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I am 78 and have been building and flying models for 70 years. Flew Control Line for 10 years, because that's what I could afford. Joined PGRC club at 16 when I was only 1 of 15 members of the club. I was drafted in the Army almost right out of high school. I convinced the Army that I had a background in Aviation. They sent me to Aviation school, where I was trained to be a crew chief on a Huey gun ship.
I was 10 years old when my parents moved us from Bronx, New York, to Queens. One afternoon, I heard the sound of model airplane engines coming through my window. I went outside and followed the sound and found a group of teenagers flying Control Line models. I introduced myself and they took me under their wing and taught me to fly Control Line.
Creative Sandpaper @GoInvo, @MIT
Flying since 1986
I am 67 years old and have been modeling since I was very young. My father was a full-scale pilot and helped grow my interest in aviation. I built many Free Flight Guillow's models until I had saved enough to afford a Bridi RCM trainer. I was a member of the Hamilton County RC modelers in the early 70s. We had a junior division and had a building class at Harold Vandevier’s shop (he was a noted scale modeler). I learned the basics of building R/C then. I won the best junior award at the 1974 mall show.
My first introduction to flying models came in second grade. I lived in North Yorkshire, England, at the time (the same area where Sir George Cayley did his groundbreaking aeronautical research, although I was not aware of this). One day, our teacher put us in groups and distributed balsa sticks, tissue paper, and glue. We were to build a small biplane under his instructions.
I first got interested in aviation at the age of seven. The year was 1935, and I was living in the Bronx, New York, with my Aunt Tony. I was looking at the airplanes flying into LaGuardia airport and said to myself, "I'm gong to fly those and see the world when I grow up."
My cousin Billy Sloboda was six years older than I and taught me how to build rubber-powered model airplanes from kits that my father purchased for me, and I flew them with many crashes in the small backyard of the five-story tenement apartment that I lived in at that time.
My journey into RC airplanes started as a teenager, having received a used Control Line P-54 Mustang. Having never flown before, the flight was short lived - all of about 15 seconds. Enough time to go around twice, up, and then straight down into a category 5 failure of several thousand pieces. A couple decades passed before I was able to re-enter the hobby, as I was given a 48" wingspan RC Spitfire that a gentleman in the community had started, but had died before completing it.
John Flanders, AMA 136543
My first Radio Control airplane was a Sterling Mambo that was a project with my dad in the 1970s. We had a temperamental Fox 15 on it but eventually flew it enough to learn how to land!
Along with my wife Debbie, who was also my caller, I competed in R/C Pattern in the 1980s-90s in the southeast and either flew my own design Elite or an Atlanta. I enjoyed this period quite a bit, as while I became a better R/C pilot, I also really enjoyed the friends and camaraderie with a great group of people that also enjoyed the R/C hobby.
My Dad bought me my first model kit, a balsa stick and tissue model, when I was in the fourth grade. By the time I got to high school, I was flying Control Line combat and working part time in the local hobby shop. I started a small club while doing that, which was AMA sanctioned.
