Willow Glen Resident

Business

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Soaring High: Mike Conrardy has a passion for flying and model airplanes. His store, California Hobbies, caters to the model airplane aficionado; it will open July 15 in the Dry Creek Shopping Center.

Conrardy reaches for the sky with model-aircraft business

By Alicia Upano

A new store in Willow Glen's Dry Creek Shopping Center is taking flight. Mike Conrardy, who opens California Hobbies on July 15, has turned his lifetime passion of making and flying model airplanes into a business.

The new store will be complete with kites and rockets, numerous radio-controlled airplanes, helicopters, cars, trucks and boats and related hardware. Conrardy, who is running the shop with his wife Monika, said he opened the shop because he wanted to have a hobby store closer to home. Previously, he would go to a similar shop on Oakland Road in north San Jose.

Conrardy envisions California Hobbies as a one-stop shopping location for model plane aficionados. Many of the model airplanes are nearly identical to the real thing, such as the F-16 Fighting Falcons and P-51 Mustangs with retractable landing gear. The planes can have wings spanning 6 feet and weigh as much as 30 pounds.

The hobby has also changed since Conrardy's early days. Inside California Hobbies, a customer will find lighter planes with longer-lasting batteries. Another item the store plans to carry is software for flight simulators. It will allow budding pilots to strengthen their flying skills before taking to the skies, helping to avoid new model airplane crashes.

Mostly Conrardy hopes the shop will cater to boys and girls who are making their first forays into the hobby, as he did as a child. Frequently, he sees father-child pairs interested in flying together.

"With today's technology world, it's so easy to get cooped up inside," Conrardy says. "Doing something outside together brought my dad and me closer together."

Conrardy, 38, can still remember receiving his first model airplane when he was eight years old. Then, the planes came as a jumble of wood pieces that required assembling.

It was so much fun Conrardy began mowing neighbors' lawns to earn the money he needed to fuel his model airplane habit.

By his teen years, his hobby moved from flying model planes at home to maneuvering airplanes in the sky. He took his first ride in a glider at 14.

"It instilled in me a love of flying," he says. "That took off from there, no pun intended."

Conrardy took it to the next level as an adult. He has been a flight instructor and airline transport pilot. Currently, he works as a corporate pilot. The work entails flying corporate planes around the world, including those belonging to Bay Area high-tech companies.

"I seem to always come back to my roots," says Conrardy about his passion for model airplanes.

California Hobbies is at 1702 Meridian Ave., Suite I. For more information, call 408.448.1449. The store is looking for part-time help.