The purpose of this blog is to document my current RC modeling projects. Though I've been involved in the hobby off and on for more than 15yrs, I've only recently completed my trainer airplane and began taking lessons. Due to this inconsistent involvement, I still consider myself very much a beginner with respect to radio control modeling.
Here is a bit of background on me to explain: I first started in this hobby about 18yrs ago (1991 or so) while living in an apartment in San Diego. I built my first ever RC plane (a Goldberg Eagle2) around that time. Then, the first of many life interuptions occured... Wife is pregnant! Priorities changed, money got really tight and I ended up having to sell that airplane (without ever having flown it) along with my radio and all my gear to help make ends meet.
2yrs go by... My daughter is around a year old and just starting to walk. It's sometime in late 1993 and I caught the RC bug again and went out and bought another Eagle2, a JR X388s radion system, and all the gear for a 2nd time. With the experience from building the first Eagle, this 2nd one went together very nicely and I can still remember the many nights I enjoyed at the workbench I had set up in our master bedroom (since I had lost my hobby room to my baby daughter), listening to sports talk shows while Amber played in her play pen right behind me... Life was good!!!
At this point I wouldn't say I lost interest but RC kinda got put on a back burner for a couple of years... Oh, I would tinker with my Eagle from time to time (which was about 85% completed now), look around at clubs, buy the odd tool here and there, but I wouldn't say I was "active" in the hobby. Then sometime around 1997, I discovered that one of my friends from church was getting into the hobby with his dad. As anyone can tell you, it's alot more fun when you have someone to share a hobby with so this was great news and my interest and enthusiasm increased dramatically. As a bonus, his dad had a large, well appointed workshop that he let us make use of, and his cousin was a competition pilot who was also an instructor! I ended up having about 3-4 lessons (buddybox style) on my 2nd Eagle2 (very nice flying trainer BTW) before life interuption #2. Life interuption #2 - college... I had to increase my school hrs to finish up my BS degree in computer science. Nights at the workbench were replaced by nights at the computer and my airplane sat unused for many months.
Then in 1998, I graduated and recieved a job offer from Honeywell in Phoenix, AZ. As much as I didn't want to leave San Diego and all our friends, the offer was too good to pass up, and so the move to AZ was on. I didn’t think the Eagle would survive the long distance move, so I gave it, along with my Goldberg Pro-Tote field box (which I really liked) to my friend and his dad in appreciation for all of their help. This time however, I did keep my radio (the X388s), the flight pack, and some of my tools.
Fast fwd another couple of years or so (2001) and I’m finally in a house now, the new job is settling down, and I wanted to get another trainer and get back to learing to fly. I was thinking of a 3rd Eagle2 kit (since I enjoyed building the other 2 so much) but the guy at my LHS, talked me into a Tiger Trainer 60 ARF kit with the argument that bigger (.60 size) is easier to fly and since it’s an ARF, I would be in the air in a couple of weeks...remember this was around 2001! ... a couple of weeks... sounds good right? Well, once again, between work, maintaining a house, and spending time with family, getting time to work on the plane was proving difficult and two weeks turned into two months, then two years then... Life interuption #3 Life interuption #3 - divorce. My marriage ended and and I ended up moving back into an apartment for another year and a half.
The next flurry of activity was in 2005. I was back in a house with a new fiance’ and actually went as far as to renew my AMA membership, and join a local RC club (AMPS – Arizona Model Pilot Society). I got my Tiger Trainer 60 very nearly completed and was looking forward to first flight day when Life interuption #4 occured. My fiance’ exited the scene with someone else ( a real soap opera, I know) and I was back in an apartment again with no workbench, a broken heart and not that much interest in hobbies. I did, however, fight off the urge to sell or give anything away. Other than minimal tinkering, the TT60 remained at about the 90% completion stage while my priorities were fixed on putting my life back together.
Finally, fast fwd to 2009, I have a new wife and family, a new job and finally own a house again (complete with garage workshop). I’ve renewed my AMA and AMPS memberships, finished (and I mean finished) my TT60 and FINALLY after a 12 yr interruption in my flight training, 8yrs building an ARF that was supposed to be a 2 week build, I began my flight training anew on April 5, 2009 when my Tiger Trainer 60 lifted into the air for the first time... I have to tell you, it was a pretty awesome and emotional moment for me. I am SO increadibly appreciative of having the time and resources to finally start enjoying my hobbies again... Please never take that for granted!
