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I can remember (tough sometimes!) watching a neighbor kid fly his U-Control combat airplane in a vacant field near where I lived. He was maybe 14, and could really fly well. I pestered my parents for what seemed like years and finally ended up with a plastic ready-to-fly airplane which might have lasted two or three crashes before it was in a billion pieces. The engine ended up screwed to handy piece of wood, clamped in my Dad's vise in the garage and run just about every day after school to the delight of all the neighbors! The neighbor kid outgrew toy airplanes about this time (girls, you know) and gave up, so I had no one to teach me how to fly. It didn't matter, I was determined to do it regardless. I must have built and demolished a dozen or more before I had a successful flight, but I finally got lucky and built one by accident that turned out nose heavy, so nose heavy that it would only fly around in a circle with almost full up elevator. I had a lot of flights out of that one before it went in the can, and by that time I'd swallowed the hook! Toy airplanes became my passion, for better or worse. Around 1961, I started flying with an organized club who called themselves the "Flying Fools" (pretty appropriate). There were quite a few kids in the club, and the older guys took us to contests all over southern California in the early 60's. We flew Combat, Rat Race, Stunt, and some of the guys flew Navy Carrier and Speed. Some of the guys are still at it, and I still read about their current exploits in the hobby magazines. My first big contest was the AMA Nationals in 1963. There's a photo of the Jr. combat winners here someplace, but they spelled my name wrong and I had hair then so you won't recognize me. Wonder what happened to all those kids? I finally ended up flying mostly Rat Race with my friend Bill Hart. He was a school teacher, had a family, and really took me under his wing in both modelling and life. By then I was a typically rebellious teenager (and only child as well), and Bill filled in as the older brother I never had. He probably kept me out of any real serious trouble between the ages of 13 and 19. Thanks, Bill. There's a photo of us with the rat and some of the trophies we won together.
In early 1967, I went on a couple year hiatus from the airplanes to play with cars, boats and partying. Not necessarily in that order. I was going to college and in 1968 my dear Uncle said come on down and get your draft physical. My 2S deferment had suddenly become a 1A, mostly because of the outside interests! Of course Vietnam was in full swing, so, I signed up to spend 4 years in the USAF. It was probably a good thing that I go away for awhile, as I lost my job and got a ticket for street racing all in the same week. My last paycheck went to the court, all $125 of it, and a couple of months later, in I went. After basic training , they sent me off to tech school to learn how to blow things (other than myself) up! Bombs, rockets and missiles became my life, along with F-4 Phantom II's. It was great training, and even though nearly 40 years have passed, I can still remember how to load weapons systems on an F-4. One really good thing about the Air Force was the two year tour in Germany , and it's gazillion different kinds of beer, but better yet I got back into flying toy airplanes again. There were a few guys on base flying U-Control and a couple into RC, so after getting back into some U-Control flying for awhile, I met up with guy named Bud Grover. He was a good modeller all around and was serious about slope soaring at that time. My first experiences with RC were with his guidance, and I'm grateful that I was lucky enough to benefit from his great experience. Another good friend was Dan Juhlin, shown here with one of the first Graupner Cumulus sailplanes. It was fun to be back flying again after the layoff. The soaring bug bit hard, and I flew my first sailplane contest there in July of 1972, where I pickup up my very first R/C trophy. Here I am on one of our German slopes with a Gryphon. Wish I still had one of these airplanes today, but I do still have the hat! GI issue, only the best! When I left the military, I came back to Southern California which was having an explosion in sailplane flying. I had only been back a few months and was mostly slope flying when I ran into some fliers who were thermal soaring at Cal State Dominguez Hills. I ended up joining the club, called SULA (Soaring Union of Los Angeles) and flew the soaring contest circuit for about 4 years. I even managed to win the 100" class at the SOAR Nats in 1974, which was the biggest soaring contest in the world at that time. I love sailplanes, and still fly them when time permits.
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