A Gilbert adventure

rsv1cox Mon Apr 04, 2022 5:36 pm

So, a week ago I'm on ebay and punch in the big three - Cox, Wen Mac, and Gilbert "newly listed" and got a couple of interesting hits. A favorite - P-26 in nice shape and a rather ratty Gilbert "Sky Hawk" a sister to my Sky Flash both with six days to go. The P-26 @ $105, the Gilbert @ $99 with no bids.

Not really wanting either but not wanting them to go cheap I made a low-ball bid on both expecting to be outbid. Six days passed with no bids on either. So I watched the P-26 countdown to zero and bingo, no snipers and I own another Pea shooter.

Sellers photo. Clean and complete except for decals, but what is that sticking out of the engine but a throttle arm. Ok, I'm happy the premium model.

Then, a couple of hours later I'm watching the Gilbert count down. Surely someone will over bid $99 on this rather rare model. Waiting for snipers - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and I own another Gilbert. Ninety nine bucks but he wanted $64.00 shipping. I'm only a little over an hour away and my son less than that so I ask if we could pick it up and save the shipping. Sure, drop by at 10am and get it.

So this morning I drove over and picked up Mark and we drove to Hagerstown Maryland only to find his store closed, but a phone number on the door. Mark called, the guy apologized and arrived ten minutes later. Young guy, full beard Gabby Hayes type (look it up youngsters) and a motorcycle freak. We are right at home.

Sellers photos

Ok, interesting background. This guy sells flea market junk. Big old building in the heart of old-town (think 17 - 18 hundreds) that used to be a Pontiac dealership. He made us feel right at home. Opened up the basement, more junk but about twenty vintage motorcycles, mostly Harleys. Cabinets fully of skinny drawers that I would have loved to go through but did not have the time. I had to pull Mark out of there. Old guys get hungry around noon time.

Stopped at Mickey Dee's for a burger. I bought. $16 bucks for the two of us. Add another $16 for gas and I'm still up about thirty $'s over the shipping costs. The adventure was a plus.

Got home, picked up the mail and got more stuff.

GallopingGhostler Mon Apr 04, 2022 5:52 pm

rsv1cox wrote:Then, a couple of hours later I'm watching the Gilbert count down. Surely someone will over bid $99 on this rather rare model. Waiting for snipers - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and I own another Gilbert. Ninety nine bucks but he wanted $64.00 shipping. I'm only a little over an hour away and my son less than that so I ask if we could pick it up and save the shipping. Sure, drop by at 10am and get it.

So this morning I drove over and picked up Mark and we drove to Hagerstown Maryland only to find his store closed, but a phone number on the door. Mark called, the guy apologized and arrived ten minutes later. Young guy, full beard Gabby Hayes type (look it up youngsters) and a motorcycle freak. We are right at home.

Sellers photos

Ok, interesting background. This guy sells flea market junk. Big old building in the heart of old-town (think 17 - 18 hundreds) that used to be a Pontiac dealership. He made us feel right at home. Opened up the basement, more junk but about twenty vintage motorcycles, mostly Harleys. Cabinets fully of skinny drawers that I would have loved to go through but did not have the time. I had to pull Mark out of there.

Wow! What a score! It looks like a Gilbert .11! And, what a testimony to the previous owner! With all the old Castor slobber, it was a flier, what a testimony! Perhaps Gilberts made better trainers? Congrats, Bob, on the rare win. Thumbs Up

rdw777 Mon Apr 04, 2022 6:07 pm

Nice! Has the nose cone as well…. Plus like you say… Little adventure was good…Enjoy the ride Very Happy

davidll1984 Mon Apr 04, 2022 7:05 pm

Another this is beautiful those Gilbert's model, seem to fly well just from the wear and tear and look of the old cooked oil.all over the side fuselage Thumbs Up

getback Tue Apr 05, 2022 4:49 am

Sounds like a good time with your son and some planes to boost // I see a .010 TD from the mail box ? Now you got some clean up to do should come out Nice , That one with the yellow windshields and radiator /defector is pretty wild looking . Eyebrows

rsv1cox Tue Apr 05, 2022 7:17 am

Thanks guys, yes a Gilbert .11 with a nose cone intact, my other two are missing them. The .074's had them too but a different size. Friction fit, a screwdriver slot pops them off.

