Mentor

The "new blood..." thread reminded me to do something I've neglected for some time now- to put my model airplane mentor's name on this Forum. He is Clifford T.Stinson, formerly of Ruston, La. Cliff was a great flyer of the time, his son, Tommy, won Jr. Combat at the Nats around 1959. Cliff kept a Testor's Freshman with a 4-bolt 29 in his Ford wagon and flew C/L just about every afternoon and weekends. 45 cents got you a half-pint of Testor's 39 for about 3 flights on that trainer. When you soloed, your name joined the dozens of others on the wing. There's no parallel today to give kids the feeling of accomplishment I got when Cliff wrote my name on that plane. He took us to contests all over the region-Longwiew,Tx, comes to mind-where we were blown away by young George Aldrich winning Stunt and Combat(he introduced the FliteStreak that day). Last I heard, Cliff was in Alaska. When I learn to send pictures, I'll send a pic of Cliff holding his first SweetSweep. I can only hope that somewhere along the way I have influenced in a positive manner someone the way Cliff influenced me. Wherever you are, Cliff, Thanks.

This is what its all about gang! Hey....if there is no building club in your area, approach the "Y" and see if you can start one!