I first became a member of AMA way back in 1965. This was at the demand of my father. My father was a kid that grew up during the Golden Age of Aviation. He built many Free Flight models and was influenced by growing up near Newark Airport. My father was an Army Air Force veteran who was washed out of the pilot training program and became a crew chief on B-24s and lastly on Curtiss Commandos, prepping pilots of both tow planes and gliders for the Normandy invasion. Long story longer, my father must have passed that aviation bug gene onto me.
He sat me down when I was ten to learn how to build a model airplane from a box of balsa sticks and glue! The first stick model I remember him building was a Jetco rubber glider. Didn't fly well that I can remember, but the seed was planted. He bought a Sterling Tri-Pacer kit from a co-worker, and I would love to look at that huge nose bowl that was metal. That was an early R/C kit that was supposed to be controlled with rubber-powered escapement. By the time he built it, we were already in the digital age for RC! He had it covered with silk and dope and had a stroke before he finished it. Meanwhile, my little brother and I continued building rubber models and occasionally we had my father buy us a gas engine for a Free Flight conversion. The problem was we didn’t live anywhere near a place to fly Free Flight models, so we tried simple RC, like a Carl Goldberg Skylane. In fact, it was a school project to write a business letter and it was 5th grade that I wrote to Carl Goldberg models to buy their kit. Never flew it. We had a Citizenship Galloping Ghost 3-channel radio in it. I still have the radio. What a relic.
Back to the Tri-Pacer ... I was divorced from my first wife and working at my uncle's body shop. My body and paint skills really improved my building skills! One of the guys there wanted to get into RC aircraft, so I said I would get back into it with him. I finished the Tri-Pacer and flew it on my father's 59th birthday, 11 years after his paralyzing stroke. We tried to get an experienced flyer to take it up but no takers. I think because it was so pretty! It was on his bday, like I said. He told me to fly it: “Do or die!” Well, we had a K&B 40 in that plane and I am sure it would have flown scale like with a .19. I had it screaming down the runway and with just a tick of up elevator it shot off the runway like a rocket. Once airborne, I had to hold full down elevator to keep it flying level. Someone said maybe throttle it back, but I dared not being the first time I ever had an RC plane in the air! Now it’s time to turn back to the runway and I was able to do that but I let go of the full down on the stick. What happened next is what they call a figure 9! When the balsa dust finally settled, we salvaged the K&B out of the asphalt and found the cowl bowl that I looked at in awe as a kid, all bent to hell. But my father was grinning from ear to ear, his model flew for however a short hop it was.
Back to the model building as a kid though. We built several u control models. I still have a Sig Chipmunk that is ready for paint that I started building when I was 15 years old. I wonder if the glue would withstand a pull test??? When my brother and I would finish a ukie, I would tell him that he could get the next flight as I was the test pilot! He never got a chance before I piled it in trying a wing over!!!
I always liked scale models, but sometimes you need to just get one off the ground and have some fun. There was always some kid around firing up a cox 049 plane, and we would follow the sound to see where, what, and who got a plane. Those days are sadly gone. The only time I hear a glow engine now is on u tube! Right after the TriPacer tragedy, my other co-worker that became my best man the second time around got into racing RC nitro boats. We joined a club and I really got into it for 10 years. So now I have a collection of those gathering dust. Need to try to find a new home for them before they wind up in a 30 yard dumpster.
Around the same time that I got into boats, I built a Sig Kadet. That’s still in one piece. It’s been flown several times, but since I last flew it, I think the Tower Hobbies radio is obsolete? More to the story though. I also am now an FAA-certified private pilot and own a 1965 Cessna 172 G that my partner and I restored over 10 years.
I can state without a doubt that my interest in model building and flying has given me such a technical and mechanical background that I would never have been exposed to otherwise. I spent a lot of my youth learning how to read prints and troubleshoot stubborn two strokes and electronic components long before the computer age. What a strong background it has given me that I still use to this day.
I worry about my grandchildren’s generation because they have missed out on so much that they will probably never know…..
