Exploring PRECINCT 4 FROM THE SKY
A
story and photos by Crystal Simmons
s a child, Randy Shewmaker built toy airplanes out of junk he found around the house. As he matured, he started experimenting with powered airplanes. "I've been building model powered airplanes since I was about 9," he says. "I was building model parts out of plastic bottles and building stick-and-tissue airplanes that were rubber-band powered. You'd wind them up and they'd go. I got seriously into the RC (radio control) hobby as soon as I could afford it." By then, it was the 1980s, and he was in his 30s. He'd spend Saturdays at hobby shops ogling the merchandise and imagining the possibilities. As soon as he could, he joined a radio-controlled airplane club. "I started out using an AM radio transmitter, which would probably cost $400 today," he says. "I used to like building kits and my own designs, and now I'm into building scale models. They're miniature representations of real airplanes. Some have a wingspan of 5 to 8 feet." Shewmaker is part of an increasingly rare breed of model airplane enthusiasts. The activity is like flying a real plane, only arguably more difficult. Instead of moving with the plane, pilots steer from the ground with a remote control. "You have to be taught to fly (a radio-controlled airplane)," says Shewmaker. "It's difficult, very difficult. It's counterintuitive. When it's going away from you, and you turn it right, it goes right. When it's coming towards you, and you turn it right, it goes left – and this is happening at 80 to 100 miles per hour. You can't think about it. It has to become instinctual." 8
Precinct4Update Spring/Summer 2020
