C/L Nostalgia

[LA Ming]

Hi!

I'm Andre Ming, recent entrant in the "Park Flying" hobby. I used to do C/L from the mid 60's through the early 70's (heavily), then off and on up until about '98. Worked at Fox Mfg from early to mid 70's. During my last stint with C/L, I enjoyed building and flying nostalgic combat planes. Planes that were iconic during my youth. Thought some of you circle burners might find the following pics from my last go-round with C/L interesting.

Have fun!

Andre Ming
Eastern OK

[Clancy Arnold]

Andre
Beautiful pictures. If you flew these then you should have no problem picking up a handle again. Now I know who has cornered the market on Fox 36X engines. LOL

Clancy

[mikeainia]

ANDRE - It's really nice to see you posting again - I miss your old Yahoo group. Please keep us updated on your activity and maybe we'll get a chance to meet sometime.

Mike A.

[LA Ming]

Clancy:

Thanks for the compliments on the pics. I should have taken more over the years. As for those engines: I still have a many Fox 36X engines in both BB and NB configurations. I (think) I also have a Fox 35X. I also have a Fox Combat front-loader that I rebuilt. Still have a lot of parts, too. I used to super enjoy building and tuning Fox 36X engines. My first Fox 36X was purchased back in '65? (The same year Riley Wooten won the Nats with a Fox 36X on his brand new foamie "Vampire".) I still have that engine! Boy... SOOOO many memories, and most of them good.

Hi'Ya Mike!

Well... at least I'm beginning to dabble with model aircraft again... but as I mentioned above, looks like the ease of electrics via R/C "park flyers". However, if my interest in model planes gets fully revived again... maybe the C/L planes will be brought down from the attic? Stranger things have happened! Daughter (now 30 years old!!) mentions several times a year that she'd like to fly again. (I guess so! Ol' Dad kept her in airplanes, etc!)

I still "own" that Yahoo C/L group. Would you like to have it? It really needs a "sparkplug" to take it and do something with it. As I recall there was a good group of guys on it. (Still on it... just ain't used.)

Do you come down to the Tulsa Glue Dobbers meet? It would be tempting to attend/spectate/renew old acquaintaces next year.

Good to "see" you again.

Andre

[SA716]

Just came back from flying my new Goldberg Shoestring w/Fox .35. The kit was one of the last made by Goldberg. Still have one new in box. Love the smell of 29% castor burning. Will finish Sterling Flying Fool in the next couple of weeks.

[Snorks]

Truley Excellent Andre! Thanks for sharing.Love the Voodoo. I still have a few Russian wings that I made from plans by Beliav & Faisov.But nothing beats the proper built up jobs. I think the Combat Cats also came in a 1/2 A version- the combat 'kittens' also 2 in a box.
I love CL, still have a Torp .29 powered Ringmaster etc. But there's only one other guy in a 100mile radius (literally) who flies CL and most Sunday mornings at the field he's still too pissed to be very active.
You really captured the era here. Before my time,but really my thing.
What was it like working at Fox? I always imagined these huge factorys...but I think the reality is much smaller.
I was also repairing a head on a Fox.29 the other day when I noticed a tiny stamp in the casting indicating that the head was made by another company?
cheers
Simon

[Snorks]

I forgot to ask your opinion of the later Combat special -the one with the big backplate.Or did that come out after your time?
cheers
Simon

[LA Ming]

Hi Simon:

Glad you enjoyed the pics. Shame about that Voodoo. I had it really turning nice... and had a screamin' 36X on it. Flew it and flew it and flew it. Had it for several years. Then "SNAP!!" the outboard wing broke... and it did the lawn dart thing. It is stored up in the attic. Bummer.

"What was it like working at Fox?"

For the most part, I enjoyed working there very much. Started off honing/fitting pistons and sleeves. Ended up heading up the Assembly dept. and also used in R&D.

"I always imagined these huge factorys...but I think the reality is much smaller."

My years there were about 1970 to late '75. It was really quite an operation at the time. Something like 80-90 employees. (Can't remember if the main building was 40,000 or 60,000 sq. ft?) Had several engine assembly lines going at once. Typically two R/C lines and one C/L line. I think I recall there being about 20-25 people in the Assembly department alone. We had 5 "run-in" booths... all busy.

"I was also repairing a head on a Fox.29 the other day when I noticed a tiny stamp in the casting indicating that the head was made by another company?"

Back in my day, Fox Mfg used Bucy Die-Cast for all the die cast parts. We then took the rough castings and machined them in what was called "Second Operations". Leaving Second Operations, the parts came over to "Assembly" for final operations and assembly. Like I said, it was quite an operation. I have some Fox days pics "somewhere" I ought to dig out. Lordy, I haven't a clue what I've done with them.

"I forgot to ask your opinion of the later Combat special -the one with the big backplate. Or did that come out after your time?"

The tall back series of combat engines was right after my stint with Fox. The combat engine that was developed/shipped during the last of my tenure was the much-maligned "Bald Head" Combat Special.

