The Aerodrome Forum - View Single Post

19 December 2001, 02:26 PM

What a cool thread.

I couldn't have been more than 6 or 7 when I watched the Blue Max on t.v. I was struck by how cool the planes looked.
That was the spark. From there it was a trip to the school library where I checked out large coffee table edition of a book that was full of photo's and paintings of WWI planes and aviators (wish I could remember the name.)

I too read "Flying Aces of WWI," and some other titles mentioned here. Read my brother's copy of "Rickenbacker" and helped him build a balsa model of his Spad. Even named my parakeet Max after the movie/medal "Blue Max."

From there until about 12 I would read what I could find and also developed an interest in WWII a/c.

Then disaster struck. I dearly wanted a r/c aircraft. They were spendy and my parents couldn't afford to get me one. So for Christmas they bought me a gas powered Cox P-51 Mustang that you fly with the wire. I was jazzed. Spent most of Christmas day applying decals and customizing the paint job. The next day my Dad, brother and I went to the nearby high school to fire it up.

I stood there in the field holding onto the handle and waited for Dad to start it. It roared to life. My older brother, who was standing next to me, grabbed the handle from me saying "Let me do it first you don't know how." The P-51 went straight up, and then straight down and shattered. I stood there with tears welling up as my brother proceeded to tell me that I would have done the same thing and not to worry as he would fix it.

A week later he returned MY P-51 glued together with massive globs of grey barge cement. It looked like crap and as I picked it up to examine it the landing gear fell off. I never flew it. That sort of dulled my childhood hobby. Actually it killed it.

Fast forward 25 years. My 3 year old son and I are watching an airplane circle the field where he is flying my kite, and he says he wants to go look at planes. Sure. 20 minutes later he and I are wandering around in the hangars at our local airport. The fun of planes returned. Since then I found a copy of RB2 that he and I play, we play with stomp rockets, dive bomb his Lego forts with a die cast Ford Tri-motor, and regularly make trips to a local r/c a/c aerodrome.

Life is good.

Best wishes, and happy holidays,

Neophyte (Bill)

19 December 2001, 02:26 PM	#41 (permalink)
neophyte Guest Posts: n/a	What a cool thread. I couldn't have been more than 6 or 7 when I watched the Blue Max on t.v. I was struck by how cool the planes looked. That was the spark. From there it was a trip to the school library where I checked out large coffee table edition of a book that was full of photo's and paintings of WWI planes and aviators (wish I could remember the name.) I too read "Flying Aces of WWI," and some other titles mentioned here. Read my brother's copy of "Rickenbacker" and helped him build a balsa model of his Spad. Even named my parakeet Max after the movie/medal "Blue Max." From there until about 12 I would read what I could find and also developed an interest in WWII a/c. Then disaster struck. I dearly wanted a r/c aircraft. They were spendy and my parents couldn't afford to get me one. So for Christmas they bought me a gas powered Cox P-51 Mustang that you fly with the wire. I was jazzed. Spent most of Christmas day applying decals and customizing the paint job. The next day my Dad, brother and I went to the nearby high school to fire it up. I stood there in the field holding onto the handle and waited for Dad to start it. It roared to life. My older brother, who was standing next to me, grabbed the handle from me saying "Let me do it first you don't know how." The P-51 went straight up, and then straight down and shattered. I stood there with tears welling up as my brother proceeded to tell me that I would have done the same thing and not to worry as he would fix it. A week later he returned MY P-51 glued together with massive globs of grey barge cement. It looked like crap and as I picked it up to examine it the landing gear fell off. I never flew it. That sort of dulled my childhood hobby. Actually it killed it. Fast forward 25 years. My 3 year old son and I are watching an airplane circle the field where he is flying my kite, and he says he wants to go look at planes. Sure. 20 minutes later he and I are wandering around in the hangars at our local airport. The fun of planes returned. Since then I found a copy of RB2 that he and I play, we play with stomp rockets, dive bomb his Lego forts with a die cast Ford Tri-motor, and regularly make trips to a local r/c a/c aerodrome. Life is good. Best wishes, and happy holidays, Neophyte (Bill)