Introduction

I've been into airplanes and flying since I was a little kid. My grandfather was a private pilot and I flew with him occasionally while growing up. Like many I started out building plastic models. First the snap-together, then glue models. Later I built and flew (and lost) Estes model rockets. I also flew one or two small control line airplanes but that was short lived.

This all then took a back seat to high school and college. But a few years out of college I got the urge to build radio controlled airplanes. I was sharing a two bedroom apartment with three other guys so space was limited. I built an Eaglet 50 trainer kit on a small board in the living room. This plane got me started in R/C. I also had one R/C car that I had fun with. This was great practice learning reverse control when the car is coming toward you. I eventually built three other R/C airplanes during a three year period.

I've posted some old pictures. Unfortunately the only pictures I have of the first two planes are after they were destroyed in crashes.

The year after the fourth plane I moved from Maryland, where I went to college, to Colorado. I brought the one remaining plane with me but I never flew it again. Just a few months after moving to Colorado I took up hang gliding. I sold the model plane and spent the next 5 years hang gliding every weekend the weather allowed.

After five years of hang gliding I gave it up. The following year I decided to get my pilots license. After five months of lessons I earned my license and flew club Cessna 172s. I took various people up for rides around Denver and even did a flight to Phoenix AZ in a Cessna 182. Shortly after getting my license I decided to build my own airplane. I stopped flying for a while during the construction but I got back into it again at a new club and flew a Diamond Star (DA40) quite a bit. During this time I made several trips to Oshkosh and I even flew to Kentucky a couple of times.

Eventually I decided to sell the Cozy project. With the empty workshop and free time again I decided to get back into some old hobbies. I have gotten back into hang gliding again after a 10 year break. And finally I decided to get back into building radio control planes again after a 15 year break. At this time my son was 5 years old. I bought him a radio control truck big enough to drive in the yard or at the park. I then built myself a Tamiya Grasshopper. We have fun buzzing around at the park together.

After nearing completion on my first new R/C airplane, a Sig Kadet Senior, I decided to go all out and make up a real nice workshop complete with a magnetic building system.