more on 'this is my story'
chapter II
My first (paper) flying model airplanes.
When I was five, suddenly everything changed.
Once, I lost track of my father. I learned about his death one year later, but the grownups did not tell me- they did not want me to know at the time. But sure I missed him a lot! Shortly after that, my mother’s father died too (there was a war at the time: they called it world war 2), and my grandmother came to live with us, and my mother went to work all day long.

Some time later, an uncle taut me how to make paper planes that could fly. That was a revelation! I made planes with any piece of paper that I could get and, as we moved to the second floor of an apartments house and I was not allowed to get down to the street, I made each plane the best I could, trimmed it for a nice turn glide at the living room, and launched from the balcony to watch it gliding down for one single flight. And back to build another one.
That same uncle also gave me a nicely cast airplane painted aluminum. The casting and the details were terrific, but I never liked the shape. Anyway, I played a lot with it. It had some strange digits: NX 211. Years later I learned that the full size was the first plane to cross the Atlantic. Yes, it was a model of The Spirit of St. Louis.

chapter III
My first model airplane (the first balsa, flying model airplane i ever saw)
Then one day, my uncle brought to me...Continue Reading