AMA News District IX - 2010/03
I was looking over my fleet of aircraft the other day and an interesting fact jumped out at me. More than half of my collection is now electric!
I have a great mix of big and small, fast and slow, helicopter and fixed wing. With the new electric technologies as well as the developments that seem to be just ahead of us, the electric world has brought us a totally new venue for enjoying our hobby.
Central Plains E-Fly Spectacular
Some months ago, AMA Executive Vice President Mark Smith gave me a shout and suggested I put the second annual Central Plains E-Fly Spectacular on my calendar. The event was held at the spacious 93,000-square-foot Century II Expo Hall in Wichita, Kansas.
Wichita is the Air Capital of the World and represents the manufacture of more than half of the world's general aviation light aircraft and business jets, as well as being a major supplier to the builders of commercial airliners. It is also a hotbed for enthusiastic and devoted RC fliers.
I attended the three-day event and had some great, memorable experiences. Ken Stitt is the driving force behind the event and is assisted by Kim Walker, who leaves no details to chance. The pair provided the best of organization and hospitality.
Ken said, "Our main goal is to host top-notch events to showcase local and national pilots flying their RC aircraft in wide open spaces. We consider it an honor for pilots to fly at our events and we work hard to ensure they have a great time, join event contests, win great trophies and prizes, and most of all—have a blast flying!"
The three-day event starts early in the morning and goes on well into the evening hours with night flying. The spacious Expo Hall provides plenty of room for vendor booths, spectator seating, and the pit area.
Flying areas and contests
The flying space was divided into four separate areas to accommodate:
- Micro fliers
- Competition flying
- Open flying
- Helicopters
Bob Wilder was the "Micro Manager," as many pilots of all ages took part in daily contests which included:
- Micro Vapor and Helicopter Landings
- Vapor Pylon Races
- Micro Helicopter Races
Clearview Field awarded E-Fly medals to the Micro Champions.
Sponsors and prizes
Castle Creations was E-Fly's premier sponsor with very generous donations of speed controllers that were given away often during E-Fly. Clearview Field and other sponsors donated remote-control airplanes, helicopters, supplies, caps, shirts, and other items for raffle and pilot drawings.
Ken thought it would be fun to have a large hoop drop from the ceiling at unexpected times; the first airplane to fly through the hoop would win a prize. The ring got smaller as the day went on, and it was fun seeing the high-altitude pilots try to fly through the ring.
Highlights
Packed crowds in the spectator area and pilots were wowed by Jamie Robertson and Brandon Chitty's spectacular airplane and helicopter demonstrations. We heard many spectators rave about the unbelievable flights.
Pilots designed and flew some amazing aircraft at E-Fly. At any given time you could see:
- Flying pizza boxes
- Remote-control air cars (RC cars that would zoom around on the floor then take off straight into the air)
- Flying surfboards
- Rubber-band airplanes
- Air-current airplane flights (not sure what this is officially called)
- All sizes of airplanes and helicopters
Dan St. Louis, a pilot from Wichita, Kansas, designed the air car.
Final notes
Do yourself a favor and put the 2010 Central Plains E-Fly Spectacular on your event calendars for next year. Check www.clearviewfield.com for information about this year's event.
Keep the sunscreen on to keep the cancer off! Till next time.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
