Model Aviation Online - Modeling Spoken Here (October 2007)

... Dean has the assignment
to show how we are all
connected by modeling.

This is an editorial I have wanted to write for MA for several years. I have finally been able to bring onboard as a columnist a man whom I consider to be not only among the smartest people I know, but also one of the most model-airplane-savvy individuals I've yet to meet.

     Actually he started writing his bimonthly column two months ago, but I didn't have the space to do him justice in that issue's editorial. Let's correct that now. I'm referring to Dean Pappas.

     I first met Dean at Teterboro Airport in north New Jersey in 1977, where I was performing a demonstration CL Aerobatics (Stunt) flight. After I had flown Dean walked up and introduced himself. He then proceeded to ask several highly insightful questions about my airplane-and-engine combination.

     I was taken back a bit by his obvious grasp of the package and its finest points. I found it hard to believe that someone with this much knowledge about CL Stunt wasn't a well-known builder/flier in his own right.

     Dean explained that his real passion was RC Aerobatics (Pattern) flying but that he had flown a bunch of sport CL as well. He was the protégé of the legendary Norm Casella—of Pulsar Bipe fame—in those days, and he'd already begun to design his own Pattern models.

     We chatted for a while that day and I felt an instant connection with him as a friend and co-enthusiast. A few years later, after I had taken over the reigns at Flying Models magazine, I was looking for an RC Pattern columnist and remembered my meeting with Dean. I gave him a call and we met at my local RC field for an interview/flying session.

     To say that Dean impressed me that day with his flying ability would be an understatement of monumental proportions; he was, and remains to this day, a gifted pilot. (Dean was a Tournament of Champions invitee in 1988 and a Nats top 10 Pattern flier throughout the 1980s).

     But as we spoke about his possible employment as a columnist I became even more impressed by the way his mind worked. Dean has a way of abstracting and extrapolating that enables him to bring his vast knowledge and obvious intelligence to bear on virtually any subject.

     Simply put, he knows a lot about a lot! And, he can draw on the far reaches of his knowledge and apply it to modeling subjects in a most natural manner.

     Dean loves model airplanes—all types of model airplanes. He doesn't see a distinction, for example, between the art of Indoor FF and RC Pylon Racing. He sees the commonalities and the points at which all of the modeling disciplines interconnect.

     Dean got the FM job! And now, some 24 years later, he's still churning out the most interesting stuff in that monthly slot.

     When I came onboard here I knew that we already had a highly competent and knowledgeable RC Pattern columnist in Eric Henderson, so hiring Dean for that position just didn't make any sense. Still, I wanted to find a way to give Dean a forum in which he could expand and enrich our collective modeling lives with his thoughts.

     Last year Dean wrote a most helpful and information-rich series of articles for our "From the Ground Up" section. Those articles were very well received and I wanted to find a way to let Dean continue. We spoke about many potential formats, and then one day Dean called and bounced off of me the words "If it flies ... !"

     If it flies, Dean is interested in it. And that's exactly the way I feel too! We decided to let him loose with only one rule: write interesting stuff about model airplanes and show how knowledge and techniques from one discipline might be adapted to others. In other words, Dean has the assignment to show how we are all connected by modeling.

     I could go on for many pages about the many wonderful, original, and groundbreaking things in which Dean has been involved in the modeling world, and I could write many more pages on the many lessons I've personally learned from him. I could write a book about how Dean has become a true brother to me and a valued member of our family.

     I think, instead, it's best that you read Dean's column and form your own close friendship with him. I have no doubt that you will.

I can be reached via phone at (610) 614-1747 or by E-mail at robinhunt@rcn.com. My address is Box 68, Stockertown PA 18083. MA