RC Model Cars and Boats

I got my son (sort of, started him on scale models knowing what would happen) and my neighbors kid followed, into R/c Cars. They are off the TV and video grames, for the most part, and seem to be learning alot of pratical/appliable knowledge, to other fields, like I did when I was young, and having alot of fun doing it. I had my son wrenching since age 4,(50cc Quad with supervision) and he is way ahead of where I was at his current age, even though me and my Dad did the same, it was not as intensive, as my son's training/experience. He started with the Revel scale models at around age 7. It seemed to help him learn patience, technique, organization, following written instructions, ect. better, as well as attention to detail, and sequence of proceedure/operation. All good to know in any field, and life in general, at least to my way of thinking. He is passing some of his knowlede to his buddy, and he picking up well, considering he has only been around tools for the most part for two years. I personally think it is a win/win situtiation for everyone, just like HotRodding, as long as they keep their school work and chours in perspective. Anybody else fool with the model stuff with the kids anymore? Don't see many folk's doing R/c or HotRodding, or anykind of mechanical work around here much anymore, much less with their kids. Hope it's just this area, but kind of doubt it.

Man Training ..... This country needs more of it!

Wish I could post pictures, might have to set up a photo account and try. I bet alot of guy's like the small cars too. We shall see.

Although not RC, Santa Claus delivered a P-51 Mustang with a Nitro burning Cox engine, the scale of the flier I don't recall although the wing span was nearly three foot the best I remember! Dad and I gathered the P-51, battery and fuel and out we went. Now remember, the plane was controlled by two handles with four lines running from the handles to the plane's controls and the pilot/operator was required to turn in circles as the plane flew in circles as well. Time to fly this sum bitch! Battery hooked to the glow plug, guide lines straight and untangled Dad gives me OK to fire it up! This is the part where a disclaimer should have been listed as to kids operating the plane. To start you wound the propeller against the engine's compression and let go! Now I'm not talking about a butter knife propeller, this bad boy would slice a finger off without notice! Two or three efforts of winding the propeller and the P-51 would come to  life. Once started and another OK from Dad I let the mighty P-51 free. The P-51 took to the air in an instant and my mind was lost in the preverbal flight. I watched the P-51 go round and round completing circle after circle and doing so in paramount fashion until I noticed it dipped a bit then a bit more. I looked at Dad the pilot, and he was staggering around to the point of stumbling from the dizziness of continuous circling. When I looked back at the P-51 she was in a nose dive to the concrete street. When she made contact with the street at full throttle I was horrified. What once was a beautiful plane was now demolished in so many pieces very few were recovered. Oh well Dad consoled me and we went back inside. The remainder of Christmas day I dismantled the plane removing the engine and mounting it to a board so I could start that Nitro burning buzz saw and at least find a bit of enjoyment from it all! Mom allowed that for a while until the Nitro fumes and noise became a nuisance to her and in the drawer of lost treasures the mighty P-51's Nitro burning engine was laid.

Sorry for the long reply/story, it just came to mind when I saw the topic!

Dave.

Yes I did mess with the rc nitro cars/trucks with some friends at work or did until last years when the parking lot we use to run in was reopen to a new cargo trailer plant. Redcat makes what I think the best starter cars/trucks for the money I have 2 redcat 1 a $159 nitro car and the other is a 4x4 nitro truck. I have in the 1/10 scale 4 HPI nitro cars 2 traxxas nitro cars 2 redcat and one 1/8 scale Kyosho cars. I have 2 that are 70+ mph but have the rest running around 50 mph the 50 mph car are a lot better to play with the anything over about 55 mph get hard to handle with out crashing a lot. I got around $2000 to $3000 dollar worth of cars and parts sitting in my cargo trailer that is just sitting never gets played with any more. These nitro cars will cost you some $$$$ if you really get into making them faster and faster and get them to handle right at higher speeds.

LivermoreDave wrote:Although not RC, Santa Claus delivered a P-51 Mustang with a Nitro burning Cox engine, the scale of the flier I don't recall although the wing span was nearly three foot the best I remember! Dad and I gathered the P-51, battery and fuel and out we went. Now remember, the plane was controlled by two handles with four lines running from the handles to the plane's controls and the pilot/operator was required to turn in circles as the plane flew in circles as well. Time to fly this sum bitch! Battery hooked to the glow plug, guide lines straight and untangled Dad gives me OK to fire it up! This is the part where a disclaimer should have been listed as to kids operating the plane. To start you wound the propeller against the engine's compression and let go! Now I'm not talking about a butter knife propeller, this bad boy would slice a finger off without notice! Two or three efforts of winding the propeller and the P-51 would come to  life. Once started and another OK from Dad I let the mighty P-51 free. The P-51 took to the air in an instant and my mind was lost in the preverbal flight. I watched the P-51 go round and round completing circle after circle and doing so in paramount fashion until I noticed it dipped a bit then a bit more. I looked at Dad the pilot, and he was staggering around to the point of stumbling from the dizziness of continuous circling. When I looked back at the P-51 she was in a nose dive to the concrete street. When she made contact with the street at full throttle I was horrified. What once was a beautiful plane was now demolished in so many pieces very few were recovered. Oh well Dad consoled me and we went back inside. The remainder of Christmas day I dismantled the plane removing the engine and mounting it to a board so I could start that Nitro burning buzz saw and at least find a bit of enjoyment from it all! Mom allowed that for a while until the Nitro fumes and noise became a nuisance to her and in the drawer of lost treasures the mighty P-51's Nitro burning engine was laid.

