8th birthday Jax Florida 1956...Ringmaster Jr and Fox 15 was a birthday present. Dad built it and took me to Craig Field airport to fly the first time. Neither of us had flown before and someone helped me with the first flight. After that my dad built a Ringmaster Sr with Fox 35. We flew most of the time near the Southside Shopping Center on Beach Blvd. There was a club named the Southside Winders that flew there too. I still have the Fox 15 and Fox 35 engines and fly the 35 in a Brodak Super Clown.

1964,10 years old. A teacher at school was a control line nutter who built planes in his classroom and was building a Nobler which absolutely blew our minds as kids - we'd never seen a model plane that was sooooo big! One day he flew one kids Cox trainer, the blue one, twin seater two pilots. I was besotted. Shortly afterwards joined the Papatoetoe ( papa= earth, toetoe,= feather like white tall flower.) Model Aircraft Club and learned to fly a Showman 1.5cc deisel powered  club trainer by a tall long haired skinny guy who may have been an escaped hippy. Anyways , he was a good instructor and soon my mates and I were keen builders and fairly wrecklee fliers at tyhe local park on weekends and after school. Then we drifted away and I have recently returned when I retired. Loving it.