Chuck Snyder (F4B)
Chuck is 61 years old, trained in chemical engineering, and has been involved with model airplanes for as long as he can remember. His first flying model was a Berkeley SBD that his father helped him to build. His dad attempted the first flight because he had hundreds of hours as a radio man/gunner in the real thing. One wingover (unintentional) later the SBD went to that great hanger in the sky and rests in that (large) section reserved for scale models lost on their maiden voyage.
He got a taste for competition as a teenager flying C/L rat race, combat, and carrier. Now that he is grown up, and his reflexes have slowed, his interests are R/C and C/L scale. Since there are more C/L contests within driving distance of his home in southern Ohio, that has been his focus. A profile deHavilland Hornet was the first model he took to the Nats. Once he discovered the techniques for flying it well, he was able to win first place twice. He also has a Hawker Typhoon that has two Nats first place finishes in Sport Scale, but the best thing about the Nats was the support the other modelers gave him and their encouragement to build an FAI model and try out for the Scale Team. It took him a while to work up to an FAI model, but he built a Henschel 129 and used it to win a place on the 2004 Scale Team. (Click to see more about this effort: Scale Model Design/Build
He says he had the time of his life at the 2004 World Championships in Poland and placed in the middle of the pack even though one engine proved to be totally unreliable. That engine was sentenced to death by firing squad, and a pair of new ones went in the model. With new engines, and a more practiced pilot, the Henschel earned a spot on the 2006 team.
In Sweden in 2006 the US Team came very close to beating the Russians for second place. Chuck says that having grown up during the Cold War, he really wanted to do that. With the Team we are sending to Poland this year, we have talent to pull that off.
He got a taste for competition as a teenager flying C/L rat race, combat, and carrier. Now that he is grown up, and his reflexes have slowed, his interests are R/C and C/L scale. Since there are more C/L contests within driving distance of his home in southern Ohio, that has been his focus. A profile deHavilland Hornet was the first model he took to the Nats. Once he discovered the techniques for flying it well, he was able to win first place twice. He also has a Hawker Typhoon that has two Nats first place finishes in Sport Scale, but the best thing about the Nats was the support the other modelers gave him and their encouragement to build an FAI model and try out for the Scale Team. It took him a while to work up to an FAI model, but he built a Henschel 129 and used it to win a place on the 2004 Scale Team. (Click to see more about this effort: Scale Model Design/Build
He says he had the time of his life at the 2004 World Championships in Poland and placed in the middle of the pack even though one engine proved to be totally unreliable. That engine was sentenced to death by firing squad, and a pair of new ones went in the model. With new engines, and a more practiced pilot, the Henschel earned a spot on the 2006 team.
In Sweden in 2006 the US Team came very close to beating the Russians for second place. Chuck says that having grown up during the Cold War, he really wanted to do that. With the Team we are sending to Poland this year, we have talent to pull that off.