At the age of 6, my Dad had told me stories about his flying experiences in his1930 Golden Eagle Chief. He flew all over the Southeast advertising Radios made by the Jesse French Piano and Radio Company in New Castle, IN.
The plane was built by The R.O. Bone factory in Inglewood, CA. Only 14 of these aircraft were production planes, as documented in the aircraft registry. This Golden Eagle was flown by Bobbi Trout, in 1929, in various events alongside Amelia Earhart and other charter members of the Ninety Nines, the International Organization of Women Pilots. Bobbi set numerous records in the Golden Eagle. I scratch built a 26% scale model of my Dad’s plane from photos and invaluable input from a friend, Warren Gardner. Warren had bought an Eagle from a scrap yard. He fully restored it and flew it for about 15 years. Sadly, Warren passed away in September of 2016. He was amazing person and could provide every detail about the Eagle from memory.
Fast forward about a year, around 1946 – 1947, when our family moved to a house that was adjacent to a private Airport in Montgomery, AL. It was called Allenport. There were quite a few airplanes at the airport – Piper J3s, Aronica Chiefs, an Erco Ercoupe, a Stinson Reliant, Stearmans, Cessnas, etc. But what cemented my interest airplanes were several BT-13s that were placed there after WWII – most sitting and corroding away. The owner of the airport would let me go and sit in the BT-13s and conduct my own imaginary air campaigns against the enemy. I probably had more kills than John Wayne in the 1942 movie “Flying Tigers”. I would sit in those planes for hours on end until my mother would send my older sister to bring me home.
At the age of round 9 years old I started collecting Topps Airplane Cards (like baseball cards) and had a huge collection of WWII fighters from all nations. I moved on to building plastic scale Warbirds – P-51, P-47, F4U, Spitfire, etc., and then moved on to Rubber Powered Warbirds, applying skills necessary to build these models from “stick and paper’ kits. Not too much time passed before I worked at a Hobby Shop in Montgomery AL at the age of about 10 or 11 years old. I worked so that I could buy an AJ Walker Firebaby. Can you imagine my thrill of finally being in control of a engine powered airplane! I later dabbled in free flight airplanes but was not very successful or interested in that part of the sport. By the age of about 13, I was flying larger control line airplanes. My first large control line plane was a Sterling Ringmaster with a Fox 35. I honed all my control line skills flying many hours on the Ringmaster – stunt and combat flying. At 14, I went to my first Model Airplane contest in Birmingham, AL. I took (3) Quicker flying wings to fly combat. My primary plane for the event was a Quicker with a K & B Torpedo 29. I had one back-up ready to fly with the Fox 35 and another without an engine. All were covered with silk scarfs purchased from Kress’ 5 & 10 store. I flew 3 rounds and on my final round I cut the opponents streamer and the knot. I was unable to recover from the dive and crashed my plane. Little did I know that the crash did not disqualify me, and the knot cut got me 500 points! I won First Place for Combat!
When I turned 15, I quit flying and got interested in motorcycles for a while. After the novelty of riding a motorcycle wore off, I found myself back with the model planes. I saw an old friend from the model airplane club one day and he asked me to with him to fly his “radio-controlled model”.
That really caught my attention. He had a large transmitter with a tall antenna that sat on the ground with a large battery connected to it. Inside of the airplane was a box of wires and tubes and batteries. The plane looked much like a chubby free flight model. He fiddled with TX and RX tuning the coil to get the strongest signal for his plane. The plane had only left and right rudder control driven by a two-step escapement. After his tuning was complete, he fired up the glow engine and took flight. It was totally amazing to see the plane turn at his command! I was hooked. Fortunately, there was an inexpensive handheld transmitter made by ACE. As I recall, I bought a single channel ACE Pulse Commander Kit with TX, RX and Escapement.
I spent more time trying to get a good signal between the plane and TX than I did flying. I did get some flying time in, that was moderately successful but continued to influence my desire to get more into RC flying.
I went to high school, got involved in drag racing cars, and soon thereafter went off to college. That ended my early model airplane building and flying.
