the other side of the tree line Rachelle Haughn interviews Jim Graham
Jim T. Graham does not blend into a crowd. With his signature braids, cowboy hat, and outgoing personality, it’s hard to miss him at fun-flys and trade shows. If you haven’t seen Jim, aka Billy Hell, at an event, there’s
a good chance that you’ve encountered his name or voice online. He is the moderator for the
RCGroups.com online
forum, and administrator for forums
FlyingGiants.com and
HeliFreak.com. He also has a podcast on the forums, songs he’s recorded on Soundcloud, an IMDb profile, and appears in a few YouTube videos. Read on to learn more about the man beneath the hat and his aeromodeling experiences.
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Rachelle Haughn: When you were a kid, what did you want to grow up to be?
Jim Graham: My heroes have always been cowboys. I grew up on a ranch in Texas. We found horseshoes, cross saws, and Colt .45s in the dirt. As a kid, I was good friends with a
Texas Ranger named Rufus VanZandt. He chased Pancho Villa, and was a lawman in dirty little Texas towns in the 1920s and ’30s. I wanted to be like him—a Texas Ranger. When he died, he left me his pistol,
hat, and boots. I was a pallbearer at his funeral when I was 16. I didn’t think anyone was cooler than that 86-year-old man.
RH: How did you get your nickname? JG: My grandpa is from Callisburg, Texas. He grew up on the family farm there during the Great Depression. He told me that he and his brother would walk to town for ice and they would raise “Billy Hell” there with the city boys. I wanted to use the term for a band name, but ultimately it was my user name on my fi rst RC Web forum:
RCOnline.com. I have been called Billy Hell since then.
RH: How and why was RCGroups started? JG: There are two Jims at RCGroups.
52 PARK PILOT [Winter 2016]
Jim Bourke founded RCGroups in 1996. He had RC questions and thought the Internet might be a good way to connect RC pilots. In the early days, RC companies laughed at the idea of buying banner ads. Now RCGroups is one of the largest RC media outlets in the world. I worked with Jim during my days
as the marketing director for Hobby Lobby. I covered events and we were his biggest advertiser at the time. Jim hired me to run RCGroups full time in 2007, and I have been doing that every day since. Currently, RCGroups gets around 1.8 million unique users a month. The amount of RC information on our site is staggering, with more than 32 million posts! We have editors who
report on RC news daily. We are a Web forum that provides news, reviews, event coverage, feature articles, and much more.
Jim rocks out during SEFF (Southeast Electric Flight Festival) Week. Photo by Jay Smith.
The impact made on this hobby by Jim and his idea for an RC website is immeasurable. We are the world’s largest and most active RC website.
RH: What are your responsibilities for RCGroups? JG: That’s a big question. I run the site. I take care of both marketing and advertising, as well as manage the employees and the site content. I like
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