I remember as a kid in the 70's, I had one of the plastic Cox fuel powered control line planes.  Think it was of the PT-19 type but all I knew at that time was it had a real engine that you had to put fuel in and made noise.

My grandfather and I tried to fly that thing a bunch of times but never really could keep it running.  I remember the only time it actually ran long enough to fly...we smashed it into the ground, never to run again.  But I was hooked at that time, only to have to wait almost 20 years before I could afford to get into the hobby.

This was when I was in my early 20's, I went to a local hobby shop and ended up buying a 40 size trainer RTF with a Futaba 4ch radio, chargers, and glow igniter.  One of the last discussions I had with the hobby shop guy before I left was about getting with someone to mentor me and get me on a "buddy box".  He even gave me the name of someone closeby (number too) that would help me learn to fly.  I thanked him and probably before leaving the parking lot had discarded the info as well as his advice.  BIGGEST MISTAKE I HAVE MADE IN THIS HOBBY BY FAR!!!!!

Went out several days later thinking...I dont need no stinking mentor.  How hard can this be!!!  I mean really its go faster = push forward, go slower = pull back.  Go up = pull back, Go down = push forward.  Go left...well you get the idea.

That 1st plane lasted all of 2 flights.  And am actually surprised I even got 1 flight in before disaster struck!  Needless to say the plane was a total loss...but the engine and radio equipment and servos survived.

With the shame of crashing and NOT following the advice from the LHS guy...I didnt go back to that shop for quite a while.  But soon after my crash I had found this really cool supplier called "Tower Hobbies"LOL.  I ended up ordering one of the Air Core trainer kits...built it and transferred all of the stuff from my 1st plane to this one.  I didnt fare much better as to learning how to fly as I still was too stubborn to seek help.  I did however fly this one some, but crashed it a lot.  Boy, those things are pretty tough....even though they are ugly as sin!

Soon though, I was discouraged to the point that I just quit.  I did not earn a lot of money back then and really couldnt see myself affording the hobby to the point I just put it all away in the attic till last year.  And I only got it out then because of a toy heli my father recieved as a gift from someone and him not knowing anything about it...had me take it home and learn how to fly it so I could show him it in fact did fly.

Anyway...that little toy heli was enough to get me thinking about that old Air Core thing in the attic, so I drug it out and found out that the years in storage did not do it well.  It was unusable, so off to the interwebs I went looking for a cheap replacement.  I knew that I wanted to get back into this, but do it right this time.

I found an overwhelming amount of info on RC and was surprised to find a few sites that sold some cheap chinese stuff that was getting decent reviews.  I ended up ordering 3 planes and havent looked back.  I since joined a club and have corrected all of the things I "thought" were right that I just learned wrong trying to teach myself to fly back 12 or so years ago.

I have made a bunch of new friends and now own about 15 airplanes and 3 helis...all within less than a year!  Its really addicting to me and I find it to be like a Lays Potato chip...cant have just one!

I also like the fact that this is a hobby that I can share with my son (hes 5 now) and give him an alternative to TV and video games.  I feel that RC will teach you things that can be related to in life situations (not just fixing things...but just things as simple as learning that sometimes in life, it takes time to get something done the right way...among other things.)

Im glad my Dad got that heli for Christmas...else my old Air Core would probably still be in my attic warping away...and I never would have gotten back into this hobby that I care so much for now.

I think this is something I will be doing for the rest of my life.  It just never gets old.</p>