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William C. “Bill” Messer of Olean, New York, joined the Olean Model Airplane Club (OMAC, now known as the Southern Tier Aero Radio Society, or STARS) in 1942 when he was ten years old. That same year, he joined the AMA, making him an 84-year member, and in 2018, he was awarded an AMA Life Membership.
At the age of 8 years old, I won a Sunday School contest and the prize was a ride in an airplane. Ever since that day I have wanted to fly for a living. With the support of my wife of 46 years, I have accomplished that goal. Just recently I have retired as a pilot for LifeFlight of Maine, and I now have much more time to dedicate to my other passion, which is radio control model aviation.
I have been involved with radio-controlled aviation for more than 35 years.
Some of my earliest memories are of a, large to me as a kid, RC airplane hanging from the floor joists in my parents’ basement. I would spend hours studying it, trying to understand how the control surfaces worked together to move the aircraft through the air. Several years later, I had the opportunity to build one of my dad’s RC kits - the Kaos 60. That experience sparked a lifelong passion for building, flying, and sharing RC aviation with others.
I still remember the first time a plane was put in my hands. I was out with my friend at a baseball field. He was flying his umx turbo timber and asked if I wanted to fly. I said no the first time. Yet, he was adamant that I would like it. Little did I know I would love it!
Coming from drone flying, fixed wing was a different perspective to take.
My involvement in model aviation started about 43 years ago. So having many ‘rc modeling’ experiences and adventures over that timeframe, I thought that I would simply start at the beginning. So, as Snoopy from the famous Peanuts comic strip was so fond of saying, here goes:
“It was a dark and stormy night.” Well, it wasn’t exactly at night, and it wasn’t stormy and dark either, but it was actually a very tranquil late summer sunny afternoon.
I'm about to turn 87. I'm still flying RC but not as aggressively as previous years.
I grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, home of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) and the world’s largest sport aviation convention and airshow. My father began taking me to the EAA airshow when I was 1 year old.
By the age of 10, I was riding his bike out to the airport twice a day and volunteering during the EAA convention to earn admittance to the daily airshow. It was throughout this period that I vowed to one day become an aerobatic pilot.
I have always loved all forms of aircraft and enjoy flying my RC planes a lot. I like the hobby so much I came out with CG Machine (Center of Gravity) that builders and hobbyists could use easily with their weight sensors like Xicoy to get their CG perfectly. It is patented and called the RCCG Machine. I like to help out anyone in the hobby as much as I can and hopefully it will benefit everyone to get the proper CG of their Aircraft before the maiden flights.
I am a retired Human Resources Manager. I have been a model airplane enthusiast since the 1970s (AMA 357495) when I bought my first Kraft radio and built a Sig Kommander. In July 2023, I gave a class on aviation and radio-controlled airplanes. The 2-hour class was conducted for 20+ Boys and Girls Club attendees in Trinity, Texas, where I live.
My journey into radio-controlled aviation began long before I ever held a transmitter. As a teenager in the Police Explorers program, a routine stop with the lieutenant in charge became a defining moment. At his father’s home, I saw a large F4U Corsair suspended from the ceiling, while in the backyard his father was teaching himself to fly an RC helicopter. That unexpected encounter planted a seed—one that would quietly grow for years.
