Thermal flying off of a high start soon turned into competition flying. In 1977, following Ray’s suggestion, Bob entered a thermal duration contest held by the South Bay Soaring Society at Curtis Field. Ray had urged his son to participate as a way for them to check out what other modelers were building and flying. Bob said that the competitors only had to exceed the minimum flight times and there were no precision landing points. Naturally, Bob put himself on the podium in the novice class in his first contest - he still has the trophy!

Thirty years later Bob is still winning contests. His adventures have taken him all over the state and to Virginia for the 1988 Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) National Championships. Bob competed in the Scale (with a Soar Craft Libelle) Unlimited, 2 Meter and Standard classes. Of his adventures at the NATS, Bob said, “I didn’t win any titles but I did get some trophies.”

Bob’s current passion is building, flying, testing, reviewing and competing with the latest in high-tech discuss-launched gliders. His first discuss-launched glider was an Apache which he built and reviewed for Quiet Flyer in 2004. It was a watershed glider for Bob not only launching his professional model aviation journalism career, but also his son AJ’s own meteoric rise as a national-caliber DLG competition pilot.