COMMENTARY / PLANE TALK
LAURAN PAINE JR.
One Model at a Time
An introduction to model airplane building
IT WAS RATHER AN ACCIDENTAL happenstance. A lot of times, life
is like that, isn’t it? But it was a good happenstance.
I was babysitting my 8-year-old grandson, Trystan, after
school. On the nice days he usually plays outside with his neighborhood buddies. But this wasn’t a nice day; it was an Oregon
day—rain, rain, and more rain. In that case he usually plays video
games (of genres unknown to me) or watches cartoons on TV.
And he’s happy doing that, and on days when I’m busy with
something else, so am I. You know that drill.
But on this day he asked, “What else can we do, Papa?”
Hmm…good question. On a nice day we might go to the hangar
and putz around, drive the tractor, stuff like that. But this wasn’t
a nice day. I sort of mumbled, “Build a model?”
He said, “A what?”
I said, “A model. You know, like an air-
plane model.” (Somewhere in the foggy
recesses of my mind, I seemed to remem-
ber having some in the garage,
somewhere.) He was all over that, “Yeah,
let’s do that!”
Okay, I opened my mouth; time to back
it up. Out in the garage we went, to where
the dusty boxes are, and found one labeled
“MODELS.” Hmm…again.
The model box, as rescued from garage storage.
70 Sport Aviation May 2012
