Connor Grows Up
Bill Bryan’s (Hamilton, Ohio; email: bbbryanohio@gmail.com) grandson, Connor, was featured on the June 1999 Model Aviation cover in a photo taken by Bill at the Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club’s (GCRCC) Flying Circus Air Show, held in August 1998. Photographed next to his grandfather’s Goldberg Anniversary Cub, Connor was age 3 at the time. Bill wanted to share an update about where Connor is now. He wrote:
“Connor will be 21 years old on July 4. He completed a very successful time at William Mason High School in Mason, Ohio, where he competed in both football and baseball. Following graduation, he entered the University of Cincinnati, [where he is now a sophomore] majoring in industrial management. He is a member of the Sigma Chi ‘Zeta Psi’ fraternity and fills their office of Community Service Chair.
“While not following in his grandfather’s footsteps as an RC model airplane pilot, he has continued to be a big fan of the annual GCRCC Flying Circus. [His] two cousins, Steven and Tyler Kirgiss, currently fly with the GCRCC.”
Bill’s Cub was built in 1990 and has flown in every Flying Circus event since then. The “4” in the N number stands for the first flight (April 1990) and the “3” indicates that it was the third airplane that Bill built.
“The ‘B’ simply means it was completely re-covered a few years back and given the name Still Flying. Some might ask whether that is intended for the plane or the pilot, or perhaps both,” he wrote.
The middle picture was taken by Bill’s wife, Bettylu, in 2003 when Connor was age 8. “Yes, the same Cub,” Bill wrote. “The kids grow up way too fast.”
The third photo was taken on Easter Sunday 2016. “The radio box in the 2016 photo is the same as the earlier cover picture, and I still wear a similar hat, but with a few more Flying Circus pins attached,” Bill noted. “I must admit that either the Cub got smaller or Connor got bigger.”
Do you have an airplane, helicopter, or multirotor photo that you are proud of, or a model aviation-related photo with a great story behind it? Email your high-resolution “Viewfinder” photo and a short note about it to jennifer@modelaircraft.org, or submit it online at www.ModelAviation.com/viewfinder.
