Flying high: Mt. Pleasant man's heart soars after winning model air pilot award

One of Josh Pluck’s earliest childhood memories is with a model airplane.

He watched as his father pumped 192 pounds of air into an Air Hogs Sky Shark. The pressurized plane was a free flyer that required the user to throw it into the sky to launch it.

“Well the first flight didn’t go so well,” Pluck said. “It wound up going straight into the trailer and blowing up. I vaguely remember having to pick up pieces of the plane and thinking, ‘Wow that plane was really going.’”

Over the years, the Mt. Pleasant man’s love for model planes evolved into a passion. He now owns multiple models and video games that simulate flight. He is a licensed model air pilot through the Academy of Model Aeronautics, a member of the Laurel Highlands Model Airplane Club and was recognized as the club’s most improved flyer of 2022.

“I about fainted … when they announced my name,” Pluck said. “I wasn’t even ready for it, you know? … they’re handing out trophies, and I thought, ‘My name isn’t going to be on one of those.’ Next thing you know, it’s on one of those trophies. I about fell over, fell back in my chair.”

Jim Andrews, president of the Laurel Highlands Model Airplane Club, said that when Pluck’s name was brought up during a discussion about nominees, the officers exchanged a look and said “of course.”

“Josh has been coming to our field for four or five years,” Andrews said. “About two years ago, we started a training program and he took to it like a duck takes to water.”

The award was a shock to Pluck, who admitted that he was going to vote for his direct support professional and friend, Kyle Whipkey, to take the prize instead.

Pluck is a client of Valley Community Services, a nonprofit based in Western Pennsylvania that provides housing and care to individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities. He resides in one of the organization’s community living arrangements where he is visited by Whipkey.

Pluck’s love for model planes was infectious and it wasn’t long before Whipkey caught the bug.

“I never really knew about (radio controlled) anything, and then I was hanging out with (Pluck) and I was like, ‘that looks pretty fun,’ ” Whipkey said. “I got one and wow, it is a lot more fun than I thought it would be.”

Whipkey began working with Pluck in May 2022. The two made fast friends and Whipkey began taking Pluck to R.C. Airfield at Mammoth Park in Mt. Pleasant Township, home base of the Laurel Highlands Model Airplane Club, when the park was empty. With neither of them being licensed yet, it was safer for no one to be around as they attempted and perfected new tricks.

Pluck would show Whipkey different maneuvers with the model planes and then Whipkey would take his turn with the control.

“I taught him a thing or two,” Pluck said.

After some thought on Whipkey’s part, he decided to take the plunge into the remote control model world and had Pluck help him pick out his first plane.

One day, when Whipkey’s bird was already in the air, Andrews pulled into the airfield parking lot. Pluck and Whipkey said that they shared a moment of panic before Andrews offered to test Whipkey for his Academy of Model Aeronautics model pilot license. To have access to the club and the airfield, flyers are required to take the flight test, which includes different types of in-air maneuvers and landings.

Pluck earned his own license. Since being licensed, Whipkey and Pluck have invested hundreds of dollars and many afternoons with their model planes. Whipkey bought a heated jacket so he and Pluck could spend time flying in the winter.

“I brought two batteries for the jacket with me one day because I knew that we’d be outside all day,” Whipkey said. “It was a great purchase.”

During each session, the men use a transmitter control. Also known as a buddy box, a transmitter control allows two fliers to switch control of the aircraft with a click of a switch. Pluck often prefers that Whipkey fly first so Pluck can “spot him.” They talk about the crashes their planes have had, whether the aircrafts have survived, as the plastic and styrofoam aircrafts swoop and dip over their heads.

“We always say that we’re nothing without our wingman,” Whipkey said. “I’m his wingman and he’s mine.”