ORIGINAL: Steve Steinbring
Too old, but the alternative is not looking good
Actually I'm 62, I started flying U-Control around the age of 9 when there were only kits available. Some of the kits at the time were just blue line tracings where you had to cutout all the parts for assembly. So we all learned to build and repair very well.
I can see 62 just around the corner. I started flying and building in 1956 at 8 years old. Steve is forgetting the Fire Baby. This was perhaps the first ARF ever sold and most any hardware store sold the replacement parts. Every boy in town started with the Fire Baby. I built my first wood kit back then, either a Tomahawk or Ring Master?? Moved on to free flight when I moved to Calif. around 1959-60. Used to go over to the RC area and watch the old guys crash, they did that a lot. I was still flying U-Control then got into RC a bit over 15 years ago. The prices finally came down low enough for people to get into RC about 15 or 20 years ago. Before that it was a rich mans hobby and people were still building there own TXs. I still have a kit built Tach, it still kinda works too.