flying off of the wire

[TooTall]

after reading a post in the parkflyers forum I was just thinking back of my first flight on a control line plane....a ringmaster jr. I believe it was ....will never forget how dizzy I got because of the radius I had to fly in....after many years of R/C flying I had forgot about the fun I had trying different things and graduating from fishing line flying to actually having a reel with light guage cable and clips to hook to the wing control leads......this brings me back to thinking this may would be something to try again.....does any one still fly control line flying? I will have to see what is an option at my LHS...would like to get my grandson into flying something other than my R/C planes.....Control line flying is an art and sport all on its own........Tom

[Mike Palko]

Yes controline is alive, and making a comeback i believe. Try www.clstunt.com for starters.

[Elwyn]

We had a fairly stable number, around 12-15, of control-line flyers in our club for several years but over the past year we've picked up 5 or 6 new members. I think all but one are retreads. Part of the problem in control-line is the aging of a lot of the flyers. Seems like every issue of Stunt News has mention of some of the older group passing away. I'm 47 and there are just one or 2 members in our club younger than me. I think a lot of the younger folks who get into model aviation end up in R/C because that's all most have been exposed to.http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/upfiles/15265/Qn38147.jpg

[Bud Morrison]

There is hope tho. The distributors have been having a hard time keeping supply going the Topflight nobler arf. The Flite Strek I was told was a good mover as well. Seeing as these are selling so well hopefuly the manufactures will introduce other designs as arfs. Im waiting for the estes Ringmaster arf :)

There is also the line of Bratco arfs as well as cox coming out with the Hyper Viper wich seems to be on eternal backorder!

I think the biggest thing is the instant satisfaction factor many of the younger flyers expect these days. Hopefully these arfs will help to bring control line stuff back to the local hobby shops and to the featured items in the big mail order cats.

I have purchased both of the bratco arfs and will post a thread here after the weather agrees with my schedual and I get some flying time on them.

There is hope for the pastime of making yourself dizzy yet :D

[TooTall]

Elwyn......I have to agree on c/l flyers getting older.....I am 49 and was thinking / now I know I am at least going to give it a go once again.....I think I will start out with an 049 size for starters.....

Bud......Any suggestions on a good 049 kit or ARF trainer for beaking back in? I will also be teaching my grandsons on these.......

[Bud Morrison]

Take a look in the trainers thread I have posted some links to some 1/2a trainers

[TooTall]

stopped by the LHS this evening and low and behold was a cox Pt-19 control line ........this was a favorite when I was a kid ,,,can't believe it is still around and on the shelves ..

[steve lewin]

I hope you bought it.....and will give us a report on how it goes ;).

I don't remember ever having much luck with any of those plastic Cox planes. A friend still has a Stuka which we drag out every couple of years or so and try to fly. After a couple of "flights" we remember why we gave up and put it away again :(.

But perhaps we should remind the younger generation who think RTF models began with things like the Firebird just how long ago the trend really started ;).

One thing worth thinking about to introduce kids to C/L is an electric trainer with power down the lines like at http://www.buzzflight.co.uk/ . No mess, no noise, no fuss (electric motors always start first time). You can just walk out to the handle and switch on.

Steve