The .010 replaces one I sold on ebay back in the nineties when I was going to get out of the hobby. Also sold engines and handles that I had since childhood. What was I thinking.

NEW222 Tue Apr 05, 2022 12:02 pm

Like Eric said above. Great score, yes, but even nicer to go out and enjoy some time with your son.

GallopingGhostler Tue Apr 05, 2022 12:18 pm

rsv1cox wrote:The .010 replaces one I sold on ebay back in the nineties when I was going to get out of the hobby. Also sold engines and handles that I had since childhood. What was I thinking.

I thought the same thing, when I gave away my Sterling 33" Waco Triplane C/L kit with spun aluminum cowl some 40 years ago. Crying or Very sad

However, I have saved a large vitamin supplement bottle that is 1/8th inch shy of 4" (100mm) in diameter. Cut, it will look like the original cowl, for scratch building one day, downsized slightly to 30" to match cowl diameter. Smile

Here's an ad page, probably from a hobby shop dealer's catalog. I downloaded it from one of the website 6 years ago, can't remember where, cleaned it up a little. (Glad I saved it, more and more historic websites are going down the rabbit hole of obscurity never to return as time passes. Neutral

)

This is the packaging label with instructions that came with my Gilbert engines from Tower, stapled over the plastic bag with engine, propeller and glow head wrench:

rsv1cox Tue Apr 05, 2022 3:15 pm

Chancey said:

Great score, yes, but even nicer to go out and enjoy some time with your son

Ha! The kids a pain. Good looking, personable, talks to everybody. Can't shut him up. "Had to drag him out of there." and........he actually let me pay for lunch!

Good stuff on the Gilbert George.

Started cleaning it this morning. Mark suggested Easy-Off oven cleaner. Did the left side first. Amazing.

Instructions say to wear gloves. Ha! gloves are for sissies and smart people. While wearing them you lose feel, and I don't want to crush this thing.

As usual the prop is stuck on and you can't use heat next to plastic.

And, like the other two the one sunken engine screw would not back out but a few turns. After a half hour of trying and a lot of school yard profanity I just slipped a Dremel cut-off disk in-between the engine and the bodies saddle and cut the thing. Darn shallow cut oval heads.

Soaked the engine in Berrymans while I went out and played on the tractor. About an hour and it came out quite clean. Soapy wash, hot water rinse, compressed air blow-out, warm air dry, lot's of Remoil and flipping. Good compression. Needle job. Multimeter says the head is good.

GallopingGhostler Tue Apr 05, 2022 4:48 pm

rsv1cox wrote:Good stuff on the Gilbert George.

You're welcome, Bob.

rsv1cox wrote:Started cleaning it this morning. [...]

That fuselage cleaned up really well! Cool

rsv1cox wrote:Soaked the engine in Berrymans while I went out and played on the tractor. About an hour and it came out quite clean. Soapy wash, hot water rinse, compressed air blow-out, warm air dry, lot's of Remoil and flipping. Good compression. Needle job. Multimeter says the head is good.

Ditto on the engine, it looks like new! Cool

There are two types of needle valve assemblies. The one piece is preferred, more reliable, it has a single hole to atomize the fuel into the airstream. The less preferred one allows more air, but is somewhat finicky. It is a 2 piece, each part bolted to each side of the NVA mount area, with needle exposed through venturi opening.

All of my Gilberts have the 2 part NVA. It looks like yours is the preferred 1 part NVA.

rsv1cox Wed Apr 06, 2022 8:44 am

All my .11's have the single part NVA. The 7's can go either way but most of my 7's have the two parts with the brass nuts and ratchet.

GallopingGhostler Wed Apr 06, 2022 9:27 am

rsv1cox wrote:All my .11's have the single part NVA. The 7's can go either way but most of my 7's have the two parts with the brass nuts and ratchet.

Mine all have the split NVA's.

