My Dad and his Planes

My Dad, Jack Johnston, has shared his love of aviation with me throughout his entire life. Some of my earliest memories were of sitting in front of the TV on bean bag chairs watching black and white WWII Air war documentaries. I can also remember going to various airshows as a kid with him. I am sure I was the only kid under the age of 10 that could identify a P-51 Mustang just by the sound of it's engine. Since then, I maintain my high level of interest in aviation, both past, present, and in model form. I got my pilots license back in College, earned an instrument rating back in 2001, but put the hobby on hold for "other things" when we moved to Florida. I have read several aviation history documentary's, and visited just about every "significant" aviation museum in the U.S. Somewhere in the middle, I picked up Radio Controlled Planes as another hobby.

MY DAD THE MODELER

I would put my dad's hundreds of models - both static and RC - up against anybodies. He has a keen attention to detail, and a steady hand with the paint brush. His collection is just unbelievable. His static airplanes are so lifelike, that form a period of time, he got into photography and was "recreating historic scenes" with the goal of trying to take a photo of his models that looked real. I can assure you - he got pretty close.

RC AIRPLANES

When I was in college, mom and I were trying to figure out what to get him for Christmas one year. We went in together and purchased an RC Trainer for him. Well, I bought the kit which was the cheapest part - mom did the rest! Since then, he has built, flown (and crashed) probably over 15 different planes. Along the way, he has won a few awards. Most importantly, he encouraged me to get into the hobby, which I have and love. It's a very rewarding hobby, both the building part and the flying part. My kids love to go to my local flying field, and I have made some really nice friends along the way. Pictured in the photo is his latest creation, a Waco Biplane. It's been successfully flown a few times this summer.

Take a look at some of his planes here. http://picasaweb.google.com/rjohnst3/DadSRCAirplanes02