To tell you the truth I like all the designs that have came out since I started this hobby/sport.  But, I would need a place like Kemper Arena to store them.  Guess that is why I had so many kits of what I could afford.  Worked a lot of overtime to get them.  DOC Holliday

For this old guy, the '40s were the most exciting.  Each new plane was an adventure.  Would it fly?  And would it survive?  Aerodynamics were crude, and motors were balky and unreliable.  So each trip to the flying field was a real adventure!  No two models looked similar, and experimentation was the norm.  In our club, the guys who could actually do a loop or fly inverted without crashing were the heros!  The so-called "stunt kits" were typically overweight and with high wing loading, leading to people trying new designs to overcome the disadvantage that "kits" offered.

Perhaps memory mellows with age, but it seemed more exciting in those days.

Floyd

1950-1955.  Makes me an official Geezer, I guess.

61-65 was my favorite time. Goldberg kits coming out/ Ambroid started making kits/ Stuka/ Ares/ other sport ships/ TD's came out/ bought my RRI/ Space Hopper. Bought as many mags as posible. MAN/ American Aircraft modeler/ etc. Veco had engines/ kits/ tanks/wheels. Testors dope/ Areo Gloss/ Ambroid glue/ Elmer's white glue for motor mounts. I flew UC/FF and bought a radio rig but never bought the trasmitter for it. cost to much. Jetx stuff was easy to get. Fuel had castor oil and found out to add Baker's AA  castor to fuel. Kit boxes had great graffics on them.
Cheers,Dan

Hi John. Like the old saying goes, "nostalgia ain't what it used to be".

We can never know about the days to come
But we think about them anyway
And I wonder if I'm really with you now
Or just chasing after some finer day.

Anticipation, Anticipation
Is making me late
Is keeping me waiting

And tomorrow we might not be together
I'm no prophet, I don't know natures way
So I'll try to see into your eyes right now
And stay right here, 'cause these are the good old days.

John,

I remember the first day I saw a large .35 size model airplane fly.  I was at a park in our little city (Modesto, CA) called Breard Brook park.  Two gentleman were flying, one of which worked with my father.  I was like a kid in a candy store watching as they practiced the stunt pattern of the time.  That was when WAM was using the in-between pattern before George changed it to the current pattern.  Anyway, after all was said and done.  I was the proud owner of a .35 size model built by my dad's co-worker called the "Pegasus".  It was a plane that pretty much dominated stunt in those days of WAM in the hands of the other person flying with my dad's co-worker.  Not that anyone's too interested but his name was Bob Raffel.  From the time I first saw that plane around May of 1956, I was hooked on model planes of the stunt variety.  My first self build airplane was a Smoothie that was a Christmas present in Dec 1957.  I flew that plane during the 1958-59 seasons.  I would bum rides to contest with another young flyer, Dan Cockrum and his father.  I rode to a contest in Selma with them in August of 1958, and that's where I first watched Bob Palmer fly.  When he flew, there would be a gathering of spectators to watch the master ply his trade. Anyway Bob won that day.

Good old classic nostalgia.....those were good days, I never had to go further than 90-100 miles to get to a contest on any weekend in those days!

Jim Pollock      Hey! Wake up Jim, you have been dreaming again!