Sorry for the long reply/story, it just came to mind when I saw the topic!

Dave.

Dave had 1 back in my youth years you are so right about that little cox's propeller it would pop you if you gave it a chance and hurt for hours after   

LivermoreDave wrote:Although not RC, Santa Claus delivered a P-51 Mustang with a Nitro burning Cox engine, the scale of the flier I don't recall although the wing span was nearly three foot the best I remember! Dad and I gathered the P-51, battery and fuel and out we went. Now remember, the plane was controlled by two handles with four lines running from the handles to the plane's controls and the pilot/operator was required to turn in circles as the plane flew in circles as well. Time to fly this sum bitch! Battery hooked to the glow plug, guide lines straight and untangled Dad gives me OK to fire it up! This is the part where a disclaimer should have been listed as to kids operating the plane. To start you wound the propeller against the engine's compression and let go! Now I'm not talking about a butter knife propeller, this bad boy would slice a finger off without notice! Two or three efforts of winding the propeller and the P-51 would come to  life. Once started and another OK from Dad I let the mighty P-51 free. The P-51 took to the air in an instant and my mind was lost in the preverbal flight. I watched the P-51 go round and round completing circle after circle and doing so in paramount fashion until I noticed it dipped a bit then a bit more. I looked at Dad the pilot, and he was staggering around to the point of stumbling from the dizziness of continuous circling. When I looked back at the P-51 she was in a nose dive to the concrete street. When she made contact with the street at full throttle I was horrified. What once was a beautiful plane was now demolished in so many pieces very few were recovered. Oh well Dad consoled me and we went back inside. The remainder of Christmas day I dismantled the plane removing the engine and mounting it to a board so I could start that Nitro burning buzz saw and at least find a bit of enjoyment from it all! Mom allowed that for a while until the Nitro fumes and noise became a nuisance to her and in the drawer of lost treasures the mighty P-51's Nitro burning engine was laid.

Sorry for the long reply/story, it just came to mind when I saw the topic!

Dave.

Almost the same story here. Cox PT19 Trainer held together with rubber bands. After about the 3rd crash after some glue repairs, the Old Man gave up on flying and got a brand new plan. We made a small airboat out of 1/4 plywood, and mounted the engine on it, with much better results. Then we graduated to building an R/C airboat from scratch with a K&B .40 and a Futuba 2 channel. Never did the R/c cars as they were to expensive back them. Had a Cox .049 Sandblaster Buggy, real pain in the A$$. R/c Models are still a Cancer, but somewaht cheaper now. The kid's are learning the pitfalls of Nitro cars as I type this, I warned them. At least they had the opportunity to mess with them, and learn. They could be doing way worse things with their time and money, I think.

I don't get to mess with them as much as I use too, but I have several planes, motorcycle, and two boats. Many, many hours spent building them. I've always wanted to build one of our Gulfstreams but have never got around to doing it. Here are my two boats, they mostly sit up there gathering dust these days.

Navy PGM powered by two 12v motors. The real ones back in the 60's and 70's were powered by two VT12-875 Cummins diesels for cruising with a max speed of 18 mph, for high speed it was powered by a GE LM 1500 gas turbine with max speed of 48 mph   Not too bad for a boat with 240 ton displacement.



This is my Deep V boat that is gas powered jet drive, bad ass   We where once chasing it down the Ogeechee River in a 12' aluminum John boat with a 35hp Johnson and we could not keep up. Trimmed out just right and it would throw up a 20 ft rooster tail. It freaked people out the river to see this little 3ft boat come flying by      

Thanks for posting the pictures of you boats. I have a Deep Vee 40 with an Enya .40 airplane engine, converted to marine, with under hull horizontal ball coupling. Wish it was an outdrive surafacining dual rudder. Have not run it in 10-12 years, but it was a blast. I am running a muffle pipe kind of like your set up, above deck. Do you remember Octura Marine, back in the day? They got me hooked as a kid on boats, with their mail out color brochure.

It's funny how many of us have started with engines of such small size... .049 ci ... I have planes, do some Pylon Racing and have a VTA RC car, and a Slash truck.