Written by AMA staff (01/2001); Transcribed by JS (03/2008)
Carl Engel, from Clear Lake, Wisconsin, is the recipient of a $1,000 Sig award. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he plans to major in aerospace engineering and possibly add a second major in mechanical engineering.
Carl was the valedictorian of his class and was named Outstanding Student at Clear Lake High School. Carl was named one of five Northwest Educators’ Outstanding Students. Active in athletics, Carl was the varsity football captain his junior and senior years, lettered in hockey and baseball, and was named his school’s Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s male scholar-athlete. He was in the school’s concert and jazz bands, was nominated to attend Badger Boys State, and was on the school’s quiz bowl team. He participated in Student-to-Student, a peer-advising group that raises funds for needy families, those in assisted living, and accident victims.
Carl is most proud of his involvement in Destination ImagiNation (DI). A creative problemsolving organization, DI offers competitions in various areas. His team competed in the structure problem where teams design and build a lightweight structure that is tested for its weight-bearing ability.
Carl’s team collected four consecutive state championships and two world championships. In 2000, Carl’s structure, built from pasta and glue, weighed a mere 59 grams (roughly two ounces) and held 650 pounds. The 2002 entry was built with balsa and Japanese tissue paper, weighed 6.8 grams and held 445 pounds.
He participated in Science Olympiad and the Wright Stuff, building an Indoor Rubber duration aircraft within prescribed specifications that won the state title in 2003. “I have been interested in aviation as long as I can remember,” wrote Carl. Following a succession of tissue-and-balsa airplanes, then Control Line models, he had a chance to fly a friend’s Radio Control aircraft and was hooked. He received a Great Planes ARF for his 12th birthday and had it ready to go by the spring of 1997.
By his third solo flight, Carl was ready to move up. This has meant a Sig Four-Star 40 and a Sig Hog-Bipe that won Honorable Mention in a Model Airplane News color-scheme contest. Carl has built two Lanier Shrikes and a Diamond Dust. He has experimented with rocket assist on the Shrike, creating an electronic ignition for the rocket engine. H e managed several successful flights before losing a wing in midair. Carl has built a number of fun-fly aircraft including the Scale Aerobatics models Great Planes Giles 202 and a D&L Edge 40. “I have built and flown over a dozen Radio Control aircraft of nearly all types including a helicopter,” wrote Carl, but an expensive hobby needs a source of funding. Carl and a friend started a lawn-care business, The Lawn Hackers. They started with a borrowed push mower, a trimmer, and a single lawn.
The friend moved away and Carl took over the business and expanded. He purchased a riding mower and push mower, built a small trailer for the back of the riding mower to transport the equipment and the push mower. When he got his driver’s license, Carl bought a trailer so he did not have to drive the mower through town.
“It has been a great experience being self-employed and owning a business. It has taught me responsibility, how to handle income and expenses, as well as many other things.” With the exception of Christmas and birthday presents, Carl has purchased all of his Radio Control aircraft and equipment himself with income from the lawn-care business and working as a youth hockey referee during the winter months.
Congratulations Carl, and good luck.
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