I enjoy writing profiles of the more modest members of our club.  I told Jimmy there would be a profile of him in the next web site release. He said that there were far more prestigious members to write about  (he gave me a list), and that he was "a relatively new" member and has been only been with the club for a few years. He did not feel it would be appropriate.

Sure, our prestigious club has a good number in the SAM Hall of Fame. They are great mentors if you can get their time and attention. But they are not realistically role models to new and "relatively new" members because it is hard to visualize yourself being as successful as these guys are any time soon. Their models are lighter, stronger and positively glow with elegant craftsmanship. In the air they climb higher and then seem to hang by invisible strings while yours sinks to the ground. There is only one honest reaction. It can be positively intimidating!

If you are inspired by a man's achievements, and realize that if he can do it, then so can I then he is the role model for you. So if I was a "relatively new" member, who would my role model be?  The answer is easy: Jimmy Walker.

Jimmy's enthusiasm and commitment are inspiring. Jimmy is not retired. He travels frequently, especially to Europe, to lecture on subjects such as statistics and experiment design. He also runs a small ranch in Novato.  And yet when our long term Antique Flyer editor, Steve Remmington, resigned Jimmy immediately volunteered to take on this time consuming job. He planned to convert the newsletter to internet transmission, and knew he had to master new skills to do that. In order to complete some issues in a timely manner, Jimmy took almost all of the photos himself. Jimmy also took the initiative in steering our club to voting for club officers by a conventional ballot for the first time.

Despite the demands on Jimmy's time, he has built two good flying Old Timers, and received the "Builder of the Model SAM Competitor" award in less time that it took most others to do so.