I got interested back in 1977 when I was riding my motorcycle in Eureka, California. I was riding down a spit road on the Samoa peninsula and saw some folks flying models. I stopped and watched them for a while and thought.. man, that's for me!!
So, I talked to one of the guys, who turned out to be the Fire Chief AND chief instructor for their little club.

I bought a Goldberg Skylark, don't remember the engine nor the radio except it was at least a four channel. I built the plane and then brought it out to the field. The fire cheif checked it out and did some minor adjustments, and put it up in the air for me. He got it all flight trimmed and landed it. We refueled it and up it went, him flying it high then handing off the TX to me.. no buddy box systems at that time.

I flew it several flights, and had to hand it back a few times, he landed it each time.

The next day, I did as I was told, dial out the excess trim by adjusting linkages, then bring it back. So, I did.

Well, on the first flight, we got it up at altitude and he handed it off to me. I flew it for a few minutes, but realized that it was behaving strangely. He took it back, announced that it was not responding, and tried to land it. What wasn't responding was the elevator. He managed to get it almost down, but it stalled and crashed into the pavement. Destroyed it. We found that the elevator clevis was not correctly reconnected.. came apart in flight, and that was that.

I was in the Coast Guard at the time (hence CGRetired) and assigned to a ship. The schedule for patrol was brutal.. 10 days out, 10 days in, with the in days spent doing something or other on the ship AND responding to calls at sea for one reason or another. I never got an opportunity to rebuild, and then was transferred to New York City.. and that ended my RC career.

Move forward 20 years to 1997 and my retirement from the Coast Guard. I was again out driving (no motorcyle this time) and saw some guys flying RC at this nice field. So, I stopped and talked to the guys. The circle closed, as they say, because I simply picked up where I left off, but this time with a Tower 40 trainer and later a NexStar, solo, and more aircraft.

That's my story.. and I'm sticking to it!!!

CGr