Pilot, Paul Chitty
My modelling interest started when I was about 7 or 8 back in England. My first plane was a Keil Kraft rubber powered Spitfire ( What else ). I tried Control Line with someone else’s plane when I was in High School. Then I joined the Air Cadets and that was it, at 15 years old I joined the RAF as a Boy Apprentice in Air Radar systems.
My first operational Squadron was 210 Sqdn Coastal Command a part of Strike Command, stationed at Ballykelly in Northern Ireland. The Sqdn was equipped with Avro Shackleton MR Mk 2 aircraft loaded with all kinds of Radar and Search and Rescue electronics. Next I made my way to RAF Tengah in Singapore were I joined 64 Sdn Fighter Command equipped with Glouster Javelin AWF Mk 9 aircraft, the Sqdn nickname was 64 Javelin Disposal unit, justly earned by the number of crashes and lost aircraft they had. Then back to the UK to RAF Brize Norton for a very boring tour at the central aircraft servicing center working on Super VC10 Passenger Transports . and Short Belfast heavy transports.
All this time I tinkered with plastic scale model kits. It wasn’t until my son was about 12 or 13 when we lived in Winnipeg in the late 80’s that the RC bug took over, I bought my son a Goldburg Chipmunk, .61 K&B glow and Hitec 7 channel Radio. Since then I have gotten through a horrendous number of planes, mostly kits which I re-kitted pretty quickly. I now have between twenty and thirty planes in my hangar, ranging from tiny foamy indoor stuff to large scale Biplanes and Warbirds, usually with 50 + cc gassers. I do however have some electrics which I am really beginning to like.
My first love is building from scratch or kits but there is always room for some ARF’s.
I joined the Burlington club when I first moved to Ontario in 89, I served as Secretary in the 90’s as well as Middle Zone Director for MAAC. In the late 2000’s I became VP for 2 years then President for 2 years. I always volunteered at club events and for the 4 or 5 years that SOMA was going I worked on the organizing committee and at the events. Then in 2010 I started the Warbirds Over The Bay event
I have traveled to numerous RC events around Ontario and New York state but my greatest enjoyment came from 6 visits to The Joe Nall in South Carolina which is what prompted me to join the IMAA.
Now I am president of BWRCF and volunteer for the memorial Scale Rally.
What I would really like to do is a history Of BWRCF so if anybody has useful or even not so useful first hand knowledge of the clubs beginnings and history please send it on to me.