My last rc experience was in 1955 with single channel pulse. The radio cost a summer of doing yard work and I put it in a boat because I couldn't risk a crash. (I put many control line models into the ground until I learned wing overs and loops.) Visiting the hobby store in early Dec '07 by accident was like being in a time warp. The stuff you can buy today would have cost as much as a car back then.
I flew the big ones from '70 to '77 in my work and had a commercial license and instrument rating, much of it in the Skylane I owned for 3 years. During 1800 hours of flying a number of different single engine airplanes I had some hairy experiences but flying was my life. My job changed and I couldn't afford to keep flying. I walked away and forgot about it, or so I thought, until I walked into that hobby store. Flying is a passion most folks don't understand. I can't pass the medical exam for a pilots licence anymore and it would cost way too much anyway so RC flying is my only option.
I gotta tell you why my name is really Ickarusmelt. Icarus was the guy from Greek mythology whose dad made him wings with feathers and wax. Disobeying his father's instructions, he flew too close to the sun which melted his wings and he crashed into the sea.
At age 11 I built my first control line airplane (3 months), a little yellow piper cub. The guy at the hobby store was no help. My father was loving and always supportive of whatever I did but knew nothing about models and was not
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