District III — Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia
Winter and indoor flying
As I write this, Old Man Winter has set in pretty good in District III.
For many years, most modelers in this part of the country would hunker down in the basement and work on their latest creations to get ready for the spring flying season. If you were more of a flier than a builder (like me), it made for a long, cold winter.
Today, however, things have changed with the proliferation of electric aircraft, particularly for indoor flying.
Indoor events
In District III, we are blessed with two large indoor events: the Horizon Indoor held in Columbus, Ohio, and the Northeast Ohio Electric Festival in Akron. Although these events are huge and attract participants from District III and beyond, there are plenty of clubs flying nearly every weekend during the long, cold winters in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
The great thing about this is it makes those winter days go by fast, but the downside is while you are flying indoors, you’re probably not getting to do much building for the spring. Thank goodness for ARFs!
Mall shows and community outreach
Another excellent winter club activity is a mall show. Mall shows are a great way to show the public what we do and promote the benefits of model aviation.
I have noticed a decline in these events throughout the years, and when talking with clubs that had successful mall shows but no longer did them, I asked why. One of the biggest issues was that malls began to charge the clubs for the space used for the show. I heard this from several clubs. This typically happened when new management took over the mall.
I encourage you to go to your local mall and talk to management about doing a show with your club. Maybe they have a new philosophy and want to encourage local nonprofit organizations and will not charge you.
Promote your club
I encourage you to promote your club, model aviation, and the AMA to your communities. This type of PR will help you in the future when your club may need help finding or maintaining a flying field.
Until next month, stay warm, fly indoors, promote model aviation, and have fun!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
