Red Jensen, President

I am a second generation R/C pilot and grew up here in Sonoma County. My earliest memories of R/C are with my dad working out in the garage on our next project. I soloed when I was 6 years old on a plane called a Mini Mombo and have been an avid modeler ever since. My interests include all forms of R/C flying but especially racing. I make my living as Chief Pilot for Arcturus-UAV. We are a small company that makes unmanned surveillance aircraft. It's quite a thrill to take my passion and turn it into a paid position! I've recently fulfilled the elusive goal of becoming a private pilot.

My lovely wife Carole and I have 6 children, including two, yes two sets of twins. They keep us busy but are the best things that have ever happened to me. My eldest son Jack seems to have been bitten by the R/C bug as well and you'll find him right there flying with me, maybe even around the pylons soon.

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Phil Leech, Vice President

Phil’s a retired guy. He moved out here from back East somewhere. I think it was Indiana. Whatever. He joined Wine Country Fliers in late 2000 after he talked with Dave Higgins who owned Hangar One Hobbies in Rohnert Park. Remember him? Red Jensen bought the shop later and ran it a few years. Anyway, he built a Kadet Senior and started learning to fly it until a wing came off. We told him that you have to put more rubber bands on it and change them every once in awhile. He learned that lesson but he was a slow learner and it took him quite a while before he soloed in ’02 I think. Then he got more interested in the club and ran the kitchen at events for awhile until Bob Film took over. He has been past Secretary and was President for a short spell. Board member most of that time too. He builds all of his models from kits. No ARF’s for him. No sir, he is strictly a scale type guy and he always has something he is working on. I think it’s safe to say that we’ve got him hooked for life, that one. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Ian Rickard, Secretary

Born in the UK I grew up in North Yorkshire close to the city of York. In 1996 I moved to the US for work. RC is a recent addiction that started in 2007 with an impulse purchase of a Traxxas truck. Since then my home has been taken over by RC models but thankfully my wife Chelsea has demonstrated a degree of patience I did not know she possessed. I fly mainly helicopters having started with a $30 styro-foam Heli-Havoc about 18 months ago. I have recently flown my 50 size Trex 600 for the first time. I do own a plane (T-28) and I greatly enjoyed the pylon racing last year despite a few close calls that everyone was very polite about! My work, selling winery equipment, takes me all over the west coast and I try to fly when I am on the road when possible. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Jeff Penner, Treasurer

If a friend of yours calls you and asks, "Would you like to go for a ride in my helicopter?" just say NO! Of course I didn't say no, I said "Sure, I'd love to go" and wham- I was addicted. Shortly after that ride I thought, "You know, I have always wanted to try flying model helicopters." A short time later I found myself in Awesome Hobbies where I met Steve. Steve says, "Sure we can fix you up, how much did you want to spend?" Well, you can guess how it went from there. I joined the WCF one week after meeting Steve and have been an active member ever since. I have served as the club secretary and now I'm serving as club treasurer. I enjoy flying in the club pylon races and sport flying with the planes, but for me the best still is flying the helis. If you would like to see a photo of that fateful day I took a ride in a helicopter, just click on my picture to the right. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Merle McGregor, Safety Officer

My love for aviation started like lot of other guys, when I was about 12 years old. My first plane was a cox P-40 control line. I was hooked, I built lots of free flight, rubber powered and control line models. Radio control in the 60s was only for the rich. Airplanes were in my blood, so I wanted a career in aviation. I did achieve a private pilots license in 1967 while in the air force, but the career in aviation didn't happen. I've been enjoying radio control since 1988, starting with sailplanes progressed into nitro. I just can't seem to get enough of RC flying! This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Steve Cole

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Guy Nicholas, Newsletter

I started flying RC airplanes when he was 14 under the tutelage of Hap Miller (owner of Miller RC products). Back then I flew with Kraft 3 channel radio with the, 'brick' receiver, which consisted of the receiver and two servos. My first aircraft was a 100" glider. That turned out to be a little under stimulating to my teenage mind so I quickly moved to powered, 'go fast' airplanes. When I moved out to go to college I had to give up the hobby. Many years later, I tried my hand at Hang Gliding, but after a few lessons and a low altitude stall...well, I thought perhaps this wasn't for me. Shortly thereafter the wife and I were visiting the local RC field and I saw a helicopter doing flips right off the ground! My wife said, 'Hey, why don't you get back into this and give up on those damn Hang Gliders'. I took her advice. Our club is mostly infiltrated with JR people, so when I decided to move up from my 8 channel JR POC, I bought a Futaba 9Z! It did everything...and then some. 13 point pitch curves allowed for a lot of control, but man, do I really have to enter ALL of them!?!? Then came God's gift to radios, the 14MZ! It does everything and is far easier and more intuitive to program. By day I am a software engineer for Adobe, and I currently work on PhotoshopExpress, check it out at http://photoshop.com. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Adam Clement

Adam started RC when he was just a wee lad. His main interests back then were cars and trucks. He did that until he was about 18. Things slowed down due to having real responsibilities- a job, rent, car payments. When you’re young you’re broke- at least I was. At 26 Adam got back in to RC, mainly off-road trucks and some cars. At about 30 he purchased some model rockets for his nephew and was heavy into rocketry for the next few years (launching a large G size rocket is a blast!). When Adam was about 34 Steve Cole opened Awesome Hobbies just two blocks from his house. He was pounding on the door asking to help before Steve had a chance to open. About a year later Adam tried flying with Karlo from the shop- that was all she wrote. He’s been addicted to RC planes ever since. His main interests are aerobatics and racing but he’ll fly just about anything. With about 30 planes in the hanger maintenance takes a bunch of time- but that's half the fun right? This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Roy Domke

I grew up in Marin County, California. Throughout my life, I have always been involved with machines of all kinds, on land, at sea and in the air. My formal education followed that same theme. After graduating with a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering, I took a job as a Project Engineer with a small Aero space manufacturing firm in San Rafael, CA. I was in charge of designing tooling to build Polaris Missile nose cones and rocket nozzles for the Minute Man missile. Later on, I decided to go into business for myself, but in a different field. I founded an insurance claims investigation service that eventually evolved into the fields of marine surveying and also medical research. Finally, I established a business based on my life long passion for building models of planes, trains, cars and boats. Runabout Reflections was born following my restoration of a major antique Chris Craft boat. My most recent interest in getting back into private flying and air racing with Team Steadfast, has consumed much of my time during the past 4 years, but I also made time to learn to build and fly RC planes, which is now a joint passion of mine (see also Team Steadfast bio.) This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Patrick O'Halloran, Website

Patrick has been building and flying many types of model aircraft since the mid ‘80s. From 1987-1997 he flew in the Phoenix Park (Dublin, Ireland) with the Leinster Model Aeronautics Club and from 1997-2002 with the 53rd Aero Squadron, an RC club affiliated with the Hewlett-Packard Company in Rohnert Park, CA. In 2002 he joined the Wine Country Flyers. His interests include control-line combat, club pylon, slope soaring and general RC sport flying. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it