I have been building and flying model airplanes off and on since I was 5 years old, in 1950. At 5 years of age, I loved the Comet Sparky, a difficult-to-build model. However, I actually built one on top of the box with a single-edge blade and Testors wood glue! Painted it like the box picture with dope.
Could not get the prop and rubber motor in it, so my mom put clay in the nose and we tossed out the second-story window! It had an excellent glide and landed almost a block away! That really hooked me. I still have the model. I stopped building models when I went to Vietnam in 1968, and when I got back and got married, I started to build rubber-powered models, especially Keil Kraft from England. They were excellent flyers.
I got into RC gliders and built a contest Oyimpic Two. But my first love is rubber-powered duration models. I have scratch-built a few old-time rubber models and carved a few props. The only local hobby shop recently closed, so it is hard to find supplies. Everything is foam ready to fly. I even have some of them! One of my favorite models was the Goldberg Cesna 180 rubber balsa model from the 50s. It was an excellent flyer and gave much pleasure.
