Billy Hell

My Feedback: (2)

When I was a kid my uncle had a field and a hangar next to his house in Texas. He took me flying when I as little and then he died in 1976. My dream was to have a set up like his. I got older and it never happened. I actually forgot my love of aviation (replaced by love of old Colt pistols, Harleys and tequila) Then a year ago (I'm 36) my wife and I were at a garage sale across the street and there was this really big plane for sale ($5). I didn't know what it was but I knew I needed it. A few nights later my wifes stepdad was over and freaked out. I had purchased a Scorpio Savana .35 (70 inch wing span). He go on ebay and bought me an engine/servos/rcvr/radio. I put it all together and found out there was a field 2 miles from the house. The guys out there really helped me get it all together (http://www.ewmaclub.org). I found out the engine was bad and he had bought an am trans and rcver so I wound up spending some cash to get it into the air. When my instructor flew the bird (called the FIVER) I couldn't believe it actually flew. I was amazed. That was it for me. Complete addiction. I told my neighbor he was basically a crack dealer and now I'm hooked for life (as well as my wallet). With my instructor Bryce Custer as guide I am flying solo and moving into basic acrobatics. I have 4 planes and one piece of wreckage. My work shop is always full of one or two projects. Don't send me down to check the laundry, I usually don't make it back up!
I'm addicted!

John B

My Feedback: (1)

My son and myself were racing stadium trucks with his buddy and father, they moved on to nitro rigs and I bought one for my son.
Told my wife I wanted to get myself a plane instead .
Birthday came around and there was a GP P-51 kit all wrapped up for me. took me 4 months to build it.
Finished that and took it to the field. the guys there oohed and ahhhhed........then told me to take it home and buy a trainer.
I got me a tiger stick and been havin a ball every sinse.

John

KevinSheen

One of my older brothers left home and started college in the early 70's and left behind a couple of control line planes. A friend and I had always been interested in flying them (his Dad built and flew CL speed planes in the 60's). We crashed them, built more and crashed them. My friend was the first to get an RC plane (Gentle Lady if I recall), I had to save my pennies. I finally bought a Cirrus Radio and a SIG Kadet. I finished it, ran it and never flew it.

I took CL back up when I moved to Phoenix in the 80's and finally, in 98 flew R/C for the first time (aside from my friends GL). Been building / flying ever since.

Kevin

gpmikemorse-RCU

A guy in my neighborhood was into R/C. He would beg everybody to go with him to watch ("ground crew" he called it). I went, watched, but he was way too nervous to let anybody fly his plane.

I thought about it. I thought I'd like the building more than the flying. A month later, I said, "Alan, if I build a plane, will you teach me to fly?" He said, "Sure," which I assumed meant he knew how to teach flying, and maybe had done it before. Best part was he gave me his old radio, so all I had to buy was the plane and engine.

It turned out I liked the flying too. Thus started a great friendship. It turned out Alan had never instructed before and I didn't pick it up so quickly (I'm now 50 y.o.). We did our time searching the swamp and the corn field, and we were like the odd couple yelling at each other on the flight line, connected by the buddy cord. It took me one flying season to get off the buddy cord, and another to get certified at our field (one of my proudest accomplishments).

Looking back, and seeing how other people get into it, I think I was absolutely blessed. Our club has a great training program, but if I had to spend a whole year waiting in line and getting in maybe one or two flights every couple of weeks, I would probably have gotten discouraged and given up. As it was, every minute was great fun, and I've got a great friend as well.

--Mike

TopShelf

My Feedback: (4)

I had been interested in flying since I was very small. In junior high, I was all set to be a pilot until I found out how much it was going to cost. Then I got interested in other stuff: motorcycles, girls, water skiing, sky diving, beer. When PC's came out with flight simulators I was hooked and my interest in aviation was renewed. My wife however is deathly afraid of flying and could not stand the thought of me flying a private plane so I stuck with simulators. RC kept creeping into my head. I walked into the hobby shop a few times but was so overwhelmed by all the choices, I did not know where to start. Finally a few years ago, my wife had a trainer under the tree for me and I've been hooked ever since. My wife is great about the hobby and gives me plenty of time to work on planes and fly. She figures if I'm going to have a mid life crisis, airplanes are better than other women

Kent

GrnBrt

My Feedback: (5)

