Hi fellow fliers and builders.
So, I would count myself as a four year newbie, but that's not my entire story.
1. When I was four or five I got my first plane. A Goldberg Swordsman, 1/2a. I stunk. See, my big brother flew solo at about 19 months and flew in his first WAM meet at 22 months--gotta be some kind of record. Anyhow, he went into volleyball and then golf. So, it was a mystery to my dad that I couldn't fly by the time I was five. By first grade 1981 the Swordsman was more Hotstuff than balsa and it got tossed out.
2. 1982-1985 I was a runner at the Nats because my dad was CD with Arlie Preszler. That was pretty awesome. I remember watching Fancher and his gorgeous red white and blue airplanes. I remember Bob Gieseke because everyone always talked about him. Mostly I remember this guy with a cowboy hat flying a giant airplane--Windy Urtnowski. Sure, I saw lots of others too, Paul Walker, Jimmy Cassale, Bob Barron.
2b. About 1984 I started flying RC and that lasted a long time.
3. Fast forward to 1996 or so, and one of my college roommates shows up with a box of cox 1/2a's. We ran over to Sheldon Hobbies in San Jose, CA and pick up a sterling shoestring. Next day we tried it out and they let me fly first since I was a the only guy with experience, and I was pretty heavy into RC still. I was shocked at how this impossible task of keeping a plane level when I was five was suddenly a piece of cake. I did some loops, wingovers, and inverted flight right away. But that was it until...
4. About ten years ago (2010) my son was five. I wanted to get him into flying. We tried a bit of RC and control line. Then I kind of took over his little hobby and started building stuff for myself. My dad was and still is competing so I joined him with my son for a contest or two and I haven't looked back. Sure, I'm still pretty new, but I've got some experience going back to the "good old days." But in my book, these are the good old days to come.
David