JulianF25

My first Carl Golberg (and RC) model ever was an Eaglet 50 scratch-built in the early 90's. At 13, I couldn't quite afford the price of any RC kit so a hobby shop owner in Bogota was kind enough to let me make a copy of the plans and instruction booklet. Building from scratch wasn't so bad as I had already cut my teeth building small rubber-powered kits.

The Eaglet was powered with an O.S. .25 FP and it took just over a year to complete as I slowly acquired all the accessories needed. Other than the clear plastic cockpit, this model was built as close to stock as posible, down to the tank hatch and engine mount. Even the nose and main gears were bent at a local fab shop from a raw piece of 1/8" music wire. The radio came much later but that's a subject for a "poor beginnings" thread.

This plane was absolutely noble in the air and a pleasure to solo with. It accumulated scars throughout my learning and bore them proudly until it met its demise as a result of an unfortunate radio interference. I built a few more after that for myself and other folks looking to start in RC. (I sort of became the local go-to junior building-guru for a while).

My second C.G. model was a sophisticated lady and it was the first proper RC kit I ever built. I got it from a friend who purchased it and quickly found out it took more time than he wanted to invest. Having nothing but mountains all around, I was able to ridge soar it quite a bit. Those who've flown this plane will know how hard it was to convince it to land with healthy wind currents all around. I only wish I had tried to do some valley flying with it. This model was built twice more from templates.

My next Carl Goldberg is a full-retro project from the 1960's. An original 1/2A Blazer kit which I very much look forward to bringing to life later this summer.

Regards,
Julian