It was Cub Scouts that got me started. It was 1949 and the Cub Den I belonged to had a contest in building solid models. I built a solid wood model of a Piper Cub. I painted it green with yellow trim. It was ugly ! The kid who won glued together one of the then new plastic models. He never built another but I kept on building.

Then in 1952 my parents gave me a black and yellow jet like plastic ready to fly control line model for Christmas. It had an OK Cub .049 B engine in it. I learned on that engine spending hours trying to get it started (without any help). I finially did but the plane never flew. My first successful control line plane I built a year later from plans in, I believe, the old AAM magizine. I used the OK Cub I had gotten the year before. I flew that plane all through the summer of '53. It became fuel soaked. On the last time I started it, the engine backfired and the plane caught fire. All that was left were the wing tips, tail, and engine. I still have that engine and it still runs but poorly. I continued to fly control line into the late '70s and still have a couple of my old control line planes.

In 1973 I decided it was time to try RC. I bought a 7 channel Kraft single stick radio, a Fox .60 Eagle 1, and an RCM Trainer 60 kit. The kit was very well done and built into a very nice plane. I joined the Mid Hudson RC Club (of Rinebeck fame). At the time they had two flying fields. Their main one and one for training at a high school. I was assigned an instructor and soloed my second time out. On the fourth time out I flew it into the side of the high school. Boy, was my depth perception off [>:]! Later that year my family and I moved to Roswell GA where I became a charter member of the RAF (Roswell Air Force). I continued to fly single stick and built an average of two/three planes a year.

In 1990 I got my first computer radio, an single stick Ace MicroPro 8000. I still fly with it today and have five planes on it ready to fly. They are:

1. TF Gold Edition Corsair 60

2. GP Ultra Sport 40 (best flying plane ever and I built it in 1991)

3. Northrop Gamma cross contry racer

4. GP 40 size Mustang (uses US wing)

5. Sig Smith Mini Biplane

Then came 2008. I decided it was time to move to a 2.4 gh radio and to try dual sticks. So I bought a Futaba 7c Fasst system and a NexStar trainer. Using a Tx tray I slowly got use to using my left hand for rudder. I did not like how the NexStar flew - it was way to sensitive to wind. On the 10th flight a tree grab it on landing (depth perception again[>:]). Also last summer for the first time in a long time some of the new ARF's caught my eye. First was the H9 Pulse XT 60. It went together very well and flys like a dream. Then came the H9 Piper Pawnee which I ordered in July but did not get until 6 weeks ago. That was followed by the GP Cherokee, another good kit and fine flyer. And then the BH Trojan T28. Also a great kit which I have finished but not yet flown - waiting for spring. And finally the GP Escapade. This kit was only $99 and is a real buy but does have two manufacturing kinks such as the elevator halves connector not being glued in and the front wing mounting tab being weak. I finished it last night and am looking forward to flying it. I last tried ARF's in the mid '80s. I got a 40 size Cherokee like the one Horizon sells in their value series and a TeleStar 40. Both had plastic covered foam wraped around a wood frame and plastic parts. While they flew ok, they did not hold up to the normal bumps and dings of regular use. The current crop of ARF's with a balsa and light ply frame with fiberglass cowlings and monocote/oracover coverings are much better and lighter. Better yet they can be repaired which you could not really do with the earlier ones. They also fly much better.

One last story on how things change with time. In 1973 I built a flight box. At that time AAM had just published plans for the first glow driver which sensed the glow plug temperature and adjusted the current to keep it lit. A kit was also available. Also electric starters were coming into common use and Sullivan released a 1/2 gallon field fuel tank with a built in electric pump. So I designed my dream flight box. It was made of 3/8 in plywood and had a motor cycle batter built in. Attached was a self built panel which contained the modified glow driver kit, controls for the fuel pump, and outlets for a Kavan electric starter. The flight box took first place at the Mid Hudson RC Club winter meeting in the non flying category. In 1973 I was 32 and the box seemed light and easy to carry. It was great to use and I used for the next 35 years, keeping it updated as better commerical panels became available. Well, 35 years later I find what originally seemed so light now seems so heavy. I have developed a nerve problem in both legs making them weaker and I found I was having a hard time carrying it, specially up stairs from the basement workshop. So I built a new box based on the Sig Mini Tote kit. I replaced of the power module with a single small 1.2 ah 12 volt battery to drive the fuel pump, mounted 12 nicads on my starter, and bought a Radio South stand alone glow driver. I added straps to hold the starter where the power module use to go. Without the starter but with a full 1/2 gallon of fuel and various tools, the new box weighs only 15 lbs, 10 pounds lighter than my old box. And now when I go out to the flight line to start a plane I carry just the starter with the glow driver in my pocket.

Bruce