Born in 1952, I started my AMA membership and competitive Control Line scale and rat-racer flying at 7 or 8 years old. My dad flew scale and my older brother flew combat during the late ‘50s in the Lexington/Winston-Salem, North Carolina area. My dad and I attended the 1961 AMA Nationals at the Willow Grove NAS.
I flew junior scale and my dad flew senior scale, as indicated in the attached photo from the September 1961 AMA Modeler mag. My dad suffered a stroke the night after our return to Winston Salem, North Carolina, which ended my model flying for many years. Later, there were occasional attempts at RC fixed and rotary wing A/C flying mostly in Tullahoma, Tennessee, with my son, who has also won national plastic war-bird model airplane building contests.
I graduated from North Carolina State University in 1974 with a BS in Aerospace Engineering and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee in 1986 and retired in 2023 after working nearly 48 years in aerospace ground testing and testing technology at Arnold Engineering Development Complex in Tullahoma, Tennessee, and NASA Stennis Space Center in Bay St Louis, Mississippi. I also became a general aviation pilot in the early ‘70s, flying Cessna, Piper, and Grumman GA aircraft occasionally over a period of about 45 years.
I credit my aerospace career and flying experience to my Dad’s model flying interests and local AMA organizations.
