District IV
Charlotte Aeromodelers — First Annual All Helicopter Day (July 31, 2010)
On July 31, 2010, the Charlotte Aeromodelers opened the club’s airfield, the McCracken Aerodrome, for its First Annual All Helicopter Day. A break in the hot, humid weather made for a perfect day of flying. With 17 registered pilots and 45 guests (not counting the crackerjack club volunteers), the day was filled with skillful flying, food, prizes, and plenty of hospitality.
AMA District IV Associate Vice President (AVP) Bill Hamby joined in the flying activities and award presentations. Sponsors provided a variety of raffle prizes and a nice pilots’ prize. Additional awards included:
- Best Sport
- Best Scale
- People’s Choice
The Charlotte Aeromodelers moved to the new airfield just one year earlier and are enjoying a lot of flying activities as well as a number of community events. Check the club’s website for pictures of the new facility: www.charlotteaeromodelers.org.
Blue skies to you from John Metcalf, president of the Charlotte Aeromodelers.
Third Annual Carolina Speed Rally (June 26)
The Third Annual Carolina Speed Rally was held on June 26 and was again a resounding success. Fourteen pilots came from New York, Florida, and points in between, bringing 23 airplanes and two helicopters to run past the radar gun and see how fast they could go.
The Carolina Speed Rally is a unique event for racers, sport pilots, and speed enthusiasts who want to run their aircraft as fast as possible with an honest, consistent witness to verify speed. Results and pictures from this year and the previous two rallies can be reviewed at the Caldwell Aeromodelers website: www.caldwellaeromodelers.com, or search "Carolina Speed Rally" on RCU (RC Universe) under Extreme Speed Prop Planes.
Caldwell Aeromodelers uses the event as part of its community-outreach program and contributed the registration fees to the local hospice to help achieve Gold Leader Club status. With a low registration fee, most pilots were happy to register multiple airplanes.
How the rally works:
- Each pilot makes two passes down the runway from each direction.
- A radar operator records speeds using a Stalker Pro radar gun.
- This year two radar guns were used; readings repeatedly agreed within one-tenth of a mile per hour.
- The fastest speeds from each direction are averaged to produce an average top speed.
- A certificate of speed is issued based on that data.
Many thanks to Lee Parker and Bob Tillman for the use and operation of the radar guns. This year we also issued Speed Club stickers thanks to Callie’s Graphics. Stickers start at 125 mph and go to 200 mph in 25 mph increments and were a big hit with the pilots.
Speeds ranged from about 40 mph for a park flyer up to 211 mph for a Q-40 racer. The fast passes always draw strong reactions from spectators, which often encourages pilots to push harder on the next pass. One helicopter hit 85 mph, setting a bar for future helicopter speed attempts.
We appreciate the support of:
- Full Throttle Jets
- Jett Engineering
- Eddie’s Planes Trains & Automobiles
To our knowledge, this is the only event of its kind in the USA. Based on this year’s response from pilots and club members, the Carolina Speed Rally will be around for a while. Come join us next year if you can!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
