Welcome to the page about me and my history!


A little history first. My passion for anything with the ability to fly like most came from a rather young age. I'm not sure my mom would call most of my early expressions during my infancy stages as aeroplane noises but today I think she wouldn't argue the matter much. My first exposure to anything remotely controllable (Bold statement in this case) and glow fuel powered was when my folks got me my Cox PT-19 control line model, I must have been about 8~10 years old if memory serves me now.

Of course this model didn't see any action for many years to come as it was "holy" in a sense. Later my first remote controlled car joined the family in the form of a Tamiya Avante sandmaster. From there it went downhill a little with a portion of my life spent buying and selling cars and kicking up dirt all over town. Of course the passion to one day own a fully remote controlled flying machine was very well alive and kicking in my soul but our friend money wasn't staying in our house and quite frankly never properly moved in. He visits on occasion fortunately for us and we definitely enjoy his company but still, never quite came home. Later in life at the age of around 12 I dabbled alot more in flying and the need to get into the hobby grew much stronger as my passion for cars faded. It was finally when my good friend Martin Erasmus from Pietersburg came to visit his folks in Phalaborwa that he came knocking on my folks's front door one Friday evening out of nowhere.

Oom Martin as I would refer to him were looking for flying buddys and rumour had it we were somehow close to the criteria. Of course we couldn't help much on his quest but nevertheless he took me under his wing and dragged me all over the place to get me started up in the hobby. My first time touching the actual sticks were far from here at this point in time as money went on holiday again to a far away place. It was on a visit to Pietersburg that my parents dropped me off at Martin's place and he took me flying. There it all began properly when he literally shoved his radio in my paws and coached me into guiding his Carl Goldberg Aniversary Piper J-3 Cub around the skies. Time went by and me and the Cub became great friends. Much later with much nagging and effort my parents were convinced that this is my newest craze and I managed to aquire my first very own flight worthy model. Martin's old Fiesta sport aerobatic .60 sized beasty.

This was the bird that then carried me solo in no time and the addiction to all things flying was a reality. Much to my delight and probably much to the frustration of many others. At the age of 13 finally I was officially an aeromodeler. Life took me through many stages from motorcycles to being an accomplished Club DJ, I had to go through the life changing experience of the female species and we all know the rest. Flying spent a little time on the backburner but finally when I started my first official day job I missed my old friend very much. I vowed to never part ways with it again.




Personal details:

Full names   : Frederik Rudolf du Toit 

Nickname    : Spacey 

Birthdate : 1982-06-17 

Hometown : Phalaborwa, South Africa  

Current residence : Pretoria, South Africa 

Occupation : Design Draughtsman 

Years flying fixed wing : 11 

Years flying rotary wing : 3 

Fixed wing pilot rating : Instructor 

Rotary wing pilot rating : Instructor 

Main interests in RC : Aerobatics fixed and rotary wing, 3D fixed and rotary wing, freestyle.  

Other interests in RC : Thermal, slope and dynamic soaring. Civilian, aerobatic and soaring scale models. Unusual RC (Skydiving etc). 

Experience/knowledge:

Expert model kit builder working with wood, composites (Fiberglass, carbon etc), various covering materials, various adhesives, metals, paint and expanded products (Polystyrene etc). Experienced instructor on both disciplines with countless new pilots sent solo. Experienced show and demonstration pilot. Experienced in pre-production testing and evaluation of new RC products and designs. Experienced in doing published reviews and write ups of RC products and events. Knowledgeable in the workings of aerodynamics and mechanics of aircraft both fixed and rotary wing. Experienced in the setup of both fixed and rotary wing aircraft for optomised guidance system efficiency. Experienced advisor relating to new aircraft rigging and setup based on modeler's goals and needs.

Competition experience:

Placed 7^th at the 2004 fixed Fun-Fly Masters, first time competing.
Placed well on numerous occasions in the RCGroups Limited motor run thermal duration international postals and placed 1^st once, SP400 class.
Placed 2^nd F3C Masters 2006.
Placed 3^rd F3C Gauteng champs 2006.
Placed 2^nd F3C Nationals 2007.
Placed 3^rd F3C Gauteng champs 2007.
Placed 54^th F3C World Championships, Poland 2007.
Placed 3^rd F3C Nationals 2008.
Placed  2^nd Gauteng champs 2008.
Placed 2^nd F3C Masters 2008.
Placed 1^st F3C SA Nationals 2009.