Winging It

LAKE PLACID -- Irv Barber was 10 years old when he built his first model airplane from sticks. It was a simple rubber band-powered plane. Now 75 and a retired homebuilder/developer, his enthusiasm for planes has never wavered.

In high school he built and flew U-control planes. With two wires and a handle, they're flown in circles, loops and rolls. He continually advanced to radio-controlled planes in the '60s. Although most people buy their planes already manufactured, Barber has been an exact builder for quite a few years.

Toledo, Ohio, holds the biggest kit and self-designed scale-model airplane building event in the United States. There, Barber won awards competing nationally and internationally.

Over the years, he's built about 100 planes. Barber is becoming a rarity. Only 1-2 percent of model plane builders build their own planes today. Most don't have the artistry required or want to make a commitment to spend as many as 1,000 hours with an eye for perfection to detail.

Although he earned his private pilot's license in the '60s, he prefers radio-controlled planes. They perform exactly the same and have the same controls, but are smaller and in scale. Because you're not inside the plane, you have to mentally put yourself in it. Because they are smaller scale, they go proportionally faster and are maneuvered closer to the ground.

"When the plane is going away from you everything is correct: left is left and right is right. But when it flies toward you, everything is reversed," Barber said. "It's much more of a challenge."

Barber has taught males and females from age 8 to 90.

"Anyone can enjoy this hobby," he said. About 100 students over five years were trained by him as part of Lake Placid High School's Aerospace class.

Some people think it's too expensive and too difficult to learn, but for a person to get involved, buying a plane, engine, all the controls, a field box, batteries, starters and igniters costs about $500. Trained properly, crashes are less likely.

He said, "I love the personal challenge and the camaraderie. I love training new people and seeing their thrill when going solo."

He and his wife, Melvia, have been married 43 years. They moved to Lake Placid 18 years ago and settled on a Lake June canal. At first they fished for bass every day, but now the only fishing he does is for shiners to feed the birds.

"They're teaching me how to fly," Barber said.

Speaking of his wife and their separate hobbies, he said, "She's fanatic about orchids, with 300 in a greenhouse I built, and others surrounding our pool."

His hobby is sequestered in their garage. When he drives the car in, 11 planes are placed on walls and hanging overhead to welcome him. He has war planes: a P-38, P-51 Mustang, a Corsair, a Russian Sequa (aerobatic), and a five-place Aeronca. Some were not kits, but self-designed, like the Pitts biplane. There's a Cristen Eagle with an 8-foot wingspan, two Aerocoups: one with a 6-foot wingspan and another with a 10-foot wingspan, a 300-acrobatic airplane, an Aeroprecision acrobatic model and the Club trainer, which is a Kadet LT-40.
Barber said he's spent 40 years making and flying planes seven days a week and he's never tired of it.

He is also an instructor for the Lake Placid Aeromodelers. He offers free lessons and use of the club training plane. Call him at 465-6206 to test your wings.

Their flying field is located one mile north of Route 70 on Placid Lakes Boulevard. Enthusiasts fly every day from daybreak until about 11 a.m. The 52 members of the Lake Placid Aeromodelers hold their meetings the second Friday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Placid Lake Homeowners Building on Placid Lakes Boulevard.