I have loved planes and most other transportation since I was a kid. Played with lots of paper airplanes and balsa kits from the 7-11. In 1971-1973? I got a Testors Fly-em Mustang. I loved just looking at it. They show up on ebay from time to time. I got it to run once, but tried many times. My mom bought it for me because it looked (a little) like her brother's airplane. My uncle was Thomas Mantell .

I had various other Cox gas vehicles, but after that it was all electric. My first electric plane was a Hasbro Air Devil. 5 D cell batteries in a tower attached to a hard plastic plane by two power wires. The plane had a flat electric motor that looked like a slot car motor. It flew around the tower on a pivot arm, and got faster if you pulled the wires in (decreasing the radius). It landed on a 6' cardboard runway. Toys like that should come back again...

My next electric plane was a Mattel SuperStar . It was a red and blue vacuum formed fuselage with styrofoam wings. It was a free flight plane with cams that turned the rudder. It flew well right in front of my house in suburban Louisville, KY.

At 17 I had a good summer job and bought my first RC system - a Cox/Sanwa 4 channel with 4 servos. The first thing I put it in (illicitly) was a Tamiya Lamborghini. My brother bought me a Guillow's DeHavilland Mosquito. I still haven't built it...That was 1981.

Typically, I started spending all my money on women by the time I was 18. The (over $300) radio...Continue Reading