Original article written by Richard Augur in 1997 for his club newsletter. Richard notes that even almost 30 years after this article was written, he still has the Esquire!
When my father, Bob Augur, built his Midwest "Esquire," a quarter of a century ago, he couldn't have imagined the impact it would have on generations of young people and future RC pilots.
Dad passed on his love of the hobby to his three sons as well as countless others. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of the hot summer days spent on the abandoned runways of the old Asheville airport being dazzled by the feats of pilots like Carter Pounders and Dale Wright. In 1972, Dad built the Esquire for me to learn to fly with. Though the tail dragger configuration gave me trouble, I soon soloed and thus began my career as an RC pilot.
I couldn't even begin to count the number of hours I spent flying this gentle old airplane, yet the Esquire's true legacy lies in the effect it had on everyone it has come in contact with. Many of my childhood friends and neighbors became interested in the hobby after seeing us fly in an open field across from my house. Soon, there was a small "club" of young people who were building and flying airplanes. Many still do today and they owe their beginnings to the Esquire.
Throughout the years I served in the US Air Force, Dad continued to motivate and influence young people in the neighborhood. He modified the Esquire to drop paratroopers sometime in the late 1970s and when I returned to Asheville in 1989, I began flying the old trainer. I began working as a recruiter for the Air Force Academy and found that RC planes were an excellent way to motivate young people towards careers in aviation. As I traveled to different schools throughout Western North Carolina, I would often carry the Esquire with me to demonstrate how airplanes flew. The Esquire introduced young people from the ages of eight to eighteen to RC flying.
Though it's difficult to say how many people this grand old plane has influenced, it is probably even more difficult to determine how many times it has crashed! I know that I have crashed it at least four times. Twice, I put it in a tree. I know Dad has crashed it a few times and this summer it suffered a receiver failure in the elevator output and crashed again. Yet, its gentle nature results in less than totally destructive crashes and its simple design means easy repairs.
The proudest moment for this plane, though, had to have come in the summer of 1994. My eleven-year-old son, Wesley, soloed the Esquire and became the third generation to take to the skies as an RC pilot! Later that year, his sixth-grade class took a field trip to the ABA field and 15 other young people and his teacher got to give it a try. As I watched him fly, I couldn't help but beam with pride and, as usual, the Esquire performed flawlessly.
I realize this plane can't last forever and yet I don't really care to rebuild or recover it because then it would not be the same plane that it is now. For now, I'll just enjoy flying it!
