After more than 2 years based at John Wayne Orange County Airport, the Challenger 350 jet I fly has been moved to Van Nuys Airport. Now I rent a "crash pad" next door to the Van Nuys Airport, and when I have free time, I fly RC models at the Apollo 11 model flying field (known as "the basin" by the locals), just south of the airport.

Partly because of the move, and because of a bigger commitment to be home in Havasu whenever I can get time off, I'm moving away from gliders and getting into some of the incredible scale powered foamies in the market today. I now have a 63" span Spitfire, a 67" span Corsair, a 90mm fan powered F-4 Phantom,and a big scale model of the Gulfstream G-650!

The last 6 months of 2022 have seen me acquire several glider projects and I have several finished and flying now, with 3 more on the bench to finish or restore, including a beat up 3.7m HKM Sharon, my all time favorite glider! I've managed to meet some of the local OC slopers (all great guys) and fly at some of the slopes they frequent, most of which I never knew existed. Can't wait to get these last few gliders finished and in the air. I am not into building so much anymore. Just want to fly!

With that in mind, I've been looking around the Tustin and Anaheim Hills area in the hopes of finding a good slope or two with relatively easy access (at 65, I am not crazy about hiking hills carrying a bunch of gliders and equipment). If anyone wants to join in the hunt for new slopes, get in touch!

Keith
928-706-8067
jetjockeykeith@icloud.com

Well, I thought the Legacy 500 bizjet I started flying 4 years ago in 2018 was the last jet I would fly, but the management company I work for offered me the opportunity to switch clients and fly for a different owner in another jet that I hadn’t flown before - the Bombardier Challenger 350. I really am enjoying flying it. It’s a real hot rod! I'm now based in Orange County, flying out of the John Wayne Airport. I rent a crash pad in Tustin for those times when I don't have enough days off to make it worth the drive home to Havasu. I now have several gliders for me to fly on the SoCal slopes on the days that I'm not working but still hanging out in Orange County. I need to find all the slopes that are more local to me here in Tustin!

Got sick and tired of spending most of my time over in Vegas working, so I started looking for something better and by pure luck I landed my dream "retirement" job a couple months ago, flying a private jet out of Van Nuys, California pretty much just one day a week! That allows me to live at home in Lake Havasu full time, finally! And that means I have time to spend with the wife and on my hobbies. Can't wait to get the 5 models I have waiting in the garage built and flying!

Finally back home in the USA! My years working over in Europe were fun, but I am so happy to be home in Lake Havasu. My new day job has me flying a Gulfstream G-III based in Vegas, and when I'm not flying that jet, I am working at home pushing my drone businesses forward.

Been out of the RC hobby for too long, but getting back into it now!

Some folks stateside ask me where and what models I fly when I'm working over in the UK and get some time off. Well, by way of an answer, here are some links to videos of me at some of my favorite places in Southern England, flying moldies and foamies..

Predator f3f by RCRCM slope soaring at Butts Brow, Eastbourne (5 min 2 sec)

F3F Predator fun at Mill Hill (6 min 47 sec)

...Continue Reading

Geez! I'm basically SOL when it comes to finding time to fly RC anywhere right now, because I'm going to be working my tail off flying my boss all over Europe constantly for the next several months, well past Christmas for sure. That's what happens when you are in charge of the maintenance for a private jet that gets hit by lightning when you are on approach into Paris one afternoon. Yup, that's what happened to me!

So, now that the damage has been repaired (finally!) and most of the post-repair problems are being ironed out, my boss says he's so far behind that he's going to need to fly a hell of a lot to make up for all the lost time. I've already told my wife I won't be home until after the first of the year. Sucks big time, but at least I have a steady job that pays well, unlike many of my pilot friends all around the world. When I finally get home, I'm gonna take a road trip to SoCal and go sloping for at least a week!

I'm married, with no kids, and my wife and I like our toys, and she is completely supportive of my expensive hobbies (eat your heart out, guys)! My time in the UK is limited to the 5 year contract I now have (one down - four to go), and after that, I fully intend to return home to Havasu, and spend my weekends flying the slopes in SoCal when I'm not flying big 3D models, sailing, jet-skiing or playing with muscle cars.

I have a side business started now involving specialized air, land and water borne video platforms for the media industry, some manned and some radio controlled.

Keith
1st2fly@msn.com

Here are some pics of me and a few of the models I have owned and flown in the past. This is not all of them, not by a long shot. Some people have kids, me, I went the other way and have lots of toys!...Continue Reading

I'm always being asked how or why I have two locations listed under my profile name. The answer is that my permanent home is in Lake Havasu, AZ, but my job has me based in the UK, so I went and got a place in Brighton, on the coast south of London. Even though it's a 2 hour commute to the airport that I fly from north of London, the hills and cliffs along the south shore of the UK make for some wonderful slope flying sites, so of course I can justify living there. There is also a really good hobby shop locally (Sussex Model Centre in Worthing) that is a match for any good independent shop in the States, so there's another reason for me to live in the Brighton area.