martin collins 1 Posted June 16, 2021 Share Posted June 16, 2021 Yesterday saw the passing of my flying buddy of over 20 years, from when he taught me to fly R/C on a patch of common land in Newport Pagnell, we both had Twinstars and had jobs that meant we were finished by 11am in the mornings (the good old days!), i was single at the time and we would fly till the sun went down. This was in the days before brushless motors and lipos, we both joined the Old Warden club and stood out like sore thumbs, look out, here come those electric guys as they all flew glow models and looked at ours with suspicion. Gradually our models got larger as motors and batteries improved and soon our models were out performing the glow ones at the strip, we ended up flying at a few of the Warbirds fly ins at Coltishall, Scampton and Barkston Heath, me with a 10ft span Electric B17 and John with his beloved similar sized petrol powered Westland Lysander. Over the last 10 years John had suffered numerous health issues which meant the assembly and managing of large models like that were not practical but he continued to enjoy his model building and flying back at Newport Pagnell close to where he lived. About a month ago he was diagnosed with an untreatable form of cancer and given a few months to live, unfortunately the end came sooner than we had all hoped and he passed away at home yesterday evening ?. He was a real character and i will miss him greatly, we had some memorable times over the years and i will be a bit choked when i go to Wings & Wheels in just over a week as we would without fail spend the whole day together looking out for bargains at the bring and buy and wandering in and out of the trade tents. He would always stop for his favourite bite to eat, a pulled pork bun and we would grab a couple of 99 ice creams to wash them down. I will miss you John, hopefully you are somewhere now where you can fly all day and the sun always shines with light winds. Sorry for my ramblings, i just had to put my feelings down.............. 18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Acland Posted June 17, 2021 Share Posted June 17, 2021 Not rambling. It is always sad to lose a good friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchell Howard Posted June 18, 2021 Share Posted June 18, 2021 Sorry for your loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cymaz Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 A true friend always leaves his mark at his passing. Sorry for the loss Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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