Written by JS (c. 2003); Transcribed, reformatted and edited by JS (05/2010)

I started in Radio Control with an Aero 7 by John Zaic and a Lafayette radio transmitter and receiver. It cost all of thirty bucks or so. That was in 1952. I had been flying Free Flight for fifteen years before that at the old Creedmore site on Long Island. We went through the usual route of more Aero series, the Aero 9 and the 15, all of deBolt’s kits and better radios. I started with the bunch in Brooklyn that flew on the dumps on Pennsylvania Avenue. John Gravina was my mentor and there were others, like Harold Goldklank and a fellow that they called Siegel the Eagle.

After that, I joined the Long Island Drone Society (LIDS), and then the Long Island Aero Radio Society (LIARS) in Suffolk County. I went through all of the models from escapements to proportional.

When I came down here to Florida in 1974, I fixed most of the local radios for the hobby shops in the Tampa Bay area, and had private customers, too. I joined the Suncoasters in St. Petersburg, Tampa Radio Control Aircraft Club (TRAC) in Tampa, and the Valkyries in Palmetto. I’m still in the Valkyries 29 years later. We are grateful to have guys like Pappy deBolt, Tom McCoy, John Gonzales, Rich Bonnell, and other ex-contest flyers.

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