Model airplanes, including flying a drone as well as being a soaring pilot (with 68 hours), have been a great hobby, which my Dad introduced me to.
I was nine years of age when we drove in a VW bus from Lima, Peru, to Buenos Aires, to visit my Mom's family there. While in Buenos Aires, we visited a store, which offered a great variety of Free Flight gliders. We took a couple kits to my grandparents home while there and ended building one small kit and also purchased a A-1 kit (Jetstream), which we took back home to Peru.
The small kit was an Argentinean kit and it introduced us to what Free Flight was all about. After returning to Lima, Peru, we ended up buying two kids from Germany (Graupner offering: Amigo-II and Dandy) and my dad purchased a used Kraft RC control system (frequency AM 72.400/not digital yet). We flew both gliders by the beach (ridge flying), whereby we had wind hitting a ridge and creating lift most days during the year.
During our National Aeromodeling Championship of 1974, my Dad and my sister's Godfather (Mr. Georg Leixner) helped me to secure 1st places in: RC Motor Airplane for Beginners (home built by Mr. Leixner), RC Glider duration (Graupner Amigo-II), and A-1 Free Flight (Jetstream). I was 14 years old and was blessed to then be part of the Peruvian team, who went to the South American Championship, which was being held in Brasilia, Brazil, March 27-30, 1975. I participated in A-2 Free Flight (Graupner Kit "Nancy") and placed 7th out of 30 participants. I thanked my Dad and my sister's Godfather (Mr. Georg Leixner) for having introduced me to this lifelong hobby and passion.
I then came to the USA for college and also became an AMA member #14328 in 1982 (I think). This hobby has also helped me to be disciplined in everything that life has to offer, and it also has helped me to meet people who are interested in flying model airplanes as well as full-size gliders. Now, we have a 5-year-old granddaughter and a 2-year-old grandson. Our granddaughter and I have purchased small foam gliders, which we fly in the yard. Eventually, we plan to introduce both of them to RC flying as well as drone flying. Life is making a full circle with our beautiful hobby of model airplanes!
