Intangible Rewards

I am continually surprised and rewarded by the unexpected opportunities that blogging on FlyBoyz has presented me with over the past two + years. Most of these opportunities and rewards would have never come my way without my involvement in FlyBoyz. From establishing ‘friendships’ with modelers living on different continents (not to mention new friendships with those living in my own backyard!), to being presented with opportunities to work on and fly in real planes, to a list of other opportunities too long to mention here, the unexpected opportunities that I have experienced have been very rewarding and I am very thankful for all of them.

One of those unexpected opportunities recently presented itself to me and the intangible rewards it brought me were awesome.

I was contacted by a local lady, Sharon, who was seeking my help in trying to figure out how to properly deal with the clearance of her husbands’ R/C plane and equipment collection. Her husband, a disabled Navy veteran, had just taken up R/C planes as a hobby last spring. He had made an investment in some nice equipment and a couple of nice planes and was beginning to get into the building side of the hobby. Unfortunately, he passed away over the Christmas season.

Sharon said that her husband was a frequent reader of FlyBoyz and it was thru that FlyBoyz connection that she contacted me for help. Sharon said that she didn’t know the first thing about R/C planes and had no idea who to contact or how to start dealing with his collection, so she turned to FlyBoyz for help. What an honor it is to think that someone would think of me in those terms.

With the assistance of my flying buddy, Steve, we met with Sharon to survey and inventory her husbands’ collection. We decided that the best option was to see if we could sell the items at the upcoming STARS (Syracuse Thunderbirds Aero Radio Society) auction. So, I loaded the entire collection up and took it home in order to prepare the items for auction.

The planes were safely stored on my basement bar while I spent time organizing, valuing, and preparing the collection for the auction. The jewel of the collection was an FSM Models P-51 Mustang with a 57” wingspan. It was brand new and never flown, featured an electric engine, retracts, servos, and other goodies that made it a plane any R/C warbird lover would like to own. The decision was made to include the Spectrum DX6i 6 Channel Transmitter/Receiver and four Venom 3200 30C 14.8V Li-Po batteries in with the sale of this plane in order to make the auction sale of it a full turnkey package.

On the night of the auction, I gave the auctioneer, Phil, a heads-up on the estate sale and then I introduced him to Sharon. He promised us that he would do his best to get Sharon the best he could for everything in the collection. And did he ever! Phil did a truly awesome job and in the end, with the exception of three small items, everything in the collection sold.

And true to expectations, the Mustang was the jewel item to be auctioned off that night. Phil did a great job selling it, some lucky guy walked away with a great plane and radio package, and Sharon was left knowing that her husband’s plane went to someone who would truly appreciate it, care for it, and have a lot of enjoyment flying it.

When the auction was all over with, Sharon went home with the knowledge that her husbands collection was taken care of in fine fashion.

And I went home with the intangible rewards that can only come with helping someone in need. Thank you FlyBoyz!

Here are a few photos of the estate collection and the Mustang up for sale with Phil (black hat and jacket) doing his auctioneer thing (Thanks, Phil!).

(Click on photos to zoom in on them)