Shhh, don't spread it around.... You'll ruin our reputation!!!

In all honesty it's a pleasure to help out here. I'm glad that we can help you get going. All we ask is that down the road you Pay It Forward and help some new person out who's getting started.

You're questions about the radio actually echo why I try to help out. I had always wanted to fly RC but never could because of the money (starting a family and all of that). My father was going to learn to fly and had bought a trainer to learn on, but unfortunately he died of cancer before he could learn so I inherited the equipment. The radio that he was going to use was an old MRC 5 channel that we had bought back in the 1980 and we were going to eventually fly with it (which we never did). When I got the equipment I went to the local field (where the club flew) looking for instructions. I immediately received the standard line of the radio was too old to use (actually is was still legal by the narrow band changes, but only by about 8 months before it wouldn't be any longer) and they couldn't train without a buddy box. I was crushed. Not only did I want to learn to fly for myself, I wanted to learn for my dad who died without ever getting the chance to. I tried to explain to them that I couldn't afford a new radio at the time but most of them wouldn't hear of it. One guy took me aside and told me to come out to a grass airstrip that some of them used to fly in the evenings on sunday. Since they were just a small group of guys they were able to take me aside and help me learn to fly with my older radio. I've always appreciated that they did that for me, and that's one of the biggest reasons why I try to help out here. I'm trying to Pay It Forward to those guys that helped me learn.

Ken