85,171.87 raised in 2026. We have reached 17% of our goal.
Help us reach this year's goal of $500,000!
In honor of Christina Bhend:
My wife Christina was slow to enter the hobby. After years of watching me build, going to the field and events, and helping me as my pit crew and spotter, one night, she walked into the workshop and said, "You're having WAY too much fun in here. I want to build an airplane." She built a Goldberg Anniversary Cub and that was it. She was hooked.
Growing up in rural Helena, Montana, the only son of a USAF Sabre fighter pilot, I was fascinated with flight from my earliest memories. Dad was in F-86 Sabre training when the Korean armistice was signed. He then moved back to his native Montana to fly with the Montana National Guard for 13 years, while serving as a pilot, then Chief Pilot for the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.
In honor of David Poe Sr.'s father:
He passed away on July 30, 2020. He was a longtime member of AMA, from 1970-2020. His original AMA number was 164. He first flew Control Line in the '60s, until 1970 when he got into radio control and taught himself to fly on a Goldberg Falcon 56 MK II with a K&B 35 plain bearing. The radio was a 6-channel Cirrus from Hobby Shack.
I was about 6 or 7 years old when I started building Strombecker models with my dad, and I moved on to balsa and tissue models as soon as I had some money to buy Gillow's kits. I flew Control Line through high school and pretty much left the hobby until 1961 when I got into RC. My first RC model was a polyhedral Free Flight (a Fubar 36) with a rubber band-driven escapement controlling the rudder with a push button radio. Amazing! We could turn the model! I moved up to Pattern planes actually flying at the same field as Phil Kraft in Southern California.
I got into the hobby in 1970 and have been hooked ever since. I learned very quickly and a year later began giving flight training. I started teaching using a buddy box, but my students were banging the sticks around, so I reached over and put my thumb and forefinger underneath the student's thumb on top of the aileron/elevator stick. That ended the stick banging and I could easily monitor what his thumb was doing, and I could easily correct him, not allowing him to make any mistakes. My only purpose is to get more people into the hobby/sport.
I grew up flying with my dad in a 46 Luscombe. After it was sold, I didn't get back to flying until I was 22 and working for Occidental Engineering. I soon got my private pilot license in '77, and then subsequently quit my engineering job and went to Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I earned my Com/inst, MEL, and CFII/SMEI.
I just turned 71 years old today. I have loved airplanes since about 4 years old. I started flying GA planes at 12 and soloed at 16. I started a family in the early 20s, so I had to put airplanes on hold. Airplanes have been a big part of my life. I will never forget my ride in a B-17 "Aluminum Overcast." I started flying RC airplanes full time 2.5 years ago.
I have been flying since I was 7 years old. I started with rubber band-together TD Control Line models and then moved onto larger Flight Streak-type Ukies. I left the hobby for 35 years for a career in commercial photography but came back with the encouragement of an old flying buddy. I am currently engaged in RC Scale, Pattern, and Sport. I teach a class at my local senior center called "Build it Fly it." I still keep building and flying them at age 78, and I have dragged a few others along for the glorious ride.
I am 67 years old and graduated high school in 1976. I worked as a welder for 20-odd years, transitioned to ASME Code Quality Control, and then was hired by an authorized inspection agency providing code inspection services to non-nuclear and nuclear fabricators and power plant operators. I recently retired after 13 years as the resident ASME Section XI Code inspector at Farley Nuclear Power Plant near Dothan, Alabama.
İbrahim Yavuz Dal is an academic and air sports expert born in Eskişehir. He has worked for many years as a lecturer at Anadolu University and Eskişehir Technical University, specializing in sports sciences and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology. Throughout his academic journey, he earned a bachelor's degree in physical education and sports teaching, a master's degree in sports sciences, and a doctorate in sports management and recreation. His research has made significant contributions, particularly in the field of recreational aviation.
