n 1930s Holmes Airport petroleum-soaked dirt field Jackson Heights section Queens ri New York After good rain could really smell stuff opening LaGuardia airport nearby North Beach Holmes closed down quickly became haven free fighters hearth fledgling modelers Louis Garami helped youngsters build fly models Frank Zaic Hemy Struck Warren Bill Fletcher Don McGovern Bob Hatschek flew Holmes Holmes alumni AMA Hail Fame can recall braved turnstiles menacing ceiling fans subway cars Smitty fellow flew big ones giant nine-foot Commodore performed week Sunday crowd cool cloudy Sunday 1942 meandered onto Holmes Airport As approached rather large gathering people heard small children screeching comes Smitty milkman comes Smitty milkman didnt understand nor did know what happen black Model Ford sedan soon pulled up waiting crowd managed edge closer action Six kids two nine-foot Commodores got out Model Nobody has able explain Smitty transported airplanes kids vintage automobile Smitty quite short stature wore three-piece suit complete necktie fedora Puffing very short cigarette assembled Commodores didnt seem mind spectators surrounded him inches away models few flips prop later big Forster 99 rolled Commodore out crowd rose majestically air Smitty never looked up talked spectators large entourage teenage retrievers seemed manage everything himhe cranked engines models trimmed turn large circles around field always landed very close ROG Rise Off Ground area never crashed After Sunday Holmes knew hooked big ones learned Smitty milkman delivered milk door-to-door also president Queens Aero Model Association QAMA owned model store served workshop hangar nine-foot RC Custom Cavalier flying RC about same time Good Brothers Joe Raspante Smitty must have great deal respect Ben Shereshaw s designs Unilke square crates day Commodore sleek fuselage oval cross-section beautiful fully tapered wing similar Stinson Reliant never stopped lusting model knew someday would replicate stellar attraction Holmes airport Fifty-two years later enlarged six-foot plans old Scientific kit exception some minor design changes tail feathers RC bolt on-wing structural design faithfully reproduced help transport big model landing gear separates halves Planning building took about year An OS Max 60 SF Davis Diesel head installed swinging slow-turning 16 x 6 Zinger weighed exactly ten pounds ROGs just like Smittys old Commodore flies just majesticallyespecially reduced power tank runs out will soar like sailplane felt good commemorate old Holmes Airport Smittys Commodore Holmes gave way postwar housing Smittys Commodore will always keep touch odel Aviation