30,189.51 raised in 2026. We have reached 6% of our goal.
Help us reach this year's goal of $500,000!
I have been an active modeler since I was old enough to toss a glider.
I just recently found the September 1961 issue of Model Aviation that had the results of the '61 Nats. My 3rd place in Junior 1/2 A speed was the first time I won at anything. Later in my teens, I won a few times at the Nats and held a number of Control Line speed records in the junior and senior age group.
Well, back in the '70s, I wanted to build an RC heli. In 2005, I finally did.
Back then they were very hard to fly but needed a place for them. Joined AMA and when I joined PGRC in MD plane club I had to solo to get a key to the place. Sunday morning at sunrise was my time. I've been with AMA ever since and they have opened more than one door so I can enjoy our hobby!!
I've been flying RC airplanes since 1980. In the last 45 years, there isn't any other hobby that has been more fun and rewarding.
I've learned more mechanical skills from projects related to the hobby than any other thing in my life. The people I've met along the way are the best people I've known. AMA is a vital part of the hobby, and I respect what they have done to keep the hobby alive.
I was introduced to models at a cub scout camp out in mid-80s. I had been big into RC Cars but I picked up my first kit, the Great planes Electric Cub in '92. Built it and before I flew it had a teacher to sell me a Headmaster 40 with the old, converted gold Futaba setup. Solo in first of '94 and the sky has been the limit. Wish my dad had been alive longer to get some stories but the guy he worked for had an old Cub in the barn and would make delivers with it.
I grew up always loving airplanes. One day, at about 8 years old, I was working with my uncle, a former USAF Pilot, at my grandmother's kitchen table. He was looking for something in a container that contained "Miscellaneous" things, proceeded to pour it out onto the table, and out rolled his Air Force Pilot wings. Knowing nothing more than what had just happened, my immediate thought was "I want a set of those." We built model airplanes, he took me to airshows, and I was hooked.
I'm 70 years old, just retired in January of 2026.
I started building Ravel and monogram plastic models at 7 or 8 years old with my brothers. My first stick model was a rubber band j3 Cub. With a wingspan of about 18 in and 3 lb of paint. What's an 8-year-old supposed to do? Over the years I saw my brother Tim get into radio control back in the '60s and then heard that my dad was in free flight back in the '40s, maybe '50s.
Since I was about 10 years old, I have had an interest in aviation. When I started a paper route at age twelve, I would run over to Al's Hobby Shop on 28th and North Av in Milwaukee every week and purchase the latest Revelle plastic model. I had them set up all over the house. This was driving my folks nuts so they decided to purchase a completed model from Al with the hope that I would stop buying the plastic models.
I have always been infatuated with airplanes, flying. My brother and I as kids worked to afford our first Cox 0.49 line control planes. Selling seeds to our neighbors. From there it was anything that would fly or roll. I have a few airplanes and have been working my way into Helicopters. Currently building my first scale Bell Jet Ranger 206.
I started with my first plane when I started college and was starting a family. I was learning on my own and it was short lived and an expensive couple minutes. Much later in life, I learned a friend of mine flew RC airplanes at a local club field MRRCS Mount Rainier Radio Control Society.
I started going to the field after purchasing my first foam plane and found that going to a club field offered so many benefits.
My father got me into model aviation at a very young age, and I joined the AMA in the mid 1970s. My father loved to build and fly Cox .049 Free Flight planes, launching them in the fields south of our house in suburban Denver. I fell in love with the sounds and smells of those models, and loved the chase of retrieving them.
