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Clark
Hopkins is Miami’s ‘top gun’ in the model airplane world. He flies
radio-controlled scale-model jet airplanes in contests and exhibitions
around the world.
“I
go to a lot of contests and I’ve won a lot of them,” Hopkins said.
“I’ve got hundreds of plaques and trophies. I fly my airplanes all
over the place. I go to Costa Rica every year for about 10 days in March.
I’ve been to Curacao, St. Martin, Puerto Rico.” Hopkins,
47, owns the Hobby Nut in the South Park Centre, 12679 Pinecrest Parkway
(S. Dixie Highway). The little store is crammed with innumerable model
kits on all subjects. There are all types of flying machines: Spad, Fokker,
Sopwith Camel, Blackbird, F18 Hornet, Messerchmitt, XYB-35 Flying Wing,
the space shuttle, even the Apollo Saturn V Rocket. There
are model boat kits, too, from historic sailing ships and the Titanic, to
the ocean racing Cigarettes of today. And, there are cars galore:
Corvettes, classic Chevys, Thunderbirds, Deusenbergs and more. There are
models on almost any subject, virtually every type of glue available in a
tube, all types of games, coin collecting starter sets and thousands of
related hobby items and materials. You’ll even find the latest craze,
Pokemon cards. “I’ve
got a little of a lot,” Hopkins said of his jam-packed store. “I’ve
got rockets, kites, plastic models and radio-controlled everything.” Typically,
dozens of little airplanes hang from the ceiling by string. Hopkins said
he first became interested in model airplanes when he was 8 years old.
He’s been involved with them ever since. “At
first it was a model with a motor connected to a control line,” he said.
“Then, my dad had a radio-controlled model airplane, but it never was
successful. We used to fill the trunk of a car with equipment — a
transmitter, a big antennae — in order to fly the airplane. It was
expensive and it didn’t work very well.
Now, you just have a little box and it costs almost nothing, like
about $150 for a radio. It’s a good hobby, it’s easy to learn and I
have a lot of kids that do it.” Hopkins,
a Cutler Ridge area resident and a cabinet maker for 25 years, opened the
Hobby Nut in 1991 and moved it to the Pinecrest location five years ago.
He agrees that he is well-known in the hobby industry and considered an
expert in the field of radio-controlled model airplanes and helicopters. “I
fly mostly jets, now,” he said, pointing to a sleek five-foot model with
an 80-inch wing span hanging from the ceiling of his store. “That’s
one of my old ones. I retired it.” Hopkins
said he has four jet airplanes that he flies in model contests, each one
costing upwards of $10,000 and consuming about 700 hours in building time.
He also has many other model planes and helicopters, including his first
model. “I
like to build an airplane that looks like the real one and then fly it
like the real one,” he said. “There’s everything available on the
market today from those little control-line airplanes on a string to a
$20,000 jet with twin-engines and all kinds of extras.” Hopkins
said he once again is pointing toward the big event held every year at the
West Palm Beach Polo Club, where 70 remote-control model airplane buffs
from around the world put their skills on the line. “That’s
probably the biggest contest that I go to,” he said. “I managed to
place eighth and that’s about the best I’ve been able to do so far.
But, if you get invited to compete, you’re already a winner because
it’s invitation-only. You don’t get invited unless you go to other
places and win other contests.” The
name of the event — Top Gun. For
more information about the Hobby Nut, call 305-235-9584.
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