READER REMEMBERS
FIRST FLIGHTS
Photo provided by George Julovich | gjulovich@yahoo.com
GEORGE JULOVICH (New River, industrial-duty Motorola handsets (from the electric utility again). I held up a long pole with a red flag and listened to the other two spotters instruct me to walk east or west until I got to the point where we decided to start a spiral search. Joe walked toward the flag and yelled that he found it. I laughed and told him a few choice words. As he walked toward me, he presented the airplane—intact without damage.
Arizona) has had this 1983 photo of himself at the Sundowners RC field (formerly in Chesterton, Indiana, and now in Wheeler, Indiana) for a long time. He stated that it is posted in his hobby room and he wanted to share it with others. He wrote:
“My first airplanes were a foamie MRC Hawk powered by an Enya 15, a Sig Cadet Senior, and an unknown (1950s?) Free Flight (FF) model converted to RC. The FF elevator and rudder hinges were spiral wire as on a spiral-bound notepad. Quite amazing.
“Like most of us, I started at the age of 8 to 10, flying small FF and Control Line airplanes and model rockets. My father was too busy to enjoy the outdoors, so my brother and I learned to fly by trial and error. By age 16, other interests took over and the model airplanes were given to neighbors.
“The MRC Hawk (1979) was flown on a private field near a state highway. I launched the airplane and it was out of control (because of my inexperience) and flew across the state highway, lodging in a group of 50-foot trees. At that time, I was employed by the electric utility and knew the supervisor at the local substation. He had a crew truck with a lift and used ‘hot sticks’ to dislodge the airplane with no damage. Try doing that nowadays and you sure will get fired.
“I joined a local club called Sundowners RC Club, near Chesterton, which is now an apartment complex. I searched for a downed airplane (Sig Cadet) in the 1,000-acre cornfield one summer. (I thought that flying an airplane at sunset would seem fitting.) We used triangulation to estimate where it dropped in the 8-foot cornstalks and returned the next day with three
“Since that time, I always make it a point to fly with the sun behind me and on a calm day, even if the name of the club sounds romantic. I still enjoy flying RC in north Phoenix!
“By the way, the AMA number on the model in the foreground is 14202. Maybe a reader can identify the model’s name?”
SHARE YOUR STORY
Do you have a high-quality/high-resolution airplane, helicopter, or multirotor photo that you are proud of, or a model aviation-related photo with a great story behind it? Email your “Viewfinder” photo and a description about it to jennifer@modelaircraft.org.