My Step Father got me into the hobby at a very early age with rubber band models and he got me my 1st U/C in 1953 (my 9th B'Day) and it was a Firebaby. We moved to Palmdale in 56 and I did some rubber band models and 1/2-A F/F. When we moved to Los Angeles I found a hobby shop and joined their club, the Smog Cutters and one of the members was Jack Stafford and we became good friends. He taught me a lot and flew a lot of .35 Combat and stunt U/C along with F/F and it was Jack that kindled the flame for R/C. He was just starting in R/C himself at the time so I would go over to his house and watch and ask a gazillion questions, bless his patience!!!! I was finally able to afford R/C in the 70's and there's been no looking back.

exocet-RCU

My Feedback: (1)

My stepfather gave me a testors CL plastic thing that I never could start. When my uncle moved back to MN from Alburquerque he threw it in the garbage and built me a CL Jr. Flight Streak. After I mastered that he would let me wiggle the sticks on his Falcon 56 . One day he handed me a .15 size Curtis Robin. My first RC. Because of its small size, we had to hand launch it. He usually got it up and I would fly it around. He would land it. As I improved, I began to take it from launch. I still was afraid to land it so he would. One day, after the plane was up, he just walked away! When I asked him to land it, he was nowhere to be found. He later said that I had to learn to land it SOMETIME. I have been hooked ever since.

Tim

RC_Junky

My Feedback: (1)

Well up until about 2 1/2 years ago I didn't give two flips about RC and only thought of flying and planes as a great form of transportation. At that time my big thing was computer games, and I was good at it, (kicked but all over the world, online of course). Well as usual, always wanting to stay on top of things and checking for new products, I come across this Sim called Real Flight. Read all the hype, sounded like a real challange, a bit pricey, but I went for it. After about a week I noticed that I was able to keep it off the ground and make it go where I wanted it to most of the time. After playing this thing for hours and hours on end I started wondering how close the sim was to the real thing. I tracked down and made contact with a local RC Club (http://swfrc.org/). These guys were some of the nicest I've met and more than willing to give me my first fix. I don't know If it was shopping for all of the new stuff I found I just couldn't live without, or...... all of the new friends I made, or...... learning to rebuild all.................... my crashes or finally spending more time in the air than picking up pieces and looking for my planes or what, but I was HOOKED . Then when I could fly and my knees would only shake once and a while, I was realized that I was going to be spending a whole lot of time looking up. There is a guy that posts here at the Universe that has something about checking in to Betty Fords Clinic for RC in his signature and it cracks me up everytime I see it. That's because I know for a fact, if there really were such a place, they would have a waiting list. :stupid:

Nathan

My Feedback: (12)

When I was a pre-teen youngster, 1988 or so, I purchased my first RC vehicle... an electric monster truck called the Lunchbox. Every time I went back to the hobby store for this or that, I drooled over those massive airplane transmitters and couldn't help but dream. At that time, dreaming was all I'd be doing.

Nearly 10 years later, 1997, I was up at a cottage tooling along on a Sea Doo when I noticed our neighbors a few cottages down were preparing an RC boat for launch. I eased the personal watercraft onto their shore and started chatting. Later that evening while sitting by a fire as the sun was setting onto the tree line in the distance, I couldn't help but take special notice of how calm and ripple free the lake had become after such a busy boating day. My thoughts drifted back to the RC boat, and it occurred to me how much fun it would be if I had an RC airplane that could fly off water. I have no idea what lead me to an airplane instead of a boat, but there it was, occupying space in the dreaming portion of my brain.

Well that was it... I was older now, and could actually afford it, so off to the hobby store I went the day after I got back home. I started asking questions, and was a bit discouraged at the complexity of it all. I went home, jumped online, and started digging. I found a little online community called RCOnline, and started firing away with the questions. Some of the same names that helped then, are still helping people today at RCUniverse.

Now 1998, I went to the club a few times, watched the guys fly, asked ridiculous questions I had no idea the answers to, and was treated great. It turned out I kinda knew one of the guys flying, and he was a club instructor. After bugging him for a while, I bought my first airplane, Tx, field equipment... everything I needed and some things I didn't. I assembled it as fast as possible, charged the batteries, and headed out to the field. One of the club members helped break in the engine, set the throttle properly, and preflight check the airplane.

About two hours later, it was finally ready for it's maiden voyage. The instructor double checked the control surfaces, etc. and lined it up on the runway. Before I knew it, there was my airplane... flying. And before I knew it again, there was the instructor proclaiming he didn't have it. Straight up went the airplane, and straight down at full throttle went the airplane. So began, and so ended my journey into RC aviation. After the post crash exam, it was determined that the battery didn't have enough charge to keep the signal between the airplane and Tx alive. I couldn't understand why, as I had charged it for like 12 hours a few days prior to flying. That, mixed with a couple hours of prep time, turned into the mangled mess in my car.

