Just a little about myself

I had a secondary modern education back in the early 60s, came out from that at age 15 and went as an apprentice Electrician at the good old N.C.B. (National Coal Board). 
As time & circumstances prevailed, I found myself in my 20s & 30s working in continuous factory production, further  experience was gained through factory electrical positions held up to the late 80s.

During my apprenticeship, there was ample opportunity to learn other skills apart from the standard electrical duties related to the mining industry. When entering into factory electrical, it very soon became apparent that more was required than electrical knowledge, and if one had the aptitude, it was soon noticed and put to work (as happened to me).
More often than not in factory settings, I found myself working more as an unsung R & D technician than a shift electrician which served to enable me to expand my working knowledge in many useful directions due to the many very interesting people I was able to work with. This added to the many very practical things learned from my parents during my childhood upbringing which mainly was about "waste not want not" and "make do, & mend" due to the tight situations in the immediate post WW2 era. As an R & D technician, it is often the case to think your way around a puzzling problem and find ways to employ technologies from totally unconnected and sometimes bizarrely obscure situations. This mental attitude has remained with me and continues to flourish, assisting with new brain teasers that arise. Judy also has a few very good suggestions at times as she often sees challenges from a totally different angle.

This in-bread attitude of "making do" and "how can I mend it" can be widely found with many of the older aero-modeler's, and while it seems to be more of a rarety these days, there are a few people out there who are of younger years and willing to learn from old codgers like me.

Although fascinated with aircraft from a very early age, I didn't actually gain a serious interest until age 29 when I met up with a chap from my old home town of Hinckley in Leicestershire during my entry of a competition  set up by the BBC, it was called "The Great Egg Race". It was a lot of fun at the time, making weird & wonderful machines for racing eggs of a certain weight along a 13 metre track powered only by a BBC elastic band.

This fellow I met was a fairly keen aero-modeler and he set about explaining all kinds of good basic aerodynamic principles as to WHY an aeroplane flies. He explained wing loading, tail-plane to wing area ratio, fin & rudder ratio, C of G positioning and various other facts including one that impressed upon me quite deeply, that one was G force testing. As a result of that, when it came to learning HOW to fly a plane, I felt that it was easier by knowing WHY it flew.

I met Judy in May 1983, and we Married in June 1984, her  knowledge of business, and my R & D technical experience have been brought together & consolidated to run D B Sport & Scale since March 2000.

Long before Judy & I purchased D B Sport & Scale, I had always designed, built & flown some weird flying machines. Much of the engineering techniques discovered in R & D was put to use, and a lot more was learned (and is still being learned). The building materials used in some of the contraptions I flew in the early days would make your hair curl (even fluorescent lighting fittings and old plywood wardrobes weren't exempt) but with a little careful engineering and the "waste not, want not" attitude employed, even these took to the air.

Those days are quite distant now, but they taught me a lot about what can be done with a bit of careful thought. Those sort of innovative ideas (excluding fluorescent fittings & wardrobes) are now being employed in our business. A lot of rigorous testing is done to prove that those ideas are fit for purpose before they are used, as with all aeronautical design engineers. 

The R & D mentality is one of the foremost attitudes in our business and our customers are becoming more aware of that fact. Coupled with this is our desire to ensure customer satisfaction and to move forward with technology to produce good quality airframe kits hence our decision to invest in laser cutting technology in 2006, this has really moved things forward.

Eddie Stocker.

 

RETURN TO HOMEPAGE