Just because .............

[XH558]

I had a memory flashback this evening ....

About 48 years ago when first dabbling with model aircraft in earnest a mate of mine and I were having a crack at free flight - trying to relieve ourselves of the monotony of control line ...

He built a rather nice Fokker Triplane with a little Cox 0.49 on the front ....



He built them and I started and tuned the engine....

Nice little plane - flew beautifully ... to keep it within the confines of the field where we flew we had a piece of aluminium foil in a slit in the rudder - we bent the foil to get nice wide circles - the model flew round and round climbing nicely under power - then when the motor cut as the fuel ran out it glided down in the same circle until it landed.

We experimented with different bends in the foil for different circles ... then on one flight  just as we launched it the foil fell out   

Off she flew in a dead straight line climbing nicely ... up and up - and further and further away ... until just a speck ... then she was gone   

As young lads we had no bikes or any other form of transport in which to give chase so we just packed up and went home fearing all was lost.

In those days most free flight planes had a sticker on with your name and address - just in case .... this plane had such a sticker so we just waited and hoped for some news - anything ... just to get a bag of bits and our little engine back would be good.

About a week later a chap turned up on my mates doorstep - with a little Fokker triplane all in one piece - no damage at all .....

He lived about 3 miles from our flying site and he';d been out digging his garden when he heard the little Cox buzzing away ... finally ha saw it - quite a way up - and then like a doodle bug he heard the motor stop......

Down she came gliding beautifully .... down and down towards his garden .. and finally.... she did a perfect 3 point landing right in the centre of his long concrete garden path     

We got in the local papers with that story ... you couldn';t have planned it if you';d tried   

But what it actually was was a testament to my mates building skills at age 12 and our constant trimming and balancing of it until it flew all on its own and glided perfectly.

Now you show me 2 12 year olds who could do that now ..... most wouldn';t know how to glue 2 lollipop sticks together let alone trim a little plane learning about aerodynamics and start a diesel engine    :embarrassed

[sausageroll]

Hah, I used to do that stuff when I was 12!!

I often think that the ';youth of today'; wil be rather useless when it comes to building bridges etc. All they know how to do is play guitar hero.

[Balders]

reminds me of something I haven';t done in YEARS...make a "boomerang" out of lolly sticks...anyone remember doing that?

[XH558]

Yep - and plaiting/weaving several lolly sticks into a square ';raft'; and racing them on the local stream ........and making throwing arrows (Dutch Arrows) out of a straight piece of tree branch - sharpened to a deadly point at one and and cornflake packet cardboard flights at the other and a piece of knotted string to throw them ... you could bend the cardboard to make them spin in flight for more accuracy .....they went miles (well 30 or 40 odd metres) and always stuck in the ground with a pleasing thud - you could also roll your Dad';s solder round the pointed end to add weight and speed and to ensure it landed point first .....   elf';n';safety wouldn';t allow it all now - they probably didn';t allow it then ... but we didn';t care - it was learning, creating and fun and we weren';t glued to computer games in a stuffy centrally heated front room  ... ....

Bring back Meccano too 

[Balders]

I used to make mini crossbows out of plastic cotton bud arms and rubber bands, with a pin jammed into a cotton bud as the tip.  I';m sure my parents never knew what I got up to as a sprog. 

Actually now that I think back to some of the stuff I did when I was young, it';s a wonder I';m still here...damn near electrocuted myself once, trying to make a square mains lead fit a round hole in a radio...I stripped all the plastic so the bare copper prongs were exposed and managed to short them out whilst plugged in.  The flash blinded me for about 4 or 5 minutes.

[XH558]

OMG - we must be twins I';m sure .... Biro outers as a blow pipe - balsa wood plugs with pins in and a trailing cotton flight - you could make them stick in someones blazer right across the classroom ....

Also ....I had some bakelite headphones from a Lancaster that my Dad had rescued from a scrap heap at RAF Cosford ... Aluminium head band - bakelite ear pieces and silk wrapped rubber coated cable ..

Aged 10 I wanted to see if the ';worked'; so I put them on.... bared both wires ....and shoved them in the round pin 15 amp mains socket on the wall 

Next thing I remember is waking up about 6 feet away with very warm ears ...... :evil

The bakelite and aluminium saved me - not good conductors (fortunately) .... no namby covers on the mains plugs then - just open holes ... and my Dad complaining that he had to put in a new fuse wire    

[Balders]

haha, cracking story...love it.

A mate of mine for some reason (don';t think he was diabetic) had a large number of syringes and hypodermic needles. We were just messing around and I pressed a needle into a bar of soap, expecting it to make a really thin "tube" of soap when the syringe was pressed.

