Members

As a teen, my first experience with this hobby began with a Cox PT-19 trainer, a gas engine control line plane. I flew several models during that period of my life. A relative was heavily into flying RC planes took me to their field and I was hooked.. At the time, there was no way to justify this expensive hobby, with other financial demands, but the seed was definitely planted. Fast forward to 2017, a poster caught my eye for a RC Airplane event held by the RRAMS Club. I followed the very well marked route to the field, I watched planes flying around, like a kid in Christmas morning.  I spoke with Larry for a while. He pointed out one of our resident instructors, Pat Ryder, who quickly encouraged me, convincing me that I can do this. I joined the AMA and club a few weeks later. Eventually, the other resident club instructor, Stan Anderson, patiently spent time with me, getting my confidence up with an Apprentice trainer. The rest is history, I'm now addicted.  I enjoy the camaraderie and enthusiasm, this club offers. I am excited by the involvement of fellow club members.  This club is very much alive and buzzing with improvements and activities / events.  The sky is the limit for this club!!!  

I have been a member of the RRAMS club for a total of about 10 years. I love the hobby but especially like all the great members we have and the fun times we have together. My interests in the hobby are building balsa kits and the satisfaction I get when they actually fly! I really enjoy flying old timers and Seniorita type planes but my passion is flying gliders. For me there is nothing like kicking back and getting over an hours worth of time on one flight, reading the thermals and watching it soar.

I was a teacher in the Janesville school district for 30 years and continue to work part time as a substitute teacher.

I feel so fortunate to belong to such a wonderful flying club and I am very proud to be a part of such a terrific group of guys. 

It seems I have been involved in model building all my life with a couple of life happens breaks. My earliest memories are of building solid wood scale models in the late 40’s or early 50’s. Then came my first rubber powered planes either wind up or catapult launch. I was in a model airplane club in Junior high with control line gas models. Then a long break as I got involved with photography finally getting back to building planes in my late 20’s early 30’s. Over the years I tried R/C and found I had ‘0’ aptitudes for R/C flying. My biggest fear was the plane never getting off the ground so I would put in full up elevator. They always got off the ground and landed in spectacular ground loops. Many years later I have successfully flown R/C in the form of mini Vapors and the Junior version of  the Radian. Truth be told they probably could fly themselves. My true love of the hobby lies in building almost more than flying.  My favorite being rubber powered models in all their variations. Flying something that you have built from kits or from scratch gives me the greatest satisfaction in this hobby. I joined this club when it was still called the Tri-City Radio Controllers, Inc.. I have been the Sec./Treas. of the club (if I remember correctly) since Dec. of 1999 with the exception of one year when Leon Mosely was the Sec/Treas. 

I got involved in RC airplanes when I was 8 years old. My father was flying some gas/glow but what I really remember was the giant sailplanes he flew. They launched with a huge rubber band hi start system and once at altitude the cable would drop off with a parachute and it was my job to retrieve the parachute and bring it back for the next flight.  

I did some rubber band free flight until my early teens when I started racing RC cars. I raced carpet onroad and dirt oval competitively for a few years until I needed money for a real car. Then everything RC took a back seat to real cars, motorcycles, college, then marriage.  Throughout the years I always received the Tower Hobbies flyer in the mail and on a whim I bought a RTF WWI Albatross. I forgot how fun RC planes are. Then it was BNF’s and then back to building. I found the club and jumped back it with both feet.  

My love is scale warbirds both foam, balsa, ARF’s, plan built it doesn’t matter. I fly micros to giant scale however I only fly electric. The RRAMs club is more than a club to me, it is a family and I am glad to be part of it.

As a kid I got into control line and had a Lil' Wizard balsa .049 setup. I flew the wings off that thing. It was a great flier and was repaired many times. Eventually all that stuff got parked as high school kicked in. I got my first RC plane back in the 80s and it was a terrible experience. It was a glider (I believe a Gentle Lady). I spent 3 months on my living room floor building it. Tried hi starting it a few times with limited success. I eventually found a club to help me out and they folded the wing on a hi start. So I put an .049 on it so I didn't have to worry about folding the wing. It was plenty to get that glider up. Went back to the club and a gentleman that flew 1/4 scale gave it a whirl. He attempted to fly it like a big biplane and kept trying to climb straight up. It kept stalling and the wind kept pushing it farther and farther away till it disappeared into a tomato field (this was in Miami). I decided to get into RC cars for a while since you can't lose those and eventually gave that up as well. Fast forward to about the mid 2000s. I was a wedding videographer and wanted to add aerial content to my videos. No one was doing aerial work with RC at that time. I wanted to be the first. Someone locally taught me to fly with some small plane called the Dragonfly and I still have it. Once I could take off and land I strapped a  cheap digital camera underneath held on with rubber bands. The footage was terrible but it started a journey for me. I eventually got a Tri copter to carry a GoPro. This was before the drones as we know them today. There was no controller. It was stabilized with 4 helicopter heading hold gyros. No fancy drones and gimbals like today. I grew with that and started flying planes and Tri copters and quads. Imagery got better but once DJI came out with their nice setups I got out of the wedding film business and started to realize if I kept filming every time I went flying I had hours of work when I got home editing the content. I just wanted to fly for the joy of flying. In 2023 I sold off all my drone and FPV stuff and just focus on flying now. I love warbirds the most and have a nice little collection. You will see me flying them at the field frequently. I joined RRAMS a few years ago. I love the vibe from our club. Like many will tell you, just hanging out with others at the field is as much fun as the flying. I love that we don't care what you fly as long as you fly something and have fun doing it. We welcome all types of RC flyable devices. I recently became an instructor for the club as well and love teaching others to fly and getting them started on their journey into the money pit of RC flying. I'm still perfecting my teaching techniques, but I have a good buddy box setup now and ready to teach even more people. I also publish the newsletter and hope to use some of my graphic imagery skills to make it a bit better over time. Send me your build images and shots from flying at the field. They may end up in  the newsletter.

Being from a Naval Aviation Family, (Dad was Flight Engineer and Mom was a Parachute Rigger) I've always been interested in airplanes and flying.  Received my Private Pilots License (single engine land) in 1974, and have booked over 900 hours in mostly Piper Cherokee aircraft. My flying buddy, Mark Snyder took me to the R/C flying field by the electric power plant and I got hooked.  I tried anything R/C, planes, cars, and boats. I'm currently back into planes.  I really enjoy teaching new students how to fly R/C, and help or put on Fly-In Events like the Flying Circus or the Vintage Pilots Fun Fly.  Our club has always welcomed new members, and is very kid friendly.  Best of all, I'm having fun ! 

I was in this hobby about 30 years ago when I was in high school.  Back then it was radio crystals, frequency boards, and nitro engines.  I had a few balsa wood planes and learned to fly when I belonged to Rock Valley Flyers. I ended up getting out of it when I started college. Then, a few years ago, I got into drone flying to start filming the dog sled teams that I was also a part of.  I flew small Syma drones for a couple years, then decided to go ahead and get back into fixed wing R/C aircraft.  I couldn't believe how the hobby had changed and for the better. I started out flying a XK X520 at Keiselburg Forest Preserve near Machesney Park, IL, where they had a small R/C field. I also invested in the ClearView R/C simulator, which was a huge help in helping me become a better pilot. Then in 2019, I met members of this club at Janesville Warbird Weekend and ended up going to their next meeting. I was very impressed with them and joined the club.  Ever since then I have made new friends, added several aircraft to my fleet including EDF jets, and have learned a lot about R/C flying but I still realize I have a lot still to learn.