In the 40's, my Dad framed up a P-38 Lightning.  It sat behind our china closet for many years and between it and the neat display in the Hobby Hang-out shop display window in Easton, Pennsylvania, I started growing an interest in model airplanes.  In the late 40's, I built a small rubber powered free flight from a kit.  In about 1950, when I was 14, I joined the Model Airplane Doctors of Easton, Pennsylvania and my first mentor was Ray Volkert, twenty years my senior.  Ray was a free-flighter.  Consequently I became a free-flighter and like Ray flew free-flight in competition.  I was always mechanically oriented and good in math in high school so I decided I should try for an engineering degree and aeronautical seemed to be the best choice.   My free-flight days ended in 1959, one year after graduation and after I had moved to St. Louis.  In 1980, I decided to see if my son, Michael (age 4) would be interested so I bought a ready built sheet balsa rubber model and flew it in the street in front of the house.  It was my interest that was rekindled.  I had always kept in touch with Ray and he steered me to the MVSA club where I met Bob Gill who let me fly his Sailaire and became my second mentor/instructor.

My current project is a quarter-scale of the 1938 gull wing Orlik II by Polish designer Antoni Kocjan.  Mark Nankivil once said I should build a scale model but I was too interested in unlimited thermal duration and competition.  Recently I have been going to aero-tow events with Art Frost.  Art bought a set of plans of the quarter-scale Orlik and somehow they showed up on my work bench.  That was three years ago.  Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.  The Orlik was a high performance sailplane of the day with a glide ratio of 25-1.  The scale version will probably weigh in at 130 - 140 ounces with a 10-square foot wing.  The wing span is 152 inches and utilizes the Selig 4233 which is a thick airfoil but thin compared with the original design.  I am currently completing the fuselage which has been one year in progress excluding the summer flying season.

Feb 17, 2009 Update: After about five winter seasons of building and redoing this and that the 1938 Orlik II is finished and is scheduled for it's first flight 19 June at the JR Aerotow. It is painted in Polish national red and white and with a blue canopy like that of Dr. Paul MacCready's Orlik which set an altitude record of 29500 ft. back in December 31, 1948. Now if Tony and Robert could only do a dual tow- at glide speed plus ?, we could launch it at the sod farm. At 8.5 lbs. and 10 sq. feet of wing area I bet they could get almost no altitude since it has no belly tow hook. Or we could have Chris hand launch it. Not a good idea.