Tag Archives: Model aircraft

My Big Brother

10 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

 

Judy

 I hope you are enjoying reading my big brother’s stories as much as I am.  I am learning things that I was too young to know or remember about us growing up.

One of the things that I really don’t remember – but have been told about many times – is the airplane trip when we moved from Dallas, Texas to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1945.  Bill can tell you that it was an American Airlines DC-3 plane.

 

Plane

Plane

What I remember our Mother telling me is that she made the flight without our Dad (he was already in NM), and with us two small children.  She said a military man asked if she would like some “help” with us, and she handed me over.  After a bit, she looked back, just as he was pointing out the window, with me looking out, as well.  I came running back to her and said, “Mommy!  Did you know there is an ANGEL sitting on that wing outside???!!!”

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Mother said that she was reassured that he really was a good guy.  In Bill’s words about the flight:  “My memories of the plane are limited to how steep an incline the aisle was from the rear door to the front seats, that there were only two seats on each side of the aisle, and at some point during the flight (I did not have my seatbelt fastened) the plane hit a fairly good-sized downdraft (air pocket) and I hit my head on the overhead.  The whole trip was quite an adventure for a six-year-old boy.”  And by-the-way – I still have the airline ticket from that trip!

 

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I do remember Bill’s obsession with airplanes – especially model airplanes.  I remember him in his bedroom, putting together small airplanes.  I remember the smell of the airplane glue.  I remember him taking the airplane (frequently with me in tow) to the park across the street, and flying it around until either he brought it down, or it crashed.  If it crashed, then he bundled it up and took it home for repair.  Those were the days of rubber bands and small gasoline engines attached to the plane.  He’s just grown up a bit since then, as has his taste in model airplanes.  He now builds radio-controlled model airplanes, and flies them as often as he can.  He goes to the airfield and watches others fly their planes.  He has built himself a workshop in their backyard, and spends a lot of time out there, building his planes.  He’s really quite good at it, too.

I adore my big brother.

 

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Just Another Day At The Flying Field

18 Jul

 A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

A friend called the other day asking me to meet him at our model airplane flying field to help him with one of his planes.  He was in remission from cancer and had not flown for some time. The last time he tried to fly he passed out on the field and woke up in the hospital. Now, he wanted someone there in case anything happened again.  It was a beautiful day with just a hint of a breeze right down the runway.  He unloaded his plane and all the gear needed to setup his large electric powered model.

The first thing he noticed was that the three batteries he had charged for the occasion did not have the right connector on them to mate up with the airplane electronics.  He looked in his support bag for the adapters that would solve that problem, but couldn’t find them.  “I must have left them at home” he said.  Then he discovered the battery with the correct connector was still in the plane, but he had not thought to look for it in there, so he could charge it for this trip to the field.  This prompted another search in the support bag for the battery analyzer to see if that battery had enough juice left in it to fly the plane.  Finally he said with disgust, “I must have left that thing at home too.”  But, when he plugged the battery into the on-board flight system, the system “beeped” with a response that indicated “I’m ready to go.”

So, he decided to fire up his new computer radio system to see if the on-board battery had enough charge left for a flight, and broke out his radio control transmitter.  When he couldn’t get the transmitter to show him the correct model information on the display screen, he had to refer to his radio control system manual to look up the proper procedure to set up the radio for the model he had brought to the field.  Every time he thought, he had the right sequence, it would be for the wrong airplane and he would have to start over.

At this point I suggested it might be better if we tried another day when he had time to get everything working properly.  But, he wasn’t ready to give up an opportunity to fly, and this went on for about 10 or 15 minutes.  Finally, he came up with the proper sequence, and when activated, the motor sounded as if it had plenty of battery power, and we were ready to put the wing on and give it a try.  He decided the rubber bands that had been on the wing were old and questionable, so, rather than take a chance, it was back to the support bag for fresh rubber bands.  These he did have, and now all was in readiness for the flight we had come to the field for.

He taxied the plane out onto the south end of the runway to get the feel of the controls.  When he said he was ready to take off, I said, “The wind is out of the south, you need to start from the other end of the runway.”  Would you believe he took that plane off, did a nice slow circuit of the flying field, and brought it back in for a perfect landing?  He said, “I think I’ll call it a day.  Thanks for your help.  Any day I can take my plane home in one piece is a good day.”

 

He obviously felt good about his success and so did I. I hoped that if I ever experienced that kind of devastating illness I would possess the positive attitude, the faith, and the stamina to persevere as he had done.

 

 

I Thessalonians 5:18

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