Hi Bill... welcome to the forum...
I still remember a bit of my first entries into kit airplanes but not at what age I started. My Dad had been into free flight and the initial RC planes long before I had came around. He started my sister and myself off with some fun hand launch gliders, my favorite and first "kit" ( not premade ) was called the Thermic D ( if I recall correctly ), a 16" balsa kit that we had to sand and glue together. I never built a tissue covered plane since monokote was a thing by that time I was old enough to build one but I do recall a few stories of them from my Dad.
I still recall my first flights on a RC plane, it was my Dad's 4ch Scooter with a semi or fully symmetrical wing, he took it off and landed but let me fly it to and away along with a few circles... so I was hooked. My first kit build was also a Sig Kadet, the smaller one that had a recommended engine of .25-.40... I built it as a 3 ch and got a deal on a Super Tigre .25 for that one. That would have been my early teens and it was years before I could afford to get a radio for it. I believe the radio I ended up with was a Prism 7ch with 3 model memory. By that time, I wasn't all that interested in a top wing 3ch airplane.
My second plane I built, and still have since it never saw the air, was the Sig Kobra. While I did complete it, this was about the time I also first moved out of my folks house so I never had spare funds to finish it with an engine and such. To help with my lack of funds, I sold my radio and the Kadet to my Dad but kept the Kobra for a time I could afford to get back into the hobby which took a lot longer than I'd hoped. In fact, it was a little over 10 yrs ago before I was finally able to return to the hobby.
Upon return, I first bought a FMS 58" foamy P-58D Mustang and a copy of the sim Realflight to practice up with. After about 3 months of practice on the sim, I joined a local club but every time I went out... it seemed I missed the others of the club. Getting impatient to fly again, I decided to maiden without an experienced pilot to assist me. I had probably taken off and landed about 3 times when another club member finally showed up to see me land it. Because we had a cross wind to the main runway, I'd been using the shorter one instead. The other member was pretty surprised that it was my first time out and that I'd landed it without incident. Later I was to find out it was sort of against club rules to fly before being "qualified" by an existing member... lol.
I didn't like the feel ( and still don't ) of a foamy and it wasn't long before I moved into using 3D planes as my go to airplanes. I never got good enough to 3D them but they are extremely stable and make for a great sport flyer. After about 7-8 years perhaps, life happened again and I haven't flown since. I may fly again at some point but with how the FAA is sticking it's nose into the hobby, I'm uncertain if I'll continue. I did get a reminder email that I need to re-up my FAA license but have yet to decide to do that at this time.
Here is a shot of my Kobra... if you are interested and since it's of that era....
View attachment 23259
View attachment 23260
