I was about 6 or 7 years old when I started building Strombecker models with my dad, and I moved on to balsa and tissue models as soon as I had some money to buy Gillow's kits. I flew Control Line through high school and pretty much left the hobby until 1961 when I got into RC. My first RC model was a polyhedral Free Flight (a Fubar 36) with a rubber band-driven escapement controlling the rudder with a push button radio. Amazing! We could turn the model! I moved up to Pattern planes actually flying at the same field as Phil Kraft in Southern California.
I moved to Idaho in 1986 and saw an RC helicopter. I said, "That's for me," and went to a week-long school in Florida to learn how to hover and build the kits. Miniature aircraft was the hot top in those days, and that's what I flew for 18 years. I moved to Arizona in 2004 and joined an RC club flying foamies and a couple of RTF models that caught my attention. In 2010, while summering in Montana, I discovered a glider club and contacted the club via the internet. I was invited to fly with them, and I've been flying gliders since then.
I'm participating in the F5J discipline, and my 4-meter Ultimate II is my current plane. I owned a full-scale Cessna 182 during my 18 years in Idaho, using it for business. I love all types of aircraft and have made countless friends through the hobby over the years. I'm now 84 years young and flying at least once a week, if not more, as well as the occasional contest.
What a wonderful hobby, wonderful people and the AMA to guide us.
