District XI—Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington
In Memoriam
District XI has seen another fine modeler take his last flight. Nigel "Doug" Francis left us after a long illness. Doug was a former Navy pilot, many-time club officer, and AMA Life Member. He was also active in numerous community organizations and will be remembered with a brick in the AMA Walk of Fame.
Bell Air RC Flyers — 7th Annual Warbirds Over Whatcom
Gerry Becker from Bellingham, Washington, reported that 29 U.S. and Canadian pilots with 63 airplanes registered for the Bell Air RC Flyers 7th Annual Warbirds Over Whatcom, held Saturday, July 27, followed by an All-Bird Fun-Fly on the 28th. The weather was exceptionally nice and, during the weekend, 300-plus spectators contributed 139 pounds of food and $346 to the local food bank.
George Eckhart, the club’s events and public relations coordinator, did an outstanding job of honoring one of only two living World War II Tuskegee Airmen in the state of Washington, George Hickman, as well as our local WWII P-38 pilot, Capt. Joe Moser. Our condolences to George Hickman’s family — he passed away two weeks after the event.
On display, compliments of the local WWII museum, was a large selection of World War I and World War II artifacts. The Heritage Air Museum of Bellingham gave spectators and RC pilots a great thrill on Saturday by making three low passes over the field with the only operational AD Skyraider on the West Coast. Wow — I love to hear those piston-powered airplanes!
The Saturday Warbird event halftime show excited spectators with a Snoopy vs. the Red Baron dogfight, flown by Jerry McLean (aka Snoopy) and Gerry Becker (aka the Red Baron).
Jay Schoening and Jerry McLean also demonstrated a WWII Waco glider tow and a C-47 parachute drop. Pat and Michael Belisle got the crowd’s attention with their 1/3-scale Balsa USA dogfight between a Fokker D.VII and a Sopwith Pup. Marv Benson and Jay Schoening demonstrated a radio-controlled parachute jumper, and this time everything worked.
Winners:
- Best of Show: Pat Belisle — Fokker D.VII
- Best WWI: Michael Belisle — Sopwith Pup
- Best WWII: Jay Schoening — Curtiss Hawk P-6E
- Best Military Trainer: Renny Stefani — PT-19
On Sunday, July 29, the pilots kept the air filled with a mix of aircraft types. Dave Boyd and Jeff Mullen put on a great demonstration flight with an AgWagon powered by a five-cylinder Moki engine — they got rid of our bug problem with a generous supply of smoke. Kevin Klocke put on a great show demonstrating how to mow the grass inverted with his helicopter.
Thanks and Acknowledgments
Thanks to the following for their support and donations:
- Performance RC of Burlington
- Hobbytown of Bellingham
- Hannegans Seafood of Bellingham
- The Heritage Air Museum of Bellingham
- Tower Hobbies / Hobbico
- Balsa USA
- Troybuilt Models
- John Vanderhage (professional photography)
And above all, thanks to the Bell Air RC Flyers club members who devoted many hours of their time and money to support this event. Great job, everyone!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
