Still taking flight

Most childhood hobbies fade with time. For Dave Carlson, model aviation never did. 

The Las Cruces resident built his first aircraft as a boy in the 1940s and, more than seven decades later, still spends his time building, flying and sharing the hobby with others through the Mesilla Valley Model Airplane Club.  

Carlson’s interest began when he watched a neighbor build and fly model aircraft. Before long, he was constructing airplanes of his own and learning skills that would become a lifelong passion. 

“I got interested in what he was doing,” Carlson said. “As soon as I could get into it myself, I started building model airplanes and flying them.” 

That interest followed him through school, military service, a professional career, and retirement. After moving to Las Cruces in 1977, Carlson joined the Mesilla Valley Model Airplane Club, where he found a community of people who shared his fascination with aviation. 

“It was an absolutely marvelous club,” Carlson said. 

Today, Carlson helps organize indoor flying activities and works to introduce newcomers to a hobby that has connected generations of aviation enthusiasts. 

Among those enthusiasts is Mark Franzak, who joined the club after moving to Las Cruces in 1992. Franzak traces his introduction to model aviation back to a glider kit his father gave him when he was 12 years old. 

“That one plane was the start of a lifelong passion for model aviation,” Franzak said. 

Building it did not go entirely according to plan. While assembling the glider, Franzak accidentally built two right wings and thought he had ruined the project. With encouragement from employees at a hobby shop, he rebuilt the missing wing and completed the aircraft. The experience became the beginning of a hobby that remains part of his life today. 

Over the years, Franzak expanded into radio-controlled aircraft, aerobatics, sailplanes, helicopters and jet-powered models while also serving the club as secretary, vice president and newsletter editor. Like Carlson, he saidthe appeal goes beyond simply flying airplanes. 

“There were times in my life when personal interests were in flux and life demands constricting,” Franzak said. “But I have always come back to this wonderful, complex, dynamic and challenging aspect of my life.” 

Franzak said model aviation provides a balance of creativity, problem-solving and camaraderie that keeps people engaged for decades. 

“It brings me joy,” Franzak said. “It offers me new things to learn. It is the source of social interaction centered on a common interest.” 

Club members participate in a variety of activities ranging from indoor flying and aerobatics to combat competitions and scale aircraft modeled after full-size airplanes. Some pilots build aircraft from kits, while others design and construct their own from scratch. 

Carlson said one of the club’s goals is helping people discover a hobby they may not even realize exists in Las Cruces. The organization will host an indoor flying contest June 13 at the Meerscheidt Recreation Center, 1600 E. Hadley Ave., and a combat flying event June 16 at the club’s RC airfield near 555 Sonoma Ranch Blvd. Members hope the events will encourage more people to learn about the hobby and the local aviation community. 

Franzak said growing awareness remains one of the biggest challenges because many people simply do not know where to begin. 

“I hope that our modeling community grows stronger and larger,” Franzak said. “For anyone with an interest in aviation, be it full size or modeling, our aeromodeling community welcomes you.”