Author: Mike Mosbrooker
Edition: Model Aviation - 2012/07
Page Numbers: 149

District XI — Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington

Vice President

Let me first introduce our newest associate vice president, Gene Stone, from East Wenatchee, Washington. Gene has been active in the Red Apple Flyers of Wenatchee for many years, and I am sure he will be a useful asset to those of you with questions and/or concerns in central Washington.

I am sad to report that two members from the district have made their final flights. Floyd William "Bill" Grove and Sam Arrigo had been AMA members for many years. My condolences to their families and many friends.

On hearing of the passing of these two gentlemen, I did some looking around and found out that in other districts the district vice president (VP) often buys a brick for the AMA Walk of Fame, which includes the departed’s name and AMA number. I am considering doing that in this district but would like to hear your thoughts.

The way it might work is:

  • The district would pay $25 toward a brick for someone who has been a member for five years.
  • $50 for 10 years.
  • $75 for 15 years.
  • $100 (full brick) for 20 or more years.

Clubs, friends, and/or family would be expected to pay the rest for those short of 20 years. I suggest that this be made retroactive to the first of this year, when I became the District XI VP.

I went to the Weak Signals show in Toledo for the first time in many years, and what a show it was! More than 400 vendors' models and a large swap meet filled the Seagate Convention Center.

When you walked up to a vendor such as Dave Brown Products, there was Dave Brown in the flesh and ready to talk. This was also true of many other vendors. Yes, my wallet is lighter now, but what I bought was all stuff I really needed (my wife loves that phrase). Plenty of merchandise was moving. The representatives from Nitro Planes sold nothing after roughly noon on Saturday, because the company had nothing left but display models. Nitro was not the only such vendor.

Many beautiful models were on display, competing for several hefty cash prizes. One that caught my eye was a composite, turbine-powered dragon that actually breathed fire. I heard later that this won best in show. The effort was considerable; the builder made 62 molds for the various components.

Toledo is a long way from Oak Harbor, Washington. I had to get home somehow, so I elected to attend the 70th reunion of the Doolittle Raiders in the Dayton area and then ride home as a crew member on a B-25. That was awesome, especially when the weather had us so low around Peoria, Illinois, that we were navigating by street signs.

Our next stop was at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. We parked next to and toured one of the base’s B-1 bombers.

If you’ve forgotten, General Jimmy Doolittle led a flight of 16 B-25s to bomb Japan in 1942, knowing they would run out of fuel before making landfall. The airplanes were launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet and had to get into the air from a pitching deck in slightly more than 400 feet. Four of the five surviving raiders (there were 80 on the raid) were at the reunion, and all are in their 90s. Approximately 250,000 Chinese were killed for aiding the raiders in making their way through occupied China.

Rob Kurek, AMA’s Director of Publications, told me that a digital version of the complete Model Aviation will be available soon, as will all issues of MA dating from its inception in 1975. Members will be able to research and retrieve information that all of us remember seeing "someplace and sometime." Take a look at the latest Model Aviation in digital form; you can find it on the MA website.

I want to publish information about activities within the district concerned with all aspects of model aviation, but my mailbox and email are largely empty in that regard. Send me stuff and indicate that I have permission to use it, please.

Until next month.

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.