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.
I started building airplanes for radio control in about 1978. And continue through today. Of note, I joined the jeffco arrow modelers airplane club out of Chatfield reservoir, the Denver area. I was president there for 3 years. Since then I took some time off to focus on work, family and so on.
Now that I'm retired I will get back into flying.
I've built and crashed a lot of airplanes. I started with a Great plains trainer with a nitro engine. Not sure what kind of radio I had. I moved on to various models. Biplanes. I found I like foamies profile airplanes. They're fun to do tricks with. And recently I built a great-lane super Sportster 60.
I'm going to mount a 20cc gas engine to it. I built it strong. It should be a rocket. Looking to finish that maybe this year fly it in the fall if you're interested. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for your time.
Pete
