John's Page

Background

I am currently the President of the New Milford Model Airplane Club. I started flying when I was about ten years old with rubber powered free-flight planes ("Stick" models), then progressed to 1/2A control liners. My first R/C ship was a Goldberg Junior Falcon with a 2-channel Futaba radio. Like most beginners trying to fly alone, I wasn't very succesful with it. After the Falcon, I got a 6 Channel Futaba radio and a Sig Kavalier. With the help of  a good instructor, I learned to fly R/C. I soloed in only a few weeks. The following season, I built a Sig Kougar and started flying AMA Pattern. At that time the entry level class was called Novice (now it's called Sportsman). I could fly the whole schedule pretty well, but never entered any contests. I took some time off from flying after my club lost their field.

One day while visiting the hobby shop, I met Jack Tracey and he got me interested in flying electrics. I always had a theory that since the electrics were clean and quiet they wouldn't attract a lot of attention. I proved that to be correct. We were flying aerobatics in a schoolyard and people weren't even noticing it! I always missed the power and smell of the nitro burners though and one day I returned to my roots.