District III
District III Vice President
Bob Brown — District III Vice President [email protected]
States
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- West Virginia
Thermal-G Eagles Ninth Annual Model Air Show (August 13, 2005)
On August 13, 2005, the Thermal-G Eagles RC Club proudly held its Ninth Annual Model Air Show. In 1995 the Eagles first held a fun fly-in for radio-control pilots in northwestern Pennsylvania, northeastern Ohio, and southwestern New York. Only a handful of fliers—most of them from our club—and about twice that number of spectators attended.
Encouraged by this humble beginning, members of the club persisted. From that event the shows evolved, giving participants and spectators the opportunity to showcase and observe developments in RC flying. These events have grown in the interim to include representative fliers from many of the RC clubs in the tri-state area, as well as a large contingent of spectators.
Our recent air shows have showcased helicopter flying and aerobatic flying of 1/4- to 1/3-scale models of aerobatic aircraft by members of northeastern Ohio clubs, scale warbirds and scale models of non-military aircraft in both flying and static displays, as well as CL (control-line) flying.
The air shows have also presented the opportunity for young would-be pilots to actually control a model in the air under the supervision of club instructors. Consistently, club members have been told by spectators of their amazement at the range of maneuvers performed at the air shows by RC pilots and their airplanes.
With the increase in the number of attendees, the club began to collect donations for parking, provide food concessions, and conduct raffles that enabled us to share proceeds from the air show with local charities such as Shriners Hospitals for Children in Erie, the Robison Elementary School playground fund, and the Children's Zoo at the Erie Zoo.
For the Ninth Annual Model Air Show in 2005, the club partnered with the Make-A-Wish Foundation as its designated recipient. This event enabled us to present a check for $800 to this organization; the money went to help make a wish come true for twin brothers in our community.
We also participated at the full-scale Erie Air Show held September 10–11 by conducting a static display.
The club's treasurer, James P. Dougherty, presented our donation to Jan E. Stork, regional director of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. We were also honored by the support of the U.S. Marine Corps F-18 aviators: Captain William Mitchell, Captain John Dinh, and Lieutenant Mathew Barker.
Acknowledgment
Thanks to Gary Niemi, president of the Thermal-G Eagles, for the information and picture.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
