THE LAST VARIO: A JOE HOWARD TRIBUTE

In our small corner of the world -- a corner that we call model aviation, there is a niche. That niche hosts a small cadre of pilots who love the complexities and challenges of giant scale radio control helicopters.  Though scattered across the United States, Europe, Australia and elsewhere, scale RC helicopter pilots are a rare bunch; diehards who appreciate the overwhelming number of natural and man-made obstacles that conspire to make building and flying one of these giant beasts a constant uphill climb.  But that's where the joy lies.  

Amidst the chaos stood one man in particular.  Joe Howard embodied a rare combination of building skill, painting acumen, savant-like recall of mechanical combinations and, most of all, a willingness to give back to the RC community. Simply put, his presence has made this hobby a better one for all of us for more than three decades. Joe's absolute command over every aspect of these magical flying machines (especially Vario) has filled the hearts and minds of the rest of us -- many of whom depend on Joe to even participate in the hobby. But talking with Joe, you'd never know that he occupied such an outsized role in our hobby.  Modest, but direct, Joe was a relatively quiet person (unless you got him on a rant) who spoke with his talents and backed up his words with phenomenal execution. 

I first met Joe around 2008.  I wanted to fly a Graupner Agusta A-119 Koala outfitted with a JetCat turbine engine. My friend said, "you have to talk to Joe Howard."  So it began. Joe built and painted a beautiful model for me.   I remember him calling me during the build to tell me that "the idiots who designed this thing routed the turbine exhaust out the side of the helicopter. Who does that?" he cried out over the phone.  He said, "you can always use it to cook hotdogs." To this day, we refer to the helicopter as the "hotdog cooker." Between that call and 2020, Joe built me four more helicopters; namely, a Bell 430, a CH-53, another

Bell 430 (don't ask) and an Air Crane.  As of this article, Joe was nearly finished building another Air Crane for me.  Indeed, my stages of friendship with Joe can be marked by each heli and all of the phone calls, Facetimes and emails that we exchanged not only about them, but about everything else we managed to chatter about over the years. During that time, we argued, laughed and discussed just about everything under the sun. We also laughed and moaned over the turbine fires, mid-flight flameouts and other mishaps that I inflicted on his beautiful creations.  Ever patient and always willing to help, Joe got me through those setbacks and encouraged me to continue. 

I can't think of anyone else I know who could make the devastating loss of a $14,000 helicopter seem funny.  But, Joe did just that.  In his gritty Boston accent, Joe would blare, "whaaat the faaaack" when I described how my CH-53 spontaneously caught fire after landing, causing me to dump water down the doghouse opening after my extinguisher ran out of CO2.  If I told him I was adding a working winch and rescue figure to my helicopter, he would ask me, "why would you want to complicate things? Just fly the damn thing!" If you knew Joe, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  But everyone knows that Joe could go scale nuts if he wanted to.  His own Vario Air Crane was a 650+ hour work of art and a labor of love, but one he vowed never to repeat, instead opting for simplicity in his later years with flybar headed scalers that Joe swore were much more relaxing to fly than multi-bladed models. 

Joe's philosophy on life was pretty simple: you do your best while you are walking the planet and when it's over, it's over.  He never wavered from that view, even while facing serious illness.  Ever the logician, Joe was comfortable with the truth.  In a weird way, it gave him strength and courage to face the unthinkable.  Joe's philosophy toward the hobby was similar. He would always make time for you but demanded respect for his time and expertise. Sought out by the military and hobbyists alike for his skill and knowledge, Joe could have become inaccessible, but he never did.  He was always willing to help over the phone and online.  He gave back to the hobby with his incredible knowledge of Vario helicopters and his ability to devise solutions to unexpected issues.  He educated so many pilots over so many years that his knowlege and expertise will live on in the minds of those who continue to build and fly these insanely technical and amazing machines.

Joe Howard left us much too soon.  Recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, Joe spent the last two weeks of his life surrounded by people he loved and people who loved him.  His heli pals came in from all parts of the country -- because his gravity just pulled them in. The hobby will suffer immeasurably from Joe's departure, but ultimately, the hobby is better for the time that Joe spent enriching its participants with the experiences and joy that he either brought to them or inspired by his own fire for this micro niche within a small corner of the world of RC aviation. I will always treasure the last Vario Joe Howard ever built -- my Vario Air Crane, which is now waiting in Joe's shop for me to bring it home. I will have it beautifully painted in a custom scheme and think of Joe every time I fly it.