Norwalk Resident Takes Hobby to New Heights

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. – Flying model planes is a hobby that's taking off around Fairfield County.

On Sundays, you can usually find members of the New Canaan Radio Control Society testing their wings in Waveny Park, flying planes ranging from gliders to battery-powered aircraft.

“I think it’s easier than ever to get into it,” said Wilton resident Peter Monin, who became involved when he found a plane at a garage sale. He has been a member of the society for a little more than a year. “That one plane turned into 10,” he said.

Monin's 3-year-old son has also expressed an interest in the planes.

Stamford resident Conio Sessa, who flies during the week at Allen's Meadows in Wilton, started working with model planes in 1990. For a while he shared his hobby with his son, he said, but his son didn’t keep with it.

“During the week [at Allen's Meadows] it’s older guys," Sessa says. "But on Sundays, it’s more mixed.”

Most members of the New Canaan-based club agree that flying model planes is an older man’s hobby. But on sunny Sundays, says society president Roger Kleinert, there are usually a few children wanting to learn how. And club members are more than willing to show them. 

“It’s sort of like learning to drive,” Kleinert said. “We have a wire that can connect two controllers together for a student-teacher capability.”

Of course, the wire connection works just as well with adults as it does with children, the veteran fliers say.

For some members, model planes are a way to get back in the sky. “I used to fly full-scale airplanes – Pipers, Cessnas out of Danbury,” says Norwalk resident Joe Garibaldi, who flew model planes as a child. “It’s a more expensive hobby than it was when I was a kid.”

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