Indoor flying: As I write this here in the eastern half of the country, we are in the middle of winter. The weather usually isn’t good for outdoor flying, so we turn our attention to building and indoor flying.
In District III we have a couple large events. One is the JR Indoor in Columbus and the newest is the Holiday Electric Indoor Fly In in Geneva, Ohio. I attended both of these great events.
The Geneva event was sponsored by the Mentor Area Radio Control Society (MARCS) with District III Associate Vice President Tony Husak as CD. This gathering had more than 250 registered pilots. It is a sight to see and fun to fly inside the huge Geneva Sports Complex.
Something new this year was the first US sanctioned F3P competition. What is F3P? Basically it’s indoor Aerobatics. Yes Pattern flying is now being performed indoors.
Many of you have seen the Electric Tournament of Champions (ETOC) held at the Toledo Show and have been amazed with the planes and pilots. F3P is similar in that you have a known routine that everyone flies and then an aero musical similar to the flying done at ETOC.
The incredibly lightweight airplanes are foam, carbon fiber, and other materials that feature thrust vectoring, contra-rotating, and reverse-pitch propellers.
The F3P World Championship will be held in Germany this year. The event in Geneva OH was the first step required for the US to eventually field an international team, probably in 2015. I was privileged to help judge this event and from what I saw the future looks bright for the US in international F3P competition.
Tea time: Those of us who have been involved in this hobby for many years and have club events such as fun-flys, contests, cookouts, etc. realize that we rely on the ladies of the club to help with these important events that keep our clubs happy and healthy.
The women of the Greater Pittsburgh ARCS took time away from working club picnics, competitions, the smell of balsa, and the sound of engines, and treated themselves to an October Saturday afternoon high tea.
Hats and gloves could be worn, and the ladies were decked out in their best jewels and enjoying little finger tea sandwiches, scrumptious scones, and pastries while sipping their favorite tea during conversation and camaraderie.
As you can see, a fun time was had by all. I urge all clubs to think about the ladies of our clubs and suggest they do something like this for some fun away from our modeling activities. Remember, “If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!”
District III website: Last year we launched an entirely new, redesigned website. Webmaster Roger Luther is doing a great job of keeping information up to date. Roger and I would like to ask a favor of everyone in District III.
Please go to www.amadistrict-iii.com and go to your club’s web page information. Look it over. Is the information correct? If you don’t see your club information or something needs corrected, please contact Roger at [email protected] so he can update your club’s information.
If you have upcoming events or you have pictures from an event that your club had, please contact Roger. While visiting the site, please sign the guestbook. We would love to hear from you! The website is a great communication tool for our district and I encourage everyone to use it.
Until next month, see you in Toledo
