Elderly Turkish man’s undying passion for model planes

KONYA

Hasan Hüseyin Çırak, who lives in the Central Anatolian province of Konya, has turned a room in his house into a workshop for his passion for model aircraft.

Çırak ,73, learned everything about electronics and mechanics with books, magazines and articles, making the model aircraft with the engineering knowledge he acquired through them.

Çırak has dreamed of this for many years, but could not realize his dreams due to financial difficulties during his childhood. He later discovered his skills, becoming interested in electronics and mechanics.

While in secondary school, he made his first model aircraft with his own means after seeing the rubber-powered airplanes of the Turkish Aeronautical Association in the sky.

He secretly made planes in the basement of his house, secretly from his father, who would get angry that he would ditch school.

Çırak set aside his passion for a while after his father broke the planes. Later, during his military service, Cirak’s interest revived when he saw a model aircraft.

He wanted to be an electronics engineer but studied agriculture engineering instead because of it lower exam mark requirement and due to his family’s lack of support.

But he could not stay away from his planes and longed for them when he was far from them.

“This is an obsession for me. When I came to Konya [town] from the village, I immediately took a look at my planes. So, this is a passion for us,” he said.

Noting that he loves each of his planes, he said, “I have 17 planes. Each plane represents an adventure of mine.”

Emphasizing that his passion and excitement continue as it did on day one despite his age, he continued: “If they tell me ‘there is such an aircraft model, it has such a feature’ or if I see it somewhere, I immediately start to think: Should I make one, too?,’” he said. “I have a disease named the love for aircraft.”