I watched another friend, in 1963, flying an RC plane with a Kraft proportional radio – it was amazing to me. It was not until I retired, some 47 years later, that I took up RC flying again. By chance I was riding by a field where I saw several airplanes in the air. I stopped and watched, looked at the equipment and asked a lot of questions. This was somewhat early in the website search engines, but I found one of the offshore online hobby stores. There I bought a very cheaply constructed 4 channel foam Piper J3 Cub, complete with TX and RX, battery pack, motor and all servos installed for about $80. It could be assembled and ready to fly in about an hour. I took the plane out to a sandy spot on a marsh at St. Simons Island, GA. I placed it down with intentions of taxiing fast, but as it rose off the ground, I was committed. I made a long wide sweeping right hand turn, came back around behind me, and executed one of the prettiest landings I ever made. First time in the air since flying the initial single channel pulse system 47 years prior. I was back! I then went straight to the hobby shop and bought an E-flite Apprentice and a Spektrum 5 TX and AR500 receiver.
For the next 2 to 3 years I, along with my two sons, bought, built and crashed a lot of electric planes – including my Piper J3. I did not crash the Apprentice because it was so forgiving. Many crashes were because we put planes into the air without checking the CG! We had micro warbirds from Hobby King, larger warbirds and sports planes from World Models, Hobby King and other online stores. We graduated to the Spektrum 6 TX and AR600 receivers because we wanted some planes with retracts and flaps.
My first return to glow engine power was around 2006. I bought a Kyosho PT-17 that was a .30 sized plane, 42” wingspan. I always thought more power was better, so I bought a Magnum 52 glow engine for it. I flew that plane for several months and the decided I needed a big warbird. I bought an 80” wingspan JU-87 from VQ Warbirds. Contrary to my normal tendencies, I under powered the Stuka with a 35cc gas engine. It flew pretty much scale like – took a long hard surface runway to get airborne. It was fun. After that I bought a Blackhorse F4U Corsair and powered it with 5 cylinder Magnum Radial engine – it flew like a dream!
I could go on and on about each phase my RC flying, but it would take forever. I flew actively until 2017, at which time the club, in which I was a member, lost its great flying site. I never fully engaged again but did occasionally fly some smaller planes. Due to various limitations, I got completely out of flying in 2025 and have sold off or donated most of my aircraft and equipment. To satisfy my flying addiction, I bought a Microsoft Flight Simulator and set up a full cockpit. I thoroughly enjoy the SIM, and I highly recommend this to those who want to take another step after flying RC planes.
I am listing most of the RC planes I have owned and flown over the years. At one point I had over 30 planes in my hangar. What a wonderful sport!
ALL GAS OR GLOW
- 1.Gee Bee 97” Sportster (my favorite of all time) Flew it for about 9 years.
- Blackhorse 90” F4U Corsair
- ESM 80” JU 87 Stuka
- Seagull 82” AT-6 (challenging)
- Top Flite 87” P-47 D
- Phoenix Models 87” Stinson Reliant
- Great Planes - 66” PT-17
- Kyosho 42” PT-17
- Phoenix Models 100” SBD 5 Dauntless
- Golden Eagle Chief – 98” Scratch built; Balsa, Plywood, Fiberglass, Fabric Covered
- Hangar 9 Piper Pawnee – 87”
- Ultimate Bi-Plane – 40” – Balsa
- Hangar 9 - Twist 40”
- World Models – 44” T-34 Mentor
- Great Planes – 60” Cherokee
- Top Flite 58” Focke Wulf
- 1987 - Carl Goldberg – 50” Eaglet
- Hanger 9 – 8cc Gas P-51
- Top Flite – 60 Size – P-51
ALL ELECTRIC
- E-Flite – 80” T-28 Carbon Z
- 1991 Great Planes – 42” J3 - Electri-Cub (converted to brushless 2018)
- Unknown Brand – 36” Foam J3 Cub
- Globe – 56” Temco Swift
- Walrus – 1400 mm Powered Glider
- Hobby King – Calmato
- Hobby King – MXSR SBACH
- Hobby King – 36” Cessna 172
- Hobby King – 34” Bi-Plane
- Hobby King – 48” Python Bi-Plane
- Hobby King – 42” Ultimate
- Horizon – Seawind
- FMS – Foam P-51
- Maxford – 40” – Gee Bee Sportster
- Horizon Hobby – Foam BF-109
- Hobby King – Foam 24” F-86 Saber
- E-flite – DH2 Beaver
- Hobby King 66” Decathlon
ALL MICRO/UMX
- E-Flite - Micro – P-51
- E-Flite – Micro – F4U Corsair
- E-Flite – Micro – Pitts Bi-Plane
- E-Flite – Micro – Mosquito
- E-Flite – Micro – B-17
- Hobby King – Rare Bear
- UMX – Turbo Timber
