Biographies

My story begins in 1944. I was 5 years old living with my mother, father, brother, grandparents, aunt, and uncle in a 3-story house in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. I had two uncles in the military, one a Marine in the Pacific and one an Army P-40 mechanic in Hawaii. My teenage uncle at home was an avid artist and craftsman who built model airplanes, built a HO train layout, and drew pictures of P-40s. He was my inspiration.

I believe I started with Control Line in about 1961 as a high school kid. There have been some times out for college and the army. Also, about a decade away from the sport when I was flying ultra lights.  In about 1975, I taught myself to fly RC with an Ace Hi powered glider with a cox engine. Now I only fly electric and mostly FPV. Despite the occasional hiatus from the sport, I have maintained my membership in AMA nonstop since the early sixties.

I was introduced to RC modeling while attending Santa Barbara, California, High School in the early 1960s. A classmate and fellow electronics shop student invited me to attend a rudder-only pulse soaring event held at the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Transistors were just becoming employed in RC hobby electronics, and the Controlaire V all-transistor receiver was the hot item.  Galloping Ghost was not quite there yet for the average hobbyist, so everyone flew pulse with escapements and some pulse proportional with magnetic actuators.

Like many hobbyists, my interest in aviation started at a very young age. It was not until high school, 38 years ago, that I had an interest in radio controlled model aviation. A classmate of mine was speaking to his friend about flying a radio controlled aircraft. From that point on, I needed to know everything I could about them.