District IX — Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming
Mall shows are one of the best tools to get our hobby in the public eye. David Larsen, president of the Beresford Area Radio Flyers (BARF), sends this update on the club’s 20th annual mall show in South Dakota.
20th Annual Centre Mall Show (March 10)
Congratulations to the six winners of the 20th Annual Centre Mall Show. The event, held on March 10, included 21 registered pilots who brought more than 40 models to the display. This year, three of the models were 1/3-scale Giants. One of those Giants, a 1/3-scale Sopwith Pup, earned the Best of Show Award. It was built by Ron Houske of Sioux City, using a Balsa USA kit.
Winners:
- Best of Show: 1/3-scale Sopwith Pup — built by Ron Houske (Sioux City), Balsa USA kit.
- Best Build It Yourself (BIY) Scale: 1/3-scale Fairchild Argus 24 — built from plans and painted in the dark blue/orange markings of the period; built by Sheldon Evjen (Sioux City).
- Best BIY Sport: Sig Astro Hog — kit-built and modified with a fully sheeted and fiberglassed wing and fuse; powered by a Saito 100; built by Mark Hyronemus (Worthing, SD).
- Best ARF Scale: Great Planes Super Stearman — entered by Jack Ward (Sioux City).
- Best ARF Sport: Rebuilt/modified Sig 4 Star 60 — rebuilt by Darrell Rupp (Sioux Falls); likely to be fitted with floats for summer.
- Best Electric: ElectriFly Grumman Widgeon twin-engine amphibian — flown by Bill Beck (Sioux Falls), an avid float flyer.
The show included two flight-simulator stations that were well used. Club members handed out roughly 50 Penny Foam gliders to younger visitors. There were several impromptu indoor helicopter flying sessions during the day. AMA information was available to all who stopped by. Door prizes offered by the mall and the club were part of the package each registered pilot received.
It was a great day for BARF because of modeler participation and the welcome the club always receives from Centre Mall.
Wings Across America (WAA) program
Jim Tiller, one of our District IX associate vice presidents, submitted this article:
The Wings Across America (WAA) program was the brainchild of Frank Geiszler. The project has been passing an electric airplane from pilot to pilot across America for nearly four years. This January, the little electric SQuiRT airplane made it to South Dakota. Terry Batterman, president of the Northern Hills R/C Flyers in Spearfish, South Dakota, took command of the traveling box from the Sage Hoppers Flying Club in Gillette, Wyoming.
Typical South Dakota weather delayed the SQuiRT’s flight for a couple of weeks, but on February 4 the aircraft made its flight at Memorial Field in Spearfish. Terry was pilot number 323 in Wings Across America’s long history.
From there the airplane was passed to Jon Lundgren of the R.C. Aces in Rapid City. Jon and some members of the Aces got the aircraft aloft on February 12.
I received the airplane on February 16. My club, the Rapid City Propbusters, had a fun-fly scheduled for Sunday, February 19, so the WAA airplane was included in the festivities. We flew it several times. I was pilot number 325 on the WAA list.
From here, I will pass the airplane to Rodney Peters and Christofer Lidgett of Pierre, South Dakota. After that, it moves on to Chatsworth, Iowa. Eventually the aircraft will make its way to pilot number 356 and back to its home base in Virginia. There is talk that the airplane, along with the log book and all the memorabilia that has been added, will be donated to the AMA’s National Model Aviation Museum.
If you want more details on this project, go to the WAA-08 website at www.waa-08.org.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
