Wow, it has taken me hours to read through this thread. But time well spent. I am impressed with the level of mature discussion presented here, in spite of differences in opinion at times. Congratulations.

I grew up within 5 miles of the CL field adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins Airport. I flew in the 1958 and 1959 Junior Air Races there. I grew up flying CL. My friend and I would mow lawns in the morning to have enough money to purchase a quart of Testor's 39 fuel at the LHS, a 10 mile round trip on our bicycles. Then we flew our PDQ Flying Clowns all afternoon, until the quart of fuel was gone. We'd repeat the drill almost every day, all summer long. CL is in my veins, even though I haven't lifted a handle in probably 45 years.

I took up RC in the early 70's when it became affordable for me. I have flown RC ever since, but lately, I am longing for something different from the RC routine. So I am going back to CL after all these years. Not in any big way, just a sport plane that I can do some maneuvers, and have fun with at the local school yard. Perhaps I will take it to the RC field and fly it there too, but all I really want to do is to fly it within 5 minutes of home. My local RC field is 25 miles away. I am getting tired of driving so many miles to enjoy my hobby. But that seems to be the price we have to pay these days in order to enjoy our hobby. I've got RC electrics too, which I can fly locally, but somehow they just don't impress me very much.

I was sorry to learn that the old field at Cleveland Hopkins Airport was sold for a hotel development. The field as I remember was owned by the City of Cleveland. I was a member of the Lakewood Flight Masters while in high school. There were some great fliers in that organization, whom I looked up to. Bill Werwage lived in Berea, not far from where I grew up. Saw him fly CL stunt with his Ares on many occasions. His patterns were always flawless from my perspective.

I am enjoying this thread, and am looking forward to putting my EZ-Just handles to work soon!

Keep up the excellent discourse. It has been a pleasure to follow this thread.