72,160.82 raised in 2026. We have reached 14% of our goal.
Help us reach this year's goal of $500,000!
I was first introduced to the beautiful RC hobby at a late age - 34 years old. My wife and youngest son, 2 months old, were driving by DCRC’s flying field off of Gude Drive in Rockville, MD. We stopped in to watch, and a gentleman askes me if I flew RC planes. I told him I didn’t but was very interested in learning.
Lieutenant Colonel Charles M. Schlom, US Army (ret.), a combat veteran of Afghanistan, is an Army aviator and Subject Matter Expert (SME) on the North Korean military. In the Army, he served in aviation positions from Section Leader to Corps Flight Operations. He flew the iconic UH-1 Huey and earned his Senior Army Aviator Wings. Schlom was also assigned to the 85th Division (Exercise) where he served as Scenario Developer, Senior Opposing Forces (OPFOR) Observer/Controller Trainer, and OPFOR aviation SME. He has participated in numerous North Korean Battle simulations and exercises.
I got the bug for aviation at 9 years old when my stepfather took me for an aerobatic ride in a Citabria. My first model airplane was a Control Line PT-19. I built a few RC airplanes over the years, and actually built one of the very early RC collective helicopters (I never could fly it).
I liked planes. Like most people, I enjoyed seeing a 747 take off or land. But not until I was in my mid-50s did I ever consider not just flying but building my own RC.
It was early April 2006. I was surfing the Net, not really looking for anything in particular. I happened upon this site called aircrash.org. Something about lifting bodies, lifting fuselages, and a man named Burnelli. What I stumbled upon has profoundly changed the direction of my life.
My dad built and flew Control Line planes as a kid, probably in the late 1940s, early 1950s. I vaguely remember him flying one time when I was maybe 3 or 4, but never again.
Fast forward 10 years to 1971. I was approximately 13 years old. One Saturday morning, Dad told me that we had a special project for that day. He got down a large box from the attic and opened it up. It was that plane that he last flew 10 years earlier. He had crashed it and just boxed it up. It was a P-51 Mustang with a Fox 29 engine.
Wow, I am now 81 years old and started when I was 7. I loved airplanes and would spend hours in front of the windows at the local hobby shop. I asked my dad to buy me a simple kit, which he did not. Instead, he purchased a propeller and 1/8" sticks, some glue, and tissue, saying that if I build a plane that flies 10 feet, he'll buy me a kit.
I grew up in a small town of about 200 people in northeast Wyoming between two larger towns about 15 miles away. My first venture into model building was when a close friend and I began building from 3-views in comic books, using toothpicks and matches with Lepages glue. We would hang these in our bedroom.
My first flying experience was Control Line with a Cox Corsair, .049. I was a kid in 1959 with no one experienced to learn from, so I just "winged" it. I didn't start RC until many years later. I built and learned how to fly a Goldberg Gentle Lady, eventually building a pod and Black Widow .049 to get up where the birds live. I've built and flown several models since then and still have my Gentle Lady in perfect condition.
In honor of Christina Bhend:
My wife Christina was slow to enter the hobby. After years of watching me build, going to the field and events, and helping me as my pit crew and spotter, one night, she walked into the workshop and said, "You're having WAY too much fun in here. I want to build an airplane." She built a Goldberg Anniversary Cub and that was it. She was hooked.
