Start in Radio Control Glider Flying

I took a hiatus from the model aviation hobby for several years, partly because I was busy returning to college and because the radio control equipment I had was no longer legal to use. The change by the FCC was for the better in that more channels were set aside for radio control use but older equipment had to be converted.

Electra Electric Powered Glider

When I started working for the City of Winona, someone was selling a used radio control car and I purchased the car. At the time there was a club in Winona that held races which I became part of it.  I started thinking that I really did miss the model airplanes too and purchased a new radio control system to fly one of my old glow engine powered trainers. This lead to joining the local model airplane club in Winona and meeting more new people.

After getting the feel of flying radio control again I decided to try some new variations of model airplanes. First it was rubber powered free flight airplanes and later radio control gliders. About this time I started on the Internet which gave me the ability to find all sorts of information. I discovered there were guys flying radio control gliders in LaCrosse Wisconsin 30 miles away and I joined them to watch.

Holding Unknown Glider

From flying the rubber powered airplanes at the Winona radio control club I heard of Floyd Richards that was an expert with indoor rubber powered airplanes. So I contacted Floyd and he got me started with indoor free flight flying. It turns out Floyd also did some radio control glider flying and he sold me a Carl Goldberg Electra Glider. Later he gave me a larger glider which I do not know the name of.

The first day I was flying the Electra glider, the glider got into a good thermal and it was going up and up. Floyd yelled to me, "you are getting too high man, bring that thing down".  He was right, the glider had to be put into a spin and it took what seemed like forever to get back down to where I could easily see it. When the glider landed I was shaking, it could have easily crashed because I lost sight of it a couple of times.  Just the same what a thrill that was, I just would not let a glider get that high again.

Bill Kuhl
http://www.ideas-inspire.com