Flight? Mmm. As a child, I had a neighbor who flew full-size aircraft. :) Notice I said full-size. :) He sold model gliders at his parents' store. I asked my parents if I could have an RC model. The answer was always, "NO! But you can have a glider or rubber-powered model." So, I flew a Guillow's glider and built scale kits. After I married, I bought my first RC miniature airplane :) and joined AMA in 1994. AMA 523646.
I didn't know anyone at first that might help me take to the skies. So, I ordered a Dave Brown RC flight sim, and joined an AMA RC group in Marion, North Carolina, for one year, and then helped start a group at the Morrison Field Airport in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, and flew there for 10 years. The airport grew and became too big for modeling, and I joined the ABA Asheville, North Carolina, AMA group.
ABA lost its flight site. I enjoyed helping new flyers, and ABA signed me up for the Introductory Pilot Program in 2011. They closed, and I joined JCRC and helped out as an Introductory Pilot Instructor. We were hit hard in 2024 by Hurricane Helene, so I didn't rejoin JCRC.
I'm starting a local flying group of Free Flight flyers, hoping that it may become an AMA group one day.
