Scott Sloot likes to go fast. Whether it’s piloting his model T-28 aircraft or in his restored ’68 Camaro SS, the resident of the Village of Sanibel is always going full out. The fact that he does it all with one hand doesn’t slow him down.
As a maintenance expert for Pneumatic Scale, Scott traveled the world working on the cappers, fillers and other machines the company made for high speed liquid filling lines. Spending as long as a month in one location he visited Australia, much of Europe, Canada and locations throughout the United States, dismantling and rebuilding the equipment.
Scott started with the company in the fall of 1987 as a machine shop helper and rose through the ranks to become an international service rep in 2001 and machine inspector in 2008. He was working in Ohio in 2014 when, in his hotel room, he suffered a devastating stroke. He was found almost eight hours later and rushed to hospital. After months of hospitalization and rehab he was released, walking with a cane, with limited motion in his left hand and arm and with severe speech limitations.
As part of his therapy Scott revived a childhood interest in flying model aircraft. He used to fly tethered balsa frame planes powered by liquid fueled engines with his father.
“Scott has amazing stick-to-it-tivness,” says his flying instructor, Mike Smucker who is also president of The Villages E-Flyers. “Dogged determination and coachable. He’s a good pilot.”
Radio controlled e-model aircraft are miniatures of the real thing, often constructed of reinforced dense foam material and capable of up to 10 minutes flying over 50 miles per hour with a battery powered electric engine. Pilots use a radio controller with joysticks – and that usually takes two hands.
After making some programming adjustments to the controller, Scott uses only his left hand – the edge of his palm on the left joystick and a finger on the right.
“When you’re flying a real aircraft you have one perspective,” says Smucker, a former corporate pilot. “Want to turn left? You turn the yoke to the left.” Flying an RC model is much different, especially if the plane is heading toward the pilot. “Push the stick right and the plane will turn left. Good model pilots have to have the capacity to change perspective and the mental capacity and intuition to process the data very quickly. Scott has that ability.”
In his hangar (read: garage) Scott has eight electric model aircraft literally hanging on the walls, ranging from WWII fighters to his beloved T-28 Navy trainer with retractable wheels and a ‘pilot’ in the cockpit. He admits he has crashed on occasion – perhaps a half-dozen times out of several hundred flights. He is also working on a new kit plane with a balsa wood frame and red synthetic covering which he expects to have flight-ready in a couple of months.
One of the positives of the foam planes is that they are easy to repair – just glue the parts back together. Scott sits in a chair to fly (most pilots stand holding the controller in two hands), a specially crafted table rests on the chair arms to hold the radio controller on a non-skid pad.
Flying an RC plane is much more just than finding an empty field and taking off. Pilots must be members of the Academy of Model aeronautics, a national organization with more than 200,000 members. Pilots must be trained under the guidance of a certified instructor and the safety rules are strict. The FAA also regulates the flying models because of the possibility of interference with commercial and private aviation.
The Villages E-Flyers fly from the Villages Polo Grounds when weather is suitable – no fog and very low wind. “Anything over five to seven miles an hour will keep me grounded,” Scott says. Only five planes are allowed in the air at any time.
An enthusiastic member of the Villages Camaro Club, Scott entered his baby-blue restored ’68 in the town square competition earlier in March and walked away with second prize. It was the first time he had shown the car which he bought from a friend about 25 years ago. Before his stroke, he entered informal races in California, picking up a few dings and dents along the way. The recent restoration puts it back in original condition except for the transmission – he opted for an automatic. Driving the hot car now is a two-person task: his mother, Sandy Fielding, handles the left seat driving and Scott does the gear shifting.
“Sandy is like Scott’s pit crew,” says Mike Smucker. “She changes airplane batteries, sets the plane out, helps him get seated and is a big supporter of the Club whenever we have an event or a project.” She is also taking model flying instruction from Mike, through she admits that she’s very much a beginner, using one of Scott’s original planes and his hand-me-down controller.
Flying models is not an inexpensive hobby. Aircraft, depending on age and condition cost hundreds of dollars. And one plane is never enough. Then there is the RC controller, batteries, license fees and must-have gadgets. Scott pores over the model airplane magazines and catalogs to create a wish list for his next step up. At the top of the list is upgrading his controller to a 12-channel from his current six-channel version.
John W Prince is a writer and Villages resident. Learn more at www.GoMyStory.com.
