It's Therapy and I get something to show for my money and time spent . Unlike paying a Therapissed (misspell intended)
" I feel good about that- and myself!!!!"

-Engines, tinkering, getting new toys...

-The smell of the burning nitro.

-The challenge of doing something difficult.

-That every single flight is different.

-The feeling of freedom, not being bound to the land.

-The beauty of seeing your plane gracefully cut through the blue sky.

-The rush from knowing you could crash and lose it all at any moment.

Nothing like the feeling you get when you "think" a manuever and get to watch it happen up there. I love just "hearing the music" in my head and making the plane dance to it.

Well in the beginning it was cheaper then drugs.

And of course the wifey is fine with it because it keeps me off the streets.

And it sure hurts a lot less then if you are actually in one and plant it. [X(]

Well,
Where to start?,.... My dad was a sargent in the airforce during vietnam, chopper school training. My grandfather was a pilot in WWII, but the two of them never talked about any of it, never wanted to. I got curious about it and did some research, but that's when I had envisioned my grandfather fighting over in europe, I got hooked. When I turned 11, my dad bribed me into getting better grades by saying he would get me into R/C if I got a good report. So I did and when we went to the hobby shop, I was given a choice of a plane or a car, I really wanted the plane but the hobbyshop owner told my dad the car was a better choice due to instruction and I could use it right away, so I went home with a RC10. A few years later I watched a movie, "Emperor of the Sun", the one with Christian Bail, the kid had all those FF models hanging on the ceiling and it was WWII, all the kid wanted to do is fly and the movie was baised around that. After the movie was over I knew I needed to get what I always wanted, a R/C plane. I talked my brother into driving me to the hobby shop, took all my paper route money and bought a Eagle II and a Super tigre .40 ring, and a futaba conquest 4 channel. Built it and never looked back, it has to be the old saying, "The best things in life are worth waiting for", and for R/C planes, evertime I fly, I feel like I'm 15 again, just me and my dreams. Last year I picked up Heli's, but my dad's comment after watching me fly it was, "not bad, but I'll never get into another wirly bird ever, but good flying." That made my day. Plus I like to spend time talking to the great group of guys at the field everytime I'm down there, and sometimes to gloat at the nice kit you built or scratch built plane.I give back to the hobby, donate trainers, time for training or anything needed to be done. It's just more easy to stand up and help out than to sit back and watch this great hobby fade away.

[X(] [sm=lol.gif] Man aint that the truth. Very good point Minn

Started at an early age before i could learn to fly the full scale's, envied my father since he flew a cropduster, so thats where the love of planes started,
I always enjoyed putting things together and seeing them fly, and when I was a teenanger I couldn't afford my own extra 300 or any thing of the sort so that was as close to being like sean tucker i could get,

Now i enjoy it because I love planes and its a break from the full scale stuff, to me like one of you said flying models and flying full scale have as much to do with each other as fishing and hunting, but most that like one tends to like the other, therefore I like both and enjoy my time either "sitting in one" or standing on the outside and seeing the plane work

Basically i just like planes, im obsessed

- I was exposed around airplanes since i could remember, and when i became old enough to go places with out my mom, my dad used to take me flying with him and i LOVED IT

- Its a thrill seeing something you put your heart into, fly

- There is never a dull moment, unless you just fly in circles......

- It is also nice to socialize with others that share the same interests

Unfolding meaning;

RC hobby is enjoyable in every facet and grows with you. Some 25 years ago when my father passed me his childhood leftovers of control line gas engines and a new balsa control line kit, I was hooked. I couldn’t afford RC then, but I built and flew many a control line planes back then.

18 years later when I officially bought/got into RC, the excitement and thrill had been waiting to be unleashed. With every smell of burning nitro it brings back memories from being a kid and now I continue to be just a bigger kid - having spontaneous fun and oftentimes learning something by happenstance.

Like many, my other half approves as I’m not in a bar or chasing skirts. It is quality time with good people. Its having substantive conversations with all levels of people who share the excitement of this hobby. It is a healthy outlet of energy and time. It is the enthralling tinkering that goes into every build, repair, tweak, etc. It is reading the magazines, looking up the specifications and wondering what CC or mAh goes here or there and does this or that.

