The Greater Cincinnati Radio
Control Club’s annual air show
FC18.tif Left: Pyrotechnics excite the crowd. This
special effect is not handled nonchalantly;
safety precautions are well covered and
rehearsed.
by Randy Adams and Mark Feist
HOW WOULD your club react if its
leaders proposed to hold an annual RC
model air show? A fair number of
members would probably say “sure,”
and the club would give it a try.
But what if the challenge is that the
show has to last four hours each day it
is held, a Saturday and a Sunday, in
early August? Specifications are for 30
individual acts and the involvement of
at least 175 aircraft that represent every
A pilots’ meeting/safety briefing is held
approximately an hour before the show begins.
Using a golf cart makes the CD’s job much easier.
18 MODEL AVIATION
06sig1.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 4/22/10 2:02 PM Page 18
Above: Routines with turbine-powered
aircraft attract lots of attention.
Photos by the authors
st
aspect of model aviation.
Each performance must last no less
than six but no more than nine minutes.
There is to be no more than 30 seconds
of dead air between each act.
The presentations need to be
planned and set to music, which is
broadcast via a public address system
that rivals that of a modern ballpark.
The announcers must be club members
and have the public personas of
professional air show presenters.
To promote a safe environment,
each aircraft is required to have safety
inspections and be flown before the
show, to qualify it and the pilot.
Participants are challenged to build
models for feature acts that focus on
fun for the audience and re-enactments
of significant achievements in aviation
history. To add to the challenge, the
show has to be held at a regional
airport and coordinated with local FAA
and airport management.
In addition to the 50-plus pilots, the
club has to supply 100 volunteers, who
consist mostly of members, family, and
friends, to support parking, concession
stands, and all other customer-friendly
services that this show provides. Those
volunteers need to be prepared to serve
food and drinks to more than 7,500
people during the weekend.
All of that might seem crazy, but the
Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club
(GCRCC) in Ohio pulls off these feats
every year with its Flying Circus air
show. It’s one of the longest-running
and most unique aeromodeling events
in the country.
A B-29 climbs out with a rocket-powered X-1 in tow. The GCRCC’s B-29 and X-1 have
been performing at this event for more than 10 years.
June 2010 19
WW I dogfighting is one
of the feature acts that
includes pyrotechnics.
06sig1.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 4/22/10 2:08 PM Page 19
The Flying Circus has not always been
the affair it is today. However, its roots
run deep, with a history of 49 consecutive
years.
The show started as a manufacturers’
fly-in in 1961, sponsored by World
Engines, a nearby distributor, and the late
John Maloney. The event’s purpose was to
gather model aviation industry leaders so
they could show their wares to the public
and introduce the then-new technology of
radio-controlled model airplanes.
Within a few years, the annual gettogether
evolved into the Flying Circus
that the GCRCC put on for the public. The
show grew steadily in the 1960s and
1970s, to a level that featured roughly 50
airplanes flying in 20-minute acts.
The affair was promoted in the local
neighborhoods and drew nice-size crowds
at the suburban field in northern
Cincinnati. It required a great deal of
effort by the membership, but the reward
was that the Flying Circus reached the
break-even point financially.
In the mid-1980s, the GCRCC decided
to take the show to a new level. It
increased the number of events, created
theme music, asked members to build
models specifically for the show, added
pyrotechnics, and featured such events as
World War II re-enactments. The results
were dramatic, and the club saw the show
turn into something special in the Greater
Cincinnati area.
Many who attend the event are return
visitors, and they have commented to
leaders that they now schedule it as one of
their summer family outings. The tenure
of the show has made it a generational
event for those families as well as the
GCRCC membership.
The Flying Circus focuses on entire days
of entertainment for spectators by
combining a bit of flying “craziness” and
replication of full-scale aviation. The
show-opening parade flight mixes
everyday RC airplanes with Scale
biplanes, helicopters, RC skydivers, and
models pulling the American flag while
the national anthem plays.
The sequence of acts is selected to
pique the spectators’ interest and make
them wonder what is next. Many
performances include what those in RC
circles call “nonscale” or “specialty”
aircraft. In one segment, Snoopy’s
Doghouse battles a Fokker Dr.I while the
1960s hit song “Snoopy Vs. the Red
Baron” plays.
A flying-broom parasail model
carrying a likeness of Harry Potter putts
around the sky, while young crowd
members especially look on in
amazement. A simulated pylon race with
flying race cars takes place, and
announcers interest spectators with
descriptions of the action, from passing to
crashing.
The balloon-bust acts tend to get the
guests into a festive mode and ready for
what’s to come. GCRCC members fly
their models low and fast toward a short
Styrofoam wall on which balloons are
attached to strings. The pilots try to
separate balloons from the wall without
crashing their airplanes.
In the end, the fliers might not cut all
the strings. However, they do sacrifice
their aircraft by plowing them through the
standing structure or skipping them across
the ground in hopes of taking out the
balloons.
This act is repeated later in the show,
but this time the airplanes must be
inverted when they cross and cut the lines.
Announcers get crowd members into the
event by selecting kids from the audience
to chant “Lower! