90 MODEL AVIATION
ONE OF MY earliest memories in this hobby is of walking into
Hobby Lobby to get help with my first electric-powered airplane.
Behind the counter was an older gentleman who took one look at
my soldering job and could hardly contain his disgust for my
shoddy craftsmanship.
He picked the model up, examined it more closely, and said
three words: “Come with me!” I had no idea that I was about to
get a soldering lesson from the great LA Johnston. As the senior
technician for Hobby Lobby International for many years, LA has
helped thousands of people. He has been a modeler for 73 years.
After I finally mastered a good solder joint, LA gave me a nod
of approval. As I left, I remember saying, “I’d like to work here.”
Little did I know that my wish would come
true a few years later, when I became the
public relations and marketing director for
Hobby Lobby, and that I would be able to
call LA a friend.
In talking with LA through the years, I
have gathered tidbits about his past and
always thought someone should write a
story about him. I showed up for LA’s
farewell party at Hobby Lobby, and while
he and I were discussing the intricacies of
real barbecue, it hit me; I should be the one
to write LA’s story. He and I sat down and
had a wonderful conversation.
Fellow RC enthusiasts, I give you the
life story of LA Johnston: a man obsessed
with flight.
Building Models for 73 Years:
“I have been crazy about airplanes all
my life. My mother used to tell me that
when I could just walk, I heard an airplane
flying overhead and wanted to go outside
and watch it. So since I was able to work on
airplanes almost all my life, you could say
Born to Fly Jim T. Graham | [email protected]
A life that took flight: The story of LA Johnston
Jay Graves of Hobby Lobby International (Brentwood TN) presents LA with a gift at
his farewell party.
Jim T. Graham (L) and LA Johnston take a break.
that I always loved my work and I never really worked a day in
my life. It was always a labor of love!
“My earliest memories of models are the ones I built at my
grandfather’s house. I lived with my grandparents for a couple of
years in 1935 and 1936. During that time I built my first model
airplane. I don’t remember what it was, and I don’t think it was a
flying model.
“I remember there was a lot of carving involved. The reason I
remember the carving is because I cut myself several times and
still bear the scars of that first build!
“The next memories I have of modeling are around 1937 to
’38. We lived in Talihina, Oklahoma, and I built several rubberpowered
models. I had to buy the kits in Fort Smith, Arkansas,
because that was the closest town that had a hobby shop.
“Before the second world war, I met some active modelers and
very actively built planes for several years. I was about 9 years
old at the time. The local Ben Franklin 5 and 10¢ store had a
pretty nice hobby shop. Comet Models sponsored a contest to see
who could build the best model in several of the different sizes of
the models they sold.
“I picked up a 10¢ Fokker D.VIII to build. I had it all finished
and covered with red tissue. I even water-shrunk the covering
material. Then I read that if you painted the tissue with banana oil,
it would shrink tighter and have a much brighter finish. I bought
several 1-ounce bottles of banana oil and painted the airplane with
it.
“Yes indeed, it did look much better, but it had all these white
areas on the painted surface. In doing some more reading, I found
that those areas blushed because the day I painted the airplane it
was cold and rainy outside. The blush was caused by the
humidity.
“My idea was to put another coat of banana oil on the plane
and put it next to the floor furnace grate. At that point I went back
to the front room to listen to Jack Armstrong, and 20 or 30
minutes later when I went back to check on the airplane, there was
nothing left but hardwood and wheels! That’s when I learned what
the word ‘flammable’ meant.”
LA and the AMA:
“I attended the first year of the AMA
Nats held in Wichita, Kansas. I think that
was around 1945. I also officiated the
AMA Nationals at the Dallas Naval
Station as a flightline coordinator. It was
the first year they had ever flown more
than one RC airplane at a time. Everything
was on 27 MHz at that time.
“During the second world war, they
curtailed production of model-airplane
engines. We couldn’t get materials for
castings. All the people and materials were
used for the war. During the war, people
were afraid to fly Free Flight because they
might lose their engines. People would fly
back then but wouldn’t thermal. All
competition stopped during World War II
as well.
“After the war, U-Control really got
big. Radio control started to get popular.
At first there was a lot of equipment
failure. You had to have a ham license to
operate the RC equipment.
“Around 1952 I got my first RC transmitter on 27 MHz. I
didn’t have to have a license to operate it. Most planes at that time
were really Free Flight planes with occasional radio interference
[LA laughs], hopefully to turn the airplane. You had to tune the
transmitter and receiver for practically every flight.
“Back then it was always extremely exciting if you had a
successful flight. You would tinker all day and get to fly your
model once. If you came home with your plane in one piece, it
was a big deal!”
A Model Takes a Trip:
“From the time I got really good at flying models, my favorite
type of aircraft has always been soaring airplanes, be they gliders,
rubber-powered Free Flight, or powered models. I always loved
the soaring capabilities. While in Tulsa during the late 1950s, I
belonged to the Tulsa Glue Dobbers, which was predominantly a
Free Flight club.
“We used to have a loosely organized contest about once a
month. I had a big Free Flight called a Ghoul. It had an 8-foot
July 2008 91
LA has been modeling for more than 73 years. The author and LA Johnston.
LA helps a customer at the front counter at Hobby Lobby.
wingspan and was powered with a .60-size glow engine. It used a
parachute for a dethermalizer. The chute would drop out of a
hatch in the bottom of the airplane and create enough drag to
bring the airplane out of a thermal.
“On the day of the contest, I got the airplane set up and
launched straight up at 12:00. In about five minutes, when the
dethermalizer was supposed to pop, nothing happened. In about
another 10 minutes, the airplane disappeared still going straight
up. I decided I couldn’t chase it since it went straight up, so I got
something to eat and went to a movie with my wife.
“When we got home that evening, the baby-sitter said, ‘You
had a phone call earlier. I wrote the number down.’ I called the
number and the voice at the other end said, ‘I have your model
airplane here. It landed in my pasture this afternoon at 5:30.’
When I asked where he lived, he said Caney, Oklahoma. As best I
remember, that was 60 miles away by air.
“We drove to Caney to pick up the plane, and it had absolutely
no damage. Five-and-a-half hours in the air. What a story the pilot
would have had to tell!”
Building Full Scale:
“I started working in the aircraft industry for Douglas Aircraft
in 1954. At Douglas I worked on the RB-
66C, the B-47, and then I went to Temco
and worked on the TT-1 and Corvus
missile. I have worked on the B-70,
Convair 880, Convair 990, C-5A, and
many more.
“I got a chance to work at General
Dynamics on ground-support equipment
for the F-16. I found I loved this type of
work because I didn’t have to argue with
stress engineers or weight engineers.
“Then I heard about the need for
engineers at LTV to help design the B-2
bomber, so I went there. I worked on that
for about a year and then went back to
General Dynamics to work on a prototype
of the YF-22. I also designed much of the
ground-support equipment for the B-2
bomber. I finally got a job at Aérospatiale
designing a special-mission stealth
helicopter.
“A year after that, I retired in
December of 1994. That lasted about 21
months. I was about to go nuts, so one
night while attending a club meeting at
Hobby Lobby, I asked Jim Martin for a
full-time job. And as they say, the rest is
history.”
Will a Senior Telemaster Carry Two
Chickens?
“About the funniest call I ever had
while working at Hobby Lobby occurred
shortly after I got set up to answer all the
technical calls. The customer never did
identify himself, but the conversation went
like this: ‘Have you got a model airplane
big enough to fly a couple of game
chickens across the Rio Grande River?’
“I tried to give the customer an honest
answer. I asked him how much the birds
would weigh and tried to calculate how
much space there would be inside the
model. I honestly thought one of the
Senior Telemasters might have been big
enough. I kept that voice mail for
sometime, and every time we wanted a
good laugh I would replay it.”
A Life That Took Flight:
“Now the strange thing about this is
that from 1935 I have been involved with
model airplanes. During all my years in
the aircraft industry and while raising a
family, I never quit designing, building,
and flying model airplanes. They literally
are the love of my life.
“I love to design them, I love to build
them, and I love to see a machine that I
created take wing. It’s like giving birth to
a child. You created it and you brought it
to life.”
Thank you, LA! I knew when I worked at
Hobby Lobby that being able to hang out
with someone like him was not something
everyone got to do.
Imagine having someone around who
had experienced every change in the
hobby. Imagine being able to walk to the
back of the building and have someone
who could answer any question you could
think of about RC, from old-school
building techniques to modern electric
setups. Not to mention LA was a great
storyteller and liked to have a good time.
More than all these things, he has
always been a good friend. Many of you
who are reading this might have been
helped by LA and know exactly what I’m
talking about.
When we think about our hobby, we
think about the things we want to
accomplish. In the pursuit of our hobby,
we help people along the way and
occasionally get a few new people into
aeromodeling. LA’s love for flight has
extended to people all over the world.
He would be greeted everyday by Emails
and phone messages from modelers
just like you and me. Usually when I was
headed out the door, LA was on the phone
still helping someone and would wave as I
left.
It’s hard to know exactly how many
people he has helped through the many
years, but thank you, LA! MA
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/07
Page Numbers: 90,91,92
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/07
Page Numbers: 90,91,92
90 MODEL AVIATION
ONE OF MY earliest memories in this hobby is of walking into
Hobby Lobby to get help with my first electric-powered airplane.
Behind the counter was an older gentleman who took one look at
my soldering job and could hardly contain his disgust for my
shoddy craftsmanship.
He picked the model up, examined it more closely, and said
three words: “Come with me!” I had no idea that I was about to
get a soldering lesson from the great LA Johnston. As the senior
technician for Hobby Lobby International for many years, LA has
helped thousands of people. He has been a modeler for 73 years.
After I finally mastered a good solder joint, LA gave me a nod
of approval. As I left, I remember saying, “I’d like to work here.”
Little did I know that my wish would come
true a few years later, when I became the
public relations and marketing director for
Hobby Lobby, and that I would be able to
call LA a friend.
In talking with LA through the years, I
have gathered tidbits about his past and
always thought someone should write a
story about him. I showed up for LA’s
farewell party at Hobby Lobby, and while
he and I were discussing the intricacies of
real barbecue, it hit me; I should be the one
to write LA’s story. He and I sat down and
had a wonderful conversation.
Fellow RC enthusiasts, I give you the
life story of LA Johnston: a man obsessed
with flight.
Building Models for 73 Years:
“I have been crazy about airplanes all
my life. My mother used to tell me that
when I could just walk, I heard an airplane
flying overhead and wanted to go outside
and watch it. So since I was able to work on
airplanes almost all my life, you could say
Born to Fly Jim T. Graham | [email protected]
A life that took flight: The story of LA Johnston
Jay Graves of Hobby Lobby International (Brentwood TN) presents LA with a gift at
his farewell party.
Jim T. Graham (L) and LA Johnston take a break.
that I always loved my work and I never really worked a day in
my life. It was always a labor of love!
“My earliest memories of models are the ones I built at my
grandfather’s house. I lived with my grandparents for a couple of
years in 1935 and 1936. During that time I built my first model
airplane. I don’t remember what it was, and I don’t think it was a
flying model.
“I remember there was a lot of carving involved. The reason I
remember the carving is because I cut myself several times and
still bear the scars of that first build!
“The next memories I have of modeling are around 1937 to
’38. We lived in Talihina, Oklahoma, and I built several rubberpowered
models. I had to buy the kits in Fort Smith, Arkansas,
because that was the closest town that had a hobby shop.
“Before the second world war, I met some active modelers and
very actively built planes for several years. I was about 9 years
old at the time. The local Ben Franklin 5 and 10¢ store had a
pretty nice hobby shop. Comet Models sponsored a contest to see
who could build the best model in several of the different sizes of
the models they sold.
“I picked up a 10¢ Fokker D.VIII to build. I had it all finished
and covered with red tissue. I even water-shrunk the covering
material. Then I read that if you painted the tissue with banana oil,
it would shrink tighter and have a much brighter finish. I bought
several 1-ounce bottles of banana oil and painted the airplane with
it.
“Yes indeed, it did look much better, but it had all these white
areas on the painted surface. In doing some more reading, I found
that those areas blushed because the day I painted the airplane it
was cold and rainy outside. The blush was caused by the
humidity.
“My idea was to put another coat of banana oil on the plane
and put it next to the floor furnace grate. At that point I went back
to the front room to listen to Jack Armstrong, and 20 or 30
minutes later when I went back to check on the airplane, there was
nothing left but hardwood and wheels! That’s when I learned what
the word ‘flammable’ meant.”
LA and the AMA:
“I attended the first year of the AMA
Nats held in Wichita, Kansas. I think that
was around 1945. I also officiated the
AMA Nationals at the Dallas Naval
Station as a flightline coordinator. It was
the first year they had ever flown more
than one RC airplane at a time. Everything
was on 27 MHz at that time.
“During the second world war, they
curtailed production of model-airplane
engines. We couldn’t get materials for
castings. All the people and materials were
used for the war. During the war, people
were afraid to fly Free Flight because they
might lose their engines. People would fly
back then but wouldn’t thermal. All
competition stopped during World War II
as well.
“After the war, U-Control really got
big. Radio control started to get popular.
At first there was a lot of equipment
failure. You had to have a ham license to
operate the RC equipment.
“Around 1952 I got my first RC transmitter on 27 MHz. I
didn’t have to have a license to operate it. Most planes at that time
were really Free Flight planes with occasional radio interference
[LA laughs], hopefully to turn the airplane. You had to tune the
transmitter and receiver for practically every flight.
“Back then it was always extremely exciting if you had a
successful flight. You would tinker all day and get to fly your
model once. If you came home with your plane in one piece, it
was a big deal!”
A Model Takes a Trip:
“From the time I got really good at flying models, my favorite
type of aircraft has always been soaring airplanes, be they gliders,
rubber-powered Free Flight, or powered models. I always loved
the soaring capabilities. While in Tulsa during the late 1950s, I
belonged to the Tulsa Glue Dobbers, which was predominantly a
Free Flight club.
“We used to have a loosely organized contest about once a
month. I had a big Free Flight called a Ghoul. It had an 8-foot
July 2008 91
LA has been modeling for more than 73 years. The author and LA Johnston.
LA helps a customer at the front counter at Hobby Lobby.
wingspan and was powered with a .60-size glow engine. It used a
parachute for a dethermalizer. The chute would drop out of a
hatch in the bottom of the airplane and create enough drag to
bring the airplane out of a thermal.
“On the day of the contest, I got the airplane set up and
launched straight up at 12:00. In about five minutes, when the
dethermalizer was supposed to pop, nothing happened. In about
another 10 minutes, the airplane disappeared still going straight
up. I decided I couldn’t chase it since it went straight up, so I got
something to eat and went to a movie with my wife.
“When we got home that evening, the baby-sitter said, ‘You
had a phone call earlier. I wrote the number down.’ I called the
number and the voice at the other end said, ‘I have your model
airplane here. It landed in my pasture this afternoon at 5:30.’
When I asked where he lived, he said Caney, Oklahoma. As best I
remember, that was 60 miles away by air.
“We drove to Caney to pick up the plane, and it had absolutely
no damage. Five-and-a-half hours in the air. What a story the pilot
would have had to tell!”
Building Full Scale:
“I started working in the aircraft industry for Douglas Aircraft
in 1954. At Douglas I worked on the RB-
66C, the B-47, and then I went to Temco
and worked on the TT-1 and Corvus
missile. I have worked on the B-70,
Convair 880, Convair 990, C-5A, and
many more.
“I got a chance to work at General
Dynamics on ground-support equipment
for the F-16. I found I loved this type of
work because I didn’t have to argue with
stress engineers or weight engineers.
“Then I heard about the need for
engineers at LTV to help design the B-2
bomber, so I went there. I worked on that
for about a year and then went back to
General Dynamics to work on a prototype
of the YF-22. I also designed much of the
ground-support equipment for the B-2
bomber. I finally got a job at Aérospatiale
designing a special-mission stealth
helicopter.
“A year after that, I retired in
December of 1994. That lasted about 21
months. I was about to go nuts, so one
night while attending a club meeting at
Hobby Lobby, I asked Jim Martin for a
full-time job. And as they say, the rest is
history.”
Will a Senior Telemaster Carry Two
Chickens?
“About the funniest call I ever had
while working at Hobby Lobby occurred
shortly after I got set up to answer all the
technical calls. The customer never did
identify himself, but the conversation went
like this: ‘Have you got a model airplane
big enough to fly a couple of game
chickens across the Rio Grande River?’
“I tried to give the customer an honest
answer. I asked him how much the birds
would weigh and tried to calculate how
much space there would be inside the
model. I honestly thought one of the
Senior Telemasters might have been big
enough. I kept that voice mail for
sometime, and every time we wanted a
good laugh I would replay it.”
A Life That Took Flight:
“Now the strange thing about this is
that from 1935 I have been involved with
model airplanes. During all my years in
the aircraft industry and while raising a
family, I never quit designing, building,
and flying model airplanes. They literally
are the love of my life.
“I love to design them, I love to build
them, and I love to see a machine that I
created take wing. It’s like giving birth to
a child. You created it and you brought it
to life.”
Thank you, LA! I knew when I worked at
Hobby Lobby that being able to hang out
with someone like him was not something
everyone got to do.
Imagine having someone around who
had experienced every change in the
hobby. Imagine being able to walk to the
back of the building and have someone
who could answer any question you could
think of about RC, from old-school
building techniques to modern electric
setups. Not to mention LA was a great
storyteller and liked to have a good time.
More than all these things, he has
always been a good friend. Many of you
who are reading this might have been
helped by LA and know exactly what I’m
talking about.
When we think about our hobby, we
think about the things we want to
accomplish. In the pursuit of our hobby,
we help people along the way and
occasionally get a few new people into
aeromodeling. LA’s love for flight has
extended to people all over the world.
He would be greeted everyday by Emails
and phone messages from modelers
just like you and me. Usually when I was
headed out the door, LA was on the phone
still helping someone and would wave as I
left.
It’s hard to know exactly how many
people he has helped through the many
years, but thank you, LA! MA
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/07
Page Numbers: 90,91,92
90 MODEL AVIATION
ONE OF MY earliest memories in this hobby is of walking into
Hobby Lobby to get help with my first electric-powered airplane.
Behind the counter was an older gentleman who took one look at
my soldering job and could hardly contain his disgust for my
shoddy craftsmanship.
He picked the model up, examined it more closely, and said
three words: “Come with me!” I had no idea that I was about to
get a soldering lesson from the great LA Johnston. As the senior
technician for Hobby Lobby International for many years, LA has
helped thousands of people. He has been a modeler for 73 years.
After I finally mastered a good solder joint, LA gave me a nod
of approval. As I left, I remember saying, “I’d like to work here.”
Little did I know that my wish would come
true a few years later, when I became the
public relations and marketing director for
Hobby Lobby, and that I would be able to
call LA a friend.
In talking with LA through the years, I
have gathered tidbits about his past and
always thought someone should write a
story about him. I showed up for LA’s
farewell party at Hobby Lobby, and while
he and I were discussing the intricacies of
real barbecue, it hit me; I should be the one
to write LA’s story. He and I sat down and
had a wonderful conversation.
Fellow RC enthusiasts, I give you the
life story of LA Johnston: a man obsessed
with flight.
Building Models for 73 Years:
“I have been crazy about airplanes all
my life. My mother used to tell me that
when I could just walk, I heard an airplane
flying overhead and wanted to go outside
and watch it. So since I was able to work on
airplanes almost all my life, you could say
Born to Fly Jim T. Graham | [email protected]
A life that took flight: The story of LA Johnston
Jay Graves of Hobby Lobby International (Brentwood TN) presents LA with a gift at
his farewell party.
Jim T. Graham (L) and LA Johnston take a break.
that I always loved my work and I never really worked a day in
my life. It was always a labor of love!
“My earliest memories of models are the ones I built at my
grandfather’s house. I lived with my grandparents for a couple of
years in 1935 and 1936. During that time I built my first model
airplane. I don’t remember what it was, and I don’t think it was a
flying model.
“I remember there was a lot of carving involved. The reason I
remember the carving is because I cut myself several times and
still bear the scars of that first build!
“The next memories I have of modeling are around 1937 to
’38. We lived in Talihina, Oklahoma, and I built several rubberpowered
models. I had to buy the kits in Fort Smith, Arkansas,
because that was the closest town that had a hobby shop.
“Before the second world war, I met some active modelers and
very actively built planes for several years. I was about 9 years
old at the time. The local Ben Franklin 5 and 10¢ store had a
pretty nice hobby shop. Comet Models sponsored a contest to see
who could build the best model in several of the different sizes of
the models they sold.
“I picked up a 10¢ Fokker D.VIII to build. I had it all finished
and covered with red tissue. I even water-shrunk the covering
material. Then I read that if you painted the tissue with banana oil,
it would shrink tighter and have a much brighter finish. I bought
several 1-ounce bottles of banana oil and painted the airplane with
it.
“Yes indeed, it did look much better, but it had all these white
areas on the painted surface. In doing some more reading, I found
that those areas blushed because the day I painted the airplane it
was cold and rainy outside. The blush was caused by the
humidity.
“My idea was to put another coat of banana oil on the plane
and put it next to the floor furnace grate. At that point I went back
to the front room to listen to Jack Armstrong, and 20 or 30
minutes later when I went back to check on the airplane, there was
nothing left but hardwood and wheels! That’s when I learned what
the word ‘flammable’ meant.”
LA and the AMA:
“I attended the first year of the AMA
Nats held in Wichita, Kansas. I think that
was around 1945. I also officiated the
AMA Nationals at the Dallas Naval
Station as a flightline coordinator. It was
the first year they had ever flown more
than one RC airplane at a time. Everything
was on 27 MHz at that time.
“During the second world war, they
curtailed production of model-airplane
engines. We couldn’t get materials for
castings. All the people and materials were
used for the war. During the war, people
were afraid to fly Free Flight because they
might lose their engines. People would fly
back then but wouldn’t thermal. All
competition stopped during World War II
as well.
“After the war, U-Control really got
big. Radio control started to get popular.
At first there was a lot of equipment
failure. You had to have a ham license to
operate the RC equipment.
“Around 1952 I got my first RC transmitter on 27 MHz. I
didn’t have to have a license to operate it. Most planes at that time
were really Free Flight planes with occasional radio interference
[LA laughs], hopefully to turn the airplane. You had to tune the
transmitter and receiver for practically every flight.
“Back then it was always extremely exciting if you had a
successful flight. You would tinker all day and get to fly your
model once. If you came home with your plane in one piece, it
was a big deal!”
A Model Takes a Trip:
“From the time I got really good at flying models, my favorite
type of aircraft has always been soaring airplanes, be they gliders,
rubber-powered Free Flight, or powered models. I always loved
the soaring capabilities. While in Tulsa during the late 1950s, I
belonged to the Tulsa Glue Dobbers, which was predominantly a
Free Flight club.
“We used to have a loosely organized contest about once a
month. I had a big Free Flight called a Ghoul. It had an 8-foot
July 2008 91
LA has been modeling for more than 73 years. The author and LA Johnston.
