Does anyone remember this?????

[Guest]

A friend of mine has dug an old RC boat out of his loft - the boat was given to him many years ago by a friend of his. The idea is that he has asked me to check out the boat and see if i can get it operational. This is what it is.... It's an Aerokits Model Fast patrol Launch designed by L J Rowell. The hull is in a sound condition but the electrics are very messy - mainly due to the fact that three AA type cells were left in the boat when it was put away. I seem to have all the original instructions, the handbook mentions a Post Office licence costing £1 - 10s - 0d lasting for three years. The transmitter is a MacGregor Codamac Model - the instructions mention that the steering control has top be pushed fully in one direction and then a button below the stick need to be pressed to alter the direction of the boat in stages. The instructions also mention something called a Minimo and a Minimite which will only give 2 or 3 positions in sequence. It seems that speed controllers havn't been invented yet, but I'm not sure. If I'd been given the boat I would gut the electrics and use some modern stuff and then use one of my TX's but I think the idea is that the grandchildren inherit the old boat which was their uncles.

Does anyone remember the boat? - I'm thinking of recommending to the chap that he sells the boat to a collector and buys the kids a modern ready to go launch which will be much cheaper than me putting new gear in then him having to buy a TX - I can't see modern kids wanting to fiddle about with this old type TX. Any comments would really be appreciated.

Ian

[Guest]

This definately sounds like something that should be resotored by an enthusiast or a collector. There are a number of old boats around nowadays but it is a lot rarer to find one that has an original control set up.

I totally agree that a new ready to go boat is the best starter for kids or a model that would go together very easily to get them into the hobby and not a valuable item such as this.

To sell it a speciallist auction would be worth thinking about or through such a media as Model Boats Magazine or a site such as Modelboatmayhem.

[wonwinglo]

Ian I remember the boat kit and all of the ancillery items that you mention,surely there must be someone out there who collects and preserves these pieces of nautical modelling history ?

It would be a pity to not preserve it as is,and show people how primitive controls were back then.

[Guest]

Thanks for your input guys - Yep it would be a shame to not offer it to a collector - I'll see if I can get some help from Model Boat Mayem.

Ian

[Guest]

Hi Ian

I think this boat comes from the late 50's early 60's.

The servos are the same ones I used in about 1966/7 and were used with a push button transmitter, mine was an RCS set, blip button once for right, twice for left and if you had another servo a third quick blip would give you forward and back to give full on or off throttle control, difficult times when trying to control a diesel engined boat. My setup of tranny, rec. and one each minimite and minimo cost £30 (3 weeks of my wages) in the mid sixties. A four channel proportional set would cost well over £100 then (about a grand in money nowadays) and that was if you built it yourself. Just to give you a bit of insight, I bought in about 1975 an M-Type futaba setup for about £120 (incl. 6 sets of crystals), in real terms that is about £6-700 nowadays.

In those far off days you had to have a licence to operate your radio control. Obtained by sending away to the home office for it.

This is now going to upset a lot of people.

To me modelling is about enjoying yourself, don't leave it to the kids, you rebuild and use it, if you have got any old kits that go for extortionate prices on ebay, build the damn things and enjoy, no pockets in shrouds, I have a loft full of modelling kits and bits, and now I'm off work I'm starting to build them, great satisfaction knowing that someone somewhere is dying to get hold of what I've got, and try to make a profit out of it, sorry but my enjoyment comes first.

[Guest]

Good attitude

Hello all, Excellent attitude John < go out and enjoy yourselfcheers

Jim

[wonwinglo]

John you are so right,those stockpiles of kits that you purchased when you could can now be put to good use for you to enjoy to the fullest.

And I even remember the address that you had to send for your licence,it was the Radio and Accomodation Department of the GPO ! just like CB Radio licences it died a death after lasting a few years.

[Guest]

Thanks Guys - here are a couple of pictures of the stuff I've got.

[ATTACH]14629.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]14630.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]14631.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]14632.IPB[/ATTACH]

[wonwinglo]

The typical Macgregor alloy blue case,would you believe that I used to fly a model aircraft with one of those ! in its day it was the number one set,they used to drift off tune and if I remember rightly had a ferrite rod tuner in the receiver,you used to lock the slug with a piece of underpant elastic,to tune you held the stick over and tuned the slug with a non ferrous stick until the rudder clicked over.

We just do not realise how lucky we are today to have gear that works every time.

[Guest]

...and you trusted your model aircraft to that technology!!! Amazing!

[Guest]

there used to be a old macgregor set in the model shop here before it closed down (think it was macgregor) it was a 4 channel and had a brown case dont remember if it was a fm set or not though

[wonwinglo]

***I know,and this was the top end of the market then,it was all that we had,when Sun Lane Cycles ( yes I know that is inspiring !) came out with the first commercial galloping ghost ( pulse proportional ) systems they were to become the first of the well known Fleet radio control bespoke systems,by pulsing the signal as the controls wafted in the breeze a form of proportional control was achieved,all that was really happening was that the signal was speeded up,so the model developed a sort of wobble,the only success that I had with this was with a model called 'Phleet Foot' it had a long moment arm and flew like a dream,until,wait for it,the model went quickly out of range and months of work went down the drain.

Range was a real problem then,it would work on the bench and then even the weather would take effect,you quickly learned to self tune your receivers,in fact it was one of the pre-flight checks.

As you can see even the commercial systems were temperamental,it was only when a company called RCS from Bedford came along and made reliable Superhet ( more than one model can be flown together as opposed to Super-regen ) gear that reliable single channel flights could be achieved,and then we had dear old Remcon,these were kit built receivers,they used to advertise them as 'The Remcon pledge' even if you screwed up the assembly they would get it working for you,there was lot of kit building going on probably because of the high retail costs,it took me months to save up for a second hand RCS Super-regen set which I fitted into a Mercury Matador,several in fact as it was basically a free flight design that flew itself,and was literally steered around the sky.

Happy days ? well I dont know so much as attrition rate was high back then,but those that stuck at things are the ones here today enjoying reliable genuine proportional control.

...and you trusted your model aircraft to that technology!!! Amazing!

[Guest]

i still have a 2 channel 27mhz macgregor set, in the blue anodised case, must be 22yrs old now - power is by 6x AA pencells, no battery indicator so you have to time you operations/ duration so as to monitor the state of the transmitter batteries !

it still works but only comes out about 6 times a year !

and up until their recent move several months ago i used to drive past the macgregor factory on the way to and from work....!- so spares were easy to get hold of !