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My husband, Malcolm Pugh, has flown model
airplanes since he was 8 and has a passion
and love for the sport, which has trickled
down to our son, Max, who is 4. Since Max
was born in October 2003, he has been
continually exposed to model airplanes
through his father's flying, building,
repairing, etc. Whatever his daddy was doing
with or to his airplane, Max wanted to help.
For Christmas 2005, I purchased my husband a
RealFlight G3.5 simulator for our computer.
Once Malcolm showed Max the basics of how it
worked, Daddy got very little flight time on
it. Max was a little older than 2 at that
time, and it was soon obvious to Malcolm
that Max was displaying a natural ability.
Right after Max's 3rd birthday, Malcolm
began working with him on the buddy box,
flying a Midwest Trainer 20. Max was taking
off and flying around, as he did on the
computer.
One weekend, while waiting for his dad to
get home from work to go for their weekend
flying, Max got "his airplane" from the
garage and proceeded to hand launch it in
the back yard. It didn't make it through
those landings, but it was obvious to us
that this 3-year-oldΡwhose attention span
was only supposed to be minutes for a given
activity—was really into these models.
Through the cold months, Max continued
flying the simulator. Malcolm could tell him
to do a maneuver, and he not only
comprehended the instructions, but he also
performed the maneuver.
In the summer and fall before Max's 4th
birthday, Malcolm flew a Superstar 40 via
buddy box with Max. He was taking off,
flying around, and landing this airplane
with little intervention from his dad. The
model fell victim to radio interference and
crashed to its destruction. Max continued to
practice on the simulator, and Malcolm began
teaching him hovering and 3-D maneuvers.
We took our family vacation in May 2008 and
went to the Joe Nall Fly-In. This has become
an annual event for our family, and we camp
there the whole week. Max's interest in the
sport was at its peak when we returned from
this event, so we bought him an electric
ParkZone T-28.
Since mid-June, Malcolm has gone to the
flying field with Max almost every day after
work and every weekend (weather permitting).
Max is taking off, flying, rolling, flying
inverted, and landing his new T-28. The
minute that Malcolm walks in the door from
work, Max starts the pleas of, "Can I go fly
my airplane, daddy?"
One evening, I could tell that Malcolm was
exhausted after working outside in
temperatures near 100‘, and I told him that
he should stay home and rest. His reply is
what prompted me to write this letter and
title it the way that I have. He said:
"I have to take him because I can remember
wanting to go fly when I was his age, but no
one would take me. I had to wait until I was
old enough to walk to the park by myself to
fly my airplane, and I want him to be able
to fly when he wants to."
I can't even begin to explain the positive
impact that this sport has on our life. We
spend countless hours at the flying field,
where we take lunch and spend quality time
doing something we all enjoy.
Malcolm and Max are our pilots, Alexandria
(our 6-year-old daughter) is the artist, who
often draws pictures of Daddy and Max with
their airplanes, and I am the amateur
photographer and video recorder.
It has been refreshing to see all the
supportive modelers at the field giving Max
high 5s after he's flown. Many of them talk
about how amazing his concentration is for a
4-year-old, but Malcolm says, "He doesn't
know he can't." I guess he's right. When
you're 4, you place no pressures on
yourself; you're just having fun.
Max received his AMA membership card in the
mail and couldn't wait to show it to
everyone he saw. With it, he was able to
register and fly at his first Giant Scale
Fly-In at Bowling Green, Kentucky, on July
27, put on by SkyMac.
They let him fly his T-28, and then he flew
his dad's 30% Yak-54. Fellow modelers
received him with open arms and encouraged
him beyond belief.
Some people whose husbands or significant
others are in the sport ask me, "Doesn't
this hobby get expensive?" or "Don't you get
tired of doing this all of the time?" to
which I can only say, "There are much worse
things our husbands could spend money on,
and I will never grow tired of our family
sharing this common bond." MA
Tina D.
Larkin
Nashville, Tennessee
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