When I first got re-started in this Hobby of ours again a little over a year ago, it was strictly because of my Dad. This was his passion for well over 50 yrs. Since I was a little boy in Ok. The first memories I have are of going flying with my Dad. He would do his competition thing with control planes that he scratch-built, & I would play with my little gliders that he also scratch-built for me.

Years later he retired the Hobby. It was about 10 yrs ago. He called me & said he was all done flying & if I wanted these airplanes to come pick the stuff up. He needed the extra room downstairs that they were occupying. I had no idea how much stuff we were talking about until I arrived at his house in Carmel. It took me 3 trips with a full size pick-up to get it all. I ended up with enough stuff to actually start a small Hobby Shop!! At least 75% of it was still NIB. ARFs, Kits, & Engines all new. Recieving all this stuff was like a kid getting the wildest Christmas you could imagaine. Unfortunately while I knew what I had, I did not have the time to appreciate it, or to try to use it. So within a year or so it had pretty much all gotten sold or traded away. I was working 'round the clock back then & just didn't have the time to try to learn to fly or even to assemble any of the stack of new ARFs that I had to choose from. Of course it wasn't very long after most of it had been sold that I lived to regret it. Especially when I changed jobs & started to have more time on my hands & the urge to learn to fly started to kick in again. Only now I had nothing left to learn on & no extra money to go out & buy a Trainer with.

A few years back Dad got the building bug again & started to buy new building supplies & kits all over again. This time he started building Electrics though. After a couple years of admiring the pretty electric planes he had built he calls again for me to come clear out the downstairs room for him. Well this time it only took one trip, but I swore to myself right then I was going to hang on to the stuff this time & learn to fly. This is about the time I stumbled on to RCU. Thank God I did too, because if it weren't for you guys & all the good advice & info I recieved here, I wouldn't have been able to achieve my goal. My goal & motivation for the last year & a half have been to be able to have my Dad watch me fly on my own before he dies. This has been a dream of mine for awhile now. It is finally about to come true.

I have had some unbelievably bad luck this year with medical problems out the wazzooh. It has been pretty much one surgery after another since last Sep. in fact I was doing my training with both hands wrapped up from carpal tunnel surgeries, but I did eventually learn to fly. Anyway I've felt this since of urgency to learn as fast as I could because Dad is at the age when I never know which visit might be the last & was really scared that he might pass away before he got to see me fly on my own. So I have tried to see him & talk to him on the phone as often as I can. Recently we found out that I now have cancer & it may be a lot worse than we thought.
Requiring 9 weeks of chemo to be followed by yet more surgery.[:@] So now all of a sudden the shoe is on the other foot & Dad's worried about the possibilty of out living his youngest son. Since the diagnosis he has not missed a single day of calling on the phone & attending all my procedures & surgeries as well. Yesterday he called to inform me that wants to come up on Tue morning & stay a few days before I start the chemo on Jul 3rd. Yeehaw!! I have a regular group of guys that I fly with on Wed & Fri mornings. So this works out perfect! The guys get to meet the old RC Guru himself, & I finally get to fly for my Dad.[sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif]. So I am very much looking forward to his visit & finally achieving my goal of Dad getting to see me fly. Then when his time comes he can rest in peace knowing he has successfully passed on his flying desease, he tried over the years with my older brother but it just didn't take. This time it did, like 30 min epoxy!!