People are Spoiled!!!!!!!!

[joeruby]

Loved my Ringmaster! I made a new tail wheel wire that had a loop so that I could put a pin through it to hold the plane while I ran out to the center of the circle. After picking up the handle and checking the elevator control, I used my foot to pull a string tied to the pin to release the plane. Years later (like around 30 years!), I did something similar with my 1/2A combat plane. It had no wheels, but with a Norvel .061 engine, it would take off almost vertically so didn't need them!

I was hopping that someone else would have faced the same problem and came up with the same or similar answer. I had the third string/wire, but I can't remember how I pulled it after checking the elevator movement and getting the control wires free of the ground. I was right handed, and I flew counterclockwise (to my left) on takeoff. Maybe I used my left hand and droped the third wire to the ground right away. I lived in Cosmopolis, Washington then. Cheers.

 

[AnzacJack]

I agree with you all except for the point that it’s the younger generation complaining about technology. I work with these guys daily and they love technology and are amazed with what drones can do, and make the best use of them. From what I read on multiple forums, it’s us older generation lads that do all the whinging about this or that not being spot on or perfect. It’s the middle aged fellas that expect the world from their technology. Not sure why this is, but maybe because we didn’t grow up with the rapid growth of technology to understand it as well as the younger generation.

 

[okw]

I was hopping that someone else would have faced the same problem and came up with the same or similar answer. I had the third string/wire, but I can't remember how I pulled it after checking the elevator movement and getting the control wires free of the ground. I was right handed, and I flew counterclockwise (to my left) on takeoff. Maybe I used my left hand and droped the third wire to the ground right away. I lived in Cosmopolis, Washington then. Cheers.

I had a small stick tied to the end of the string laying on the ground and slid it with my foot to release the plane. I was in my early teens and not that great at flying back then, so I didn't want to worry about using my free hand to pull it since I thought I might need it to hold onto the plane.

These days, after flying the combat plane for years (sometimes without even looking at it), pulling the string with my free hand wouldn't be any big deal. Now I want to get the control line planes out again!

Oh, and more on topic, I love technology. But hate when developers change things just for the sake of change. Often removing functionality and making things more difficult, rather than easier.

 

[Drgnfli]

No kidding. I'm not sure if it's more of an effect of being spoiled, or just the fact that millennials just never had the experience of anything different so the technology isn't appreciated as much. As a gen-x member growing up with rotary-dial corded phones, typewriters (when I got a little older an electric one), no internet and all of its ills, a TV that got three local stations (a few more if switched to UHF), vinyl records and cassettes (the "Walkman" was revolutionary at the time), cameras that used film and disposable flash cubes - I believe I, and you, have a different appreciation of today's technology/toys. I worked two paper routes for months to save $400 to buy my first motorcycle, a mint Suzuki TS250. Today a teenager will drop three times that on a cell phone without blinking, and that phone probably has more hard memory and computing power than was used by mission control to send men to the moon. Of course our parents probably thought we were spoiled as well.

Gosh! You are old...

 

[kidroc]

All crap aside! The technology we have now really blows my mind. I'm glad I had the chance to experience some of it. I wonder what we will have in ten years Ha Ha!!!