Like many aspiring RC pilots in their teens and early twenties, I turned a lot of balsa wood into kindling and was rather good at it. Frustrated with my lack of RC flying ability, I turned to full-scale Cessnas and Grummans where I had better luck.
Later, I joined the Experimental Aircraft Association and built a few Experimental/Amateur-Built Aircraft. My first was a TEAM MiniMAX. Like those early days of Guillows' balsa stick and tissue paper kits, when I opened the 2 crates of my MiniMAX kit, there were sticks of every shape and size, but nothing in there looked like an airplane part. They called it a kit. Luckily, someone felled the Sitka Spruce trees and milled the wood. The larger sticks and polyester fabric were easier to work with. In a thousand hours, I transformed them into an airplane.
Much later, in my mid-50s, my brother and his teenage son introduced me to an electric-powered GWS Slow-Stick. Once my brother got the Stick “three mishaps high,” he turned it over to me for some stick time. I could keep it in the sky, but that was about it. I learned that thousands of hours in a logbook do not readily translate to RC instincts. Eventually, I could fly the pattern and do figure eights. That is, until I let it get behind me, and it landed on the very top of a huge maple tree. We broke out the retrieval rescue gear, climbed the tree, and brought the plane back to Earth. Before leaving my brother's place to return home, he presented me with the slightly damaged Slow Stick to repair and fly. I was an RC airplane owner!
Once home, I immediately went out and purchased a Phoenix Flight RC Simulator. Where had this been all my life? I could have saved some balsa trees and a lot of heartache. The next significant leap forward in turning me into an RC pilot was the nerf RC airplanes made by Crash Test Hobby.
Foamies had been out there already. CTH planes are not just another RTF foamy. They are hot-wire cut from EPP foam kits that have reinforcing carbon fiber spars, fiberglass reinforced packaging tape, and a laminate covering, making them essentially indestructible.
My brother and nephew had a collection of CTH models. They both suggested I move up from the Stick. My first was the Pelican, then the larger Albatross. Here, I learned that bigger flies better. The Albatross is a conventional electric motor glider that functions as the perfect trainer. The polyhedral wing variant of the model is extremely stable, permitting it to fly almost by itself. It also has impressive soaring capabilities. That was over ten years ago, and I still enjoy taking it out for another flight.
When I was ready for something a little faster, the CTH Assassin flying wing filled my need for speed, and then onto the souped-up CTH Grim Reaper combat flying wing. They are nearly indestructible, and I have tested them to their extreme limits. They may make a big dent in the Earth, but they will likely be flying again after reinstalling the battery.
At this point, I was fully satisfied with my newfound RC hobby and content that I didn’t need any more models. I joined the RIVER CITY RC FLYERS, AMA 2944, allowing me to make weekly trips to our 2 fields. Someone should have warned me to fasten my seatbelt and hang on tight!
On my first visit to the field, I was offered to fly one of the club's 40-size high-wing trainers. It just needed the dust blown off it and a little repair touch-up from its previous session with a trainee. I was getting reindoctrinated into wooden and glow-powered airplanes, and my blood pressure was starting to rise. This apprehension was needless because the Hobbico Superstar 40 was a sweetheart even though it had been converted to a tail dragger and sported an OS 55. I was ready to move up when I saw how smooth it flew compared to my kamikaze flying wings. Yes, you can fly without being on the verge of an aneurysm. Soon, a friend sold me a semi-retired giant-scale pattern plane of his design called Big White, which was gathering dust. Again, “bigger flies better.”
The club atmosphere allows beginners to thrive. They have such a wealth of resources – primarily, knowledgeable pilots and builders (prolific builders) with amazing talent and flying experience to pass on. With prolific builders comes a huge inventory of models. Any rookie needing an airplane needn’t search long before “a deal of the century” is offered.
The club's generosity is overwhelming, but entirely logical for its survival. Space becomes a rare commodity for serial modelers. Something must go out before another comes in. New members need something to fly. A sustainable equilibrium forms about the club.
I noticed how easily I’ve been seduced into new plane ownership. It begins with a big, beautiful airplane flying overhead and the owner/pilot saying, “Hey, you want to fly it!”
One way or the other, I’ve either bought that plane or one like it.
Sometimes they were just given to me. A Top Flite Contender, Great Planes WACO YMF-5, and Great Planes Giant Super Sporter were my last acquisitions to come my way from inside the club. Luckily, I have a full-scale hangar with only one small VANs RV-6A in it. There is room for several models to hang from the walls, racks, or sit inside the boat that also resides in the hangar.
Amazingly, in such a short period, there are currently eleven models in the hangar waiting impatiently to fly. I still enjoy taking out the CTH Albatross on a day with rising warm air and soaring that plane for nearly an hour on one small battery. My grandson flies it now along with an E-Flight Turbo Timber Evo. Yesterday, he flew with two other youngsters between 7 and 12 years old. This isn’t just an old man’s hobby.
