I'm enjoying the stories, especially the last one.

So here's mine. In 1957 "The Spirit of St. Louis" came to our local theater and I immediately became obsessed with Jennies and DH-4s. The next year I got my first plane flight when we went to England on a Super DC-6B. We stayed a whole year, and I had a kind of a shop class where we learned to make balsa gliders, among other things. Soon I started building models of my own, based on planes I saw - rubber power and gliders. None flew very well, but I loved it.

I did control line into my teens, and finally built a "Schoolboy" and flew it with an MRC radio and SN escapement from America's Hobby Center, and Cox .020. The radio quit after one flight but the plane flew beautifully whether the radio worked or not.

Years later I bought an Ace Digital Commander kit with two servos and, remembering the Schoolboy, built a Schoolmaster with a Cox QRC. I taught myself to fly rudder and throttle with that plane. The throttle was a needle that ran through the back plate, and the great thing about it was I could tame the flight when it felt too fast, and also use it as a kill switch. When I got scared, I killed the engine and glided down.

Later I joined a club, got a Midwest Livewire Champ and an OS .15 and learned touch and goes, and simple aerobatics. I've progressed from there, but nothing has ever been as much fun as teaching myself to fly.

Jim