Mode Zero

I realise propo conversions are bit old-hat now but this is one I've had in the queue for several years... its the same story of a very desirable set that we couldnt possibly afford back in the day. Around 1968 my clubmate Robin had one in a Impala, he was a really really nice, helpful young bloke and as a 13-year-old I looked up to him a lot. He would fly in any wind conditions, even when it was hard to stand up. Were all very envious of his Sprengbrook propo, at the time I think we'd have been on Remcon reeds but still flying S/C too. I do remember that previously Robin had flown S/C gliders but I cant remember what model or radio...

This one is very clean, no scratches on the case or badge, just the slightest fuel-grime in the stick knurling. Its identical to Robins old set. I've kept it simple with no extra external knobs or switches. Most notable thing about the Sprengbrook was its weight - it was incredibly heavy with a large mains transformer and a huge battery. Anyway, here we go, not my neatest work as its quite busy in there, but hey ho:







It has the usual expanded scale meter:







I don't have that many retro propo conversions, this makes six:






Ah forgot the DigiAce, thats seven. And the Horizon 2. Eight



Still in the propo pipeline I've a Kraft Gold Medal, a Kraft 2 'brick', a Macgregor Digimac II, a Waltron Mini-2, a World-Engines Talisman 2, and a Micron PL7D (not for sale!)
In the reeds & S/C queue I've an OS Minitron 6, a Controlaire Mule, an RS Navigator... too many by far

Phil, great to see you doing a conversion for yourself - the Sprengbrook looks the mut's bits!!

I don't believe there is such a thing as an "old-hat" conversion in our little online community - I always find it interesting to see what others have been up to as I'm sure other forum members do too.

Top job!!!

Nice one! I've still got my "HB Precision" set - essentially a kit-built Sprengbrook - which served me well for many a year!


I've been tempted to convert it to either 35 MHz or 2.4 GHz, but since its still all works perfectly - and I have two flight packs for it - I've decided to leave it as is!

The only time it ever let me down was when the temperature dropped well below zero, and the SCSs in the decoder stopped working! (Something they were prone to!)

I remember buying a large bag of SCSs, and going through each receiver with a freezer spray, replacing SCSs until I got both sets working at low temperatures!

Happy days!

--
Pete

Nice Spreng-Brook Phil.
I remember Doug telling about going to the UK and designing proportional radios for Brook. He told me he sourced a lot of the parts from Micro-Avionics, and due to his partnership with Don Mathes and the Dunhams, it worked out well for everyone. Joe Martin did quite a bit of the mechanical design of the sticks, and also developed the Multi-con line of connectors widely used by Micro Avionics and Orbit.

Doug related that Joe left Micro-Avionics after having a row over a batch of servos that had been ruined due to inattentiveness of the gal doing the assembly. As it turns out that gal was Don Mathes wife.