Such a shame about that engine. The prototypes that I helped work on were simply awesome (for the day). Absolutely, positively, WAY ahead what the arch rival (Super Tigre) had. We were very upbeat about the engine returning Fox to the combat dominance it had before the advent of Super Tigre.

Unfortunately, at the time we had a very inept person running Second Operations. The tolerances went to poop... and the whole enchilada was filled with woes. I couldn't keep the fool things running for a variety of reasons. The bungling of that engine cost that Second Operations manager his job. Unfortunately, it was too late to save the engine on the market. It was this incident that caused Duke to decide to design an entirely new engine and (hopefull) leave the stigma of the bald head behind. He did, and the "Mk" series dominated combat for many years.

Nice "chatting" with you.

Andre

[Snorks]

Good one Andre,
No ammount of model mag reading could reveal such insight! I have a pair of fox cl .15's - one of which is quite a screamer! I also have the .35,.29 etc.
I heard ugly things about Duke Fox in recent years... not sure if they are true but I enjoyed his engines.The ones I used anyway...
cheers
|simon

[G WILLIE]

Andre,

Nice to see you back on the air. I still have several of your posts from the old ISKY BB. Sure would like to see those Fox factory shts if you can scare them up.

Bill Mohrbacher

[LA Ming]

Snorks:

Glad you enjoyed it. I had lots of good times while at Fox. I remember early on in my employment (a few days), Duke took me aside and told me (paraphrased):

"You can have any motors, parts, fuels, anything you need for your flying. Anything we make, you can have. They are yours to keep. However, you CANNOT give them away, or sell them. They are to be used by you personally."

OMG!! FREE flying!! You cannot believe how I built engines, modified parts (and broke them by the scads), learned about engines and flew, flew, flew. I would take a gallon of Missle Mist home with me on Friday evening... and by Monday morning it would be empty. Even found some Fox Blast (50% nitro) still hidden in the shadows at the factory! I built fire breathing combat engines that would consume glow plugs like candy! T'weren't no Super Tigres that ate my lunch! It was great. Certainly the halcyon years of my control line flying. So many good memories.

Hi Bill:

Boy, the ISKY BB... that was a long time ago too. I'll see what I can do on the pics... but I think it's more about pics of people I worked with... the factory shows up in the backgrounds.

Andre

[greggles47]

G'day Andre,
Nice to hear your reminiscences. A mate of mine who no longer flies gave me his 36X that he had modified to the Scarinzi spec. I'm not sure if he ever ran it.

I plan (some day..) to build one of our Roadrunner models for it. The Roadrunner was a 49" span fuselaged, combat model with coupled flaps. With a good 36 or 40 would do around 100 - 110, turn inside most wings and easily fly without its outer wing.

Ahhhhh!! such good memories. Thanks for reminding me.

Regards

Greg

[ifr2lax]

2005 was my last C/L flite with my Goldberg Cosmic-Wind...Fox 35X...the plane was built in 1964...it survived the crash when the old plywood elevator horn broke off in a horizontal 8...!

The engine is still great, the Cosmic only needs some rib repair on the belly and a new control horn...thank god for crashing on grass instead of asphalt.

Maybe I will repair the Cosmic-Wind, but the Fox 35X will certainly see more service...maybe I will add a head gasket to slow it down a little.

Pete



Just came back from flying my new Goldberg Shoestring w/Fox .35. The kit was one of the last made by Goldberg. Still have one new in box. Love the smell of 29% castor burning. Will finish Sterling Flying Fool in the next couple of weeks.

[rszanti]

Andre -

Great pics, I like the paint scheme. I ran combat back in the early 60's too. I remember many members had Voodoos. I still have a Combat Cat hanging from the wall, it was the third I built and still hasn't met the fate of the first two. The second Cat from the kit is still unbuilt in the box. I recently got back into modeling but mainly in RC, I'm working on the club members to see if we can't get a few C/L days going.

Should mention I used Super Tigre's, couldn't afford a Fox :)

Richard

[mfracer@itctel.c]

Hi!

I'm Andre Ming, recent entrant in the "Park Flying" hobby. I used to do C/L from the mid 60's through the early 70's (heavily), then off and on up until about '98. Worked at Fox Mfg from early to mid 70's. During my last stint with C/L, I enjoyed building and flying nostalgic combat planes. Planes that were iconic during my youth. Thought some of you circle burners might find the following pics from my last go-round with C/L interesting.

Have fun!

Andre Ming
Eastern OK

Andre,

Those are awesome pics of your models.

I built a bunch of those VooDoo's back in the 60"s & even have the plans for the Super Satan.

I have several NIB VooDoo's that I still cherish from my childhood.

The kits are marked $2.95 for the single kit & $4.95 for the double kit.

A fox 36X BB on Missle Mist, AAHHH what a sweet smell it was. :)

I'm actually going to R/C a VooDoo & run a .25 on it.

Thanks again for the memories.

Just noticed I still have a Sterling Models Terry Prather Winder on the shelf yet.

I remember folding 2 of these up in the same weekend.

Mike Foster