The Latest Craziness

Around the time of my 14th birthday, I converted $25 of hard-earned lawnmowing money into the mail order purchase of my very first Radio "Control" set. I put "Control" in parenthesis since, unbeknown to me at the time, I would spend as much time chasing my beloved model as actually "controlling" it!

My Uncle Wayne helped me pick out this Citizenship Escapement Set from Stanton Hobby...one of the heavy-hitter hobby stores back in the 60's. You veterans probably understand the application of the "escapement"...I came to understand the "escape" part of it as it applied to my airplane anyway.



When the box arrived, I was sure that they'd left something out. No servo, ready to push or pull the rudder, just a weird frame with guts and wires and hooks sticking out of it!



I followed the directions, building a Sterling "Minnie Mambo" around the primitive little radio. While it may be hard to believe, I actually pulled off a few controlled flights, mixed in with the ones where I put down the transmitter, and took off in hot pursuit of my fleeing plane.



Over the years, the flight pack was disassembled, and with no schematic, there was no practical way for me to get it wired back together. Recently though, I was able to acquire a NIB escapement pack of the exact type I flew so long ago, and hope to revive the excitement of chasing a rapidly disappearing model airplane!



There will be more posts as I work through this deal !!!