ORIGINAL: MinnFlyer
My dad was in the hobby, so I was flying at a very young age. I was in my teens before I realized that not everyone had a basement full of airplanes
BTW, I'm now 56 and my dad is 90 and still flies every day!
56! Jeech.. near as old as me..
I actually started twice, or make that three times. Back in 1977, I was stationed in Eureka, CA and saw these guys at the local airsrtip flying RC. I was fascinated, so I went over and started watching them and getting acquainted with the guys there.
So, this perked my interest in RC so I spoke to the guys there and they recommended a plane to get to start off with. That was a Goldberg Skylark 56. I don't recall what engine I had on that plane. So, I built the kit and then headed out to the airport to get my flight instruction. That worked out pretty good until I made a mistake in a mechanical trim adjustment and crashed the plane. Since I was assigned to a Coast Guard ship, the patrol schedule was brutal... foreign and domestic fisheries pretty much dominated our time, and fit that in with law enforcement and search and rescue activities, well, there wasn't much time to rebuild, so I dropped the hobby until I had more time to devote to it.
Step forward about 20 years, and I retired from active duty, and started working as a contractor for the FAA. So, it started all over again.. out by a field one day seeing RC aircraft, so I decided to get back into it. So, I bought a Tower trainer and an OS .45 engine, and an Airtronics RD6000 radio and off we went. The work I was doing had me traveling a lot to England, so since I was there a lot, I had a good friend that helped me build another trainer to have over there. So, I did some training over there as well as some over here, but that got put on hold due to divorce.
[:@]
Step forward about another few years and I got serious, and picked up a Nexstar Select RTF and flew that to solo time and after. So, I guess I've been interested since about 1977, but serious into it starting at about 1999 or so and have been into it ever since.
That's my story and I'm going to stick to it...
CGr.