Jeremy Church, of the Jasper RC Flyers in Jasper, Indiana, reported on the club’s recent event:
We held an open house with a make-and-take chuck glider event at our flying field. We invited the community and had people build a chuck glider made of foam board. We had numerous members flying and displaying their models. Our instructors had buddy-box opportunities for those who wanted to experience flying, with people of all ages. Roughly 20 to 25 chuck gliders were built and decorated by attendees.
This is from Aurelio Centeno, of the Palos R/C Flying Club near Chicago:
For several years, we have been invited to join an event held in downtown Chicago’s Daley Plaza. The forest preserve has organizations that use the forest to put a display on at Daley Plaza. Dennis Miendersma and Bob Gurskis joined me.
The city put up tents for a static display. We brought all types of aircraft. More than 300 people showed up at this event, including John Daley, commissioner of Cook County, and Arnold Randall, superintendent of the preserve. We handed out flyers to explain where and when we fly, plus how to view our club’s website.
John Midgorden, of Kansas City RC (KCRC) in Missouri, supplied the following:
At Jackson County Park’s summer program for kids, this year’s theme was Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. The park asked KCRC to be the “Planes” part of its program. Roughly 55 kids, ages 9 to 11, watched KCRC pilots demonstrate nearly all of the types of aircraft.
The following day, 50 kids, ages 5 to 8, were brought to the field and enjoyed another flying demonstration.
Philip Bean, from Rend Lake RC Club in Southern Illinois, held a public fly day for anyone interested in an opportunity to fly an RC trainer with an instructor. Two father-and-son combos and two adult men got to experience flying, and the seeds were planted. The club had three electric-powered Apprentices and three larger glow-powered trainers from which to choose.
Jacob, our District VI attendee, reported on his second year of attending Camp AMA:
Since last year, I have accumulated more airplanes to bring to camp. I wanted to fly different styles like quadcopters, helicopters, and 3D airplanes. We even got to fly Control Line airplanes.
We went to the United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, and to the gymnasium on the Ball State University campus to fly our own 3D airplanes or the camp’s UMX Ultrix. FPV quadcopters, and/or Free Flight BETAS. We had an awards ceremony with a cookout and campfire. At the awards ceremony, I was honored to be given a Multiplex Shark for assisting others.
On the last evening of camp, using our RC aircraft, we were given the time to install LED light strips or fly E-flite Night Radians that AMA provided. After experiencing difficulty flying our airplanes at night, we watched as Ethan Ater and Santiago Perez showed off their incredible night-flying skills.
I will be 18 next year, so I will not be able to attend Camp AMA again as a camper. I have plans to continue promoting our hobby and AMA. I will be volunteering for the third time in AMA’s Model Aviation Experience trailer at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023.
Gary Himes
Vice President District VI