It is the times in life where you meet people who for some reason you cannot understand provide a prescience when you are with them. Adam Nelson did that to me. We lost Adam last night when he succumbed to his battle with Brain cancer. Three years ago was when I had first met Adam. He was known to me as the guy who takes a ton of pictures and post them to Dropbox for all of us to see. I learned more about Adam through Steve George as he mentioned Adam was going to take the role as CD for the Fall Soaring Festival. That is a huge responsibility and one I have seen Phil Hill and Claude Turner fill year after year. Learning that Adam had been a successful Lawyer made it clear to me that he was more than capable of handling these duties as well as dealing with people. Adam had a way of taking the events energy then redeploying it back to the pilots who were in the event. He was also very good at talking to you and making an idea seem like it was yours and you went away with a smile. His passion for the sport was always present wanting to give back to make the sport move forward. In his last role as a CD for the 2018 Bent wing event he created a special event to promote a sailplane design. This year it was the Aquila. You can read my prior post on this experience.

In life we have regrets and mine is not taking the time to walk over and see Adam on the Friday ALES event thinking he would be around the next two days. Adam was not able to make it out the next two day and I regret...Continue Reading

Under the spring skies of Visalia this past weekend we flew the 2018 Bent wing contest. It was a little more special to me this time having completed the Aquila that I have been wanting to build for over 40 years. At the time of its release in RC Modeler Magazine with the picture of Lee’s Aquila up against the water fountain in the Monastery Mater Dolorsa in Sierra Madre Califiornia I have always wanted to build one. Don Edberg took his Aquila out at the SWSA clubs flying site in San Dimas California so pictures of the snowcapped Mt. Baldy in the back ground were in the RCM article. Several of the guys in my club knew Lee Renaud since he was a member. Being just a little guy back then I had no way to buy a kit for $59.95 with my allowance. Some of you might know that my dad wrote the soaring column for RCM. I’m pretty sure that he had spoken to Lee at some point and was able to get me a fiberglass fuselage to scratch build a kit. At the time the building skills needed for me to fabricate the Aquila were well above my head. I was building simple sailplanes around that time. As the needs for other competitive sailplanes came across my mind to stay relevant in club contest the Aquila slipped to the back burner. I never forgot about it though. Years later when I had been seeing kits go for larger sums of money I started to keep an eye out for a kit. With the passing of one of our club members Harvey Jenkins I was told our club would sell off his kits in an auction. When I saw he...Continue Reading