The Planes

Ever since I was little, I dreamt of flying. Sometimes the dreams were just me, nothing between myself and the clouds. But more often than not, the roar of engines filled the air, the feeling of g-forces pushed me into my seat, and it was planes that held me aloft. I dream them, I love them, I breathe them.. just like Amelia Earhart, Pancho Barnes, Lylia Litvyak and Howard Hughes I know what makes my heart sing. The romance of golden age racers and biplanes, the savage sexy appeal of warbirds, and my favorite of all, the heart lifting grace and beauty of the flying boats of yore. I've had my paws at the controls of a twin here and there, and even a little Enstrom helicopter at one point, I even studied aircraft maintenance in college. But as a diabetic, I can't get much more than a recreational license, VFR only. So flying as a job? Not very likely. Flying as a hobby? Heh.. well I ain't that rich ^_~ So I figured I'd "scale down" my dreams somewhat and stick with something more accessible, and my dad and I built models. Rubber powered, free flight and a rather unpleasant go at control line models. Fourteen years ago, my parents got me a .40 2-stroke powered Midwest Aerostar 55" trainer. Building was a dream, flying was a bit of a disaster, but I like fixing things, so that wasn't too bad. But that gasser engine? Very tempermental, and really not much fun fighting with it. So alas, still not all that accessible. That slimer is still hanging from the ceiling. Twelve years later, I started looking at magazines featuring these great little electric powered aircraft known as "parkflyers". The bug BITES me big time and I haven't looked back. A bit of surfing later, and I stumble on a fantastic site called RCGroups and I discover the greatest knowledge base, the nicest, more helpful and wonderful people who all share this burning, all consuming love of creations that let us, at least for a little while, fight the forces of gravity and bring us the sky... The ultimate synthesis if engineering and aesthetics, I've come to realize that my dreams have in no way been "scaled down" at all and that I can do things, invent things and fly things that would be very difficult if not impossible to do "full scale". So have a peek at my little fleet and see the little jewels that make me smile... ;)
	The little birdy that started it all.. for the second time! Total crowd pleaser, tough as a bear and quite surprising performance from a "mere" parkflyer! A lot of what I learned off this bird has gone into my much lighter and better performing Lil' Fishy below ;)
	Yes. I'm a hot-rodder. I was never fully aware of it, but it was lurking in me, waiting for an outlet. This here is my Zero. Learned a few things building it and flying it. It has since been supplanted by yet another GWS Zero, this time it will be taking the shape of an A6M2-N or Rufe. Keep watching this space!
	Jeff Krebs' Dominatrix scares the living hell out of me and makes me laugh like a homicidal maniac at the same time while flying it. Who'da thought it? Draw things for people and and you get free planes. Yeeha!
	How slow can you go? Do you really want to know? Built both light and strong with homemade cd-rom motor under the hood, this little tigermoth is great little friend, riding in the car with me looking for the perfect park, field or what have you. Can't say enough about this model :)