Why do you love this hobby?

[aarestor]

Grew up on a farm and had allergies so I couldn't go outside in the summer. Started building models for something to do. Got a control line PT-19 when I was about 10, never got much flying but I did a lot of repairing. Lost interest in high school but got involved when I was in my mid 20's as a father son project. My son never took to it but I managed to learn to fly with the help of our local club. Then took10+ years off as my kids were in high school, when the last one graduated in 2003 I flew a Sim and it has spiraled to where I am today.

 

[Astrohog]

I grew up with two older brothers. When I was about six, they started messing around with Cox .049 CL models. I remember a Fokker Tri plane and a PT 19 trainer. I also distinctly remember the smell of the glow fuel. I remember incessant flipping of props to get those little engines running! I also remember the sensation you get the first time you get glow fuel in the cuts on your finger that you received while trying to start the damn motor! GOOD TIMES, INDEED! We used to walk/ride our bikes at least a couple of miles each way to get to the field where we could fly those CL planes and would be gone ALL DAY!



Fast forward six or seven years, and my middle brother decided to build a .40 glow trainer. He cleared off the drafting table, taped the plans down and started gluing balsa. THAT was the most beautiful structure in the world to me! A huge, (to me at the time!) balsa airplane in the bones!!!! I would always sneak my way into his build room (he had instructed me to, "STAY AWAY FROM MY AIRPLANE!!") and take in every bit and detail of that plane and to watch it progress into a flyable model. I remember him learning the covering process and being amazed at how Monokote worked and how beautiful of a finish it gave to that balsa trainer!



Next, I remember him adding all the mechanical components and was again amazed at the technology and engineering that had come together to make this aircraft model come to life! Okay, NOW, "FINALLY", I think to myself, I get to see this thing fly! When I asked my brother when I could go watch it fly, he replied, "I don't know how to fly this thing yet!". "WHAT AN IDIOT!", I thought! "Who builds an entire airplane and doesn't know how to fly it???" A couple of months pass, and my brother comes to me and says, "You wanna go watch me fly?". I couldn't get ready fast enough! So we head out to the local flying field, park on the road by the ditch and jump the gate to get to the field. Plane starts, takes off, heads up, up, up, just almost out of sight, then nose down, down down CRASH!!!! straight into the cow pasture! As we jump a couple of fences to retrieve what was left of the plane, I ask my brother, "What happened?". He gives me a disgusted look and replies, "Forgot to extend the antenna!"



I don't think he ever rebuilt or flew that (or any) r/c stuff after that, but it had made an impression on me and I vowed that someday I would build and fly an r/c airplane! Well, fast-forward to my mid-twenties (married, one child), my wife's boss (also very good friends of ours) put a TF Sierra .40 trainer kit under our Christmas tree, and the rest is history!!! I think the dining room table was cleared and had plans stuck to it that evening!



Twenty years later, I am just as addicted to and passionate about this hobby as I ever have been!



What keeps me coming back? For the most part, the people! I still love the technology and the actual building, repairing, tinkering and flying, but the folks I have met throughout the years at events as well as on the forums and at the field are what have always kept me coming back for more!



Regards,



Astro

 

[Bipeguy03]

For me, it is a family thing... My grampa started building models as a kid in the late 30's and 40's. He used to tell my dad stories about how during WWII, model suppliers couldn't get hard wood to put in their kits because of the war effort. A free flight airplane he had saved for, for months came with a cardboard dihedral brace, and knowing that wouldn't work he rounded up some scrap balsa to make one... Unfortunitley that didn't work as well, so he went to the local junk yard and found an old plywood school chair, took it home and peeled apart the plies in the wood to get a piece of hardwood to make a dihedral brace.



In the late 60's after he got back from Vietnam (Air Force) and he and my grandma separated, him and my dad moved from Massachussettes to Ohio, and they started getting back into the hobby.



RC was their past time, dad still tells stories about him getting home from school, doing homework and getting the planes ready to go so he and grampa could head to the field as soon as he got home from work.



Gampa passed away March 18th of 1988, exactly 1 month and 1 day before my 1st birthday. After that, dad kinda fell away from the hobby as it just wasn't fun for him without grampa.



Around my 5th birthday, I started hounding dad to start doing it again but we just couldn't afford it. He was just getting his IA and tying to start his own FBO and there just wasn't any extra money for models. But around age 7 he did manage to get me a Carl Goldberg Stunt Man control line.



Then we moved to Kenton to when he got the job as the manager of the airport in Hardin County.. And on my 10th birthday I got my first airplane, a hobby shack foam Spirit of 76 glider. I got to were I could fly that around pretty good and then we started getting into nitro stuff.



Later that summer I soloed my first PT-20, and was hooked.



Model aviation is more to me than a hobby, it's a family past time. It was how my dad and my gampa spent their time together, and it's how my father and I spend time together. When I'm flying is when I feel the most connected to my grampa, every time I push the throttle open I can picture him in the back of my mind with a grin on his face, NOTHING IN THE WOLRD beats that feeling.



