Just curious about the last statement "My dad said they never really used rudders much back in the day. Don't know if that is just his planes, or the way it was back then."..........
I've been a round a few old school pilots and their re-vamped glow plug set-ups......nearly all of them are three channel, rudder controlled.
A couple of interesting artilcles can be found on the these links.....seems three channel was the preferred choice as far back as 1937...
http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/vin...airplanes.html
http://www.vintagercsociety.org/vrcs_app/eligible.php
http://www.indoorflyingmodel.com/AntiquePlanePlans.html