My Gilbert .074 on a Kraft .09 mount

My Gilbert .11 with both right mufflers

My other Gilbert .11 on a Hayes AL-15 mount

rsv1cox Wed Apr 06, 2022 10:40 am

Almost all of mine have tool marks on the cylinder, factory assembly maybe.

Got around to using Easy-off on the bottom half of the fuselage. Does a good job.

Interior too.

Clever people. Bottom half is the same on both airplanes. Just mold another top and you get to market two airplanes.

getback Thu Apr 07, 2022 8:36 am

Looking good ! I like the airfoil of the wings makes the whole thing stand out more . Thumbs Up

GallopingGhostler Thu Apr 07, 2022 8:42 am

getback wrote:Looking good ! I like the airfoil of the wings makes the whole thing stand out more .

Good, eye, didn't notice that before. A good thing to with a symmetrical or semi-symmetrical wing is it had less tendency to climb into the wind, sink against the wind, which made control for the neophyte difficult, often leading to disastrous consequences. The others, Cox, Wen Mac, had one piece high undercamber wings that were high lift, but not good in windy conditions.

May be that explains the Castor laden Gilbert planes, they were designed with the beginner in mind.

rsv1cox Thu Apr 07, 2022 9:55 am

Of all the plastic control line models that I have these Gilberts were designed to be the best flyers and perhaps the most crash survivable. The landing gear is one piece formed aluminum secured with four pegs, a plate, and a standoff. It may bend but it's not going to break. If it does it's going to take the whole plane with it. Same for the engine, tapped mounts set in a saddle and secured by a safety nut.

Same for the fuel tank, best design that I have seen and captured perfectly by the fuselage.

Finished except for the decals. Got some coming. Least expensive and the best of the three. I didn't realize how bad the first one was until I got the other two. It had been worked over pretty good by someone that didn't care.

Cut off with a Dremel engine machine screw. Shallow cut slotted oval head. Hate 'em.

Waiting on the decals.

Fuselage decals didn't survive the Easy Off, strange as the decals on the Tyco did.

Marleysky Thu Apr 07, 2022 1:07 pm

Thoses are a couple of really great looking planes! Never paid much nevermind to them Gilberts as a kid. Who wanted a plane made the Erector Toy people? The "Wing Thing" sorta caught my attention, but my meager budget and field box was set up for Cox and didn't have the parts or tools to support another manufacture! Those dual exhaust engines do look cool and I do have a couple in the collection now.

Marleysky Thu Apr 07, 2022 9:47 pm

I'm still wondering...Who is Matt Gold??

rsv1cox Fri Apr 08, 2022 6:58 am

Marleysky wrote:I'm still wondering...Who is Matt Gold??

I think he's a second cousin to Matt Black.

rsv1cox Thu Apr 14, 2022 8:14 am

Applied the decals this morning, someone with a steadier hand could have done a better job. Was going to add the stripe but didn't want to overdo it.

Quality vinyl sticky decals if you're in the market.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/253485044042?hash=item3b04e2d14a:g:Z5EAAOSwNnRYjPNS

Mark found me this OV-10 Bronco. This month's issue of Air Classics has a "For Sale" ad for them. I always thought they would be fun to fly. Maybe a couple of Cox .010's in the nacelles.

GallopingGhostler Thu Apr 14, 2022 10:17 am

Nice work, Bob. It is kind of interesting how the best products in this world don't ever seem to make success. The Gilberts did have the right stuff to be the best RTF trainer, but couldn't compete with those already established in the model airplane RTF business, Cox and Wen Mac.

I know that I would have enjoyed having a Gilbert as my CL trainer, instead of the one shot flights in the others.

The 1950's would have been a neat time to grow up in, in my estimation. Even though today we have more advanced stuff, it was the time of experimentation that fascinates me. How, they were able to with such primitive electronics get model airplanes to fly under radio control.

Control line was considered thing of vogue. There wasn't the rampant drug use, shop lifting, homelessness, etc. I still remember 1st grade in the eve of the 1960's. We didn't have rampant disciplinary problems.

In the mid 1960's, still remember the many mom and pop shops, shoe and clothing tailors operating out of homes, smaller corner grocery stores.

All that has changed, and not necessarily for the best.... Back to my corner ....

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