A Christmas Story

So I watched Kim's video of the unfortunate incident that occurred to his Cox Rivets, when it reminded me of a similar scenario to my new Christmas present. The year was 1971 when I received a brand new Cox Rivets as a Christmas present. What was surprising was that my older brother purchased the gift for me which was completely unexpected. Well, I thought I was pretty good at flying U Control having had good success with my Cox PT 19 Flight Trainer, so I anxiously awaited for winter to pass here in Wisconsin. Sometime in the early spring, I fired her up with a stooge and made one lap. Feeling good about the control, I then gave some up elevator into a perfect figure 9. I could not believe that it happened so fast. She came apart upon impact with the engine cowling broken along with a questionable wing. I picked up all the pieces and did the walk of shame to place it within the original box. I did order a new cowling and wing. All was forgotten about until watching Kim's video.

I stored the box along with parts for the last 48 years in the attic. When I went up there to look for it, it was nestled in the corner. Wow, 48 years...that's a lifetime for some. Here's what I found. I left the box in the attic.



After evaluating the damage I decided to clean it up, polish and then try to reassemble the Rivets. This is a beautiful model, but not well designed to stay together. The landing gear is pressed fit into the fuselage. The engine cowling snaps over the front upper and lower fuselage held within close approximation via a nose spring. The rear portion of the wing hooks inside the fuselage. I realize that production costs were a concern with Cox and it is also considered a "toy", however I really don't think she'll ever see any flight time again from me.

I remember reading from Mudhen that the potential for this plastic to shrink may occur especially after 48 years. I followed his advice when threading screws into the new engine cowling lugs by heating the cowling lugs with a hair dryer and slowly turning the screws in and out of the engine lugs until they bottomed out. It was a time consuming process, but well worth the effort. The .049 was disassembled, cleaned, lubed and then re-assembled.

Then hours of polishing and finally applying some new vinyl stickers, saving the original water soluble decals for potential future reference.  Below, it's Christmas 1971 once again, some 48 years later.

       Merry Christmas Cox Engine Forum Members and a Happy New Year!