Hobby Shops

[Oldman731]

I never dared to do RC, for fear of the expense involved in a crash.  Which I was good at.  Sometimes I miss having that .049 Cox PT-19 that was held together by rubber bands - I finally managed to keep that in the air, after losing the Cox L-5, P-40 and a (probably Guillow's) balsa Fokker D-8, powered by the salvaged parts of the first two.

I note that they still sell the control line parts:  https://coxengines.ca/airplane-kits-prop-rod/cox-c-l-kit-accessory-package-standard.html

And Guillow's still makes some of the kits, although they're a bit pricier than they used to be:  https://www.guillow.com/200series.aspx

Wish I had more time...

- oldman

[MiloMorai]

Was that the full fuselage PT-19 or the profile one? I had the profile one. The fuel hardened the plastic motor mount and broke.

[Oldman731]

Was that the full fuselage PT-19 or the profile one? I had the profile one. The fuel hardened the plastic motor mount and broke.

I didn't know they made a profile fuselage version.  Now that I think on it, I did build a profile plane from some balsa kit, with the .049 on the front.  Had to tie and glue a fishing sinker to the back end of the plane for balance to come out ok.  Fortunately I never had the opportunity to fly that frightening contraption.

- oldman

[MiloMorai]

Would have been about 1960.

[Shuffler]

I would not say that ARF's in general are notorious for falling apart, maybe certain brands. Balsa ARF's are definitely more lightweight and flimsily built than a kit, no doubt. I have found that the foam lines are excellent if you do not want to fool with nitro or gas. It is definitely easier to get into than it used to be. On the decline? I would agree with that, especially outside of electric. Almost everything I have are ARF's, save a couple kits I built when I was young. My biggest complaint about ARF balsa kits are the lack of plans. If you tear one up, you will be hard pressed to rebuild it.

I started building/repairing right after my first crash. Was very enjoyable to me. I was even repairing other folks aircraft as I have always had a talent for things like that. These days I am too busy with other things. Still think about going back to flying at times though.

[BOBO]

That part of R/C is definitely dying. No one wants to build a kit anymore, me included.

I feel the same way.  I'm a industrial mechanic and my brother in law (RC partner) is a doctor.  He loves building RC car kits so I let him build my kits because I'm just not into that part of the hobby.  Also, all of the cars that I like the most come ready to run.

I used to fly RC planes and gliders until I moved to LA.  Not many legal places to fly in LA.  Got back into RC cars and currently heavily modifying a Traxxas Unlimited Desert Racer to  UDR 4400 racer.

I had to look up what that is, looks awesome brother!


I was racing in Wisconsin last weekend and the attached shop had a Xmaxx that someone traded in a week after they bought it and the deal was too good for me to pass up.  I moved away from my hometown for about 15 years because to quote the Donald it's a bit of a S-Hole however while I was gone the town built a 800 acre Off Highway Vehicle Park / Campground and what appears to be a very respectable municipal RC Park where a golf course used to be as well as a indoor track at the mall that's been mostly torn down for redevelopment.