District X's Many Honorees
At the AMA Convention in Ontario, California, the annual AMA meeting is typically a "business as usual" presentation: current issues are discussed and an up-to-date announcement about the state of the association is given — imagine the presidential “State of the Union” on a smaller scale. The highlight of these meetings, however, is when local district members and association representatives make awards presentations and the formal meeting becomes a family reunion where stories are shared about what makes this hobby so great: its people.
One of AMA’s highest honors is the Model Aviation Hall of Fame award. What made the 2007 meeting remarkable was that five District X Model Aviation Hall of Fame inductees were honored.
Bill Bennett
Bill Bennett recognized early on that model-aircraft pilots deserved the same glamorous "air-show" recognition that full-scale pilots enjoy. Through his personal funding, the Tournament of Champions (TOC) brought the best pilots in the world together and put them in front of the best full-scale aerobatic judges, creating what many considered the red-carpet event in modeling. The TOC drew thousands of spectators from around the world to watch groundbreaking aerobatics and see innovations that soon became popular as a direct result of the competition.
The awards presentation opened with mention of Bill’s recognition ceremony at William G. Bennett Airfield on November 12, 2006, in Las Vegas, Nevada. That presentation was made during the Superfly V event organized by District X Associate Vice President Greg Clemensen. Bill’s personal assistant Donny Weitz accepted the plaque in his honor.
Bill Evans
The catchphrase "tight turns" accurately describes the Simitar model design’s remarkable maneuverability. Through Bill Evans’ research in slope flying, his Saracen "tailless" glider was modified to fly with a Cox .049. The aircraft’s performance was so outstanding that it launched a series of more than 75 Simitar models and 30 additional models that were published as construction articles.
Several characteristics of the Simitar series made it superior in flight performance to a conventional aircraft with an aft-mounted horizontal stabilizer:
- It would not stall.
- It had a wider speed range than conventional aircraft.
- It was aerodynamically stable.
- It could perform all the aerobatic maneuvers of contemporary RC aerobatic models.
- It could make tighter turns.
AMA President Dave Brown presented Bill Evans with his Model Aviation Hall of Fame award. In classic fashion, Bill closed his acceptance speech with the phrase "tight turns," a reminder of how much fun the hobby still is to him.
Charles Mackey
Charles Mackey has been involved in aeromodeling for more than 55 years. His first contest was in St. Louis, Missouri, where he won CL Aerobatics and CL Combat and took home the Grand Prize trophy. A natural competitor, Charles continued to place well in every competition he entered. He is best known for his many years of employment with Cox Hobbies, serving in many capacities until 1981. "My model airplane experience gave me a big edge at Cox," he wrote.
His research for the book Pioneers of Control Line Flying has helped preserve a great portion of control-line (CL) history. He has written a number of biographies for the AMA History Program and was appointed Associate Historian of the program. In addition, Charles was named to the ad hoc Model Aviation Hall of Fame committee that rewrote the structure and procedures for the program. He has been looked up to as a hero to many modelers.
At the awards ceremony, AMA Associate Vice President Jerry Neuberger presented Charles with the Model Aviation Hall of Fame honor. Eric Rule of RSM Distribution presented Charles with a kit of his Blue Bird design — an RSM tradition to present the first kit from the production run to the model designer.
Charles also paid particular attention to free-flight design and construction, optimizing rubber-to-weight ratio. At the 1941 Nats he flew a Cabin model with a thick pylon cross-section and a sticklike fuselage; it was so lightweight that the aircraft couldn't be held in the traditional way. He developed the technique of using aluminum tubing for the rear motor anchor so it could be held with a wire peg into the tubing.
Chuck has had plans published for a number of models. They were not simply built but carefully thought out — he even constructed a wind tunnel to confirm the performance of his original airfoil designs. "Chuck was interested in and got into every type of model-airplane activity there was and invented some of his own," wrote his old friend Francis Reynolds.
Warren Williams
Warren Williams has been building and flying models for more than 81 years. He has competed in 12 Nats in five states and has set five national records, one of which still stands. He has gone to observe the Free-Flight Indoor World Championships in Japan and Romania and is an original member of the Thermal Thumbers of Metro Atlanta.
Warren once built a Microfilm model with a wingspan of more than 5 feet; the aircraft flew for more than 20 minutes.
Over the past 14 years, more than 115,000 youth and adults have seen Warren's models fly in BEAMS (Boeing Employees' Aerodynamic Modeling Society) programs inside the Boeing hangar in Washington. The crowd favorites are the ornithopters — Warren has built and flown more than 250 indoor and outdoor ornithopters of all sizes, from 10 inches to 28 inches — inspiring members to build and fly their own models.
The last moving event of the AMA meeting was the presentation of Warren’s Hall of Fame award by AMA President Dave Brown.
—MA staff
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
