Yesterday began with another trip into town for materials and a stop at my favorite hobby shop in the world. Smith Brothers Hobby Center in Reseda. Click on the home button to visit there store site.
Home
I have been friends with the owner and the people that work there for over 40 years. They have survived as one of the only few remaining old time hobby shops in LA because of their loyal friends and customers who shop there instead of the internet.
It’s a beautiful, happy place full of the wonders that so captured our hearts as children. It has kept our inner child alive. It has contributed to much longer lives than would have been possible with the passion and love for our hobbies.
I could have ordered my plane online, paid the same price and had it delivered. But when you buy from a local hobby shop you get the social pleasure of visiting there, looking at what we’re about to buy, hold it in your hands, having your questions answered by experts, and visiting with old friends. Even though you pay the same price, you help the hobby shop. Since they are dealers they make a profit from your purchase that goes a long way to keeping them in business, not amazon.
If we are going to keep the hobby shops and the experience of them alive , we all need to support them and stop supporting online businesses that can never provide the same experience I had the joy of yesterday.
Now that I have a field close to home with a paved runway it has changed the hobby for me.
When I moved to Ventura over 9 years ago I lost my ability to fly locally off and paved runway close to home. I flew gliders on the dunes and cliffs when I could. Took off grass with small planes at a park in Carpinteria. Everywhere I could go with the exception of the local dunes was a long drive. So I didn’t fly much and I gave away many of my planes. Now that I have an excellent field 18 minutes from home I’ve started flying regularly once again. I had no idea how much I missed it. And it dramatically changed my disposition. Not that I was unhappy, but it just contributed more to my happiness and joy.
Being that I’m a bit rusty I picked up this Piper Cherokee yesterday. This is an excellent well mannered general aviation aircraft that has a wide flight envelope. This will allow me much needed practice navigating the new field and the flight pattern there. And with its scale lighting it helps improve visual flight orientation. I’ll be flying this weekend and I’m really looking forward to it.
Back at the studio I got 4 masks shipped out and then ran out of hair. I’ll have more tomorrow. I got two more orangutan masks with one left to cast today.
This catches me up and I should finish the remaining pile of these masks this week.
The Art of Steve Neill 