Model airplane hobby lasts a lifetime

Dave Spooner stands next to one of his latest project, a 9V pack electric radio control plane. Made from heated plastic colored beads, they are thrown into a bold and expand. "It's indestructible!" he said. Sunny Manary photo. Cathlamet resident Dave Spooner certainly likes to fly a plane. Not a Cessna or even a 747; Dave flies model airplanes. A hobby he found at the age of six, it has carried on for more than 60 years.

Dave needed an out. As a child, he never was in the same school for more than about three weeks. Through six grades, he went to 20 different schools. It was on the suggestion of a teacher that Dave get involved in the model airplane hobby, to bring him out of his shell and give him confidence.

Dave’s father was a member of one of only three survey crews working for the Bonneville Power Administration. The men of Bonneville hung 400 miles of line, they had to constantly move.

After a year of flying, Dave and his father would hit contests up and down the West Coast and after about two years, Dave said he got better at flying the planes than his dad.

“I was a natural at it,” he said.

By 1949, Dave said he was in the top two to three of almost every contest they hit.

“My dad finally quit flying and just concentrated on me,” Dave said.

And by 1950, Dave was in national competitions and always in first, second or third place in all events.

Dave flew the planes on wires in a mode called “you-control.” The planes were attached to 60 foot steel lines called control lines. With handles, the flier would move the lines up and down and, “you are going around at 90 miles an hour,” Dave explained.

When Dave was 11, he participated in a contest in Portland, with flyers from all up and down the West Coast. Dave said that he had to fly in all 12 of the events. If an event was missed, points were lost.

“So to be able to win, you didn’t have to hit first,” Dave said. “It was the total points of all the events.”

Dave kept an even winning streak and came out on top in the under 21 category.

“That’s the West Coast, I beat them all! I’m only 11 years old!” he said.

His prize was an all expense paid trip to the National Contest in Detroit, Michigan. Ralph Hoyt Company, a Plymouth dealer in Portland, sent him a check for $300 for gas. In 1951, that was a lot of money, he said.

Out of about 3000 modelers from all over the world, Dave placed fourth in Michigan.

“For a little kid, that’s not too bad,” he said with a laugh.

After he won, the family moved to Renton, where his father went to work for Boeing at the wind tunnel model shop. There, he built 12 foot test models of the B-52 and the very first Boeing 707.

Once he was in high school, Dave moved slightly away from the planes. His father was a civil engineer for Cook and Burt Construction, and there just wasn’t time for the contests.

Flying planes wasn’t Dave’s only fascination. When he was about six, his father caught him sitting on the bed where he had assembled his father’s sax. Instead of getting scolded for playing with his father’s instrument, he said his dad told him, “Well, as long as you figured it out, you might as well learn how to play it.”

While in grade school, Dave and his dad would play for money at a nearby restaurant. He said they would play for a while, but when the band would take a break, they would run him through the kitchen because he couldn’t be in the bar.

Dave played all through high school and through his four years in the Air Force. Circa 1975, Dave played in a local band with Red Almer, a local plumber and county commissioner.

He played at Pierre’s Restaurant, which is now a private residence. He said he would sit in a service room with a Hammond organ and an electric piano and play music. “Nobody knew I was there,” he said.

Over the years, Dave estimates he has built thousands of planes. It’s an inexpensive hobby. Today, he still builds and flies his models.

“I’m the worst kid on the block,” he said.