A Brief History:
Jix Hobbies was founded in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1950. During these years we have built up an enviable reputation both locally and internationally in our field. The present owners, Nord Gerneke and Terry Brown, took over the shop from the famous Monte Malherbe during 1978 after working for him for a few years.
We stock a great variety of hobby related items as can be seen by exploring our site.
In late 1997 we opened a second shop to service the eastern suburbs of Pretoria and due to the decline of trade in the CBD we closed our original shop in 2004.
Our permanent staff are all experienced Radio Control flyers and have competed both Nationally and Internationally.
Our current staff is:
Nord Gerneke, (a company director), is a three time Springbok flyer, competing in three F3B World Championships and a member of the World Championship winning team in 1979. He was appointed as team manager for the 1985 team that was unable to travel to Australia due to the politics of the time. He is also an extremely competent power flyer and has raced R/C cars..
Terry Brown, (a company director), is also a glider pilot and has won numerous Provincial and other Championships. He is also an experienced power pilot, but his great love is electric airplanes and has been flying electric planes
since the late 70's. He has raced R/C cars and did well at various competitions winning some Regional titles.
Theo Wolthers is our most experienced glider pilot and still takes part in major Championships. He designs and moulds his own aircraft which have also been used successfully by other pilots. He has won many National and Regional Championships over the years.
Theo is also our Electric Helicopter expert, there
are few other people that know as much about E Sky helicopters than he does!
