RC SOARING
Charleston Thomas (the US F3J team’s Junior member) is being assisted by team pilot Jody Miller in Romania at the 2018 World Championships. Charleston is a young pilot and still learning what life is about. Hopefully his memories and experience from representing his country in Romania will remain with him as some of the most cherished in his life.
BUILDING
SOARING
RELATIONSHIPS
By Gordon Buckland | gordon@gatorf3h.com
AS WITH MOST HOBBIES, the discipline of RC Soaring is one that benefits tremendously from relationships with other pilots. By actively involving ourselves and spending time with others of the same ilk, we can improve our skills, learn from each other, and, most importantly, create lasting and valuable memories.
I have reflected a lot during the last year and a half, because COVID-19 affected this balance for me and many of my good friends. Instead of regular meetings at the flying field, those meetings became infrequent. Instead of full contest calendars, we had few from which to choose. Instead of planning multiple getaways with our mates during the year, we have been homebound. This has a lasting effect on all of us because we are deprived of that modeling companionship, bonding, and joy that we have grown accustomed to in our lives.
Think about it. Your greatest Soaring memories involve moments in time that you spent with others at the flying field. Do you enjoy this hobby because you yearn to soar alone? I don’t think so. Participating in this hobby together with our mates is what forges those great memories and makes us work on our models and look forward to the next get-together where we can show off our creations and share our skills.
It’s with these thoughts that I also think back on those who are no longer with us to share memories. As we grow older, the number of such friends seemingly increases exponentially, but we must remember them because they are who made us whole.
They are the ones who provided us with our first lesson, that special building tip, or a listening ear when we had problems. They are the ones who spent time with us in the shop, who helped build a flying field, or retrieve a model from a tree. I have had many such friends pass on, and it makes me wish that I had spent more time with them while they were here.
When I was in my late teens, I spent a lot of time with Don Ewart and Bob Moye. Don was approximately 15 years older than I, a schoolteacher, and an avid pilot. I first met him at the Warwick Aerodrome Gliding Club in Queensland, Australia, where he stored and owned a homebuilt glider and was one of the tug pilots who flew an old Auster aerotow tug. He was amazed when I showed him my Bob Dodgson Maestro Mk III and became interested in my hobby of RC Soaring.
We spent many Sundays at nearby Morgan Park flying sailplanes, but sadly, we lost touch in the early 1980s when Don moved away. He was tragically killed in a full-scale light airplane crash some years later. I miss Don and really appreciate the time and enthusiasm for all kinds of flying that he bestowed upon me.
Bob Moye was one of those people who was simply an avid enthusiast and never said no to a day at the flying field. When I was a teen without a license or transportation, Bob was always there to take me and my models to the flying field for a Saturday afternoon. We spent many days and hours scouring the local mountain ranges around Warwick, looking for potential Slope Soaring sites. Without Bob, I would probably have done much less Soaring, and I thank him for his close friendship as I was learning the craft. He sadly passed away at an early age and was gone too soon.
After restarting my RC Soaring career in 2009 (after a 21-year absence), I was “adopted” by Gordy Stahl. He got me up to speed with a vastly changed hobby. On many occasions, he drove hundreds of miles just to help me at a contest or to achieve a League of Silent Flight (LSF) goal. I didn’t fully understand the significance of his influence on me until he was no longer here to enjoy those long chats that we regularly had by phone.
Gordy was not only a skilled pilot and teacher, but he gave me the one thing of which a value cannot be put on. He gave me his time—a lot of his time—and I will be eternally grateful for that. I know he also gave his time to many others in the hobby, and I’ll bet that they miss him as much as I do. Thank you, Gordy.
Those pilot friends who have passed are special to us, and as the anniversaries of their deaths come around, we should honor them by making new flying friends and creating new memories with others—especially with younger ones. Give them a memory to cherish for a lifetime. Take a young person out and show him or her what RC Soaring is about. Spend some time teaching someone a little of what you know. They will remember you, and some will get the RC bug and become Soaring pilots too.
If you don’t have any young people with whom to share your passion, go spend some more time on the flying field with your older mates because time is short and the pandemic has stolen from us the very thing that makes our greatest memories: time spent flying with friends.
Maybe you would like to pay tribute to your special friends who helped start your RC Soaring addiction. Please write to me at the email provided at the beginning of this column and I will do my best to share your story!
With these thoughts, I begin preparing for the annual journey to the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana, for the AMA RC Soaring Nats, where we share fellowship with our Soaring friends and create a host of new memories to reflect upon in the future.
It is the yearly Glider Camp, where we meet many pilots whom we only see once a year. I hope you all make the effort to experience the Nats if you haven’t been, and for those who have been before, I look forward to our special time together in a couple of weeks. Until then ...
Go downwind and soar.
SOURCES:
Team USA F3J
www.teamusaf3j.com
