The season has begun and requests for my attendance at fly-ins have tripled. There are a lot of great events going on in District V. Please try to make it out and enjoy our hobby, bring a friend, and introduce a kid. Fly often!
Modelers! Please check out the Know Before You Fly website. There is a lot of great information on there. I also plan to have our District V Facebook page up and running in the near future.
The following report comes from Dave Henzel.
Green Hats invade Florida! Take home treasure!
Well it’s just a joke, but we did wear our hats that were given to us at Joe Nall to work on the Control Line (CL) trainer circle. The three of us, Wayne Robinson, Will Davis, and I, were each awarded a plaque for placing in the King Orange International CL Contest held in Jacksonville, Florida, on the weekend of January 16-18.
This was my first CL contest, and the winds were much higher than anything I fly in at home. The pilot who took third place in Beginner crashed on the outside loops. Otherwise he probably would have placed second because I ran out of fuel half way through my flight.
We all did some judging during this event, and I discovered I enjoyed judging more than competing. Although, since this was my first time competing, I might have a few more tries at it in the future. I just have to fill the tank all the way, dummy.
The wing is about all that’s left of Will Davis’s Fanfair. It was electric powered and flew well in calm air, but it was thrown into the ground by the high winds on Sunday. There were probably three other wrecks in the rough conditions, and many pilots, including me, passed on our second flight attempt.
I encourage everyone to attend a local contest, even if it’s not your primary interest, and volunteer to help out. You might even enjoy it. My first time going to Muncie, Indiana, for the Nats, I stumbled into the last day of Free Flight and was handed a stop watch to time a couple flights. I left the event amazed and a better understanding of what it’s all about. It was an enlightening day to say the least.
Andrew Griffith, one of our District V associate vice presidents, sent in this report on the December 6, 2014, Toys for Tots benefit fly-in held by the Gateway RC Club.
The Jacksonville, Florida, area has a long and rich military history. The gate to the Jacksonville National Cemetery is within view of the Gateway RC Club field. With this in mind, supporting a military-based charity, such as Toys for Tots run by the U.S. Marine Corps, was a natural choice. Events come and go, but the annual Gateway Toys for Tots event goes back more than 15 years and I have had the pleasure of attending several times.
Club President Patrick Lanfri was the Contest Director (CD) for this year’s event. With Hobby World of Jacksonville providing a 150-size Great Planes Mustang, raffle tickets were quite popular. The entry fee was an unwrapped toy, and the raffle tickets were provided based on the value of the toy donated. Because bicycles are at the top of the Christmas wish list of many children, additional raffle tickets are provided to those who purchase and bring a bike to donate.
The event attracted 25 pilots and a large number of spectators. Thirty bicycles, more than $600, and two boxes stuff with new toys were collected. Two grateful marines were more than happy to load them into their Studebaker US6 to haul to the distribution center.
The Marines know about the Gateway event and it’s become one of the prime Toys for Tots duty assignments for the food and flying lessons.
Special thanks to Ashley Rose Meier of the FlyingGiants website for the use of her pictures.
