I have a Kraft KPT-5CS bicentennial (1976) R/C system complete with receiver and servos on 53.1Mhz AM. The system needs new batteries but otherwise functions just fine.I do want to send the system in for new batteries and plug adapters for modern servos.I love single stick transmitters.Bob WB6JRY.
As I stated, Phil Kraft also flew single stick. They were great and I tuned many of them in the Signature series line. Too bad Kraft was forced out of business. New batteries are fine and would help a lot. I changed many of my servos over to J plugs and used them for years. Unfortuntely, they all and these radios and planes were destroyed in the big fire we had on 911 2016. I also am a Ham. Thanks for commenting and happy flying. The 5CS was a great radio!
Back when I flew Class C/D aerobatic competition, I used a Kraft Gold Medal series - Mode 1. Never flew against Phil, but did see him fly at the 70 Nats, as I was pit mechanic for Austin Leftwich. Did fly against Pappy DeBolt at a pattern contest ... Cleveland Radio Controlaire's event in Chardon, OH. (Pappy was from NY, so frequently came to that contest). After getting tired of judging in that contest (I was a club member), I decided to fly one year (Class D I think), and actually beat Pappy DeBolt in one round. I don't recall who won the contest, but it wasn't me. Now that I'm 3 yrs. retired, I fly UAVs and Quadcopters, and my main radio system is a Taranis X9D+. My FIRST TX was a Citzenship CTX TUBE single channel TX .. Controlaire 5 super-regen RX, Bonner R.E. Varicomp escapement in an Ambroid Charger. If people today, had to go thru the learning curve I had to go thru, I'm sure the hobby wouldn't be as popular.
Yep. I went thru the same learning curve, including learning to fly nitro helicopters before there were gyros or cheater radios. All these radios were all burned up in the fire last year, except Phil's radio which I sent to the RC hall of fame. That was hard for me to send to them, but at least it survived. Phil must've been watching out for it!
Lucky guy to to own one of Phil's personal radios. I own everything Kraft made post 1969 and am still trying to find a Signature Series in good shape. I own a Series 70 that was supposedly gifted to Don Lowe by Phil but I have no way of confirming that. It does still have all the NATS stickers on it so I know that some serious RC pilot owned it once. I still fly ProLine and Kraft gear reliably on both 72 and 6 meters.
My favorite proportional radio in the early days was an Orbit 3+1. It was a nice little transmitter (big receiver and servos though) and set up like single stick with the throttle and trims on the side of the box. Super reliable and I won a lot of Class I contests with it. Once the central stick froze up during a flight and I was able to land the airplane using the trims since they were full travel pots.
That was great. I always like seeing old things or things with historical significance. Kinda wish you were more into R/C cars so we could see the evolution of the pistol-grip radio!
Dave, Once again I am amazed at your collection. I feel bad because I tossed my Hyper fly out about 2 months ago. It had been sitting and needed batteries and it could have used a body. It would look great on the ceiling! Get some more of the old stuff working again, like your Bi plane! It is so neat to see it work. I wished you lived close and offered tours! 5*
Thank You so much for your comment.I will try Radio South as a place I can send my radio for a checkup.I use my system on my Bud Nosen Trainer.I'm a Sunday flyer and I loved doing touch and goes.
hey Dave brilliant video, 1 thing tere caught my eye above the prism 7 x Radio i saw a pink helicopter, put that in a video, it looks kinda cool. hehe, thanks once again Dave for showing us your RC history in your career, i really enjoyed it. many thanks.
I have a 1969 Kraft Gold Medal series that I bought when I was 16 years old. 72.64 MHz (Green & White) if I remember correctly. One of these days I want to replace the batteries and see if I can get it to power up. Since it's been sitting for 40 years do you have any recommendations as to what I should do before powering this radio up?
Yes, I am starting to see what you mean now that I look around my house and see all the transmitters lying around and sitting on shelves lol........ My collection will never be as good as yours though.......
Mine is not an X, and the module in the back is definitely a fixed channel. I'm not sure when it was manufactured, but the original sales receipt is dated 1994.
Awesome stuff as always :-) Pretty cool to see how the hobby has evolved, hold on to your FM radios, they will probably soon be old news with the advent of Spectrum radios. Five Stars.
Is that room for sale? You must have the coolest things in one room. I'd pass out if I saw all the things I could tinker with in a room like that. Wow man, thank you for sharing that. You need slip in the line "here is my radio for that radio"
first to view! awesome video! you got quite alot, i used to have a wintage radio from an rc car, but i traded it without even knowing. either way i got a good trade and me guy was a collector as well so it went to good hands keep it up!
