January 2009 187
ON SUNDAY, September 28, 2008, a fullscale
air show was held at the Mid-Ohio
Valley Regional Airport in Parkersburg, West
Virginia. The air show is held every other
year and three area RC clubs were invited to
participate.
The Blennerhassett Area RC Club
(BARCCs) of Belpre, Ohio, the Vienna Sky
Sharks of Vienna, West Virginia, and the
Flying Wing Nutz of Saint Marys, West
Virginia, all participated by providing static
displays and flying demonstrations. Crowd
estimates were at 23,000-plus and all three
clubs were constantly busy displaying their
models and answering questions.
The clubs were allotted a 20-minute flying
period. Mark
Radcliff provided
a flying
demonstration
with his 46%
scale Ultimate.
Also, three
helicopters
pilots—Larry
Smith, Paul
Futey, and Jamie
Edwards—
displayed their
chopper-flying
talents.
Mark Radcliff’s Ultimate at the Mid-Ohio
Valley Air Show 2008.
In all, a full-scale air show is a great way
to reach large groups of people to educate
them about model aviation. Also, because
three area clubs participated in the show, it
was a great way to build team work between
the clubs to better promote model aviation.
All three clubs are already making plans
for the next air show to be held in 2010.
After months of planning and all the ups and
downs, the Keystone Indoor Electric Fly
(KIEF), hosted by the Muncy Indoor Flyers,
held October 18-19, 2008, outside of
Williamsport, Pennsylvania, is in the books.
The feedback from the pilots, vendors, and
sponsors has been overwhelmingly positive.
Tons of flying took place from Saturday
straight through to Sunday evening. Everyone
seemed to have a terrific time and kept
asking, “When can we come back?”
As we suspected, the Generations Sports
Complex dome (GSC) was the perfect setup
for an event such as this with plenty of room
for all types of flying. Special events, vendor
space, pilot pits and three separate flying
zones are all under one very large roof.
We had airplanes of every imaginable
type at the event from 3-inch-span micros to
60-inch standoff scale military transports. Not
only did everyone get to fly—and fly a lot—
they also managed to participate in several
special events throughout the weekend. They
rarely shut down the other flying areas for
these events to take place.
Micro scale, F3P Pattern, micro
helicopters, vendor demonstrations, obstacle
course flying, night flying, jet sessions,
demonstration flights, seminars, time-andglide,
3-D, and much more all fell together
with sport flying among friends.
Friends flying with friends (while making
new friends) were a huge part of the
Keystone event. The winner of the farthesttraveled
award, Ken Spencer, drove more
than 20 hours and 1,112 miles from Missouri
to come to KIEF 2008! And he brought a
bunch of friends with him! Amazing!
One of the highlights of any modeling
event, whether indoor or outdoor, is to see the
youth of our hobby getting involved and
excelling. Nothing better describes this than
the brother team of Peter and Stephen Sripol
of Dayton, Ohio.
Peter and Stephen Sripol.
Not only do Peter and Stephen (16 and 13
years old respectively) have amazing flying
skills, they also design, engineer, and build
some of the most impressive indoor
multiengine and scale models you will ever
see. Peter also won the Most Unique
Performance award with his 10-ducted-fan
military transport.
Please see the club’s Web site
(www.keystoneindoor.com) for other award
winners, photos, videos, sponsors, and
vendors.
During the awards ceremony, Muncy
Indoor Flyers vice president Ron Angle
presented
GSC
dome
director
Dan
Johnson
with a
check to
the River
Valley
Regional
YMCA.
This donation will be used to kick off the
Strong Kids Campaign, a project to help
support youth with membership to YMCA
youth sports programs throughout the year.
Plans are underway to increase Muncy
Indoor Flyers’ participation in this worthy
endeavor for 2009.
Left: Micro helicopter
obstacle course.
Below: Muncy club
president Tony
Minnella.
The Muncy
Indoor Flyers would
like to thank all the
pilots, vendors,
sponsors, and
volunteers who made
the first Keystone Indoor Electric Fly a huge
success. Big thanks as well to District III
Vice President Bob Brown and AMA
president Dave Mathewson and their wives
for their support of the KIEF. It was great to
see both these gentlemen attend and fly at our
event. We’re glad they had a great time and
hope they can fly with us again next year.
Concerning next year, at the time of this
writing, contracts have already been signed
for the 2009 KIEF! With the overwhelming
success of the first event, it didn’t take but a
few days of rest for club president Tony
Minnella and Dan Johnson to get things
locked down for KIEF 2009!
Next year’s KIEF will be expanded to
three days and will take place Friday, October
16 through Sunday, October 18, 2009.
Bob Brown
Vice President
35 Sanford St.
Bradford PA
16701
Tel.: (814) 368-
7655
For a complete
listing of district
officers and volunteers, please visit
the District II1 Web site at
www.amadistrictiii.org or see a
previous issue of MA.
District III
Bob Brown, District III Vice President; [email protected]
Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia
Steve Strum and a future
flier.
D i s t r i c t I I I
01amanews.qxp 11/25/2008 9:47 AM Page 187
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/01
Page Numbers: 187