Hello from central Kansas, USA

[timpivonka]

The hotbed of aviation history, Kansas ,USA.

After you stop laughing, let me introduce myself and explain that statement.

My name is Tim Pivonka, retired Army dental officer currently running a community health dental clinic in Junction City, KS next to Ft. Riley, home of the Big Red One.  My interest in WWI aviation goes back to my earliest days, looking at my grandfathers photo collection from his duty in WW1.  He was a truck driver for the 1st Aero Squadron and had lots of photos that he must have traded for.

I built solely 1/48th until WNW came around and I couldn't resist their kits.  I also build some stick and tissue rubber band and CO2 powered models.  Am also dabbling in some micro WW1 RC models.  They are pretty cool and cheap.

Anyway, to explain the hotbed comment, Kansas has a rich and varied aviation history.  My home town, Salina, is where the Globalflyer took off and landed on it's round the world without refueling flight.  It also has the 2nd longest runways in North America being a B-52  base.  Wichita is considered the home of commercial aviation by some and boasts a WW1 Medal of Honor winner aviator and two of the Korean War's two leading aces.

So that's kind of how someone in the middle of nowhere got interested in aviation, and WW1 modeling;

Hope to keep seeing all your great work on here.

[Des]

Hello Tim and welcome to the forum, so good to have you here. Looking forward to seeing some of your work displayed here on the forum soon.

Des.

[bobs_buckles]

Hi Tim,
 Welcome!

I know where to come for all my root canal work 

Cheers,
Bob

[hawkdoc]

Couldn't help responding to this intro. I am an early-retired dentist who also served as an Air force dentist decades ago. My dad was a B-47 pilot in through the cadet program and I believe he was stationed with the 40th BW down in Kansas near Salinas at Smoky Hill (Schilling) AFB. I'll now have to get around to finally introducing myself in a later post.

[rhallinger]

Welcome to Tim, Hawkdoc and all other ex-armed services dentists lurking out there!   We know you guys have all of those great 2-ended tools which are so helpful to modelers!   (My dentist gives me his old tools, ever since he learned about my modeling habit!).

Thanks for that interesting bit of aviation history on Kansas.  I love information like that, as the history related to our hobby is of much interest to me.  Tim, if you still have those old photos of your grandfather's service, maybe you could pick out and scan the best half-dozen and post them in an appropriate place here.  Those would be a great interest, I'm sure.  It seems to me that we hear little about the USAS, perhaps because it was only in action for a relatively short time before the war ended. 

My current day modeling experience was the same as yours---as soon as I discovered WNW, I was all in for 1/32 scale.   Enjoy the forum, learn a lot, and post your work so the rest of us can learn from you as well!

Regards,

Bob
 

[lcarroll]

Tim,
   Welcome to the Forum and I second Bob's request; I'd love to see some of those photos!
Hawkdoc,
   Look forward to your intro and Welcome here as well.
Cheers,
Lance

[coyotemagic]

Welcome aboard, Tim.  At 63 years of age, I still have some military dental work soldiering on in this hard, old dome.  Those were some frightening times.  Even more so than the combat, I think. I'm really looking forward to seeing your work here (modeling, not dental).  In my experience, dentists tend to make excellent modelers.
Cheers,
Bud

[timpivonka]

Thanks to everyone for the warm greetings.  I will try to scan some of my grandfathers pictures, but right now my scanner isn't speaking
to my computer right now.  When I get this done, I'll post some neat pics. 
Hawkdoc-Smoky Hill Air base became Schilling air base.  Speaking of B-47's, there used to be one on display that we could play on out there when I was younger.  My family lived in former base housing when I did my first tour in Korea.
One other little bit of Salina history.  There are pictures in the Salina Historical society of Glenn Curtiss' airplane factory in a building downtown.  There is also pictures of him landing his plane just outside of town.

[Whiteknuckles]

Hello and welcome Tim

Andrew

[GAJouette]

  Tim,
Welcome aboard my friend,glad you've joined this merry forum. I'm looking forward to seeing your projects posted here. Please feel free to ask all the question you wish,you'll find plenty of your fellow modeler more than willing to help you out. Again enjoy the forum to the fullest my friend.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[pepperman42]

Hello Tim. Enjoy the site. It just gets better and better.

Steve