I didn't have the stomach to dump more money into my RC endevour, so everything sat in the garage for a while. Winter came, then Spring, Summer, Fall, then Winter again, Spring, a new house, Summer and moving in, then a trip to the hobby store to give it a go again. It's now early fall 2000, I had all the stuff, I just needed another airplane. Lucky for me, the hobby store had a NIB trainer for me on the wall. I assembled, and got it done in short order, but fall was quickly setting in. About 10 flights later, I was soloing... and hooked!

I quickly progressed in 2001, and my first full summer of flying was extremely exciting. Pics can be found on my website. The aircraft are linked in order of their purchase... starting with the trainer.

Now all I need to do is get that float plane, and I'll have come full circle to what got me started in the first place Well that was fun for me, hope I didn't bore anyone.

Jim Messer

My Feedback: (2)

I saw my first R/C plane fly in 1948, piloted by Walt Good and his brother Bill. I didn't get involved with my own R/C plane, however, until 1957 when the Citizenship 465 single channel radio hit the market. Been in R/C ever since.

Outlaw-RCU

Flew a line controled p19 fairchild and was hooked. The next day went out and bought 4 planes, one engine and radio. After that it just escalated and now I have too much. Before that I had boats and cars so I already had knowledge on engines and other things.

Unstable

First off I have always been obsesed with things that are really complicated (computers, machinery, etc) or that make a lot of noise and go fast

I started with RC cars in high school with a grasshopper II

after upgrading through varios models (RC10s, LOSIs) I bought a
ARF electric glider from the hobbie shop I raced at. so far it flow a total of 15 feet forward in my back yard to test the trimming. it seems every time I arraged to go to the field the weather turns sour.

I also bought a small gas trainer used and ready to fly cheap (again the weather hated me)

after a few years I was talking about RC online with some friends... and it got to me again.

I started browsing tower hobbies and the helicopters caught my eye. I went to the local shop were I used to race and picked a nexus .30 up (would rather support my local store than tower) so here I am about to go out for my first time with the nexus. hopefully it wont cost me to much more in parts

CaptainHook

My Feedback: (80)

How did I get into RC flying? Hmmmm, I am 40, been into models for 30 years. Started out building peanuts, then sterling control line and at age 16 got into the rc end of this with a Goldberg 172. I tought myself how to fly the hard way. I remember the cold Michigan winter day when my older brother teased me about what is red, orange and white and doesn't fly. So in frustration, we took it to the neighbors full size runway and gave it a go. All systems go and I gave it a try, take off, alls well at 300 ft out until I realized that the plane was not responding. Looked at my TX meter and it was in the red. The plane flew in circles on it's own for about two minutes, seemed like an hour knowing that it was going to come down the hard way. At about 200 ft high it finally rolled and went straight down into an apple orchard. Believe this or not, it was stuck in a snow bank without damage. I lost it later that spring in some trees on it's 2nd flight. I finally learned how to fly later that summer with a sail plane on my own. My brother never gave me any crap after that. Glad I read this post, thanks for reminding me of the memories!

rusgmil

My Feedback: (1)

In the late 60's and early 70's I flew jump planes (C-182s, U-206s, and Twin Beechs) out of Lansing, Ill. About 3 miles NW of the airport, in a forest perserve, was a RC field (Thorn Creek RC Club). When I flew over it, I always thought " I'd like to try that some day". In 1980 after about 2000 hours flying jumpers and 1100 jumps, I did try it. Never looked back.

YNOT

My Daddy, thats how.

I was born into it. Dad was flying when he was in his teens. Mom has a picture of me, in Dad's arm flying a U-control plane when I was only a few months old.

My first R/C flight that I remember was when I was 5. Flying dad's little stick with a Enya 19 and a EK radio. At the age on nine I built my first. A Sig Scamp with a Max 15 and a Futaba radio, only 3 channels.

Now I have passed it on to my son, Zane. He was one the sticks since before he was out of of his huggies. He was flying a Firebird at 3 and for his 5th birthday he recieved a Superstar select. He is not into taking off and landing, however he is no longer on the buddy box.

