At 07:23 PM 6/30/2006, Bill & Bunny Kuhlman wrote:
My first RC glider was an Ecktronics Nomad, a Ted Strader design, which used a Citizenship LT-3 receiver and a Bonner escapement, with a C&G Venus tube transmitter. Despite being rudder only, I managed to successfully slope soar it many times. This was around 1962.
This was my first successful kit sailplane, also. The .020 took it out of harms way before I had to give it a control. I had the Shows pulser on my Citizenship transmitter (27.255) and used the Mighty Midget motor to drive the rudder, switching circuit from American Modeler Magazine. I was using a Ace K3VK receiver by then because I wiped out all of my previous receivers (I had several unsuccessful attempts before that.) My first successful sailplane was a scaled plane from Model Airplane News describing Frank Bethwaite's world record.
My first (not successful) R/C sailplane was a converted Jasco Floater. I never could get the "Lorentz-like" receiver to work without engine vibration. The "radio" was the Airtrol box sold by AHC: $9.95 plus parts. I learned that salt water does a job on electronics with a 45 volt battery to provide current flow. Several other semi-successful sailplanes came along, using the LT-3 with SE2 compound escapement, the until I realized that others were flying just up the street at the Torrey Pines glider-port.
The transition to proportional control (JR Century 7 system) roughly two decades later was relatively smooth.
Transition to full Propo was when the AMA got 72 MHz from the FCC (1967). It was the Bonner 4RS (red/white) mounted in a Graupner Foka 4 bleach-bottle-fuselage sloper.
-Fritz RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
