One the money brother![sm=thumbup.gif]

Beautifully put Jeremy.

I will tell you guys my story.

Ever since I laid my hands on the first MS Simulator, way back in the eighties, I got hooked on planes. From then on, I bought all the flight sims that have come out. To the point that I had to sacrifice, one way or another, in order to upgrade or change my computer along the way. I have always joked that if I was ever on a plane and a pilot was need, I would be able to do it. Fortunately that chance has not come. The irony is that I hate flying for real, so my love for airplanes could only to be expressed in the computer. Back then, little did I know that RC planes existed. Anyways, my first experience with models came in the early 90's when, under a bad advice from my cousin, I bought a Mustang kit. When I got home and opened the box and all I saw was wood I said to myself "sh%t what did I just do." Advance to 2002 and here is where all the fun starts. My girlfiend's sister's husband was in the hobby and several times had invited me to join him. For one reason or another I never did go, until one day I finally call him and ask him what I needed to buy to start flying. A couple of hours later the Tower order went through and two weeks later we were at the field starting up the engine, it was a Duraplane with an OS 46 LA, by the way. The feeling I got when I saw that ugly plane take-off in the hands of my friend was amazing. When he finally passed me the radio my hands were shaking. I still remember that feeling. A couple of weekends later I was practicing approaches for my first landing. The anticipation was killing me. A couple of bounces later the Duraplane had landed. WHAT A FEELING!!!!!! I started jumping and shouting. I must have looked like a fool but I did not care, I had just landed a plane. I still remember that day. Along the way I have bought, sold, crashed a lot of planes and I can say that the worst feelings I have had when one of my planes crashed was when my hands had nothing to do with it. It's a very different feeling when I did a manouver and could not get out it and the plane crashes than when someone turns their radio on your frequency and the plane crashes. The feeling is kind off being impotent. Your plane just crashed and you had nothing to with it. It really really sucks. Fortunately the guy who did it was and still is, a good friend mine and immediately, no questions asked, offered to repay me. Of course this helps but it does not change the fact that my plane just crashed. To read that we jet guys are elitists and what not, boils my blood. How dare they say that if we can afford to fly them we can afford to crash them. Do you even know me? Do you know what I had to do to afford it? What "cojones" those guys have. As I do not personally know anyone of you guys in this "elitist" group, all I have to go on is what you guys post in the forums. Through those posts I have come to "know" many of you, especially the heavy posters, and it is my opinion that you guys are as tight as they come. You defend one another, give very good advice, offer suggestions, offer a hand, etc etc. Point is: you guys are there when someone cries for help and THAT is what makes you guys "elitists."

Regards

Alex

Nice post Jeremy.

Our planes are not simply toys, they are a kind of "materialized" dreams that comes directly from our minds, and we should take care of them as good as possible. But , if we have a loss like Kenny´s , we can´t take it too much seriously and we must remember that the source of the dreams is still there (that´s the truly important thing) , ready to do it again as good or better. So we should keep living,dreaming,building,flying and doing our best all the time....


Rgds, Enrique

Extremely well stated Jeremy[sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif] Came staght from the heart!

I admire you so much for being able to put in writing what I barely can find the words for!

Well said my friend!

Here is my story.

I used to surf a lot while I was in school in Puerto Rico. Any surfer will tell you taht catching the first wave is the most natural and awesome experience one could feel: you and the force of nature one with one (never one on one).
Flying r/c and full scale is the closest I've ever felt to the sensation of surfing.

So my best analogy out of all of this: Surfing, you are playing with God. Flying, guess who is holding your airplane in the air......God.

Be happy. It makes others happy too.

Jeremy, I'm sure your story was very touching, but for those of us that are busy building, please:

Jeremy, I was just like that. I remember drawing airplanes, Saturn V boosters, Apollo CSMs & LEMs on every surface of every notebook from 1st grade until college. Way to go dude!

What else can be said ?Bravo!

God bless Cliff Notes!

that little boy in the story was also like me up to the end of high school i also wanted to fly jets but was unable do to not having 20/20 vision my dream r/c is a cf-18. and Jer Amen.
No out of high school for 1 1/2 years i'm working at a ford dealer as the hybrid tech working with my hands but still having that dream of flight

I'm impress.

CARS II

Lt. Dan,
how else do you think i actually graduated college.. thos cliff notes come in handy..

although they dont hep with spellng

Jeremy, as i'm sure you know, I am the one who made reference to 9/11 on that infamous thread. Knowing now what has transpired since, do I regret making that statement? Absolutely not. It's because of people like you, like me, like Kenny and all of us who have dreams and passion for what we do, for what we love. For most of us, it's the very essence of this hobby. I want to thank you from the very bottom of my heart for your wonderful story, it represents so many of us, GOD knows I too wanted to become a Naval Aviator and for personal reasons, I could not achieve that goal. There is always that next best thing and I love WITH GREAT PASSION, RC Aviation. Thank you very much, GOD BLESS.

Richie

Tomcat man, passion is what life is about, I wouldn't want to life a life where I didn't feel passionate about things.
After 911 happened I needed to do something to feel some sort of closure, so I built a guitar, this is my tribute to 911
http://www.lgmguitars.com/guitars/cu...ctric/911.html

I also painted my gripen in tribute to the firefighters who lost their lives....
http://www.lgmguitars.com/graphix/rc_models/gripen.html

And here was a Raptor canopy I painted for a firefighter in California who wanted to pay tribute to his fallen brothers......
http://www.lgmguitars.com/graphix/rc...ny_raptor.html

That's what i'm talking about....awesome work!! I especially loved the guitar. Thanks for sharing that with us. Take care...

