What got you in to balsa aircraft?

[stx44]

Aviation is an addiction in my family. My father was a Navigator in the RAF and then a ground instructor after that. That lead to me building first plastic, and later balsa models when I was a kid. Many happy hours chasing the planes I designed and built through the paddocks with dad.

Fast forward 30 years, and dad gave me a bunch of bird dog kits for the kids and I to build. They built one plane, had fun and moved on to other stuff. For me the addiction kicked in again, and I now have a workshop with assorted built, half built etc planes, have hundreds of downloaded plans (I found the FROG website recently and loved it), and usually fly at least twice a week (I have a great football field beside the work carpark, so I can get a couple of early flights in before I start if I get in early enough).

Luckily I also have a very understanding wife.....

[Steve Blanchard]

It was about 13 years ago that I was given a gift certificate to a gun store to look into equipment for bow hunting. When I went to the building where the shop was I saw there was a hobby shop on the first floor. I did my shopping at the gun store and actually ended up buying more fly fishing gear. I went down to the hobby shop looking to see what they had and it was a shop that was mostly geared toward model aviation and RC Cars. I had always been interested in model airplanes but only really knew about the RC and CL end of it and of course the expense so never got into it. I spoke to the shop owner and he steered me toward the rubber powered end of the hobby and I started building simple stick models and no-cal or profile models. He also told me that there was a group that flew in Durham Ct right down the road from where I lived at the time. He said they were usually there every Sunday morning if the weather was good. I went there one morning and there was a small line of cars with about 6 or 7 guys. I noticed one guy was looking straight up and walking and I was wondering what he was looking at so I looked and saw a spec of a plane about 150 to 200 feet in the air and I just got this feeling of raw excitement. Sounds stupid but that's all it took. I was in. I started talking to an older gentleman who was very helpful and told me all about the Flying Aces Cub and what they did. He invited me down to fly with them as everyone is welcome to do so. I found out later after hanging out with them all for a few weeks that I was speaking to Dave Stott one of the co-founders of the FAC. At the time Bob Thompson, the other founding father of the FAC, was still alive and I was able spend time with him as well before he unfortunately passed away about a year later. I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time and now I am a permanent fixture at the field.

[goose]

Nice thread.

I built my first stick and tissue aircraft around 1975 (Jr Hi) when the only model of an Erco Ercoupe to be had was the Comet kit. I had built lots of plastic models up to that time, and this was the first balsa kit. I had flown in an Ercoupe that summer and I just had to make a model that would actually fly. Well I built it and the test flights were less than spectacular, and it broke in several places. As a result it was sacrificed to the fireworks gods that 4th of July. Looking back I am sure that I didn't add any nose weight to the kit, probably causing the failed flights. Fast forward to about 2005 when a guy had a P-40 hanging on his wall at work, that got me thinking, then I found a partially built P-40 with a lot of model paint, at a garage sale for $1, and I bought it, finished it, and it flew horribly. If course I had no nose weight, and the tail feathers were warped, but it got me interested in the planes again. About 3 years after that I found several Guillows kits on the Hobby Lobby clearance rack, and I started to collect them. A couple years ago I picked up a 900 series P-51 with the 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby, built it, and read Don Ross's book. I was able to get flights of 20 seconds out of that airplane. Since then I have been building and collecting kits for when I have more time to build, and having a lot of fun.

MikeG

[Mitch]

My first kit at age 10 was the 100 series Fokker D8, the box said "flying scale model". FLYING is what I wanted to do. That model did not fly ... My first 400 series, age 14, was the Me 109. That model did not fly ... I have built all of the 400 series and my last creation of the 109 won 3rd place at a National FAC event! ... My latest work is now another 400 series 109 and they are always getting better! I am now working on getting ready for the next major FAC contest in 2015, but hope to do local flying this summer with new and better creations including my Twin Engine, Me 109-Z
Building Guillow kits has always been a pleasure, but to see them fly on rubber power is just amazing! Mitch

[davidchoate]

I was about 4 or 5 yrs. old, and I had a neighbor, his name was Tony he was older, maybe 25, I still remember, and on occasion he would take me to to LHS and buy a Guillows stick thing with 2 balsa sheet wings, and a rubber powered prop; we would go to the park and fly it till it broke. Needless to say Tony was like a God to me.He also flew control line glow planes in a parking lot, and took me, but I was too little I guess for him to trust at the controls. But anyway that grew into me becoming obsessed with flight. I think even before Tony I was. But without him I would never perhaps pursued it as easily. I had a paper route, and would save up my money and get a Guillows kit every couple months or so. My most successful one was some type of biplane. I put a CO2 motor in. I thought at the first few flights I had made some horrible aerodynamic mistake because it would not fly. Then I figured out I was running the motor backwards ( a co2 motor will run clock or counter). when I released it and it took off and climbed and flew so nice; I can't describe the feeling , I cant find words. I became early teens, and got into larger RC planes. Then I began working on cars, and school, and girls, and keg parties, and the whole thing got put on hold, but I never lost interest. I would often think about starting the Hobby again,and 3 yrs ago I did. My child is grown, im established in my career, and DIVORCED 4 yrs ago. I am happy. Thank you Tony. Wherever you are.