I was born in 1956 while my father was in the USAF. Being around aircraft at an early age and around model making (my father built wood display sailing ships), I started making model airplanes out of household materials at about 5 years old and built my first Free Flight balsa planes at 7 while living in Uruguay. Shortly thereafter, I turned toward glow and Control Line.
When I was 9 at Scott AFB, I would watch them fly RC and did my first RC flying at about 12 after my father retired from the USAF and we moved to Merritt Island, Florida. When I joined the US Navy, I became more involved in RC while still flying Control Line combat and pattern.
My first helo was in 1976, and I became more and more involved as the years passed. Many times, I was the club instructor or officer in clubs, including on Guam, in Channel Islands, California, and for many years when I retired from the Nacy and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. Many years I worked part time in hobby shops or as the shop's instructor.
Over the years, diversity in what I flew kept me active, going back and forth from Control Line to RC and from sport planes to helos to multirotors to FPV to slope and thermal gliders to various types of EDFs.
Through being an Air Force brat and retired US Navy and travels, I've flown in Japan, Guam, Spain, Portugal, the Bahamas, South America, and many US states. I have also flown off the planes and helos off the flight deck and in the hangar bay of a couple US Navy aircraft carriers.
All the while, I have made many friends. People that while we may be very different, we all have one common interest: model aviation.