I have a Kraft in storage. Need to get it out one day and take a look at it. I used it back in the day. I have it in the original box. What do you think is the most popular brand out today?
Hi, The car on the wall at minute 2:28 in the video... What is that? I had a really old buggy way back in the early 80's before I got into Tamiya kits that looked just like your buggy there. The kit was given to me, so I never really knew what it was but I remember the tub chassis, semi-trailing arm suspension and that huge rollbar over the gear case that housed the electric motor in that long projection off the rear. Thanks!
GReat stuff as usual Dave. Thanks for sharing. One question, though; I notice when you went in depth about the kraft, you mentioned that mode 1 has throttle and aleron on the one stick, elev and rudder on the other. I find it more natural to have Elev and aleron on the one stick. What are your thoughts?
+Daniel West My first controller was Mode1 still learnig to fly with Mode2. Mode 1 is very good even for my quadcopter at AltHold/Loiter mode as I can go slowly forward and YAW with the same stick while doing videos with gimbal. I do not need ROLL most of the time and throttle is also locked so I can forget the right stick and control camera tilt with my right hand most of the time.
Excelente RADIO 🛩️ Yo Jose EDUARDO Lomeli Hernández , San Luis Potosí S L P ; MÉXICO 🛩️
Gracias!
Wow!! I recognize MANY!! And even owned several of those radios myself. Thanks. For sharing.
Great. Thank you and happy flying~
I have a Kraft KPT-5CS bicentennial (1976) R/C system complete with receiver and servos on 53.1Mhz AM. The system needs new batteries but otherwise functions just fine.I do want to send the system in for new batteries and plug adapters for modern servos.I love single stick transmitters.Bob WB6JRY.
As I stated, Phil Kraft also flew single stick. They were great and I tuned many of them in the Signature series line. Too bad Kraft was forced out of business. New batteries are fine and would help a lot. I changed many of my servos over to J plugs and used them for years. Unfortuntely, they all and these radios and planes were destroyed in the big fire we had on 911 2016. I also am a Ham. Thanks for commenting and happy flying. The 5CS was a great radio!
That's not a workshop that's a museum.
Fantastic.
5*
Dave,
Interesting stuff as usual. Thanks for sharing.
Jeff
Back when I flew Class C/D aerobatic competition, I used a Kraft Gold Medal series - Mode 1. Never flew against Phil, but did see him fly at the 70 Nats, as I was pit mechanic for Austin Leftwich. Did fly against Pappy DeBolt at a pattern contest ... Cleveland Radio Controlaire's event in Chardon, OH. (Pappy was from NY, so frequently came to that contest). After getting tired of judging in that contest (I was a club member), I decided to fly one year (Class D I think), and actually beat Pappy DeBolt in one round. I don't recall who won the contest, but it wasn't me. Now that I'm 3 yrs. retired, I fly UAVs and Quadcopters, and my main radio system is a Taranis X9D+. My FIRST TX was a Citzenship CTX TUBE single channel TX .. Controlaire 5 super-regen RX, Bonner R.E. Varicomp escapement in an Ambroid Charger. If people today, had to go thru the learning curve I had to go thru, I'm sure the hobby wouldn't be as popular.
Yep. I went thru the same learning curve, including learning to fly nitro helicopters before there were gyros or cheater radios. All these radios were all burned up in the fire last year, except Phil's radio which I sent to the RC hall of fame. That was hard for me to send to them, but at least it survived. Phil must've been watching out for it!
Lucky guy to to own one of Phil's personal radios. I own everything Kraft made post 1969 and am still trying to find a Signature Series in good shape. I own a Series 70 that was supposedly gifted to Don Lowe by Phil but I have no way of confirming that. It does still have all the NATS stickers on it so I know that some serious RC pilot owned it once. I still fly ProLine and Kraft gear reliably on both 72 and 6 meters.
My favorite proportional radio in the early days was an Orbit 3+1. It was a nice little transmitter (big receiver and servos though) and set up like single stick with the throttle and trims on the side of the box. Super reliable and I won a lot of Class I contests with it. Once the central stick froze up during a flight and I was able to land the airplane using the trims since they were full travel pots.
That was great. I always like seeing old things or things with historical significance. Kinda wish you were more into R/C cars so we could see the evolution of the pistol-grip radio!
