October 2015 Pilot of the Month: Daniel Lipton

According to my mother, one of my earliest words was “maremane”, which she assured me was how I pronounced airplane in those days.  I can remember always being fascinated by flying things, and sometimes afraid, as when I was 4 or 5 years old, my older brother used to have me look out the window at airliners flying overhead and warn me that the red lights on them were, in fact, evil demons of some sort coming to get me.  This, while horrifying, did not deter me from pursuing that curiosity about airplanes.

One day, when I was about 7 years old, my mother presented me with my first rubber band powered stick model (Guillows brand) that she brought home from the grocery store, having paid about 49 cents.  I managed to put it together, ran outside, and flew it in front of my house.  I’m pretty sure it ended up on the roof of my house, or stuck in a tree, but she got me another one soon enough.

I soon received my first balsa and tissue built up model at the age of 8 or so.  A Guillows Cessna 150.  And for some reason, my parents felt comfortable giving me a tube of airplane glue and an x-acto knife, and I managed to build it without serious injury.  This was the first in a long line of such kits, and resulted in my grandparents buying me a hard cover book (in the mid to late 70s) called the “The World of Model Aircraft” (http://www.amazon.com/The-World-Model-Aircraft-Williams/dp/0399110879).  Flipping through the pages, I quickly came across the chapter on radio control airplanes and I was instantly obsessed.  I had to have one, so much to my mother’s dismay a few years later, I used $200 of my Bar Mitzvah money to buy a used RCM trainer 40, with an MRC774 radio and an Enya 35 engine.  That airframe didn’t last long, but I built another plane (the radio survived the crash) using more Bar Mitzvah $$.  I learned to fly that airplane in the Levittown Aerobugs club in Bucks Country, Pa. 

It was at that field where I saw my first pattern planes, and I was hooked again.  They were about the coolest thing I’d seen when I was 15 years old, and my next plane was a Sig King Kobra which is where I started dabbling with Pattern maneuvers, though never more than a dabble.

Fast forward 8 years, 1989, I moved to California to start my career at Apple, and quickly found the Tomcats field (SCCMAS in San Jose) and joined right away.  It was there that I somehow connected with the group of pattern flyers who frequented that club, and made great life-long friends, including the Colen family (whom I adopted as my west coast family after teaching Steve Jr. to fly on his Duraplane), John and Lisa Bruml, the Whitacres, and many other names I’m sure you’d all recognize from D7. 

With the purchase of a used Pattern Tek Beetle, a new YS 61 engine, I entered the world of Pattern competition.  I spent the next 4 or 5 years active on the D7 pattern circuit, moving from my old Beetle to a beautiful Conquest VI.

As with so many of us, “real” life becomes more consuming and I took a break from model aviation.  A few years into that break I decided to try full scale in 1997 and obtained my private pilot’s license in 2001 and my instrument rating in 2008, but alas the pattern flying still beckoned me, and I became fascinated with the developments in electric power and 2.4Ghz radios, and once again I was sucked in, though flying small relatively inexpensive pattern like planes with limited success at performing anything looking like a “real” pattern sequence.   More importantly, I started flying with Jon Bruml once again, and he re-introduced me to other local D7 celebrities, such as Jon Carter and Dale Olstinske, and before I knew it, I was showing up at contests, reconnecting with great people from the “old” days, such as Frank Capone, and so many others - not to mention meeting and befriending a new group of great people from all over D7 (you know who you are)!

Jon Carter, while judging me flying my 48” Vanquish, informed me that he’d let me know what my scores would have been if I’d purchased and flown his 2M Neptuno instead of my 48” Vanquish…  Well, that was it, I took the bait and quickly fell in love with 2M pattern flying.  No turning back, as they say.   And because I’m a sucker for a great gadget, I couldn’t resist adding a JETI DS-16 radio system to my 2M setup.  I find this to be an exceptional product with precise and sturdy build quality.  Additionally, I have a new Contrast LT, which while I currently find myself in couples therapy with, I hope to have our issues resolved and compete with it in 2016.

On another note, this past year I’ve gotten to experience a most wonderful aspect to the sport.  My younger son Ellis agreed to attend a contest with me to be my assistant. I thought it would be no more than simply a fun father/son road trip, but having him call for me during my rounds was a real thrill for me.  He found it interesting enough that he decided he wanted to learn to fly. I’ve been training him with the buddy box.  Helping him and watching him to learn to fly RC has truly been a highlight of my model aviation life.   I hope he, too, will be competing alongside all of us in D7 soon.

I was drawn to Pattern and continue to participate because I always found that the act of learning how to do something, and do it in a measurably, precise way was more interesting than simply doing it. (This is the same thing I loved about pursuing my instrument rating in a Cirrus SR20 in 2008).   With pattern flying, every flight is a learning experience, one in the pursuit of being more precise in the activity.  In addition to that, I’ve found what you all know to be true:  The great camaraderie that comes with D7 pattern flying.  From the helpful hints, the coaching, the banter, and constructive competition (rather than cut-throat out to win mentalities) with a truly great bunch of people is what it is all about.  It’s a wonderful thing.  Thanks to all of you whom I’ve come to know and become great friends with over the years.  I’m looking forward to this continuing always!