MAAA Wingspan

34 WING SPAN AUGUST Robert McEwin Member 10591 Joined 26/08/94 Member Holdfast Model Aero Club. Citation: Mr. Robert McEwin has been an activemember of the MASA Committee since joining in 1994. He took on the position of MASA Newsletter editor just after joining and still performs these duties today. The publication of themonthly newsletter takes up a large amount of Mr. McEwin’s time and effort. It is well received by members and an important communication tool. All members are complimentary of Mr. McEwin’s efforts. The professional production of themonthly newsletter has enabledmembers in South Australia to keep abreast with aeromodelling activities around the state. Mr. McEwin also is an active flyingmember who has participated in the Golden Era Racing Event from its inception. He is also an active scalemodeler who readily assists members with building projects. Mr. McEwin is well deserving of the award. The following is an overview provided by Robert (Bob) of his life in aeromodelling: My Dad was an aeromodeller about the time he left the Air Force and in the 50’s I was too young to fly but used to follow himaround. By the late 50’s early 60’s I was taught to fly C/L on the area that became the Plympton High School. The land owned and neighbours weren’t model friendly, so we started to fly on a small park on the corner of Winston Avenue and Cross Road Black Forest. I still remember strapping a 6v Motorcycle battery tomy bicycle, tuckingmy Frog 500 poweredmodel under my right armand pedaling fromPlympton to the reserve. The reserve was quite small so hitting stationary objects was a regular occurrence. I remember ridingmy bicycle to Colley Reserve at Glenelg I think in the 50’s or 60’s to watch C/L models fly not realising I would one day be amember of that club. In themid 60’smy father accepted amanagerial position with the RAA andmoved the family to Mt Gambier. I joined what I think was the Mt Gambier Experimental Engineers Society. They built mainly trains and boats with a small band of aeromodellers. The local jeweler, Mr. Hog I think, supplied ameeting roomand workshop, again, mainly set up for trains and boats. Every year the club would travel to the Collie family property at Mumbannar, which is just across the border