Richie

Jeremy very well done. "You Canadians are O.K. - A - ". In reading your post I felt a lump in my throat. Why you may ask, because I too wanted to be a pilot in the service. Due to a head injury when I was 3 years old, I was denied even being able to enlist. I sat around wallowing in my misery for 2 years bouncing from job to job, When I met my wife to be. "GOD I LOVE THIS WOMAN"

She gave me new inspiration and a new outlook on life. Long story short she restored my passion and love. She enroled me in flight school to get my private license, then she supported me in buying my very fist full scale airplane a Cessna 120. One thing led to another and now I am a commercial airline pilot no its not flying mach 2 or being on the cutting edge of technology, but none the less it is flying. It is what I love to do it is me.

With a wife and daughter and one more on the way. My hobby has taken 4 th. place in my life. When turbines first started to come on the scene I could not wait to get my hands on one. After a year of saving my monthly model allowance, I bought one. I was so excited I checked the tracking information on it daily sometimes twice a day. It finally arrived and the work began 4 months later it was ready my pride and joy. It even got to stay in the house.

I take it out for it's maiden flight fire it up and taxi out. "The entire club is here to see this being the first one to jump into turbines!"! I start feeding in some throttle and she starts to track down the run way. As she starts to rotate the feeling that I got was a sense of I finally did it I am a fighter pilot flying a high performance piece of machinery on the cutting edge of technology. In more ways than one that instant summarized my dreams and my life. There she goes trim her out and fly the patch.

I enter the pattern and state my intentions on landing, I am on final when some one starts to yell go around! Lost in the moment and in seventh heaven I heard the yelling but a combination of emotions and confusion I proceeded. She touches down and starts to roll out as it goes by me I see that there is an airplane in the middle of the runway so I punch the throttle to go around as it started to rotate I tried to force it off the ground to soon. I had a power on STALL and in she went.

It was a new guy who came in to land so that he can watch the turbine land. He thought he had enough time to get his model. Yes he would of had enough time if his engine would of kept running. The poor guy felt awful and offered me his trainer to compensate for the accident. I tried to explain to him that it was not his fault and I should of been more aware and alert.

To this day that fellow and I are best of pals. Yes it did hurt to see my pride and joy bite the big one, but you know it is all a part of this hobby. I cant afford to go out and buy another one so I am slowly repairing this one and saving my allowance to buy another.

What really gets me is that after the crash I heard some of the members saying, If I put that kind of money into something I would never fly it. My answer to them was then don't build it and save your money. Another member said well at least you can afford to build another one. I told him no I cant I am going to rebuild this one. What I am getting at is that only a few of the members knew what this jet meant to me but a good portion of them saw me as mister money bags flying his turbine and 30% airplanes. These members did not know the significance and sacrifice behind this project. I wonder how they would react to this.

I learned a long time ago not to judge some one on there appearance or classify them into a status bracket, because 9 times out of 10 you are wrong. When you get to know an individual you learn a lot about them and you learn a lot about you.

So keep them flying and here is to keeping the dream and passion alive.

I too, have a story of a little boy who dreamed of flying.
He drew sketches of airplanes he had seen flying overhead, as he lived very near an airport.
He would run down steep hills with pieces of plywood, like a wing, trying to lift off of the ground.
His mother worked for the FAA and he got to go into the tower on a regular basis and gaze wonderously at the airplanes below.
One day, an ATC (air traffic controller) asked him to go for a flight in a his Cessna 152. He did, and from that moment on, he knew exactly what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

Do you know who that little boy was?


It was Billy Collier, two streets over.

I wonder what ever happened to that kid?












But seriously. Good stuff here guys.

The last thing our Jets are, are toys! Jeremy you said what we all know to be true, there is nothing quite like flying.

From the time I was a young boy, flying HiFlyer kites, building my first model aircraft, "Sinbad the Sailor a glider," to signing up for the US Navy's AOC (Avaition officer Canidate) program, and actually being accepted, thru later years of owning and flying my personal aircraft for nearly 25 years....through it all building and flying anything that really could fly.

The desire still being fulfilled by our Jet aircraft.. big or small the same laws of physics being obeyed all the while, and in the end we control an object that passes into the forth dimension. That forth dimension being flight....
Regards,
Lee H. DeMary
AMA 36099

::clap:: ::clap:: ::clap:: ::clap:: ::clap:: ::clap:: ::clap::

Jeremy, It dosnt get any better than that..... Thanks for the post.... My favorite country and western song?? " Have They Forgotten" If you havnt heard it... get it....It swells me up everytime I here it, then it makes me so mad I want to go kick some _SS......Ray Blair

Jeremy: Beautifully written, and from the heart. Thank you.

This is not TOPGUNNER, this is his wife. My husband pulled this up on the comp screen & told me to read it. He said it was really sad, and that your story reminds him of our son, Collin. The only reason I read it was so he would leave me alone, I thought it was going to be some boring story. I must admit that you've changed the way I feel about my husbands "toys" Everytime he wants to go to the field I roll my eyes and complain to my friends about his stupid hobby. But suddenly it all makes sense to me now. I am very proud of him for having such passion for something that may seem silly to others. Maybe now I'll start listening to all his stories about what happened at the field that day!
Thankyou for your beautiful story,
Rachel

Rachel,
Your post makes me really glad I started this thread. It really is a passion. I know many people think it's crazy, they really think of these as just "silly model airplanes" but there is a reason we all wanted to fly, there is a reason we strive to fly jets, it's that passion. And as long as somebody is passionate about something, it's not silly
Thank you for taking the time to read it

Jeremy