My flying buddy and I often talk about this and we throw around numbers. "This hobby is about 5% flying time and %95 everything else." And don’t get me wrong, I love wringing every ounce of nitro out of my planes. But I also try to understand and appreciate every other aspect that gets me to that %5…

In summation, it is one of my sanctities from this crazy world…

Happy Flying,

Phil Green

"Because my wife won't let me have a girlfriend "

I just checked and my wife decided a girlfriend would be cheaper , now I have to choose

I lost my ticket for "real" A/C on account of diabetes.
What better way than to twiddle the sticks and remember!
Zee AMA129570

I got the chance to fly a 'real' airplane over the weekend, and of course the chance to really get up close to a bunch of different 'real' airplanes. I gained an even greater appreciation for R/C after seeing and feeling the similarities, both in the way they fly and the detail of the models. I got to look under the 'hood' of one of the full scale planes, and the 4 cylinder Lycoming engine looked just like a twin-cylinder four stroke, cooling fins and control arms and everything! I was even able to fly the 'real' plane, make good coordinated turns, etc., all from my knowledge of R/C flight - I was able to have an understanding of what was happening from outside the plane, and now had the added sensation of actual feel of flight. I really had no idea that R/C flying was so similar to full scale flying. It's been an awesome first year of flying model planes!!!

My best times are when I take a newbie out that likes to give me a hard time about playing with my TOY airplanes, and watch the ole jaw drop open when they see the TOY at about 80mph 4feet off the runway inverted and pull vertical into a roll. After that I don't hear any more talk of TOY airplanes HA HA HE HE.....

I've had an interest in aviation as long as I can remember. I grew up a Navy brat and moved quite a bit. When I was in 3rd grade, we moved back to my birthplace in Iceland, the former home of the 57th FIS (Fighter Interceptor Squadron). This was a unit of F-15 Eagles that at one point had intercepted a Soviet "Bear" bomber. I remember hearing the rumble of those fighters taking off with full afterburner. This was also where I had my first exposure to "hobby" RC, in the form of planes hanging on the wall at the base's hobby/craft center and my friend's dad building a gold tub RC10 buggy. I was stuck with Tyco/Nikko/Radio Shack cars/trucks.

Later in life my love of aviation was instilled in me by my mom's late step-father, who devoted his life to military and civilian aviation. So much so that my goal was to become an airline pilot. My route of attempting to reaching that goal started with me working for a GA A&P at my hometown's municipal airport. Unfortunately, life got in the way of my plans and I was out of aviation for a few years. During that time, I picked up "hobby" RC in the form of a Team Losi XXX-T electric stadium truck (2004). I really didn't think to much about aviation except for occasionally, until in 2006 I was assigned to an Army aviation unit. The aviation bug bit me again, and HARD. This time, it was in the form of a Blade CX coaxial heli (this was a few months before the CX2 hit the shelves). At this time, I was also racing 1/10th scale electric touring cars.

In 2007, I deployed with my unit to Afghanistan. Well, this left me with a little extra $$$ in my pockets and a little bit of free time without much to do, so I ordered RealFlight G3.5 to build on my heli flying since I didn't have a heli with me. I got to flying airplanes on that, and got pretty decent with them.

Now on to 2008, I had returned from overseas and picked back up on my racing. In the year I was gone, the people that I raced with improved vastly on their skills and started putting about 4x's the $$$ into their cars than I could put into mine, plus they had everyone of all skill levels race in the same race. Meaning a beginner was racing with an expert (yes, we also had sponsored drivers race with us occasionally). This got old QUICK. I was doing nothing but spending an hour tweaking my car just to make sure it would run for 5 minutes, not even having a chance to keep up with the pack, much less be competitive. So I began putting more emphasis on my helis, for the time being. I was looking for people to fly helis with, but in this area, the only place that has a decent number of heli flyers is at a guys back yard and it was difficult to get with the guy to get out there.

About that time, I ended up selling my classic car and decided why not? I wanted one for a while, now I had a means to get one, so I got 2. I got 2 planes, joined the AMA, found a club and joined it. That was all it took to get me hooked. I've been flying since June of this year. I get that "twitch" when I don't get to fly.

As far as what I like about the hobby:
-Relaxing: I can go at my own pace and not worry about competing with anyone (vs. Racing)
-Exciting: That thrill that you get every time you take off, do a stunt, a flyby, or land
-Pucker factor: That butt clinching feeling you get when you come close to losing your pride and joy.
-Satisfaction: Knowing that you are piloting that plane, and that you are doing something not everyone can
-Accomplishment: Performing that new maneuver that you thought you'd never do, or recovering from a situation that you thought you had lost
-Comraderie: Hanging out at the field talking with fellow RC pilots and making lifelong friends
-The smell: The smell of nitro fuel burning, gotta love it. There ain't nothing like it.
-Tinkering: The constant "What if I do "X" to my plane?", and the tuning and repairing of the plane.
-The Look: The look on non-RCer's faces when they see one, or even a picture of one. IE, the "Wow, that thing is huge", when in all reality, it's only a small .60 size plane

Just to much to love about the hobby. Even going into the hobby shop just to chat. Gosh, that makes me feel like an old man at a barber shop or a park chess table when I think about it, but I still enjoy it. To heck with what everyone else says.

Happy flying, and may all your landings be greasers.