Dave Barrow-RCU

I had taken my kids out into the country to pick their own pumpkins. I heard a buzzing noise and looked around, I spotted a small airplane, doing loops and rolls. A few minutes later it disappeared behind the tree line. I just had to find out what it was, we hopped into the car and drove down the road. I spotted the plane and it's owner, and pulled into the field where they were. I talked at length to the owner, and watched him fly again. He told me where the local hobby shop was, and I stopped by later that week. The hobby shop owner pointed me to a couple local flying clubs, oh yes, and drained several hundred dollars from my wallet. I look back 15 years later and realize, those were the most expensive pumpkins I ever got. I have to say I have met some of the best people I know in this hobby, and I have a lot of fun in the process.

Steve Collins

My Feedback: (8)

I was building scale R/C ships in the latre 70's and early 80's. AFellow at work thought that was cool and started with ships also. He wasn't one to stick with one thing for very long and the next thing I knew he had another co-worker friend of mine all hyped about flying RC airplanes. They both kept after me until I agreed to try it. Built my very first plane, a Balsa USA Swizzle Stik .40 with a K&B .40 engine. That plane crashed a little over a month after its first flight on a Friday afternoon in 1983. That was my moment of sober reflection on whether to quit then or whether to spend more money on it. The following morning I dropped an order in the mail to Tower Hobbies for a Sig Kadet MKII. The following Wednesday it was delivered to my door. 10 days after that, it was flying. Yes, I was and still am hooked. The cluc I joined was very active in pylon racing which is what I wanted to get good enough to participate in. After many, many years of pylon racing everything from 4 star .40s to scale warbirds, I have moved on into the world of jets. This was something I once felt I never would be able to do. I have been flying ducted fans for about three years now. My first turbine powered one is now ready for primer with the second one not far behind. This year is my 20th sesaon of flying R/C and the challenges never end.

keypilot

My Feedback: (4)

well, i guess i will put my two cents in too... My best friends older brother Had a bunch of planes back in the mid 80's. Everytime he would tinker with them i would be right under his feet. Finally he offered to sell me one of his old wrecks that he rebuilt. It was cheep, and looked nice, and he said it would fly... well... it didn't... i guess when he rebuilt it, the wing wasn't strait, and it did a nice slow death roll into the ground... it only had 3 channels so there was no way to save it. Well, he felt bad because he had crashed my "new" plane, so he bought me a new sig colt. i built it with his help, and he tought me to fly it. In fact i still have it to this day. i never crashed it. i got out of the hobby for a while, i was too young to drive and couldn't get a ride to the field. When i was in high school i tried to get back into it with a dura-plane. it was fun but still had other interests. Then one day i was in a hobby store and said to my self, "self... you are an adult now, and you can afford a model airplane if you want one..." so i bought a full set up, my wife beat me over the head, and the rest is history!!!

RedWing

My Feedback: (4)

I was in our barn when I was very little and found a plane. My dad had several control line planes and engines. So I got him to help me and I started to fly control line. Several years later I would ride my bike up to the R/C field and watch them fly. After awhile I stopped doing control line and left the small planes behind. I would go to air shows and airports to watch the planes. Then I was looking for a hobby, R/C airplanes, yea. I am hooked. I have been flying for a couple of years and love it. My dad just passed away , but he will allways be with me at that school yard behind our house helping me get the planes started .

Bill

TOYMAKER

My Feedback: (6)

1963-first airplane ride in a Piper J-3 Cub...
1963- first aerobatics.... loop and tail spin in a J-3 Cub
1964-flew first airplane rubber powered 24" all wood.. flew great
1965-free flight jet like model that used compress air and a rubber bladder for propulsion
1966-first control line plane COX .049 P51
1966-1972 numerous c/l model combat and stunt Fox .35 favorite engine
1968-first real free flight- .049 lost in a corn field on first flight went out of site... no clue on how to set D/T fuse....
1972-first R/C... Big Mombo .60 Fox reed radio
1972 first proportional radio Kraft and a Kwik FLY .60
1976 first twin engine B-25 w/O.S. .25's
1977 first pattern plane ??? fogot name of it S.T. Bluehead ABC
1978-first divorced(hopefully last).........lost for 21 yrs...
back now..
1999 flying Marie P-30 rubber free flight - my uncles design (model of the year and has helped him win the National Cup 2 yrs in a row)
1999 inherited bro-in-laws 26yr old .40 Kaos, bought 1st computer radio. Futaba 6XAS
1999 won first Sportsman pattern event with that Kaos
2000 first 2-meter pattern plane and 1.40 size engine
2001 first 25% size plane CAP 232
2002 first 2 meter sail plane...

