THIS MONTH I want to share a couple of
interesting events from around District IX.
Now, I bet many of you didn’t know that I
am a “brother.” Yep, 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 that there is a definite age
difference between the participants at the
ProBro events and most other events! I would
guess that the average “brother” is between
25-35 years of age which is significant since
the average age of all AMA members is 59! I
might add that this is up from 58½ in 2005.
See why I think this group of fliers is
sooooo vital to AMA? And while we’re on
the subject, would you like to take a guess at
the estimated age bracket of the park fliers?
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, etc. Katana 70s and Mojo 60s
were small here! Pretty cool!
“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.
These are some of the ProBro participants at
the July 22 event.
I received a warm welcome from CD Quinn
Coldiron (R). Thanks Quinn!
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, AD4N 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-onone
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. Wow! President Palmer
flew an RC P-47 and a Reno P-51 and event
director Bob Slaugh flew an Olympian and a
P-51. Club secretary Earl Johnson joined 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.”
The eye-catching banner was next to the
static display and demonstrations.
These are only a few of the 22,000 spectators
at the air show.
That’s it for this month. Until next month,
have fun and keep in touch! Mark
District IX
Mark Smith, District IX Vice President; [email protected]
Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming
Mark Smith
Vice President
14632 W. 50th St.,
Shawnee KS 66216
Tel.: (913) 568-4347
www.amadistrict-ix.org
Associate Vice
Presidents
Max Hansen, Huron SD;
[email protected]
H. Michael Harrington, Ft.
Collins CO; wdal@
lamar.colostate.edu
Fred Hildebrand, Casper WY;
[email protected]
Troy Lapp, Bismarck ND;
[email protected]
Travis McGinnis, Arvada CO;
[email protected]
Brenda Schuette, Auburn KS;
[email protected]
Jerry Tuttle, Olathe KS;
[email protected]
John Van Brocklin, Hastings NE;
[email protected]
Webmaster: Jim Shaw,
[email protected]
Contest Coordinators:
Mike Tallman, Wichita KS; miketallman@
webtv.net
Judy Gerken, Denver CO;
[email protected]
Frequency Coordinator: Steve
Mangles, Denver CO;
[email protected]
District IX Volunteers
170 MODEL AVIATION
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/11
Page Numbers: 170