personal profiles

MIKE SLAUGHTER sent me a piccie for the photo gallery page and I asked him if he would like to introduce himself. Here's his response:

Mike Slaughter, retired US Navy, disabled r/c flier with the Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club, GCRCC, for which I am the newsletter editor.

We fly a short ways north of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. I have been flying for 14 years, and have access to two great fields in our area that are fully handicapped accessible. The other is the Hamilton Area Radio Kontrol Society, HAWKS, in Hamilton, Ohio.

I am currently working on a 95 in. span Focke Wulf TA 152H, a WWII high altitude fighter, that I intend to have ready for GCRCC's August flying show, which attracts several thousand spectators annually. The Cincinnati area is loaded with friendly and accomplished fliers.

I know the clime in this area is finicky for flying, and having spent about two weeks total in Great Britain from Portsmouth to Edinburgh, I was wondering how you guys keep proficient in the air. Fog busting aircraft, perhaps?

Nice to get to know you, Mike - thanks for your response. PLEASE keep us posted on your TA 152H - any chance of a picture or two as you progress with the build, I wonder?

Read about Mikes club, GCRCC, on the club scene page.

I asked DAVID CYBUL, a new ModelFlight reader, to tell me a bit more about himself so that I could introduce him:

DAVID is 39 years old and lives on the small Caribbean island of San Andrés. The island lies about 120 miles east of Nicaragua, although it is actually part of Colombia which lies about 420 miles to the south-east.

David describes himself as a business man and an electrician, his business interests including the importing of Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky.

David's family has lived on San Andrés since 1958 and he has been married to Sandra - whom he met when she came to the island for a holiday from Bogota, Colombia - for 12 years. They have two sons, Jack who is seven (or may just about be eight), and Aryeh who is not far off four years old.

David has been keen on r/c model flight for the past six years, although his island location has meant that he has had to go it alone. With no easy access to a model shop for materials and accessories, he has generally gone for ARF models which come with everything included, although he has recently ventured into building with a Great Planes Piper Cub. Difficulties in finding suitable places to land on the island have driven him in the direction of float planes which he flies off the sea, generally being modifications of his own to standard kits. His planes include a trainer type, a trainer on floats, Piper Cub J3 adapted to floats (yet to be flown, I believe), an Ace Seamaster and a low-wing aerobatic plane. He's also keen on fast model boats.

Believe it or not, but this tiny island does have a model flying club, San Andres Aeromodeling Club, with a membership of two, plus honorary members who come by the island to visit.

David's other interests are scuba diving (useful if he ever has to recover a plane from the depths, I guess), boating, electronic gadgets, computers, bowling, reading in bed, movies (just one cinema on the island) and golf.

David has an interesting personal web site that includes his r/c activities and is featured on the site seeing page.

WEB SITE.. www.cybul.com
E-MAIL david@cybul.com

Join in the fun, send ModelFlight an e-mail and tell us about yourself, your family, hobbies and interests, what you do for a living, how long you've been model-making, what club you belong to, etc. - in fact as much or as little as you see fit. Include a picture of yourself if you can.

Your e-mail address will be shown unless you specifically ask for it not to appear. Picture files ideally need to be in JPG format for best colour reproduction and to minimise time on-line.

If you want to send me pictures by conventional mail, my address is

Reg Heath, 60 South View Gardens, Andover, Hants, SP10 2AQ, UK

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