LA helps a customer at the front counter at Hobby Lobby.
wingspan and was powered with a .60-size glow engine. It used a
parachute for a dethermalizer. The chute would drop out of a
hatch in the bottom of the airplane and create enough drag to
bring the airplane out of a thermal.
“On the day of the contest, I got the airplane set up and
launched straight up at 12:00. In about five minutes, when the
dethermalizer was supposed to pop, nothing happened. In about
another 10 minutes, the airplane disappeared still going straight
up. I decided I couldn’t chase it since it went straight up, so I got
something to eat and went to a movie with my wife.
“When we got home that evening, the baby-sitter said, ‘You
had a phone call earlier. I wrote the number down.’ I called the
number and the voice at the other end said, ‘I have your model
airplane here. It landed in my pasture this afternoon at 5:30.’
When I asked where he lived, he said Caney, Oklahoma. As best I
remember, that was 60 miles away by air.
“We drove to Caney to pick up the plane, and it had absolutely
no damage. Five-and-a-half hours in the air. What a story the pilot
would have had to tell!”
Building Full Scale:
“I started working in the aircraft industry for Douglas Aircraft
in 1954. At Douglas I worked on the RB-
66C, the B-47, and then I went to Temco
and worked on the TT-1 and Corvus
missile. I have worked on the B-70,
Convair 880, Convair 990, C-5A, and
many more.
“I got a chance to work at General
Dynamics on ground-support equipment
for the F-16. I found I loved this type of
work because I didn’t have to argue with
stress engineers or weight engineers.
“Then I heard about the need for
engineers at LTV to help design the B-2
bomber, so I went there. I worked on that
for about a year and then went back to
General Dynamics to work on a prototype
of the YF-22. I also designed much of the
ground-support equipment for the B-2
bomber. I finally got a job at Aérospatiale
designing a special-mission stealth
helicopter.
“A year after that, I retired in
December of 1994. That lasted about 21
months. I was about to go nuts, so one
night while attending a club meeting at
Hobby Lobby, I asked Jim Martin for a
full-time job. And as they say, the rest is
history.”
Will a Senior Telemaster Carry Two
Chickens?
“About the funniest call I ever had
while working at Hobby Lobby occurred
shortly after I got set up to answer all the
technical calls. The customer never did
identify himself, but the conversation went
like this: ‘Have you got a model airplane
big enough to fly a couple of game
chickens across the Rio Grande River?’
“I tried to give the customer an honest
answer. I asked him how much the birds
would weigh and tried to calculate how
much space there would be inside the
model. I honestly thought one of the
Senior Telemasters might have been big
enough. I kept that voice mail for
sometime, and every time we wanted a
good laugh I would replay it.”
A Life That Took Flight:
“Now the strange thing about this is
that from 1935 I have been involved with
model airplanes. During all my years in
the aircraft industry and while raising a
family, I never quit designing, building,
and flying model airplanes. They literally
are the love of my life.
“I love to design them, I love to build
them, and I love to see a machine that I
created take wing. It’s like giving birth to
a child. You created it and you brought it
to life.”
Thank you, LA! I knew when I worked at
Hobby Lobby that being able to hang out
with someone like him was not something
everyone got to do.
Imagine having someone around who
had experienced every change in the
hobby. Imagine being able to walk to the
back of the building and have someone
who could answer any question you could
think of about RC, from old-school
building techniques to modern electric
setups. Not to mention LA was a great
storyteller and liked to have a good time.
More than all these things, he has
always been a good friend. Many of you
who are reading this might have been
helped by LA and know exactly what I’m
talking about.
When we think about our hobby, we
think about the things we want to
accomplish. In the pursuit of our hobby,
we help people along the way and
occasionally get a few new people into
aeromodeling. LA’s love for flight has
extended to people all over the world.
He would be greeted everyday by Emails
and phone messages from modelers
just like you and me. Usually when I was
headed out the door, LA was on the phone
still helping someone and would wave as I
left.
It’s hard to know exactly how many
people he has helped through the many
years, but thank you, LA! MA