Dave,
Once again I am amazed at your collection. I feel bad because I tossed my Hyper fly out about 2 months ago. It had been sitting and needed batteries and it could have used a body. It would look great on the ceiling! Get some more of the old stuff working again, like your Bi plane! It is so neat to see it work. I wished you lived close and offered tours! 5*
Thank You so much for your comment.I will try Radio South as a place I can send my radio for a checkup.I use my system on my Bud Nosen Trainer.I'm a Sunday flyer and I loved doing touch and goes.
hey Dave brilliant video, 1 thing tere caught my eye above the prism 7 x Radio i saw a pink helicopter, put that in a video, it looks kinda cool.
hehe, thanks once again Dave for showing us your RC history in your career, i really enjoyed it. many thanks.
I have a 1969 Kraft Gold Medal series that I bought when I was 16 years old. 72.64 MHz (Green & White) if I remember correctly. One of these days I want to replace the batteries and see if I can get it to power up. Since it's been sitting for 40 years do you have any recommendations as to what I should do before powering this radio up?
It should power right up. I used to fly on Green and white too, till I got my ham's license and switched to 53.400.. Thanks and good luck.
great video. Very cool stuff and interesting facts! well done.
Very nice collection!
Yes, I am starting to see what you mean now that I look around my house and see all the transmitters lying around and sitting on shelves lol........ My collection will never be as good as yours though.......
Mine is not an X, and the module in the back is definitely a fixed channel. I'm not sure when it was manufactured, but the original sales receipt is dated 1994.
Great trip down history lane Dave. It's kinda interesting how you seem to have more radios than planes/helis/cars etc.... lol 5/5
Awesome stuff as always :-) Pretty cool to see how the hobby has evolved, hold on to your FM radios, they will probably soon be old news with the advent of Spectrum radios.
Five Stars.
Is that room for sale? You must have the coolest things in one room. I'd pass out if I saw all the things I could tinker with in a room like that. Wow man, thank you for sharing that.
You need slip in the line "here is my radio for that radio"
woo! first comment! Great vid. i love your vids ont he earlier radios. There great, and so is this one! 5 stars!!!
Wavingthru I’m watching this 10 years later lol
first to view!
awesome video! you got quite alot, i used to have a wintage radio from an rc car, but i traded it without even knowing. either way i got a good trade and me guy was a collector as well so it went to good hands
keep it up!
I have a Kraft kp4kb fm transmitter with 72,790 MHz , I believe it's for a boat I'll post a video later today .
woah... those transmitters are freakin' awsome... they must be worth a fortune, but i would rather keep the radios :)
I have a Kraft in storage. Need to get it out one day and take a look at it. I used it back in the day. I have it in the original box. What do you think is the most popular brand out today?
Interesting video! I just bought a Prism 7 new in box as my first r/c system. Why is the 7x your all-time favorite and what does the 'x' designate?
I have a Kraft very old transmitter and it is for helicopter with special stick
whats the pink and white helli! we need to see that next!
oh, and dave, do you know a website that sells RC DIY kits you solder into a board to make a reciever and transmitter?
Hey, I never saw a submarine at gyro hobbies. Where do u live in O.C., I live at the beach town San Clemente
Hi,
The car on the wall at minute 2:28 in the video... What is that? I had a really old buggy way back in the early 80's before I got into Tamiya kits that looked just like your buggy there. The kit was given to me, so I never really knew what it was but I remember the tub chassis, semi-trailing arm suspension and that huge rollbar over the gear case that housed the electric motor in that long projection off the rear.
Thanks!
i was half expecting valves to be in the back
GReat stuff as usual Dave. Thanks for sharing.
One question, though; I notice when you went in depth about the kraft, you mentioned that mode 1 has throttle and aleron on the one stick, elev and rudder on the other. I find it more natural to have Elev and aleron on the one stick. What are your thoughts?
Nic vid! What are you holding at 4:38?
Very cool piece of history, but I don't understand why anyone would want to fly mode 1
+Daniel West My first controller was Mode1 still learnig to fly with Mode2.
Mode 1 is very good even for my quadcopter at AltHold/Loiter mode as I can go slowly forward and YAW with the same stick while doing videos with gimbal. I do not need ROLL most of the time and throttle is also locked so I can forget the right stick and control camera tilt with my right hand most of the time.
Why would you want to fly mode 2 ?
what are you talking about scolen3? I got a message that said you were replying to me with that comment.
Wow, no crystals? My Prism 7 requires a new module for the transmitter if I want to use a different channel.
your phil kraft radio must not work anymore. And you probably did not have a reciever for it anyway. Great video and great radios.
Did all this get burned up?
Cool, CAN YOU GIVE ME SOME OF IT? :)
Just kidding.
did you retire from kraft ??? oh ok they closed .your garage looks like a rc hall of fame lol
Not an antique, just a collectable. Antique = 100+ years.
thats very rude, please keep your remarks to your self.