The month of April was busy for me! The AMA Executive Council (EC) meeting was held in Toledo, Ohio, and the Toledo R/C Expo. As part of my duties on the EC, I am also part of the AMA Scholarship Committee.
During the Toledo Show, AMA awarded Eric Gilkey with a $7,000 scholarship. It is an honor to be a part of this AMA endeavor!
I attended the Richardson RC Club’s fly-in on April 12 in McKinney, Texas. The wind blew and not many people came out, but the club did well and we had lots of fun and flying anyway.
I flew almost everything I took—even a 1-ounce indoor airplane backward in the wind. I always said the wind is just more lift—except when the wind is more than the forward thrust is putting out. I guess I pushed that just a little bit while we were there.
Tony Breyen, the District VIII associate vice president (AVP) for the Dallas area, came as well and flew once or twice. He was very happy that he won the raffle airplane.
Tony also helped me present Making a Difference (MAD) awards to Ed Kranz, Robert Ferguson, and Harold Walsh. They did a great job with the event despite lack of attendance. The club also had in place a solar charging station that was a nice setup.
On April 19, I went to the Alvin RC Club’s Big Bird event in Houston, Texas, and had Randy Brown and AVP Randy Ritch go as well. It was a great showing; more than 50 pilots attended, many more than expected.
Benny Beherns did a great job as the CD and club members helped with the food, the flightline, and anything else that needed to be done. It is a nice thing to see when the entire club comes out to help at an event and they all work instead of fly. That makes the CD’s job much easier.
I met many people and had a great time, although I did not get to fly an RC airplane.
One of the highlights of the event was a 50% Cub that belonged to Robert Bernal. The airplane was flown from takeoff to the landing by eight-year-old Desmond Campbell. He did a great job with an airplane that he had only flown once before. Desmond said he was but Robert was Robert coached him during the entire flight. Desmond did an outstanding job!
On May 3 I took a quick trip down to Las Cruces, New Mexico, for a Scale meet. Steve Preston did a nice job and had lots of help from the Mesilla Valley Model Airplane Club members.
Hope to see you all at the field!
