Jill Schramm/MDN • Russ Gohl operates a remote to control a plane in flight during the International Fun Fly of the Minot Aircraft Modelers Aug. 23.

Some people spend their summer weekends in a boat on the water. Russ Gohl spends his in a rocking chair at an airfield. An aviation enthusiast, Gohl has been hooked on radio-controlled model aircraft almost since birth. His father had been active in the hobby in Detroit and in Iowa, where the family lived. He would carry little Russ, riding on his foot, out to the airfield with him “I was flying by the age of 3. I had trophies on the wall by the age of 7,” Gohl said. He started competing in the children’s contests with his basic trainer plane and continued while in Iowa in competitions that featured events such as bomb dropping and pattern flying. He became a member of a modelers club in Davenport, Iowa. He began taking regular flying lessons at age 14, earning his pilot’s license at age 16. He later joined the Air Force and was stationed at the Minot base as a mechanic from 1978 to 1981. He eventually separated from the Air Force but not from Minot.