09/10/2024
It is with great sorrow that we mourn the passing of Nats Free Flight Champion and all around good soul Mark Covington. Mark hailed from Texas, where his boyhood home was adjacent to an active free flight competition site. Mark first became interested in model aviation, by flagging the gliders that dropped from the sky - quite literally into his backyard and the fields surrounding his childhood home! Mark recalled that the free flight pilots appreciated his efforts and the care and interest he showed in their models. Quite often these pilots would reward Mark's recovery efforts with cash, but he recalls the best gifts being the hand-me-down gliders and advice offered up by these generous pilots (or childhood heroes as he often called them)!
Mark remained active in his free flight career, competing in local and regional contests with the Magnificent Mountain Men free flight club, right up to the point of his passing. And while free flight was his first love, Mark was skilled in both RC and control line flying. Mark brought his passion, expert craftsmanship and attention to detail into every one of his ventures and in addition to Model Aviation, he was both an avid automotive enthusiast and cyclist.
We ran into Mark after he moved to the Colorado Springs area, to offer services as a custom Jeweler and was rekindling his boyhood interest in model aviation. One summer afternoon Mark wandered into our original S. Nevada Ave. store front, in search of modeling supplies - we hit it off and the rest, as they say is history.
Mark was an avid builder and built and flew many of our laser-cut designs, while they were still yet in their development phase. He was a regular with the park flyer group in town and always eager to join in on an impromptu - post work bike ride. Mark generously volunteered his time alongside the crew here at Stevens Aeromodel and traveled with us to a number of trade shows, equipment buying trips, and contests. At shows, he enjoyed visiting with customers and sharing his common love of flying.
Mark's roll at Stevens Aeromodel extended to both retail support and technical design consultant. He contributed in helping bring several of our designs to market and is responsible for a number of our commercial free flight offerings, including: our HLG01, pop up Discus Fuselage Kits and Putty/Viscous Timer products. Mark had years of both combat and sport control line experience and was a key team member of the RingRat project, which ultimately ushered in the current era of electric control line with our RingRat 100, Flat Rat and RingRat 250 models. His efforts helped bring electric control line to the masses - quite literally years in advance of any other industry offerings.
Mark's joy of flying, his giving nature and his thoughtful guidance will be greatly missed. Mark passed on from this life over the weekend, quite unexpectedly at 72 years young. He is survived by his Sister and his best friend Miller, a big old lovable Golden Retriever. Blue Skies my good friend!
