District XI - 2006/12
This month I want to share a couple of interesting events from around District IX.
I bet many of you didn’t know that I am a “brother.” I joined the Profile Brotherhood, and KC flying bud John Wells and I enjoyed a fantastic weekend playing with our “brothers.”
One thing that is different and exciting for our hobby is the definite age difference between the participants at the ProBro events and most other events. I would guess the average “brother” is between 25–35 years of age, which is significant since the average age of all AMA members is 59 (up from 58½ in 2005). See why I think this group of fliers is so vital to AMA? While we’re on the subject, would you like to take a guess at the estimated age bracket of the park fliers?
Omaha-area ProBro (Twin Cities Eagles)
CD Quinn Coldiron reported the event:
“The Twin Cities Eagles club hosted the second annual Omaha-area ProBro. ProBro members from Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri flew, with an estimated attendance of 25–30 people on July 21–23. The focus of a ProBro event is open 3-D flying with much tail-touching and mass hovering.
“This ended up being a big-bird event. I don’t mean big fatties but big profiles. This club is all about big airplanes and it shows, with 40-sized models in the minority here. We had tons of:
- OMP 80s
- OMP Hybrid
- Mojo 65s
- Skeeter 80
- 40% Carden Edges
- 30% airplanes
Katana 70s and Mojo 60s were small here!
“Flying started Friday morning with the local guys arriving between 8 and 9 a.m. The out-of-state pilots started arriving at the field around noon and the fun began. We flew all day, and in the evening the foamies and electrics came out.
“Saturday started at approximately 8 a.m., and by noon Pete Rosas and Jake Fahn were tearing it up with the 40% Cardens. DA 150s sound so sweet, especially when Pete is doing KE figure-eights at full throttle! Jake torqued his Carden at roughly 75 or 100 feet and Pete was doing outside KE circles around him, getting tighter and tighter.
“A big thanks to Mark Smith from AMA for attending. Mark is a top-notch guy and ProBro through and through. He just needs to learn how to hover better!”
I want to recognize the “father” of the Profile Brotherhood, Billy Hell (a.k.a. Jim T. Graham). We need to encourage and support this popular style of flying.
Wings Over Wyoming — Casper Airmodelers at the Casper air show
Our associate vice president from Wyoming, Fred Hildebrand, sent in this article about a successful air show. These people went the extra mile to share our hobby with thousands of spectators. Thanks, Fred.
“Casper, Wyoming RCers had a chance to show off to thousands! When the USAF Thunderbirds, US Army Golden Knights, Firebirds Aerobatic Team, MiG-15s, F-15s, a P-51D, F-18, F-14, AD-4N and many others scheduled a big air show in Casper the same weekend as the Casper Airmodelers’ usual fly-in, it was just too much competition. So the Casper club president, Robert Palmer, proposed we join them!
“Through a super amount of work, Robert was not only able to get us a chance to fly, but we were on the program as one of the air show events. They not only let the demonstration pilots fly, but they flew at the air show’s center stage. A large area was arranged for static displays, simulator demonstrations, club handouts, and one-on-one contact with all who had questions—and there were many!
“The air show spectators were already excited and in an airplane mood. RC demonstration pilots included:
- Erick Bailey, a hotshot RC 3-D helicopter pilot from Denver, flying a Raptor 50
- President Robert Palmer, flying an RC P-47 and a Reno P-51
- Event director Bob Slaugh, flying an Olympian and a P-51
- Club secretary Earl Johnson, joining the formation-flying demonstration with a Corsair
“On the first day, the 3-D helicopter flew and then came the pattern demonstration. On the second day was a formation-flying show. It had been more than 20 years since Casper had a real air show, and people came from all around Wyoming and elsewhere. Approximately 6,000 attended Saturday and another 16,000 came on Sunday—22,000 is a lot of spectators!
“Wings Over Wyoming was a huge success, and the Casper Airmodelers got to be on center stage for a little while.”
That’s it for this month. Until next month, have fun and keep in touch!
Mark
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
