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Carl Goldberg Falcon 56 MkII

Colombo Andersson 38% Extra

 Hangar 9 33% Cap 232

Hangar 9 1.20 Cap 232 (Bob's)

Hangar 9 1.20 Cap 232 (Bill's)

 
Lanier 31.5% Staudacher S600

Sig Kadet Mk II

Sterling Ringmaster

Thunder Tiger Fun Tiger

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1989 Jaguar XJS

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Bob

Bill

I received my first glow-powered control-line model airplane for Christmas when I was 10 years old.  It was a Cox PT-19, I saw it in the Sears Wishbook and had to have it.  This would have been in about 1977.  My Dad is fantastic with anything mechanical, he mastered the cantankerous .049 and taught me to fly it in the schoolyard across the street from our house.  After conquering the PT-19, I had several other CL planes:  A Lil' Tomahawk with another .049, a Ringmaster Jr. with an Enya .15, and a Top Flite P-40 with "Superform" fuselage sides and a Stallion .35.  I made a lot of divots in the schoolyard with all of these planes.

By this time I had the RC bug bad, and finally managed to save enough paper route money to buy a Falcon 56 Mk II and a Cirrus 3-channel radio.  Thanks to some well-timed birthday and Christmas gifts, I collected the rest of the parts to put the whole thing together over the course of about 6 months.  I used an OS .30 engine that my neighbor, Ed Straight, gave me.  It was on the nose of a CL Cosmic Wind that I flew a couple of times before dismantling it.

There was one hobby shop about 10 miles away that catered a bit to RC fliers, and the owner agreed to teach me to fly.  Finally, after several missed appointments, we hooked up to maiden the Falcon.  It became obvious on the first flight that the .30 wasn't going to cut it.  Apparently the piston and sleeve were worn out, and the engine was way down on power.  My dad was getting as impatient as I was at that point, so he bought me an BB OS .40 to go in the plane.  I think it was actually a heli motor, but in any case it provided plenty of power.  Over the next several weeks, I flew the Falcon with the instructor quite a bit, dinged it up more than a couple of times, and finally crashed it attempting one of my first take-offs.  This was pre-buddy box, and I tended to not want to give up the transmitter...  For you Phoenix flyers, this all happened at the original Scottsdale Community College field.  The plane cart wheeled through the garden, which was actually South of the field at the time.

The next plane was an Allied Hobbies BD-6.  This plane was short lived and crashed on maiden when the wings folded.  Bad design, and over-motored with the .40.

Next was the Kadet Mk II, which lives to this day.  I was about 12 at this point, and finally hooked up with a regular RC club, the Arizona Model Aviators.  A guy by the name of Lionel Stafford volunteered to teach me to fly.  Mom or Dad would drive me to the field.  We went out several times, and I finally soloed the Kadet, ending with a very ugly landing which damaged the nose gear.  About this time I discovered RC cars, then real cars, then car stereo, and the Kadet went into mothballs for the next 14 years or so.

I eventually got the bug again, fixed the Kadet, and attempted to fly sans instructor.  Not good.  A mesquite tree removed the tail assembly very cleanly, just in front of the vertical stab.  Back into mothballs for 9 years while I got hooked on water skiing.

Finally, in the spring of 2001, my friend Bill York called to ask me about a contact for RC helis.  I hadn't seen a lot of Bill for a couple of years.  He had gotten into RC planes and was now ready to give helis a try.  We started talking about planes, I got all interested, and he offered to take me flying.  One flight with his Goldberg Eagle on the buddy box and I was hooked.  Out came the Kadet, I rebuilt the tail feathers, re-learned how to Monokote, and tuned up the engine.  I had a gold-stickered radio which I'd purchased just prior to the mesquite tree incident, so I was all legal and everything!  Bill started teaching me to fly, and after about 8 sessions I was able to solo.  Bill is very knowledgeable about full-size aerodynamics, and having him explain to me exactly what was happening to the plane as we flew was huge.  There were a few incidents which resulted in minor repairs to the Kadet, but it is still a good flyer.  I still use it to teach and buddy-box ..