Instead it totally blocked the needle and turned it into an air gun!  The thing went with a bloody bang!  Awesome!

We were all grabbing them and firing them into the guys bedroom door in about 0.04 seconds :) Absolutely stunning.

[XH558]

Talking of bangs - ever put a 410 gauge shotgun cartridge in a vice in the shed and banged the end cap with a hammer and nail 

I never have - wouldn';t know what that was like 

It';s VERY loud and makes holes in the shed wall.... I';m told....

Dad showed me how to make a ';smoker'; - cocoa tin with holes punched in it ... a few embers of burning wood inside it - lid on - trapping some thin wire as a handle - attach long string to handle and spin it round your head and it leaves a brilliant smoke trail ....

Got called in for tea - left it on the garden path - during tea we could hear crackling - looked out of the window and the shed and the log pile next to it were well on fire      ..... Hot embers from the tin had spun out and landed in the wood pile ... embers + wind + dry wood = FIRE ......

Wasn';t my fault - Dad showed me .....

Memories 

[Gaza07]

We used to make the arrows from the little green garden sticks you could get, we used to slit the end for the cardboard flights and then tie it with string to lock them in, we used to use old rusty nuts to weight the front they really did go well,
we also did the home made pead shooter thing with some plastic pipe we found that fitted fag nubs perfectly, with a pin through that 

[Biffa]

My 12 year old came home with a black eye and a swollen jaw from school yesterday after being assaulted in the corridor

How times have changed...

[Gaza07]

That';s terrible have you been in contact with the school are they going to take some action, would the police get involved ?

[Biffa]

All of the above.

The other lad involved is suspended pending further investigation along with (hopefully) CCTV footage and I have logged it with the local Police as a crime. Just waiting for further updates from the school today and a visit from a Bobby.

If it had been him and this other lad just duking it out then I wouldn';t really be bothered but by all accounts the lad set upon my son who tried to defend himself and he just got beaten further.

No lasting injuries though just a bruised face and ego.

[Balders]

Sorry, couldn';t help but smile at your user name, given the nature of your story...

No offence meant... 

[Biffa]

Sorry, couldn';t help but smile at your user name, given the nature of your story...

No offence meant... 

Aye, none taken

[Smeagol]

Yep - and plaiting/weaving several lolly sticks into a square ';raft'; and racing them on the local stream ........and making throwing arrows (Dutch Arrows) out of a straight piece of tree branch - sharpened to a deadly point at one and and cornflake packet cardboard flights at the other and a piece of knotted string to throw them ... you could bend the cardboard to make them spin in flight for more accuracy .....they went miles (well 30 or 40 odd metres) and always stuck in the ground with a pleasing thud - you could also roll your Dad';s solder round the pointed end to add weight and speed and to ensure it landed point first .....   elf';n';safety wouldn';t allow it all now - they probably didn';t allow it then ... but we didn';t care - it was learning, creating and fun and we weren';t glued to computer games in a stuffy centrally heated front room  ... ....

Bring back Meccano too 

Tears of nostalgia there for me, oh the memories, we used dowel rod and playing cards - brilliant fun, chucking them the length of a footie pitch AT each other.

home made cannon from copper pipe and emptying bangers
two bolts into a nut with banger powder and match heads
Pea shooters into the air extraction vent at the chippy
crossbow made from a piece of metal bed frame and a plank of wood
mouth full of lighter fluid and spraying over matches

We tell our own kids off these days for some things, yet we forget sometimes what we used to get up to  :evil

[XH558]

OR ... get a torch bulb and carefully smash the glass leaving the element intact ... solder wires to the contacts ..... get some bangers and empty out the gunpowder ..... get a long length of bell wire .... and a battery ....

Put the bulb under the local grumpy old git';s car - pile gunpowder over it - attach the bell wire to the soldered wires on the bulb .... run the wire round the corner .... wait for grumpy to get in his car then just as he turns the ignition put a battery across the bell wire...  P O O F ... massive cloud of smoke from under his car .... pull the bell wire in really quick and fall about laughing as he gets out in a flat panic thinking his car';s just exploded 

Syphon petrol out of cars in the cinema car park into 1/3 point milk bottles ....
go out into the country - pour the petrol on the road in a quiet lane and just as a car approaches throw a match on it..... it flashes up and disappears in seconds .... you should see the whites of their eyes in the glare ... and the tyre smoke   

WHAT .... MOI ......Happy days 

And my Dad was the local policeman ....

Kids you think you';ve seen it all and done it all ... man we didn';t just GET the T shirts we wore them RIGHT OUT years ago