My first flying model! Well excluding toy rubber band powered ones.

I must have been around 12 (1968). John got me a fantastic model control line aircraft. It was in kit form with a little engine. The shape and look of it seemed to be based on the P-51 Mustang.

A control line model, flies in a circle around you. As well as having a wires to keep it a fixed distance away from you (maybe 30'), it has wires to control the elevator.

Building it wasn't too difficult. Most of the balsa parts were ready shaped. It was mostly a case of gluing the parts together, painting it (silver) and applying the decals. It looked great.

The engine was a bit more challenging. I couldn't get it going and needed John's expert help. There was definitely a trick to get it going without taking a finger off! A few expletives may have been used during this phase.

We took down to our local playing field for the first flight. John showed me how to fly it. When I finally got to a go it was quite easy really. The controls were just up and down, what could go wrong. It could do loop the loops with a bit of practice without nose diving into the ground. Landing took practice to do gracefully. Noisy and great fun!

On another occasion John got me a very strange looking craft. It seemed to be some sort of kite but was in fact a gyro-copter. You have a string like with a kite and held it into the wind but then the blades started turning and gave it lift. It attracted much attention as very few had seen anything like it.