President's Perspective
"This is a lifelong passion..."
"It's a small world after all," goes the Disney song, and a truer statement could hardly be made. It's amazing to travel and to talk to many people in the sport aviation world and to find out just how close this group really is.
A relatively new friend who is involved in full-scale aerobatics once roomed with an old teammate of mine on a world championship team. A guy from whom I bought a canopy happens to work with a man whose airplane was destroyed, along with mine, in a tornado nine years ago. Another coincidence: that man had just agreed to sell it to another fellow who works for me part-time!
I received the following email from Tony Terrigno, and it shows not only how small our aeromodeling world is, but how this is a lifelong passion handed down from one generation to the next.
Reader letter (Larry Terrigno)
I'm writing to share with you a fun surprise that happened for me when I received our AMA magazine for February of this year. I was studying the cover, interested in the full-color photo of the Good brothers working over their "new" RC model.
The photo played on me for quite a while until my gaze kept going back to the young man standing slightly behind the Goods and the model. The young man I'm describing is the one standing to the left observing the scene, wearing the pith helmet and without a shirt.
It turns out that the young 18-year-old modeler in the photo is my father! His name is Tony Terrigno. I called my dad, and after showing the magazine cover photo to him, he told me a little story about that day — a day he still remembers like it was yesterday.
Dad had traveled from his hometown in Youngstown, Ohio, in the summer of 1940 to visit his uncle in the Chicago area. Being a modeler, he heard of the contest being held nearby and rode the bus to spend the day at the event. He remembers the excitement the Good brothers generated with their RC design.
My name is Larry Terrigno, and both Dad and I are still active aviation buffs and full-scale pilots. We both fly a restored 1950 Mooney Mite and a 1953 Piper Pacer that Dad restored to show condition. We fly out of the Chino Airport in Southern California. This field is well-known for its history and support of aviation of all kinds. I'm still an active modeler, building and flying RC, Free Flight, and Control Line for most of my 51 years!
Dad and I are close friends with Fernando Ramos. Fernando does a great job with his articles in Model Aviation. I love the magazine and the work you're doing with the AMA. Keep up the good work!
I would like to know how I might get a copy of the cover photograph or another copy of the February issue. If you could let me know, I'd appreciate it very much.
It seems that I'm always finding that aviation and modeling friends always seem to find one another, and the world is indeed a small place.
That's a great story! I can't add much that it doesn't already say.
Till next month.
Dave Brown AMA President dbrown@dbproducts.com
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
