Eric

Neuer

, Treadwell

, New York

, United States

Posted on
2020-02-13 18:26:38
“When I first started in this hobby 40 years ago, I did it as a way to spend time with my dad. Something for us to do together. He was a hard working man and had little time to do anything with “Toy Planes”. I built my first one, an Aerostar .40, and flew it a few times with help. but it cost nearly $1000 to do it and I was terrified of crashing it so I eventually ( 2 years) gave it up as well. Flash forward to a few years ago, I have been working at my motorcycle shop for 100 hours a week for almost ten years. (See the pattern!) Then, open heart surgery, quintuple by-pass. Slowed down to 70 hours a week. A few years go by, and one day I see Josh Bixler and some of his friends flying planes on the internet. I stopped to watch. I saw them building plane out of foam and hot glue. Hey, I could do that, learn to fly and finally fly my plane from all those years ago. So that is what I did, and still do. I make the foam and glue planes to teach my granddaughters to fly. I regularly crash my first plane and rebuild it. ( I converted it to electric so I do not bother the neighbors. They are 200+ yards away but 2 strokes are noisy). I have always wanted to fly a full size plane, but could never afford it, either in dollars or time. Now I can’t pass a physical to get a pilots license, and my health is not that good anymore, so I would even have to ground myself. As long as I have models, I can get some of the joy of flight without the danger to me and everyone on the ground. That has to be good enough. I am in the middle of building a Sig Senior Kadet to train my wife and the grandchildren to fly. The long winters that I spent in front of the tv, drinking bourbon and getting old have been replaced by spending time with my family building and flying planes. The stresses of life melt away as the winter snows do and in the spring … I WILL FLY!!!! I will feel excited, happy, scared and in awe of that little plane, but I will be grinning from ear to ear until my face hurts. It is hard for those that never did, and never thought of it to understand what that means, but I have dreamed of flight since I was 8 years old, and even though Dad is watching me from above, I know he’s smiling too.”