My involvement in model aviation started about 43 years ago. So having many ‘rc modeling’ experiences and adventures over that timeframe, I thought that I would simply start at the beginning. So, as Snoopy from the famous Peanuts comic strip was so fond of saying, here goes:
“It was a dark and stormy night.” Well, it wasn’t exactly at night, and it wasn’t stormy and dark either, but it was actually a very tranquil late summer sunny afternoon.
My wife and I had just returned from a grocery store buying spree in our dusty and dirty car, that got that way from rolling over the hard packed gravel road that came to our brand-new house, that we were so extremely fortunate to have had built. We had just moved in the day before and we were in need of stocking up on refrigerator items and other essentials.
As we began to unload the car trunk, my wife caught the sound of something coming from over by the hillside across the way - about four blocks distant as the crow flies. I then heard it too, and when we were done unloading our purchases, I walked into the backyard, looked across the way and saw what appeared to be an airplane flying around in circles. Ever since I was a kid, I had always been fascinated by “stuff that left the ground and stayed up there for a while.”
Well, we got our groceries put away and I went back outside to see if that airplane was still flying around. As luck would have it, the plane was still up there, doing all kinds of that really neat airplane stuff! So, I decided to walk over that way and get a closer look. As I got nearer to the house where the plane was flying, the airplane was descending and then it landed. I watched the ‘pilot’ walk over to it, pick it up, look it all over, both top and bottom, and set it back down by a rectangular box he was standing close to. He then knelt down, and removed something from the front of the plane, reached over to the box and connected something to the aircraft and by then, I was close enough to hear some sort of noise. It turned out that he was refueling the plane for another flight.
By now I was within earshot of him and as I got a little closer, he stood up and looked at me. So I introduced myself, saying that I was his new neighbor, and that I lived, and pointed – “over there.” He smiled, extended his hand, we shook and I said it was nice to meet someone out here, as there were no other houses or families on the road to our house.
I then asked him about his airplane, and he said it was a Sig Kadet Mark II.
It was fascinating. And the red and black color scheme really got my attention. I asked if he was going to fly it again and he said he was and wondered if I wanted to watch. I certainly said that I did.
When he had the plane ready for takeoff, he walked back to the side of the yard that was “his runway.” Well, I observed that his runway was on about a 40 degree downhill slope, and arced around the house. That was where he took off and landed. The plane sat with one wingtip higher and the other wingtip lower than the other one. But once in the air, the plane leveled off until he turned it around to make some more slow circles. He did some low passes and loops and rolls and then he finally landed it again and he told me that it was always good to land with some fuel left in the tank, just in case one had to do what he called “a go around.”
Well, I thought that his landing was pretty good, with the uphill side of the airplane’s wing pretty close to the lawn. So, I got to thinking about his “runway” and I asked what turned out to be one of my many ‘highly intelligent airplane questions.’ By then, we were on a first name basis and I said to him, “Bob, if you can take off and land your airplane from your tilted and circular runway, can you take off and land from a straight and level surface too?”
He then looked at me, for perhaps just a little bit longer than might have been necessary and then, with a smile, said that he could really do that. So, I then turned back and pointed to our house – back over there – and asked if he could take off and land on our road, which was bordered on both sides by some high field grasses. He looked – back over there – and then back at me. He said that he could do that because there were no trees at all around and not a single other house on our road.
So Bob and I became very good friends. He began to teach me how to fly his plane by handing the transmitter back and forth, as he did not have a buddy box system back then. Eventually, I learned how to taxi, learned left from right going away and coming back towards me. As my “flight training” advanced, I began to do my own takeoffs and eventually, I could even land – mostly on the road! Then one day Bob said that I was getting good enough and that because I finally knew where the road/runway was, that we would go out to a “flying field.” Well, that was a surprise to me. I then wondered if Bob had become delusional. Whoever heard of a ‘flying field?’ I mean, c’mon. Fields do not just get up and fly away, right?
Anyway, when that day came, I got into his car, and he had his plane and what he called a flight box in the back, and I tightened my seatbelt extra securely. As we rode along, Bob gave me five words of great advice. And I remember them to this very day. He said: “Whatever happens, fly the plane!” Now, mind you, we were in his car, not in an airplane. So, I checked my seatbelt again. I then looked over at him, and I thought I could see him furtively contemplating; if I was contemplating, what he just said.
When we arrived at his so called “flying field,” the first thing I noticed was that the ‘field’ was actually at ground level, and not floating around. Then I observed a number of cars and people there and airplanes up in the sky. Next, I noticed how long and wide the whole field actually was, and that there were no magnetic airplane grabbing trees around.
I then asked Bob as to how long he knew about this place, and why he did not teach me to fly here in these wide-open spaces, without a narrow road to have to take off and land on. He then filled me in saying that he was a club member there, for many years. He then went on to somewhat proudly explain to me that, “Sure, we could have come out here right away, but you might have been landing all over the place on the field. But since you learned how to land the airplane on that narrow road, and land it where you want it to land, you are already a better pilot.”
It turned out that I joined that club and have been a member of it ever since. And I was fortunate when Bob agreed to sell me his plane and transmitter. Some years later, I built a Sig Kadet Senior for my son to learn to fly with. As an aside, I still have my son's plane and have since converted it to electric.
In all of those years, I have met some very wonderful, helpful and pretty smart people. I still enjoy flying rc and I still enjoy building rc airplanes, even if building them is during “a dark and stormy night.”
So again, that was 43 years ago. My good friend Bob has since passed away, but I bet that he is up there flying RC all of the time and making perfect landings on a narrow, field grass lined, gravel road!
- Jim Hobelsberger
