The Kindness Of Strangers

[Fredrum]

There is so much bad news being reported these days, both in the papers and on the tube, not to mention online in general, that it’s easy to forget that there is a lot of good stuff happening in the world, but unfortunately, it’s rarely click-bait. I thought that I would open this thread to see if there was any interest in sharing good news modeling stories, as I’m sure we all have them whether they involve new acquaintances or old friends. Let me kick it off. I hope this isn’t too long-winded.

I’ve had a bit of odd history with modeling. When I was a teenager in the ‘70’s, I saw an RC model plane, as yet uncovered, that had been built by a family friend. I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen (apart from the first time I saw a drummer performing in person a few years earlier). It seemed magical to me that someone would have the skills to do such a thing. The friend very generously gave me the plan (I still have it), which happened to be a Tyro Major. I made a couple of early attempts which didn’t quite work out mostly because even at that age, I had a habit of fiddling with things that already work, but it got me interested in looking into other woodworking disciplines and, to cut a long story short, was directly responsible for me becoming a professional woodworker many years later.

During all these intervening years, I voraciously read every book, magazine and article I could get my hands on and even though I wasn’t actually building or flying, it provided me with quite a rich fantasy life. Fast forward to a couple of years ago and while surfing the ‘net, I came across a discussion thread that mentioned an indoor flying group not far from me. As it turns out, it wasn’t a club per se, rather just an informal group of like-minded (though quite diverse) people who got together once a month in a church hall to commit mini-aviation.

I was a little nervous about being a stranger walking into an established group unannounced and not sure what the welcome would be. There were people already flying some aerobatics when I arrived plus some rotary wing and small RC sports models. After a couple of minutes of just wandering around looking at models and saying hello to people, the organizer of the group came up to welcome me. He spent a large part of the rest of the evening talking to me about models and he seemed very interested in my areas of interest in the hobby. He gave me some great advice about getting started in indoor flying with some suggestions about what kind of models would give me the best chance of success in what I wanted to do. I spent the rest of the evening chatting to people about what they were doing and they were all just as welcoming. A little later, some of them were flying little mini vapors and floaty rubber free flight models. There was that magic again.

I gave the organizer my details so he could keep me advised of meetings. A couple of days later, he rang and said that he travels past my place on his way to work and asked if he could drop in with some stuff. He arrived the next day with a plan for a Hangar Rat, a small building board and some balsa to get me started which enabled me to turn up at the next meeting with my first properly built model. Over the next few months, he also called me when he was available and the weather was right, to meet me at the park to give me some outdoor flying experience with one of his models.

At the next meeting, the resident aerobatic whiz said that seeing my model had rekindled his interest and he had built his own Hangar Rat, which he hadn’t done for some years. He also gave me a kit of parts for another one that he had run up on his CNC machine that he uses to make his shockies along with an assembly jig, so at the next meeting, I had two Hangar Rats (I’m now up to number 5). A few others have also turned up since.

I had so much fun building these little rubber models that I figured it was time to do a proper RC build. I had the knowledge and the skills; I just didn’t have the experience. I discovered the RCM&E build forums and was amazed by the willingness for people to share what they know and how they overcame problems as well as the support for each other whether they be scale masters or complete newbies.

I built a model from an RCM&E free plan that was finished last week just shy of 2 years sporadic modeling. I have related my experience with the local modeling club last weekend on my build thread here, but I’ll mention it again.

I contacted the club through their website and they invited me to the field where they said they would be happy to check over the model and maiden it for me even though I’m not a member. On arrival, my welcome was just the same as it had been with the indoor guys. They were all very interested in my model and declared her to be attractive and well built. Initially I had a range problem with my radio so one of the guys loaned me a new unused receiver that he had with him and his transmitter and spent quite some time setting it up; time that he could have spent flying himself.

The consensus was that the best man for the maiden flight was the club president. He was quite busy that day as he was also instructing some other newbies, but he took the time to check over the model for me and took it up for two flights. He was obviously a very competent pilot and normally flies aerobatic and pylon models, but I’m pleased to say that he really enjoyed flying my high wing floater. He described the flying characteristics as just like a genuine vintage old-timer and said that it was a beautiful plane to fly. The rest of the day was spent chatting with club members and I went home happy.

Edited By Fr

[Area 51]

Welcome to a fantastic hobby FR.. in my humble opinion the best you'll find!.. Nice build blog by the way

Edited By Area 51 on 04/01/2016 11:01:08