Model Planes Have Taken Him Around the World

Nearly 95% of model plane enthusiasts who once used control lines have turned to radio-control devices to fly the planes, but not John McCollum, 44, of El Toro.

“I may use a radio-control plane for sport flying, but in competition I stay with the lines,” said McCollum, who builds the planes and motors by hand in his garage machine shop. “I just haven’t changed.”

McCollum is so skillful at flying the nifty-looking planes that he has been picked to represent the United States in world-class tournaments in Finland, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Sweden, Hungary and China, as well as in Massachusetts.

“I sometimes get into a burnout stage,” he said, “and I’ve quit a number of times because of the hours I’ve spent in the garage. But since I started making parts for the motor, it’s become more of a challenge.”

McCollum, an electronics supervisor in Orange County for The Times, likes the idea of being an experimenter with his hobby. “It’s like being a scientist when I work on the plane,” he said.

He said model plane enthusiasts years back ended up working in some facet of airplane work, “and they are the ones who made full-sized airplanes what they are today.”

In competition with other countries, “the Russians are very good and very professional,” he said, noting that some countries have paid professional coaches. China, for example, is spending big money to promote model airplane flying, theorizing that interested youngsters eventually will become engineers in the country’s aerospace industry, he said.

The competition itself, he said, is much like the Olympics: “We all get very excited, and the patriotism factor certainly comes out.” He said that in world competition, all model fliers are housed in one hotel, “but we all seem to get along very well.”

McCollum, who owns six model planes--though “the rules only allow us to take two planes to competition”--said that becoming proficient at flying model planes is a matter of time and effort.

“If you do enough work you can be one of the best model plane fliers in the world,” he said.

He said model plane competition certainly isn’t for someone looking for riches in prize money.

“The highest prize I know is one guy who once won some stereo equipment,” he said. “Usually it’s trophies and medals.”

Kathy Vasquez, 24, a blind disc jockey at Fullerton College’s radio station KBPK, said she would like to be a host for a radio talk show. “I think I could handle a talk show tomorrow, but who would hire me?” she asked. “My age probably would be against me. Age plays a big part.”

The Yorba Linda resident, who graduated earlier this month, said her long suit on talk radio would be her “natural sound.” She sees herself as a person who delves into controversial subjects that affect people every day.

“When people listen to me, I try to let them feel I’m their friend,” she said. “I want each person to think I’m talking to him personally.”

She doesn’t think being blind will hurt her chances of getting the radio job she wants. In fact, she said, “I’m a better person in terms that my goals and ambitions are higher than if I was sighted. I have a lot of high standards for myself.

One of her goals is about to be fulfilled. She plans to marry later this month.

Sally Murphy of Huntington Beach, calling her Cal State Fullerton art degree with emphasis on sculpture “a new enlightenment,” was the oldest to graduate in the school’s Class of 1987. She is 77.

After Shirley Fox, 58, was named principal of Orange High School, to match husband Jack Fox, 63, principal of Canyon High School, she had this to say: “I think a two-principal family is a wonderful idea. We have so much in common.”

He added: “We can learn a lot from each other.”

Connie Shubash, 13, has a strong feeling of love for her mother and an eloquent way of expressing that love. In fact, the 75-word essay she wrote about her mother, Georgette Shubash, 40, was the reason her mom was named Anaheim Mother of the Year.

Connie wrote: “She is like a star that can brighten the darkest room. When she passes by me, it is like a breeze, a breeze which only love can bring.

“She teaches me to look at the world in a loving way. The world is what you put in it. If you give love, it is always returned because love is actions and words. Love is special, and so is my mother.”

The contest, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Greater Anaheim and Anaheim Plaza, drew 4,732 entries.