In the late 1970s I was privileged to teach physics to some of the brightest minds in northern Virginia. One of them, as his term project, designed and constructed a radio controlled helium blimp from mylar, balsa, and scrap servo parts. Not only did it fly, it did so in front of his entire senior class in the school gym. He went on to win the Westinghouse Science Talent Search and a full academic scholarship to Princeton. And he was willing to help me get started in RC aeromodeling.
To a person who had previously built with Ambroid glue and covered with silkspan and dope, instant adhesives and iron-on covering were startling revelations. And those radios--oh my! They actually had functions like proportional controls, individual trims, reverse switches, and enough channels to fly just about anything you could conceivably create. Equipped with a Goldberg Eagle 63 kit, a bottle of CA, several rolls of Monokote, a K&B ,40 engine, a Futaba 7-channel AM radio system, and rudimentary tools, I cobbled together a fairly straight and stout trainer.
After joining AMA, at the strong recommendation of my student, I attended a meeting of NVRC and shortly thereafter began training. Because I had had some full-scale flight training in college, I thought I knew everything, Of course, this greatly hampered my progress and, when I left Virginia for northern climes 18 months later, many of my NVRC instructors were still cursing under their breaths. But, I could safely take off and usually land without too much damage. Thank you, NVRC.
Over the next 18 years, besides freezing my butt off, I met some incredibly skilled builders and flyers who helped me achieve things I could only dream of when I first put knife to balsa back in the 1950s.
But that's a story for another post. Only two to go.