Labor Day 2014 was a great weekend to be a modeler in District III. The event I attended was the Cleveland National Air Show held at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland. This three-day full-scale airshow has taken place every Labor Day weekend since 1964 and is a spinoff of the legendary Cleveland Air Races held for many years.
Next to the EAA Oshkosh gathering, this is one of the largest full-scale air shows in the nation and is a great venue to promote model aviation. The organizer for the model aviation displays at this event for more than 50 years has been Bernie Oldenburg.
An event this size requires a lot of help to pull off and over the years Bernie has enlisted the assistance of the Cleveland Aeromodel Society which consists of the Cleveland RC Club, Mentor Area Radio Control Society, the RC Eagles, the Alliance Balsa Bees, and the Corsair Model Aircraft Club. This group of enthusiastic modelers works together to promote model aviation to more than 100,000 people who attend the show.
This year saw a new attraction with the addition of the AMA Education trailer. The trailer is one of two available for AMA clubs to utilize and consists of a portable walk-up display unit that promotes modeling with flight simulators. The simulators proved to be a big hit at the show with hundreds of spectator’s young and old trying RC flying.
The daily air show kicked off with two flightlines of RC models flying expertly coordinated by flightline boss, Tony Husak, while Bernie kept the crowd educated and entertained with the emcee duties. I had the honor of flying my Ultimate in the show and demonstrated classic precision aerobatics in front of some 50,000 spectators each day.
There were demonstrations that covered many facets of modeling including Scale warbirds, 3-D aerobatics, electric-powered jets, and more. Thank you all the Cleveland area modelers who give your time and talents every year to promote model aviation in such a positive manner and a special thanks to Bernie Oldenburg for all the years he has kept model aviation in front of the public with this show. I had a great weekend with Bernie and I know he is already making plans for a bigger and better event for 2015.
Roger Luther, AMA District III webmaster, provided the following information about a recent club activity. The Johnstown RC Club in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was asked to give a presentation for a Cub Scout Day Camp held in nearby New Germany, Pennsylvania. Four club members participated, giving two 40-minute sessions for around 50 Cub Scouts in each session.
Bruce Thomas talked to the group about electric-powered airplanes and their controls, Roger Luther about gas- and glow-powered aircraft and how the RC radios operate. Neil Woffinden showed the boys some partially built models that were under construction and the ins and outs of model building, while Zane Kough talked about helicopters.
After the talks, Zane flew one of his helicopters, and Bruce flew his Beaver de Havilland electric. They really liked that! Several leaders we talked with after the sessions said our presentation was a highlight of the camp, and said our club will be asked to come back next year. Both the boys and our members had a great time! Let's hope we have some up-and-coming new club members in the next few years.
Until next month, have a Merry Christmas and we will see you next year!
