Doug-tell the story of the "one prop"

Reading the "prop breakers" stories about simply flying for the fun of it makes me wax nostalgic

Doug tells this story that always cracks me up. It is the story of the "one prop". I hope he comes on line and tells it.

Shortly after I started building and flying (I was about 13) I came up with a system for flying 1/2A that was always alot of fun. I used to fill a sports bottle full of fuel, stick my hobby battery with cables in my back pocket and head off to the church softball fields just acrtoss the street from my house. I had a Lil Satan that was covered in Silray (rayon silk) and it was simply indestructible over grass. I could fly all day on that 20 oz or so of fuel and still have some left over to cool the head of the Golden Bee or Black Widow I was running ( I had both). I could do some pretty cool tricks with that little sucker even with the controls set very slow so I could fly it more like a stunt plane.

All Ihad to do was talk one of my "non Modeler" friends into standing out there and launching me all day. I was really never that hard, as everyone seemed to enjoy watching the Lil Satan scream around the sky. Guess those days are kinda gone... but my hope is that boys will always be boys. I figure CL flying is better than maybe even firecrackers. Maybe not bottle rockets though...

'Zilla,

Waaaay better than bottle rockets! I was the kid who got to launch a lot. The kids across the street got a lot of different Cox planes (and cars). I had one engine and had to make my planes....(scratch-built). So I got to start a lot of plastic planes and launch 'em. The best part of summer was before the planes wore out....

In some ways, I guess I'll be eleven years old forever....

1) My broher and I used to fly plastic 1/2 airplanes in out back yard, with very short lines (like 15 feet). They were so marginal, you had to whip them, and you could spot land them right next to your flight box. We would save our lawn mowing money for a pint of cox fuel.

2) My mother was a good softball player, and we would bring our airplanes to the park and fly them while she played. Many many enjoyable hours with a baby flite streak and jr ringmaster.

3) We would ride our bikes with airplanes up to the baseball fields ( about a mile) and fly week day mornings. We would start at about 7:30 Am and the houses were real close to the park, but no one complained. We would build clones of stunt man 23's, Baby Ringmasters and sterling warbirds. We would get broken cox RTF airplanes and reuse the engines, swapping parts from cars, and airplanes. I had a little gyro copter. We would fly till about 11, get some ice cream, play some baseball, then ride home. Break a prop and you were done. But the old top flight plastic and tornado plastic were tough.

When Steve and I learned to fly it was a family event. It was usually me and Steve and our dad. Sometimes my mom and sister would come out and watch. Now this was back in 1990 or 1991. We had been succesful in totaly destroying a Rigmaster and a Sterling P-51 in one day. However after that day we were hooked. We (my brother and I) talked my dad into buying us a Sig sheet wing Shoestring stunter. We also talked him into some new fuel and a good starting battery. You should have seen it. An unemployed 21 year old and a home for the summer between transfers 27 year old begging their dad like children for a new toy. Well he(dad) was all too familiar with CL. It was his Ringmaster that he built 30+ years earlier that Steve totaled on one flight. Well he buckled under the pressure and we were off to build our new HUGE stunter.

Of course we built it in a few hours and sprayed it all black with dope. It was powered with an OS MAX III 20. You know the silver one with the black fins. It was a royal pain to get it to start. But once it started it stayed running just fine. Probably had the wrong oil mix. But hey we didnt know anything about that stuff at the time.

The plane flew. It said on the box Shoe String Stunter. This was the plane that I learned how to get a complete flight on. I made my first wing overs on this plane and that was about all we could do with it. Here is how a typical day at the field would go. Steve Dad and I would show up with stunter ready for battle. Spend 20 minutes getting it started, set the needle as lean as it would go, and Steve would head out to the handle. He would fly the plane pretty good. He would fly out the whole tank and land it. Then we would straighten the gear. My dad would take a turn on it and get in a whole flight. Then I would get on it and make a few laps and start to get board. Then I would try for slow climbs and dives. Well as the days went by I was getting more and more dangerous with our little beast and wanted to try WOs.(regular ones not reverse) Steve got in his flight, then Dad, then me, after a few laps I give it full up and over the top it goes. I start feeding in up and it wont pull out. Slowly it turns out put the ground is coming up fast and BAM! busted prop. We checked the plane and all was OK. So we head to Hall's Hobby house and get one prop. Back to the field we go. This time it is just me and Steve, this is all in the same day by the way. Steve gets one in and then up I go. After two laps I go right for the WO. Same thing and the same result, busted prop. Only this time you could hear cuss words coming from Steve... That was all for that day. The next day we go to the shop and yes we buy ONE prop. Back to the field and he flys and I break the prop. This happens for some time. Somewhere along the way we finally thought to buy more than one prop. Needless to say there was lots of cussing from outside the circle. I was determined to do a WO that wne tover the top like it was supposed to. All the while we were acting like total idiots Bob G. was on the other circle pounding out pattern after pattern. Steve told me repeatedly about who this guy was and what he had done in the CLPA world. I had no idea what he was talking about, a pattern what the heck is that? All I wanted to do was a WO. Bob told me just the other day he was watching us the whole time and just laughing to himself. He thought it was great. After a flight that either Steve or I completed without damage or carnage of some sort there were chears from the family and clapping. Bob would just look over a smile. He knew we were in for the long haul. Getting through a flight was a major event in those days. Somewhere during that summer was when I bit by the CL bug it got me pretty bad. Steve and I have been addicted ever since that summer. I remember at the end of the summer we built an Ackromaster and powered it with an OS 15 I think. We learned loops on that plane. We were so scared of loops. We would go all the up like a loop and then at the last second step around and it would just be a crooked WO. Finally one of us did it first. Then it was loop city from there. Then one afternoon I was flying it in a schoolyard and I tried a loop after I had already done about 30 in one flight, only insides, and it just seemed to loose all control and POW it figured 9ed right in. It was silk span so it just shattered every open bay. From there I bought an already built baby flight streak with an 09 Tee Dee on it and flew that some and then it was onto bigger and better planes from there. Oddly enough I still have that Baby FS and it is ready to go at a moments notice.

I could go on and on!

The Bonehead column Dee Rice writes, I could give him enough material to last a lifetime.

Doug,

I feel much better now. After my mishap at the Stunt-a-Thon, I thought that was about as bad as it gets. Turns out not.

I had
>no idea what he was talking about, a pattern what the heck
>is that? All I wanted to do was a WO.

Me too brother...me too....