In the Air
Southeastern Michigan Modelers Help One of Their Own
The aeromodeling community in southeastern Michigan is fortunate to have numerous hobby shops supporting our activities. Prop Shop Hobbies, ProStar Hobby, Carlton Hobbies, and R/C Hobbies all have great employees, good hours, and plenty of stock.
Five years ago, longtime modeler, designer, and competitor, John Hoover, and his wife, Tracie, opened Flight Line Hobby in Lake Orion, Michigan, 2 miles from the Skymasters R/C Club of Michigan’s flying field.
Understanding the “modeler’s mind,” John and Tracie support events, hold seminars, and go above and beyond being a retailer. At the Skymasters field and need something soldered? A call to John would have the soldering equipment out and warmed up before your arrival. That is service!
Tracie received some devastating news in late April. Her sister was brutally murdered in her home in Pennsylvania. Tracie immediately left to help her mother and 15-year-old niece.
The modeling community stepped in to help too. John was short staffed in the store. Numerous modelers spent unpaid hours there accepting shipments, stocking shelves, and answering questions. When more details of the tragedy became available, the clubs and modelers stepped up even more.
Tracie’s remaining family lives modestly in a rural area. The closest restaurant is a sandwich shop that is part of a gas station roughly 20 miles away. The family struggled to pay funeral expenses and cover the needs of a 15-year-old girl.
The Skymasters presented Tracie with a sizeable cash donation from the club. Individual members of the Skymasters more than doubled that amount. Mark Freeland of Retro RC made a major increase in the fund. The Pontiac Miniature Aircraft Club and the Radio Control Club of Detroit all made significant contributions.
When Tracie was presented with the first gift, she tearfully said, “You guys are our customers, our friends, yet you treat us more like family. I could never have imagined anything like this.” She took the cash to her mother who was equally moved. “This means that we will be okay.”
The contributions from the aeromodeling community in Michigan were greater than all of the local donations combined.
Tracie said, “I could never have imagined such generosity from our clientele. Not only did the modelers support me, they helped John, and more importantly, helped a youngster—a stranger who endured more than anyone should in a lifetime. There are no words that can adequately thank the modelers in this area for their unselfish gifts.”
—Joe Hass [email protected]
Preserving Aeromodeling’s Heritage
On September 24, 2013, the National Model Aviation Museum will reach a milestone in its continuing effort to preserve aeromodeling history.
Thirty years ago, AMA officially opened the doors of its headquarters in Reston, Virginia. In the center of that building was AMA’s first model aviation museum, housing aircraft suspended from the ceiling, sitting on tables, and displayed in cases.
The idea for a model museum had first been put forth in Model Aviation, Vol. 10, No. 2, February 1946, suggesting that there be “a section of the Academy set up for the permanent exhibit of model materials and associated items,” and a “library and reference files to be available to all interested and eligible researchers.” It was not until Walt Good officially donated radio equipment to AMA in February of 1978 that the first steps toward a museum were made.
In the Air
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, additional items were collected under the direction of the museum’s newly formed steering committee composed of Walt Good, George Aldrich, John Pond, and chaired by curator, Frank Ehling. By March 1983, museum exhibit coordinator and later curator, Hurst Bowers, working with AMA’s Executive Director John Worth, began to select items to exhibit to ensure that the September opening date could be met.
Although the new museum was well received, by the late 1980s it was already running out of exhibit space, and there was no proper storage for collections. It was suggested to relocate the museum to the newly proposed national flying site.
With the purchase of property in Muncie, Indiana, in 1990, and breaking ground for a 25,000-square-foot building in June of 1991, a new museum was one step closer to reality. In 1992 the museum in Reston officially closed.
The plans for the museum changed slightly in early 1993 when it was decided to move AMA Headquarters operations to Muncie. Instead of the museum occupying the entire building, only one third would be available, with no space for storage.
The museum and research library officially reopened during AMA’s building and the majority of its operations moved across the street. In the vacated space, the museum’s theater/classroom was relocated and enlarged, 770 square feet of gallery space was added, along with an exhibit fabrication/restoration shop. The creation of storage space for three-dimensional artifacts as well as the archives, allowing all of the collection to be stored there, was significant.
The Claude McCullough Education Facility, built next to the building in 2009, allowed the museum to improve educational programming. Because of changes to school field trips, no longer could one teacher bring his or her class. Now an entire grade makes the trip. Tours increased from 20 to 100 children, and the addition of the McCullough room allowed large groups to be split into more manageable sizes.
The AMA Plans Services was relocated within the museum building, creating an additional 1,600 square feet of gallery space. In the summer of 2012 this allowed the museum to host its first traveling exhibit “Take Flight,” a hands-on experience that provided visitors the opportunity to build and launch paper rockets, airplanes, and helicopters. This space continues to be used as the hands-on gallery with a variety of simulators, computer games, and a vertical wind tunnel.
Today the museum continues to grow and expand as we rotate artifacts on display, develop new exhibits, and work to improve the museum’s Internet presence at www.modelaircraft.org/museum/museum.aspx.
Since 1998, information about the museum and collection has been added to the website including an online tour, biographies, and club and company histories from the History Program.
If you are interested in supporting the museum, please consider becoming a Museum Patron. Patrons’ annual contributions help provide for library, model, and artifact acquisition and care, and help make possible quality displays, lighting, and other refinements. Patrons receive the museum’s Cloud 9 newsletter, highlighting new developments and acquisitions, and a museum pin, patch, and decal.
The museum is interested in adding to its collection including, but not limited to, aircraft, engines/motors, radio equipment, Nats and contest memorabilia, and personal/club/company histories. For information about donating, please visit www.modelaircraft.org/museum/donations.aspx.
If you are visiting AMA’s International Aeromodeling Center, please stop in for a visit. If you cannot make it to Indiana, please check out our website.
—Museum staff
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
