Dick Perry




Dick’s “CL Navy Carrier” column runs quarterly in the January, April, July, and October issues of Model Aviation. His email address is tailhooker@comcast.net.
My modeling started in Southern Indiana around half a century ago with a Ringmaster (rekitted on the first flight). A Guillow’s Rat Racer with a 3/4-inch plank wing was up to the abuse I was capable of delivering, and I managed to teach myself to fly with it.
My first job in a hobby shop got me involved with a local modeling club, and I dabbled in RC back in the single-channel, super-regenerative, escapement days. Fortunately, my RC experience convinced me that CL and FF (the majority of my RC experience with the equipment of the day) were more rewarding!
I’ve been focused primarily on Navy Carrier for most of my modeling, but I’ve flown and competed in nearly all of the CL events. I’ve enjoyed great associations with other modelers as I moved from place to place in the U.S. Air Force. I’ve been a member of the Chandler, Arizona Balsa Bugs (where I first competed in Carrier), the Northern Virginia Control Line Club, the Dayton Buzzin’ Buzzards, and the New Mexico Coalition of Control Line Addicts, in my current home of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I’ve been involved in the rule-making activities of the AMA since organizing the Navy Carrier Advisory Committee to the CL Contest Board and I currently serve as the chairman of the Navy Carrier Contest Board.
My Short Seamew appeared in the first issue of Model Aviation in July 1975, and I’ve been writing the CL Navy Carrier column since the August 1975 issue.
I’m a pilot, engineer, and aviation safety consultant in my other life (since modeling tends not to be self-funding). I’ve flown bombers, tankers, and trainers in the Air Force between engineering, intelligence, and staff assignments, and I managed the Aging Aircraft laboratory for the FAA before starting a consulting business with my wife, Susan. We own a 1953 Cessna 170 which I use for flight instruction and recreational flying in the beautiful Southwest.
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