I had two Lil' T's. The first one was lost in 1969 when my Integrated
Designs radio failed. The second one just plain wore out.
I have a new one in the box!!! Don't know if I'll ever build it. Probably
just hold on to it.
Darwin N. Barrie
Chandler AZ
----- Original Message -----
From: "Harley Michaelis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <soaring@airage.com>; "Loren Blinde" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 11:31 AM
Subject: [RCSE] The Midwest Lil' T and other nostagia stuff.
Before the Lil' T was kitted, it appeared as a construction article in
Flying Models magazine as I recall. I think this was in the mid '60's.
The miniature plans were printed on one full page or maybe over two pages.
Being self-reliant about modeling stuff, I cut out the page(s) and took a
picture with my trusty Leica 35MM camera.
In my little darkroom, with the negative I made prints of adjacent areas
of the plans and pieced them together to make a set of what became 3/4
"full size" Lil' T plans. I scratch built the ship and got a rudder-only
radio from the original ACE R/C. This was my first R/C ship. I tossed it
off a slope and got flights as long as 30 seconds! I'd read about slope
soaring, but had no experience with extended flight.
Seeing room for improvement in the airframe, I conjured up a larger and
lighter "original" "T" tail design. Someone (Royal???) manufactured an
airborne system in block form that provided a receiver with rudder and
elevator control. I'd messed with flimsy non-R/C tow line gliders so
rigged up a hook for a string to pull it up, but I couldn't run fast
enough.
Also, whatever I had for a transmitter was essentially incompatable with
the block, but I'd occasionally get airborne for short flights at the
slope.
After a year of dismal results, I realized I had to get a reliable radio
or quit this nonsense. I bought a Kraft 3 channel proportional outfit with
huge metal-cased servos and receiver. It cost about a tenth of my annual
income as I recall, but the radio actually worked.
A larger ship and a better way to get it up was needed. I fashioned a
detatchable motor mount to a 10' span original, so it could be put up by
glow power to get into thermals or tossed off the slope.
I named it the Duo-Flex. RCM published it as a construction article. I got
some real thermal flights with it and also some extended flights off a
slope, having discovered that when the wind was blowing that lift was
generated.
The successor of the Duo-Flex, the "Tri-Belle", which could also be
launched on a winch, was published by Flying Models before RCM got around
to publishing the then outdated D-F.
As to the winch, the turnaround had not yet been thought of. We relied on
"Walkie Talkies" for communication between the pilot and the guy up field
who ran the foot pedal. This lead to mass confusion and unbelievable
carnage, when "NO!" or "SLOW!" was misinterpreted as "GO!"
My next ship was the 150" span "Miskeet" published by Flying Models and
later kitted by Ralph White (Flite Glass Models). It got a lot of press. I
did my LSF Level 4 four hour slope flight with it in the early '70's.
There's a story about it and a picture of it on page 7 of the
Miscellaneous Pictures file in the Genie web pages at
http://genie.rchomepage.com/.
Anybody else have any stories about the "good old days"?
Back to the workbench. I'm building Genie #28.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Loren Blinde" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <soaring@airage.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 6:24 AM
Subject: [RCSE] Nostalgia kit for sale
For us golden age types, I have a Midwest Lil' T kit for sale. It's a
74" T-tail sailplane and the kit is in good condition. Here's the fun
part: it's designed for single-channel rudder only. The box says "Ideal
for Galloping Ghost Single Channel Proportional". While I suppose you
could engineer an elevator control, real men don't need all them
steenking servos anyway ... :-)
Best offer of $50 or more and I'll pay US shipping.
Loren
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