This time I do not plan on retiring from the hobby. I have made many new friends and love the comaradery the hobby has to offer. Building for me is the best stress reliever I know of.
Hopefully my son will come to appreciate it also.

hawkpilot

My Feedback: (7)

I had always wanted to be a pilot as a child. When I got out of HS I could not afford flight school and the USAF would not let me fly due to wearing contacts. So I ended up in the freight business, and on the rails. Then my uncle gave me three planes, a gp pt40, some sort of asian pt19 (looks old), and a fiberglass fuse pheonix 8 pattern plane, well this lit the fire. I then started training on my instructors avistar (which I now own,..... had to have the first plane I flew ) On the first flight he was amazed by my flying, said that he has never worked with a beginner that was doing that well. He was teaching me basic aerobatics on the first day.....Well this turned the fire into the towering inferno. My first build was the pt40. My uncle had built the fuse....funny story....and I built the wing and covered the bird. On its first flight I did the usual preflight check, and such, taxied out to the runway, and gave it heck. It lifted off so beautiful with a rock steady climb, did the initial turn, came back adjacent to the runway, went to make a turn and that is when the fun began, it felt like I had a tiger by the tail. No response out of the ailerons. was climbing, diving, stalling, it was doing it all, and it was not self correcting like the box said. I carressed it to within 30 ft of the end of the runway at an altittude of about15 ft and it did a sharp right bank into the ground. Minimal damage (broken wing mount, covering). My mom wanted to see me fly so I invited her along. She came over to the plane after I recovered it and said "what happened" I dunno? Started inspecting it at the front, and she says"how come this is all bubbled back here?" The whole tail had come loose in flight, with nothing but my covering job holding it on. My uncle had used CA to glue the tailfeathers. I just laughed at my first crash and put it back together for the next flight, with epoxy this time. I now have the three original planes, the avistar, a top flite p-51d (my pride and joy) and a jim fox hawk, starting me into ducted fans. Future plans of a lanier sea bird, and some sort of 1/6 scale f-16 done in the colors of the belgian af, like the pic under the eye candy post, an air magic F5, and a few others, have been supplying my friends at Starfleet Hobbies in Cinci with a steady income. I am HOOKED. And I have never met such a great bunch of people willing to help each other out, and get along so well, especially here on RCU, the best, most informative site on the web.

TTsboy

My father started in the 40's flying U/C. Since that time he has been in and out of the U/C and R/C hobby. I first flew U/C in the early 70's. Dad and I flew full scale together, recently we sold our C172. To keep our hand in aviation we have decided to get back into R/C as a full-time passion. So far we have the following tally of aircraft that includes 2 U/C (1 which is my Dad's original trainer from the 40's, it still flys with original engine), R/C includes a Citabria, Kadet Senior, Miss Crescent City, TF Spitfire (fall 2002 project), currently scratch building a Volksplane 1 and Catalina PBY5A.

Auger Din

I first got into RC about 10 years ago. I've always loved airplanes, as well as RC toys.....cars, boats, you name it.

One day between classes at college, I dropped into a hobby shop near campus and started gawking at the gorgeous Catalina with an 8 foot wingspan that was hanging from the ceiling. It was for sale, and I actually had the right amount of cash on me to buy it (to heck with next semester huh? ). Fortunatly the shop owner talked me out of the clouds, and left me at an altitude of 20 feet or so. He convinced me to buy a Duraplane, and engine, and a Futaba 4 channel radio. I ended up bumming next semester's money from my dad.

Anyway, I built the DuraTrainer and tried to fly it without the aid of an instructor. This ended in disaster with the loss of the plane and the engine....But I still had the TX! Just not much else.

A while after this happened, a friend at school heard about my abbriviated flight training, and convinced me to try again with him as the instructor. I bought a Goldberg Electra, built it and flew it all through the summer, and began building a glow trainer that winter.

Everything was fine until my mother passed away in May, and I fell out of the hobby for the next decade.

Eventually, I decided to give it another go and asked my wife for a powered glider for Christmas. Well, the little darlin did one better. She bought me a GP P-51. I decided then that I needed to join a club, and here I am now.

C'mon Spring.........Get crackin and warm us up, the days are waisting, and I wanna fly.....

CanopyFx

My Feedback: (6)

I got in to this hobby by painting heli canopies. I started by painting a few for friends. I started going to the fields to meet new customers and saw how hte helicopters flew. I loved it. So I bought a raptor. Now I have had the opertunity to paint a plane and I am hook on that also. So I am getting a plane too. Now with all the painting I do I wish I had time to fly. Kinda a catch 22. But I love this hobby.

Billy Hell

My Feedback: (2)

Sweet. How about ghost flaming my Caddy!