I turned my love of RC into my job, building and flying sUAS for a small company out of Dayton. I owe more to model aviation than I can ever repay...



RC is my life, and I wouldn't have it any other way..

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[Bunky.F.Knuckle]

It's another father/son story........ But mine is a tad bit different.



Yes, it was for father/son bonding time, but it was more so to shy me away from the peer pressures of drugs for when I entered high school. It was 1989, and I was 12 almost 13. Dad got this big ass Kadet Senior, and built it over late fall, into the winter. Had someone cover it for him, much like the box photo, but different colors. About 2 flights later, dad pretty much figured out that he could fly it. Well, he did, but got confused on what to do when the airplane was coming at him. He ended up crashing it, not terribly bad, but enough for him to find a local club.



1 back surgery for dad and 8 months later the Kadet flys again, this time with help from the local flying site. He wanted to try it first to see if he was gonna like it. Well, damned if he did! He then bought a Great Planes PT-40, built it, covered it in like a week. Took it out on trainer nite, had someone maiden it. He got a few flights on it, then it was my turn. I flew around for a little, just before I got into trouble with it, it was inverted! Needless to say, I was hooked from that point forward! We both spent time as officers of the local club, at different times, mind you. Also spent alot of our Wed nites at the field training new students.



Well, after 24 years, we both are still flying. Dad not so much, but he still gets out and has fun! That is all I care about. We both have flown pylon racers, WWI aircraft, WWII, Vietnam era, giant scale, and helis (both nitro and electric).



So, is this something that I would like to continue on with with my son, when he gets here?? Hell to the yes! I am living proof that if you have an interest in something, and want to expose your young son, maybe even a daughter to, I say, go for it! Plus with a hobby, it can stray you away from other pressures, ie drugs. Again, I'm living proof.



Later on, I'll try to dig up some old flying pics of us.

 

[SleepyC]

Holy crap this thread turned in to AWESOME!

Thanks for sharing guys!

 

[SlowHuck]

SleepyC;17604 wrote: Holy crap this thread turned in to AWESOME!

Thanks for sharing guys!

Thank you for planting the seed. It was a great idea!

 

[reyn3545]

I just like getting out to the field. We have people from every walk of life. Everyone's there to share a common bond in flying toy airplanes, helping each other out, and yes, BS-ing with your friends. We seem to find time for every interest from circle flying to IMAC, warbirds, jets, electrics and the occasional combat sortee. Luckily, the folks who just can't get along don't seem to stay around very long.



For me, it's a great way to wrap up a long week, clear my head and get ready for the week to come.

 

[Islandflyer]

For me, is was somewhat of a family thing too: when I was about 7, my older brother (16) had a Cox .049 control lime Spitfire he could kind of fly, but soon crashed. I immediately knew I had to have one of these later.

A year later, my older brother and our father started to fly full scale, and their sudden common passion for it pulled the whole family into aviation: my father continued flying for fun almost until he died 12 years ago, and my brother retired from a pilot's career 15 years ago (but still flies for fun).



So flying was in our family DNA...when I was 14, my brother gave me a CL .049 Cox PT-19, and I flew it the whole summer; but I was obsessed about cutting those CL strings to fly R/C like the "cool guys" I had seen; but like many, I did not have any money for R/C!

I had to wait until college to get my first plane, a Pilot (Japanese company, not current Chinese Pilot R/C) QB-20L: low wing plane with an OS .25

I had made it!!!!

I flew it the whole summer of 1978, and that was the beginning of the the great RC adventure. RC was always more magical to me than the full scale flying.

To this day, there is something completely magical in having a plane fly in the air, doing the most amazing things, and then bringing back to the house where I can admire it, move the controls with no material connection between it and me.

This is still completely magical to me today.

 

[reyn3545]

I still have a scar on one of my thumbs from a Cox .049 propeller when I was probably 14 years old... I'm 55 now!

 

[Xpress]

Dude I had a cox .049 PT-19 too!! That thing was a freaking blast. I want to build a slightly larger electric model and use a car transmitter to control the throttle.



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For me, it's not only the fun of being able to control something without a physical connection to the aircraft, but it's largely the communities associated with it. Attending the big huck events is nothing but a blast- I probably haven't flown more than a dozen times during an entire event because I was having more fun chilling and making new buddies, shooting the breeze (and photos) with old buddies, sticking around until late at night just hanging out. I'd say a good 70% of the appeal with me is just socializing with like minded guys. All of the crap in the world just fades away, no politics, no personal issues, no money issues, none of that is on your mind the entire time.



The technology associated with the hobby is cool too. Always interesting to see which direction someone will go. I remember it wasn't long ago that quadcopters didn't exist- if you wanted stable footage from the air without high speed movement you had to invest in a big electric helicopter that could handle your high res equipment. Now we have small, borderline tiny, camera equipment that we can carry on a small platform and get just as high quality content and at the end of the day pack it all up into a briefcase and stick it in the front seat of your sub compact car.