤❤❤❤
Shout out to Nightflyer. He's been a RUclipsr forever.
He's the GOAT! I started my original channel in 2008 (RedDevilSquadron) and even back then he was already several hundred videos in it seems like. He was and still is a big inspiration for me. -Zach
I loved RC plane catalogs when I was a kid. Out local RC store was Hobby Shack in Southern CA.
I always wondered what happened to Byron Originals. Their P-51 Mustang with the gear reduction four bladed prop was the coolest thing ever when I saw it as a kid back in 1983. It's still cooler than just about anything out there today.
I had a F-4 with twin glow ducted fan back in the old days. Made more noise than a full size F 104.
I remember RCM&E 1995 issue having a custom plan for an EDF jet called a Tyto - it used an Estes D class rocket motor to enable takeoff from the ground because NiCads and brushed EDF just didnt have the guts. Five minute flghts were a good result for an electric thing in the 90s, so if you wanted a jet without a loathsome engine sticking out of the nose it was the only practical option.
I do like that modern stuff has made aeromodelling more accessible. The zen of turning a box of sticks and tissue paper into a flying machine is a precious experience as well.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Seems to me at one time I had a "throttle collar" for both a cox.049 and a Cox .09. Ran the .09 a Sig Colt. 3 channel failure at it's best. One other thing you forgot to mention was the RC magazines of the day. 200 pages of magazine, 176 pages of ads...........
Excellent radio gear is so cheap nowadays that I don't think peeps new to the hobby can appreciate just how big a deal it used to be to 'get into RC'. Expense-wise, it was pretty much the same as buying a second-hand car.
As a kid, it meant saving, saving, then saving some more to get into the air. Servos were hideously expensive, so a first model would be rudder only or, if you were lucky, rudder and elevator.
It's incredibly sad - and ironic - that getting into RC has never been cheaper or easier, but that our wonderful hobby has been ruined for newcomers by the frenzied introduction of new 'drone' legislation - pilot registration, new taxes, fees, limitations, mandatory memberships, examinations, regulations, and all the rest of the unnecessary (and just plain wrong) nonsense that bureaucrats with no knowledge of or interest in aeromodelling are rushing to impose.
[Disclosure: I'm English, based in the UK, and currently only involved with sub-250g models.]
7:37 You could say with the rise in 3D printed designs, that plastic planes are not really a thing of the past, but rather gaining again
8:02 I was an VERY embarrassed 14 year old, way back, buying condoms for the first time (unlubricated) to waterproof the receiver on my Associated RC-10. Now I roll up to the cashier with condoms, bananas, and baby oil just to start a conversation.
Still has a glow ducted fan in the box, and it's kit, a bunch of hobby king lsd nicad batteries, etc. These are good old days for most of us still keeping kyosho pt19 balsa arf model in its box for my kids.
Yeah I miss all of those. I have a unbuilt Combat Models Falcon sitting in my attic haunting me and yet it's seems pointless to even attempt to build it with all the options out there.
I probably looked through my tower hobbies catologs a thousand times as a kid. Best part of the year.
I love the catalogs
I still use rubber bands on my wings (Flite Test high wings), and remember a glow-powered EDF that just taxied. It couldn't get off the grass. I do miss the catalogues! I held on to a few. Had a Cox .049 motor on a control line plastic Cosmo plane when I was too young to use it. The Flite Test Arrows mimic the Zagi wings. Crystals were expensive! I still use a balloon on my water planes. Sucks losing power and control when the plane flips. I still swap props with my buddies and we bring 6 by 3's, 9 by 6's and 10 by 4.5's to the field.
How I hated breaking propellers every time a landing wasn't butter.
The GRAUPNER katalogue was my bible back in the 70s and 80s in Denmark. That and the Marklin model train katalogue. I worked all summer vacation and bought the black Graupner Varioprop 14S 40MHz radio and Graupner's first 1/8 scale glow race car with the HB.21 engine. I didn't leave money for repairs so it was a short lived pleasure.
The Zagi! My first RC and build! Also the crystal swap! love it!
PCbway. I quoted them for a small, simple steel adapter sleeve with flange. Basically 3 tool changes and maybe 30 seconds of machine time... 80 euros. I think I'll ask a friend with an ancient manual lathe to make one for me for half that and I'll even get the tolerance right for the interference fit.
Still have a couple Byron glow fans. Love the flight times compared to EDFs. Refuel and go again as well... F-86D with Rossi 91 and Mig 15 with OS77
7:45 I still have this exact plane and motor...
Ahaaa my dad had a home made HAM band transmitter when I was a kid. Two channels! It was for a glider that he crashed before I was born, and it got repurposed for a Tamiya buggy with the old mechanical servo throttle. Had them NiCad batteries too. Both the transmitter and the car.
Great content Zack. Thanks for the shout outs. And btw, I do love my nitro helis. 😊Hope to fly with you again Thursday night. Fly easy. ~ Dave. NightFlyyer
Thanks for helping make this video a reality! Unfortunately, my computer is officially bricked. A power surge destroyed the mother board, video card, and power supply. Probably out of simming for the season. :-( - Zach
Just started rc planes, really fun!
