How and when I got into model planes

[octagon]

Hi Guys,
It has been pretty quiet here on the site so I thought I would throw this out and see what happens. I was inspired by a thread on RC Canada.
http://www.rccanada.ca/rccforum/showthread.php?p=3102289#post3102289
Anyway, seeing as the winter has arrived, thought it might be interesting to share how we all got sucked into the wonderful vortex of model aviation. I tell my long suffering wife it is not really a hobby but more of an addiction. So let us all share with one another our stories. I will go first. (If you get bored and stop reading I will understand)

I think I was about 7 when my father built the first model he ever made for me. It was a Douglas Dauntless and I loved it. It was probably a 1/32 plastic kit. Christmas 1963 brought a Cox Stuka. I remember we started it on top of the freezer Christmas afternoon. As soon as weather permitted we took it to a nearby field with the intention of flying it (in those years there were a lot of vacant fields in Willowdale). We got it started in spite of the weather, adjusted the needle valve till it was screaming and Dad hand launched it. It went up, over and did a very realistic (except for the pulling out part) vertical dive into the ground. The wing broke at the root and the plane was deemed unsalvageable. We (he) decided something more docile was probably better. He bought a Cox piper cub and with that I eventually learned to fly  control line.Over the next couple of years he built a lot of planes and I got into building myself. We flew pretty much every night. Went on to combat and aerobatic with Carl Goldberg Satans, Jumping Beans, Ringmasters and Top Flight profile mustangs. I was lucky my Dad was so good at building. He must have built me at least 40 planes and I still have the last one he made. Attached is a picture of my Jim Reely U control flying handle, which if you flew anything much bigger than an 0.49 you probably had.  Then girls and motorcycles happened and models did not figure in my life for a few years. But the ich was not dead. In 1973 I bought a Heath Kit radio and a Falcon 56 from Keith's Hobby in Willowdale. I took a week off work and did a woodshed build, finishing it in a week. The servos were about the size of a small pack of cigarettes and so in order to make the the ailerons work I had to rework the main spar. It is hard to believe now, but there was a flying field at Steeles and Keele on top of a reservoir. Off goes the Falcon and I am just admiring how it flies when first the dihedral increases a bit and then increased a lot until the top of the left and right wings were touching. Yup, they folded.  To date this is the best crash ever. I rivaled a V2 rocket. I remember even  the venturi on the Mcoy was broken off.
In 1976 I discovered the joys of sailplanes. Flying a sailplane is easy, maybe the easiest thing you will ever fly. Learning how to soar is perhaps one of the hardest things you will ever do in the sport. I was never really good at it, but we did not have motors on the planes back then and so we used high starts and winches and you really tried to stay aloft as long as you could, because you did not want to go and get the damned high start and launch again if you did not have to. Near the end of the 1980 season I got my Aquila caught in the Mother of all thermals and was way down wind. I tried to get back but I now think that the elevator clevis gave up and the plane was lost. I found the plane but it was a write off. In 1982 we had our first child, and as many of you know, there is not much money when kids come. So I sort of lurked for many years. Went to the club on 19th Ave, but they were not very friendly.
2014 someone sent me a link for the little Aeronca Champ. Went and got one. Flew it at the park and got it stuck in a tree. Got it down and then got it stuck again. Got it down and next morning took it to a baseball diamond where I managed to hit the backscreen and break the wings off. Went and bought an Apprentice and took it to Temac where Ed McMachon was kind enough to sort it out for me. The instructors at Temac were great (Greg H.) was mine, and I got back up to speed (thanks Greg).
Now I am proud to call a lot of guys friends and to look forward to flying at TEMAC. I think we have maybe the best group of guys and the best club of any in RC.
Please share your stories, they are fascinating for all of us.

[Wingnutz]

Rob, you've come a long way very quickly in RCing!
Like Rob, my roots in model aviation go back to 1/2A control line models and Revell static kits. My dad built my first Cox 049 powered models for me and I flew them in a vacant field a stone's throw from my house in Scarborough. I crashed most of them and those that didn't succumb to multiple crashes were passed along to my younger brother who finished the job.
Cars, girls, career, marriage interrupted my model aviation addiction for nearly forty years, but the fascination with aviation never went away.
Fast forward to 2008 and the recuperation from my first knee injury. During the crutches phase of my recovery, I popped into Advance RC to see what this RC thing was all about. They had a Real Flight simulator set up. I walked out with one.
A membership, wet fuel Alpha 40 and training program with the Toronto RC club followed, but alas, I was only getting in one or two instructor flights a week, the learning was slow and I got impatient. Off to Pinnacle and bought my first Apprentice. Got up very early every day, checked the weather and headed off to Milliken Mills water reservoir (a flat, treeless, grassy area on top of the water reservoir) to get in some dawn patrol stick time with no one around except the odd dog walker. (Try that with your noisy wet fueller!) I still hadn't been allowed to take off or land the Alpha at the wet fuel club, and the grass at Milliken was often long so my first take off with the Apprentice was actually a hand launch. I launched it down a slope over a parking lot and just missed the only parked car...mine, but the Apprentice(pre SAFE) survived the launch and many Milliken Mills flights including one where I forgot to connect the ailerons and still managed to land safely.
Skills developed quickly flying almost every day and I was able to get my MAAC wings on a wet fueller by the end of the summer thanks to the Apprentice. I still have and fly this model but the rear part of the fuselage has gotten somewhat limp (aging seems to do that).
TEMAC, ARFs, kits and scratch builds followed and the hobby saw me through several personal tragedies over the next few years. During the same period, I finally had enough time and money to pursue my interest in full size aviation and got my Recreational Pilot's Permit from Transport Canada in 2015.
In September of 2016, I moved to a waterfront house where I can pursue my developing interest in model float
planes (and maybe a big one). I am grateful to TEMAC for the many happy hours I have spent with the club and look forward to renewing my membership for 2017.

[bfeist]

You guys should copy these stories into your introductions in the Member Introductions area
http://temac.ca/smf/index.php/board,30.0.html