I was blessed with a father (AMA 20620) who professionally was an aeronautical engineer and lover of all things that flew. He was a life-long modeler and I can never think of a time when models were not in our home. I was hooked early on and was tutored by my father in building simple things like the AMA Dart and hand-launched balsa gliders.
My mother tells of me needing her to read model airplane kit directions to me and me knowing what to do once I heard the directions. So I know I have been a modeler since a very early age. My father taught my brother (AMA 20619 not active) and me to fly u-control and then I latched on to R/C at about the age of 11-12.
My first balsa R/C plane I built was a Cox Q-Tee powered with a small diesel engine. Very finicky to start, but the smell of it running was very unique, just as addictive as the smell of burning nitro methane in my u-controls. I flew the Q-Tee many flights as well as a Cox Cessna Centurion 210 foamie. I followed with building my first 4-channel kit, an Andrew’s MiniMaster. Once again, my father came to my rescue as I had assembled the fuselage myself and had not yet learned to be that attentive to detail. I proudly showed my father my progress and he kind of grimaced and said, "Well, I think I can fix it.” I had built a curve into my fuselage. Luckily, I was using Titebond aliphatic glue and my father patiently soaked the parts with water until he was able to un-glue enough parts to then reassemble a straight fuselage. It was powered with Veco .19 and I remember its speed was a little intimidating.
My father was always kind and patient with my progress and generously let me use his Orbit and Proline radio systems. As I progressed in the hobby, he motivated me to obtain my Eagle Scout rank by promising me a radio system of my choice if I got my Eagle. True to his word, he bought me a Futaba FG six channel system with new small servos.
I mounted that radio in a Fliteline models Scat Cat 500 with an O.S. .30 on the nose that was a 17th birthday present. It flew great! One of my favorite planes to this day, 40 years later.
As a life-long modeler of all things aviation, it just figured that I would want to be a pilot. I am very lucky to have been able to work 30-plus years as a commercial pilot flying all my time in the civilian world. I found that the basis in aerodynamics that I had learned in flying R/C made getting my pilot’s license an easy transition. I took college classes that got me through a commercial pilot’s license and Certified Flight Instructor rating. I taught for 3 years during Gulf War 1 and was finally able to advance to flying Turboprops at a regional airline. Four years and 3,000 additional flight hours later I was hired by a large purple and orange express company and have flown Boeing 727s and have spent the last 20 years flying the Airbus A300-600. I look forward to my retirement in two months so I can build more models and fly them from the geotextile runway I have built in my backyard. I still meet with my father now 91 years old every Thursday for indoor R/C flying at a local gymnasium. Modeling has been a life-long source of joy and instruction, and I have been a member of AMA for the vast majority of it.
Lex C. Taylor AMA 20621
