Weekend before last I took my wife with me to a location on 34th Street, to photograph what used to be the home of Riley Wooten's Fliteline Products. Riley Wooten, of course, is a control-line combat legend. I have a link to a site with some biographical info and nostalgic pics. I bought my first plane, in Lubbock, from him in 1969. It was a 2 meter glider. A college buddy and I planned to toss the plane off the roof of Weymouth Hall and see how far it would fly. We were not ever able to do that, but we did get it off the roof of the Psychology Building, for a test flight. We had the help of a friend in the Psychology Department. I'm sure we broke all sorts of rules. I remember the fun I had building that plane. I used tissue covering for the wing. The plane survived that experience and we were able to recover it. It circled around and around and finally landed in a grass area on campus not very far from where we started. After that it acquired swirls of day-glo paint and became part of our apartment's psychedelic decor. I don't remember what happened to it after that. Then, in 1980 or 1981 I was back in Fliteline, same location on 34th, and bought a Goldberg Eaglet 50, an engine, a Futaba radio set up, and got started in RC. I spent a lot of money at Fliteline Products. I was sorry to see it move, years later, into the south part of town. Walk-in customers were no longer welcome. I did give Mr. Wooten an old Air Trails magazine, so he could work up a kit for a particular aircraft featured in that issue-- a Monocoupe, I believe.
Here are the pics:
Here are the pics:
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