MAAA Wingspan

14 WING SPAN MAY Born in London in 1942, Roy Summersby remembers having a love of aviation from a very young age, perhaps due to the aircraft that flew overhead. In 1948, at the tender age of six, he left the UK with his family and arrived on Australian shores, settling at Toongabbie, about 10 km west of Parramatta in NSW. Roy’s love of aeromodelling began when he was in primary school when he tried to build small scale rubber models. “Santa then bought me a Frog Goblin rubber powered kit, and this was the first model that actually made some flights, I was on the road to success,” said Roy. “On entering secondary school, my older brother’s mate lent me an ED Bee. With this motor, and with the help of school mate Ross White, I taught myself to fly control line. Soon after this, I was told of a modelling club in Doonside, so Ross and I pedalled our bikes along with models etc to be introduced to Ivor Stowe and boys like ourselves. “In the months that followed, our building and flying skills improved in leaps and bounds. There’s no substitute for a little instruction and guidance, and my thanks must go to Ivor and fellow club members.” Schoolwork didn’t hold Roy’s interest, but modelling sure did- before school, after school and every weekend. From carving and selling balsa propellers for profit to collecting beer bottles and cow manure, Roy remembers using all his pocket money for his modelling. “About this time a very fine gentleman and expert modeller (the late Pete Johnson) was a member of Doonside Club. Pete would turn up with a new model nearly every week, if he damaged one, he would pass it onto one of the juniors present,” said Roy. “I was lucky enough to be given a Blue Pants stunter and with this I learnt a lot about control line flying. “They were good days; we flew anything and everything- we didn’t specialise in any one class. However, I must have possessed more skill in Jetex for at my first big competition, (the 1958 NSW State Championships at Camden) I managed to take first place, finishing in front of big names like Les Fahey and Basil Healy. “This little trophy still takes pride of place in the showcase. It is more important to me than all those that were to follow in my later life, well not quite, over the last few years I have a won couple of medals that had to be framed and hung in the lounge room.” In 1959, Roy’s family moved to the Central Coast and, being 100km away from the modelling world and 17 years of age, his interests changed for a short time. It wasn’t long before he was back on track, married and with a home and two kids. To help his income, he opened a slot car track and hobby shop in Woy Woy. Half the stock Heritage Story THE AVIATION ACHIEVEMENTS OF AEROMODELLING GREAT, ROY SUMMERSBY