| CCRCS Member Since:
2008 |
Age:
When I grow up, I want to be an adult! |
Occupation:
Communication/Journalism |
| Year Started in Hobby:
2001 |
Club Office Held:
Newsletter 2010 |
Hometown:
Vancouver, WA |
| Favorite Plane:
The one I just built! |
My Next Plane:
Electric foamy from plans |
Email:
richard.dower@comcast.net |
| Favorite CCRCS Event:
The big events where everyone comes to fly and enjoy the
company of fellow fliers! |
Best R/C Project:
Every time I build a plane, I Learn something about the
techniques of building. So my best r/c projects is my
next airplane build. |
| Worst Experience:
I had completed assembling an E-Flite Taylorcraft and wanted
to see it in the air.
I had successfully flown a three-channel T-Hawk from Ready
to Fly Fun, and kind of mastered the skill of landings that
were less than a full fledged crash.
I figured I could handle the Taylorcraft and one day
I took it to the flying field hoping no one would be there.
When I arrived, several long-time members and pilots
were flying. Being
somewhat brave and foolish and in front of those guys, I
tried to taxi the Taylorcraft.
It would not track very well on the runway so I gave
it full throttle and took off.
Flying it somewhat erratically and trying to turn to
the south, I flipped it on its back and it instantly went
straight into the ground.
I walked away with a lot of spare parts.
It was bad enough losing the airplane, but then one
of the members said, “We shouldn’t have let you fly out here
until you have had training.”
Boy, was I embarrassed. |
| Best Experience:
My best experience is yet to come and will be when I become
a comptetent pilot and can fly at the field with confidence. |
| Why I fly at CCRCS:
A friend told me about CCRCS and the flying field at the
fairgrounds. One
day I drove in to see if I could find the field.
I wandered around until I found it.
No one was there at the time but I picked up a
brochure, attended a meeting and decided to join the club.
I am enjoying getting acquainted with the members,
being at the flying field and seeing the airplanes fly.
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| My Project/Build List:
I have the plans to build an electric powered Ercoupe from
plans. |
| My Commentary:
Like most boys, I have liked cars, trains, boats and
airplanes as long as I can remember.
As a three year old kid in the early 1940’s, in Detroit, MI,
I hated the being in a barber’s chair. I spent the time
wiggling, kicking and crying.
One day as my dad and I were going to get a haircut,
we passed a hobby shop that had a really big model airplane
displayed in the window.
“Dad,” I said, “If I am good will you buy me that
airplane?” He said
that if I were good, he would buy me an airplane.
As I recall, I wiggled, kicked and cried in the
barber’s chair and did not get my airplane.
That is my earliest memory of model airplanes.
A little later, maybe I was five, I remember seeing
an F-80 fighter jet roaring low over the city.
The sound was different that anything I had ever
heard and it really caught my attention.
Several years later our family moved to Ft. Worth, Texas,
home to Carswell Air Force Base and the mighty B-36.
The B-36’s would rumble over our house and I would
run out and watch them until they were gone.
Occasionally we would drive to Carswell and watch
them take off or land.
To this day, when I am out working in the yard and a
plane comes over, I will look up and watch the airliners and
private planes fly by.
The other day I saw a DC 3 fly over.
What fun.
In college I became a private pilot.
However, as flying became prohibitively expensive, I
am satisfying my passion for airplanes by becoming involved
in model aviation. |
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