***Editor’s Note: The “I Became An Engineer” blog runs every Friday. To share your story email jennifer.delaosa@advantagemedia.com***
This week’s story comes to us from ECN reader Richard Pearlman.
One day many years ago when the Mickey Mouse Club featured a young Annette and Jimmy, they ran a 15-minute segment of “Spin and Marty.” One day, Spin and Marty went to a model airplane contest and watched the roundy-round carrier competition where the plane flew around the contestant who held the control handle. The wires let the plane go up and down, and changed the engine speed. The winner was the one who flew the fastest for a few laps and then figured in how slow a few laps could be flown. Then they had to land on a “carrier” with a landing hook.
At that point, I started flying models, first roundy-round, then radio-controlled. I had also been building little non-flying model kits for a few years. I learned how to make things by cutting, gluing, reading blueprints, taking engines apart, and putting them back together. I even soldered together the radios and receivers.
I still fly radio-controlled planes here and there. Flying radio-controlled models paved the way for the best engineering job between junior and senior year, working on the transponder for the F-111.
I wish there was more inspiration for young people to build models. The national model association, Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA), tries its best with programs. The federal government should have million dollar prizes for model contest around the country rather than keep harping on STEM. Good engineers are born, not made. Let’s find the good ones and make it easy for them to be real engineers.
They should also have a class of car owners—ok, they would be hot rodders—completely exempt from any regulations: go as fast as you can with the coolest car.
How about metal and wood shops completely free to would-be engineers? Oh well!
Read other stories, here:
- A Note From The Editor: An Engineer’s Story
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of MacGyver And Comfortable Clothes
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Small FM Radio
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Loved LEGOs And Tinkertoys
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Magazine Ad
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Grew Up In Kenya
- I Became An Engineer: By Just Being Myself
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of The Cool Jackets
- I Became An Engineer: Because My Dad Said Not To
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Couldn’t Stop Tinkering
- I Became An Engineer: Despite Being Bad At Math
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of Christmas Lights
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of Uncle Chet
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Can’t Stop Asking ‘Why?’
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of Star Trek (Specifically Montgomery Scott)
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Was A Really Lucky Nerd
- I Became An Engineer: But ‘Nobody Knows’ Why
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Couldn’t Be An Astronaut
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of Nuclear Submarines
- I Became An Engineer: Because No One Was Hiring Shoe Salesmen
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Book (And My Mom)
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Wise Father And The Possibility Of Death
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of An Evil Mastermind
