[Leofric]

i reluctantly confess, we have  chinese atv/bike shop in my town and i'm almost tempted to see what they'd give in trade for the himalayan

https://mottspowersports.com/

That would be interesting - trade in offer for your bike from a Chinese bike shop !

[him a layin]

When i was young I made some model planes with balsa wood frame and covered in tissue, Keil Kraft was the popular make. I wonder how things like balsa cement ,and particularly dope used to finish the tissue covering , are viewed nowadays for use by children. Dope was a particularly potent smell !

they probably print a large warning on the label. i've had this kit and the glue and such for several years so i'm not up to date. i do remember in the 70s glue-sniffing was a thing, but i preferred other, less harmful ways to distort reality.

[axman88]

When i was young I made some model planes with balsa wood frame and covered in tissue, Keil Kraft was the popular make. I wonder how things like balsa cement ,and particularly dope used to finish the tissue covering , are viewed nowadays for use by children. Dope was a particularly potent smell !

I built a lot of stick and tissue balsa models before high school.  One of my favorites was a free flight towline glider by Sig   https://outerzone.co.uk/images/_thumbs/plans/3869.jpg
Also built kits from Scientific, Guillows, Carl Goldberg, some others I can't recall.

The model club I was in, in Cleveland, OH, had three or four members who were NASA guys and designed their own airplanes, and would give out the plans, so I built a couple of those too.  The club was mostly into free flight, but also control line, and we would have lively control line combat contests, where each plane tows a streamer.  Cuts on the other guy's, and time aloft, made points.   The 1/2A class, using COX .049 engines was something a boy with a paper route could afford to compete in.  They were generally all simple flying wings and usually died young.
 https://youtu.be/e7VdjENmKlU?t=583

I think that exposure of the chemicals to kids is kind of a non-issue, because kids have no interest in the activity.  All the hobby shops I know of closed a couple decades ago.  I think most of the mechanical hobbies have been replaced by virtual world, or computer adjacent hobbies.  Making things with 3D printers, which requires virtual model building at the most advanced level is a popular "boy engineer" activity, but I suspect that gaming absorbed a lot of the model building types.

[GlennF]

  I think most of the mechanical hobbies have been replaced by virtual world, or computer adjacent hobbies.  Making things with 3D printers, which requires virtual model building at the most advanced level is a popular "boy engineer" activity, but I suspect that gaming absorbed a lot of the model building types.

In some ways a good thing. back in the day your future career would range from being an electrician, mechanic or plumber through to becoming an engineer and back then model making was a good lead in.  These days kid are more likely to have a career in IT or digital design and computer related hobbies are actually more useful.

[Richard230]

I once spent months building a large control-line gasoline engine powered balsa wood biplane. It was really a beautiful piece of work. The first time I flew it I didn't hook up one of the control lines. As soon as it took off, it looped and dove directly into the pavement at about 30 mph. That was my last attempt at building balsa wood planes. After that I stuck with plastic. 

[AzCal Retred]

I'm willing to bet that the "Pay Attention To Details" lesson got firmly engraved into your cortex though...a highly valuable lesson in and of itself.

[axman88]

I once spent months building a large control-line gasoline engine powered balsa wood biplane. It was really a beautiful piece of work. The first time I flew it I didn't hook up one of the control lines. As soon as it took off, it looped and dove directly into the pavement at about 30 mph. That was my last attempt at building balsa wood planes.

Honestly, there weren't many that I built that didn't ultimately suffer crash damage beyond repair.  Augering down into pavement would likely destroy the big money part, the engine.  We'd fly the combat matches over tall grass, which helped survivability considerably.  My survivors were mainly the ones that flew so poorly, they were no fun, or downright embarrassing to fly in front of fellow club members.

The best of the free flight airplanes had the opposite problem, flying too well.  We'd use a burning piece of cotton wick that would sever a hold down rubber band, which would let the elevator pop up under power of more rubber bands, which stalled the plane.  This was called the "de-thermalizer".  If this was set up correctly the plane would settle or "parachute", and drop straight down.  But, I've seen planes up 3000 feet, with de-thermalizer activated, and still ascending and heading for the next county.  We'd put our name, phone number and address on a little tag, doped to the fuselage, and occasionally you'd get a call weeks or months later, when somebody discovered your handiwork, likely quite the worse for weather.

[him a layin]

i built one or two, crashed and destroyed both, concluded that flying was not for me. since then i've taken hang gliding and sailplane lessons, just enough to conclude "i can do this".

[Turbofurball]

i built one or two, crashed and destroyed both, concluded that flying was not for me. since then i've taken hang gliding and sailplane lessons, just enough to conclude "i can do this".

Yeah, about 8 years ago I got a cheap plastic & foam RC plane just to have a go with it.  I think it's just not something I can do, and I gave the remains to a friend to recycle the servos etc.

All my hobbies are ground based, it's hard to fall off the floor.