The dream of flying
PLAINS - Over the skies just west of Plains in the early mornings, a small dot in the sky may often be visible for anyone looking up. A longtime Plains resident has found a hobby that doesn’t only help provide fun, but hits him deep within his core.
Bruce Nelson, a lover of aviation and a remote controlled model airplane enthusiast, will travel out to the Plains AIrport many mornings to fly model planes of all sizes.
Despite the heat of the summer or the cold of the winter, Nelson said he will go out to fly.
From an early age Nelson was always interested in aviation. He recounted how in his youth did whatever he could to fly something.
A poem he refers to as to why he loves aviation is called, “High Flight.” It reads:
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the in the sunlit silence. Hovering there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through the footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor eagle flew-
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
Nelson said that he tears up almost every time he reads the poem.
“I used to build them when I was in school when I was a kid. And in those days they were stick and tissue and rubber band powered or if I saved enough money… they had some early gas ones,” Nelson said.
He described that the early planes he would fly were simple and the control was never the best. Often times he said he would just have to pray that it wasn’t going to crash. He said that the early gas model planes would only fly in circles till they ran out of gas.
As Nelson grew and became older, he said he had wanted to become a pilot.
“I took flying lessons in 1970 and I had all of my solo cross countries in and I was ready for my check ride and I had a little thing called a heart attack,” Nelson said.
About five or six years ago he picked up a radio control magazine and saw how much the world of remote controlled model airplanes had changed.
He called the new types of planes, “… a whole new ball game.”
Today, Nelson says he has too many planes too count. He said the technology changes constantly and with the advent of new types of batteries the flying time, and with their lighter weight, more controls can be added. Something that Nelson said that has really become a game changer is the use of GPS, which can help with recovery and landing.
With the term ‘drone’ in the news today, Nelson felt that a distinction must be made that his remote control planes are not drones and that he follows strict guidelines when flying his planes. He said that like with a car or a gun, one must be responsible when flying anything, and that it troubles him how people will be irresponsible with remote control aviation.
Nelson said it is his retirement and calls his planes, “My escapes,” and will continue to fly them.