On Mon, 29 Nov 2010 20:21:51 -0800, SoaringXCellence wrote:

I started building models when I was 9 and wanted to fly for as long as
I can remember.

I have a more of less parallel experience: I also started to build models
at the same age as you, eventually working up through C/L and sport FF to
single channel RC models. When I went to university I joined a proper
model club, discovered competitive Free Flight and never looked back.
I've flown mostly 1/2A power and F1A gliders since then.

Meanwhile, I'd had my first flights in the DC-3s and Fokker Friendships
used by NZ's internal airline while travelling to and from boarding
school. Along the way I had a flight in a Ka-4 and a couple of impromptu
flying lessons in a friend's Mooney.

I flew FF for the next 35 years, which took me all over Europe and to the
USA. Then I met an ASK-21 at Front Royal, VA in 1999. That set the hook
and I took up gliding in 2000, soloing later that year. I never seriously
considered learning to fly before that flight in 1999, being fully
occupied with the competition FF scene in the UK and Europe.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |