District V
Tony Stillman, District V Vice President; [email protected]
I want to thank everyone who took the time to fill out a ballot and vote for me. I appreciate your support and will do my best to continue to represent you to the AMA.
I have a large area to cover and have some great associate vice presidents who work with me. Please give these people your support as well. They love model airplanes, and that is why they are doing what they do.
I also want to congratulate Dave Mathewson on his election as AMA president. I have had the pleasure of sitting next to Dave at Executive Council meetings during the past three years and have learned much from him. Dave is hard working and always looking to improve the AMA and its services to the membership. I have great hopes that we can make many good things come to pass.
The Taildraggers R/C Club (www.taildraggersrc.com) held its second annual warbird fly-in October 21, 2007. This year's event was larger and better by every measure. The club has gained considerable support from the local businesses and organizations of Cartersville, Georgia, and the surrounding area. That, and the direct financial support of the sponsors shown in the photo, helped the club conduct an impressive event.
The site is on church-owned property, and the support of the church has also been immeasurable, including providing this year's food concession. By all reports the chili was first rate!
Added attractions the club provided included a car show and an amusement area for the kids in the form of inflatable "crawl-throughs" and "bounce houses." They were a big hit.
The main attraction was, of course, the scale models of World War II–era aircraft, from bombers to fighters to light observation aircraft. Some pilots, such as Barry Herthum from Summerfield, North Carolina, brought a fleet of models. Barry's models included:
- P-51D Mustang
- Stinson L-5 Air Ambulance
- Junkers Ju-87 Stuka
- Nakajima B5N "Kate"
Only a couple of models came to grief with less-than-wonderful landings. Eddie Dubransky's Top Flite P-47D cartwheeled on landing after suffering a complete aileron failure following the first departure turn. Eddie also brought a fleet of models, including an immaculate, scratch-built Focke-Wulf 190D.
Other pilots flew Mustangs, Corsairs, Thunderbolts, Stukas, and several nicely done pre–World War II biplane fighters. This was not a contest of any sort, and particularly not a scale contest, although all of the warbird models present were highly detailed and extremely accurate from a scale perspective. The warbirds present could easily have done well in scale competition.
Merlyn Graves made the trip from Saint Charles, Illinois, and flew his scratch-built Bristol Blenheim Mk V photo-reconnaissance light bomber and a Kawasaki Ki-100 "Tony." Dave Herbert and Jeff McCormick assisted Merlyn during engine start and run-up prior to launching a bombing mission.
Yes, a bombing mission. Not content with scratch-building a rarely seen model, Merlyn included what appeared to be several thousand scale rivets, finely crafted dummy radial engines, and a working bomb bay; however, the sortie failed to destroy the sacrificial J-3 carcass on the runway.
In the background, a spectator (with his toddler) is being directed back to the spectator area after having walked in front of the large bomber after engine start to take a picture. Merlyn and his assistants had the large, powerful bomber under complete control, even when surprised by the spectator who managed to get on the runway during active flight operations.
Hats off to Merlyn, Dave, Jeff, the club members running the event, and the pilots who gave of their time and talents to put on a highly successful event where safety was paramount.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
