Before the days of RC...

[Dominicm]

...we had control line. Some still race with control line models today. Quite entertaining to watch. You get the impression that with one false move you could risk decapitation.

[Spitfire]

That would have been me back in 1968/69 - I entered and raced control line FAI and 1/2A team race at the BMFA Nationals

Something along these lines ... FAI was just a bigger version of the smaller 1/2A models


As opposed to the current designs which are more solid and like flying wings ...


Happy memories of flying in the circle against such legends as Place & Haworth and Heaton & Ross

Dick Place and Don Haworth with Nova II their winning model - they were brilliant.
Don Haworth was the mechanic (spot the dirty right knee )
Dick Place was the pilot ... a bu**er to race against as he was so BIG I think he was in the RAF.


Never did any good - got past the 1st round once - but we were only schoolboys in our teens and didn't have the resources of the big boys ... but what an experience

And control line wasn't 'before' RC - it developed alongside - we dabbled with single channel 'lack of control' MacGregor sets even then
It operated on a single switch pulse that was received in the plane on a brick of a receiver and used a twisted elastic band powered escapement to give left or right rudder ... but it had to go through the central neutral position ... so one click gave left - then another click back to centre then another to right ... and you had to remember how many clicks you'd sent for what control you actually wanted

[Dominicm]

Thanks for the correction and for sharing David. That made fascinating reading. Single channel! I complain about only having 18