The following is an early draft of an article I plan to include in my eventual portfolio zine. As it stands, said zine is not getting produced anytime soon, so at least I can share it here.
This is the first in a series of interviews which I have chosen to include in this zine; the Family Series focuses on my immediate family and their hobbies. I think the urge to “craft” is etched into our blood! I’d like to start with my maternal 76 year-old grandfather, Charles Fox.
Stepping into the tiny office of my grandparents’ modest two-story home, I am immediately struck by the menagerie of assorted electronics, fuselages, canvased wings, and the handful of completed gliders which adorn the walls. I attempt to back up enough to get a good picture with my 35mm Nikon lens, but am unable to capture the organized chaos of the small room. My Grandpa easily points out the purpose and completeness of each plane in the room, many of them in a half-disassembled state. I point out a small painting of a red P-51 on the ocean-blue walls, which my Grandpa attributes to either my Uncle Mike or my Uncle Rick. He reaches inside a brown paper bag and shows me a partly assembled glider given to him by his now-deceased longtime friend. For a moment I am humbled by the idea of hobbies left behind, artistry passed on to friends and family.
My Grandfather suggests I put on my coat so we can head out back and see the planes stuffed into the back of his white conversion van. Eight or nine complete airplanes reside here, ready for flying. He shows me a motorized Red Baron, which I would days later feebly attempt to fly in gusty winds. The bulk of the planes resting back here are hand-launch gliders, and as he points out their various features I ask him to briefly pause for a photo. I don’t ask to see it, but I am faintly aware of the assortment of model parts taking up most of the space inside the nearby one-car garage.
Back inside, I urge my Grandpa to show me his workshop downstairs. We nimbly make our way down a set of narrow stairs and past the only other occupants of the dark, dank area (a washer/dryer pair and an ancient furnace). Into the sudden light of a halogen bulb, I see a workbench without a chair surrounded by building materials and a few gliders stuffed into the woodworks. Charles shows me some of the blueprints he has recently downloaded from the internet (at a crawling 28 kilobits per second). I marvel at the intricacies of the designs, still trying to understand the term “laminar flow.”
Days later I would meet my grandfather, his retired friend John, and both my uncles out by the Seven Sods Fields, just within Davenport city limits. They appear much more prepared for the chilly wind which blows here, or in the case of my Uncle Rick in his T-shirt, much less bothered by it. They all spend a few hours whipping their small gliders into the air by the wing, using bulky electronic controllers to guide their planes in the gusty wind. My grandpa explains how they gain altitude by searching for thermals, sometimes by watching for birds or hawks using those very air signatures.
Another friend by the name of John pulls up along the side of the road as the group tires of the small hand-launches. They charge their lithiom-ion plane batteries with car batteries while John #1 goes for his winch. My Uncle Mike sets it up while I munch on an apple given to me by my grandpa. My Uncle Rick passes the setup time by zipping around with a motorized Hawkeyes-themed airplane. I marvel at the wingspans of the new full-size gliders being brought out and assembled in preparation for takeoff. My Uncle Mike tells me about the quality construction of his Czech Republic-built full glider, gleaming white with red stripes on the tilted wings. Then it’s time for flying again, and John #1 releases a fullsize glider into the air, tenatively tapping the winch’s pedal as the attached cord 50 yards away governs the plane’s arcing flight up and into the wind. John #2 and my grandfather sit in lawn chairs and rap. Soon there are four large-winged, silent flying sentinels cruising the skies, going farther and higher than the smaller hand-launches flown earlier. My Uncle Mike is the most talented of the bunch, soon taking advantage of thermals and soaring his Czech plane to the bottoms of the clouds that dot the Autumn sky. My Grandpa has told me about the logic of paint schemes: white tops for reflection, black undersides for visibility, and reflective red tails for when view of undersides fail.
I honestly hadn’t expected to be there longer than an hour, but I remained long past the start of my growling stomach snapping photos not just of personified soarers, but also of the persons controlling them. Not often did I see both my uncles and grandfather interacting like this, but I think I’ve just been missing out. This was family time.
The following questions were asked on that first day, prior to witnessing the quiet joy of my grandpa’s and uncles’ soaring hobby.
What got you into model airplanes in the first place?
The Navy used to build models of Japanese Zero airplanes to get their pilots used to the look and construction of enemy planes. Back when I was 9 years-old I entered a contest in Sante Fe to build the most lifelike Zero.
How many planes do you have?
10 complete ones in the truck, a bunch more pieces of them in the house and garage. Some hand-launches, a couple big gliders, an electric motor plane.
What do you enjoy most about model airplanes?
I like the challenge to design and build a plane with high performance. Looks aren’t very important.
Did you ever fly any real planes?
Used to fly J-3s, and the SuperCub Piper propeller airplanes. We called ‘em Putt-putts.
How much time do you spend every day tinkering with your planes?
3-4 hours a day.
What’s your favorite type of plane to fly?
I like the hand-launch airplanes, since all you gotta do is swing it or throw it into the air. It takes more skill than a motor plane though, since you’re relying just on the wind.
What is your favorite part about building planes?
Carving/sanding the fuselage out of balsawood, and making sure it performs well.
How often do you interact with other airplane builders?
2 times a week, once a weekend. I fly with three other retired guys during the weekdays. I’ve taken part in lots of contests, took 1st place in the 2008 Muscatine Soaring Society Contest, took 7th place in Nationals. We compete to keep the planes in the air as long as possible, or sometimes for speed.
Do you think model airplanes will ever get more popular?
Most flyers are older or retired, and the young guys usually get into it with their fathers. Take patience.
How long would it take someone to get into building and flying planes?
About a week to build a simple glider from scratch. You can buy kits to speed it up.
What does Grandma think of your hobby?
You don’t wanna know.
Do you fly planes with your two sons as well?
Uncle Rick is into flying, not so much the building part. Uncle Mike likes to build them too but doesn’t have as much time to do it.
In what way has technology influenced model airplanes?
Now you can download schematics for wing structures and sailplanes from a website, before you just had to draw plans yourself. You can get charts showing laminar flow over the airfoils, or e-mail other modelers to share your designs.
Look for part two soon, where I interview my Grandmother about her knitting skills.
