Acknowledgments

In no way, shape, or form did this book get created by just me. Piles of people pitched in, lent gear, and volunteered time, and they must be acknowledged. I live in fear that I have overlooked someone and I apologize in advance for the oversight.

I did something that apparently most DIY book writers do not—test the book with builders. In a very real sense, I am not the best person to write this book because I don’t have the perspective of a novice. Testing with novices solved a big chunk of that problem. My testers revealed huge gaps in exposition, ferreted out ambiguity, and made clear which figures were necessary. This book works because of them—it was not working before they showed up.

My novice testers were Joseph Legros, Andrew Woodbridge, and Ed Gedvila and his twins Madeline and Maxwell, for Chapters 1 through 5; they built with no figures other than the plans. Later testers were Rob Tocker, Allen Lubow and his daughter Dana, and David Pollack and his son James (a five-hour build!). They got to have figures, which actually introduced problems. I cut the number of figures in half, and my editor breathed easy that this was not going to be a 600-page book.

A few brave souls ventured into later chapters, saving the reader countless hours of confusion and frustration. Matthew Malina took on the night flying chapter and greatly improved the el-wire illumination sections over the course of a few afternoons. Nate Siegel teaches aeronautics at Bucknell and took on the scribblings of the basic aerodynamics in Chapter 10—all remaining flaws are mine since I didn’t take all of his advice. Chapter 11, “Hack the Flack,” was tested by Andrew Woodbridge on the heels of his completion of Chapter 5 as a complete beginner with a flying Llama. Ben Bottner and Lowell Weisbord took “Hack the Flack” and designed and built their own flying wings that flew great after a few iterations. They were 12 and 13 years old! Thanks to their parents, Jane Bottner and Joe Weisbord, for all the support.

The book owes thanks to all the fine folks who modeled for the images. Josh Silverman is both the angsty builder and happy flyer in Chapter 2, Bethany Sumner is our flyer in Chapter 5, and Andrew Woodbridge allowed his actual first flights to be recorded for the book.

It is a misnomer to describe the process of creating this book as “writing.” In pure hours and psychological terror, the photography and figures of this book dominated the book gestation process. The photography requirements were overwhelming. Shooting for black and white is a totally different game than color, and I would have floundered deeply without the help and equipment of the serious professionals, Aaron Fedor and Philip Riley. Thanks to my father, also a pro, who sent an old Leica prototype digital camera that shot really well. Jimmy Serkoch shot most of the photography for Chapters 3 and 4 and did a great job. Finally, Krishna Dayanidhi, in addition to being a builder, loaned me his very nice gear and lenses for the months it took to shoot the book.

There are some major personalities who made Brooklyn Aerodrome possible. Mark Burnham is the entire reason that the Brooklyn Aerodrome is in Brooklyn. Way back, historically speaking, Robert Cooper and Bob Parsons inspired me to pursue model airplanes as a child. Splinter, a.k.a. Mark Harder, has made huge contributions to the evolution of the Flack and how we operate. Early adopters and supporters include Rounder, Kit a.k.a. Chris Niederer, Bill Suroweic, SuzQ, and Britelite. Jay Kempf does our kits and has evolved what we do to the next level with his long history in model aviation. Rob De Martin from Maker Shed, Steven Gerborich a.k.a. Gerbo, and Hulot a.k.a. Ron Todd have helped and continue to help the Brooklyn Aerodrome make its way. On the business side there are great lawyers, Havona Madama and Rob Griffitts—yes, we need lawyers—and my constantly amused and patient accountant, Jim Dale. Thanks to Dustyn Roberts of Making Things Move fame who answered random e-mails from a nervous author.

Organizations that have supported Brooklyn Aerodrome include Kostume Kult, Figment, Container Camp, Nyrvana, Image Node, and especially Maker Faire and Make magazine, which got us into print in Volume 30 which led to this book. The Bergen County Silent Fliers offered early and constant support for the Flack—thanks to Carlos Molina, Chris, Ed, and the rest of the club. Most of the first draft was written at Mugs Ale House in Williamsburg—thanks to Scott, Cristina, John, Heidi, Caitlyn, Joanna, Nina, and Drew for asking how it was going and keeping the Flower Power flowing.

Thanks to the McGraw-Hill team of my ever-patient editor, Roger Stewart, and book manager, Patty Wallenburg, who also is a professional handholder for newbie book writers.

This book would not exist without my muse Karen, my wife and the driving force behind art in this organization. It is pretty simple: no Karen, no book. She goes where no one has reliably gone before—next to me in a hot/cold/rainy tent in some forsaken field talking to people about airplanes.