Just started building a f22
Another fantastic installment guys I still remember these trends! BTW Will you guys be doing that video on the Micro Drago soon???
GWS. They were the first to come up with inexpensive brushless motors, as well as the Slow Stick and many other products.
Yep. I'm old. I still have everything talked about!! Not all is used but I'm only 41!!
I still buy and fly all this old stuff. Because people sell them super super cheap!! And then I get rid of rhe old fm transmitters and servos and still fly them. I have a collection of over 150 nitro engines. Just sitting on acshelf, and about a dozen flyable planes and duckted fans.
I get that with today's stuff, no one really wants them. But I grew up on them so I still play with them.
I see that Aerostar 40. Outstanding flyer. I had the ARF version before it rekitted itself.
Here's one: building models from plans enlarged on the office copier from magazines.
Ohhh. Belive me this was funny days with allot testing this and that😊
Yes!!! been waiting all day to watch it!!!!
Building your own models is also a trend that has died.
Is that included in any of those lists?
Yes, he mentioned it...
Zagi wings are very popular still in Brazil!
Low cost and a lot of fun!
Talk about bringing back memories and the catalogs tell me i am not the only one who used to flip pages till they were out
The models shown in 15 were Control Line (C/L) NOT RC (Radio Control) and introduced a generation to the joys of model airplane flying with their low cost and being harder to break than balsa models.
I noticed that, too, but went with "Remote Control" instead of "Radio Control".
RC actually stands for "Remote Control", only later did they become "Radio Control". Remote control still applies to control line, whatever...(There were control line cars as well).
@@MrBIG4D I thank you for your clarification. I would propose that a C/L aircraft is not "remotely controlled" - there is a direct linkage from the flyer to the elevator of the model being flown and there is no other equipment involved. Directly controlled would be my call but not remotely controlled. There are still many contests and flying worldwide divided into two very separate divisions that being C/L and RC. Advocates of C/L flying will point out that one of the advantages of flying C/L is the feedback the flyer receives through the lines from the model which doesn't occur with RC (the closest, I believe, to the direct feedback from C/L flying would be FPV - although the feedback is visual rather than physical).
Control line does fall under "RC" as the original definition of "remote control" - as @MrBID4D noted.
Control line has a lot more flyers than I ever thought. And if you get to AirVenture, in the kids area at the Museum field, they will let your kid fly a control line plane. its really cool just to stand there and watch the kids and pros fly control line planes.
You left out the old guy in the club who couldn't hear and thought that Zagi wings were called "Ziggys".
I don't miss nitro at all. LiPos are a PITA sometimes but I don't miss cleaning all that crap off my planes, or worse the damn paper towel holder bottle thingy tipping over and the precious 409 leaking into your van's carpet.
I spent so much time looking at Rc catalogs they might as well have been triple x
I miss catalogs. They had their own smell - like fresh ink and pulpwood.
You guys should do reviews on old arf models like the Han 9 Tango as shown at 0:37 PLS
-- It was the worst "3D" ARF possible... It was fully capable to make a very good(if not a "professional") 3D pilot look like a total noob, when flying this POS, excuse my "French"...
Every once in a while I get nostaglic for my OS .32 powered JR Ergo 30 CCPM Heli, but then I remember the awful pull start that constantly broke and cleaning the castor oil off after every flight with windex and paper towels. Electric quads are all I fly now, heh.
3:35 yeahhh coqs, french here!
19. Flying your own airplane: I mean, with SAFE, why fly your airplane at all when you can just watch it fly itself!
Before everyone gets mad at me, I'm not saying gyros are bad, in fact, I like them in some planes. However, systems like SAFE teach beginners bad habits from the get-go, like not leveling your wings.
Correct, my friend in the sense that one chooses to not eventually cut the safe umbilical cord. Thanks to safe. I taught myself to fly and over a three year period I’m now flying advanced aerobatic sequences.
Dang this makes me feel like a fossil🤣
Hey, everybody loves the dinosaurs, and you've got one up on those guys because you're still here
Good ole days, my first trainer was a Hobbico Avistar. Flew that thing 3 times and then I discovered cars…the rest is history.
Those flight boxes aren’t dead- LOTS of us are still flying glow, and prefer it that way.
what about spark ignition 4-stroke? There are some nice engines with multiple cylinders out there. Maybe the revs of a flat-4 match the revs and torque needed by a ducted fan? Also I really would love to see ram air ducts in the center behind each stator vanes. All 7 of them go to the throttle plate, where again they split up into 4 intake runners. No carburetor nozzle in the way, but EFI for maximum air into cylinder. Also don't need this huge exhaust to stick out of the model. Just a short one which fits into the "afterburner".
Zagis were my entire childhood with neighborhood combat!
I still have and fly my Byron BD5J and Rossi 90 which I bought during a visit to the factory in 1988, then carried home to Oz as hand luggage. I still use nicad's and will not allow Lipo's in my workshop. All my planes are Glow or petrol, No ARF's and no foamies. I love to build and love the smell of methanol in the morning.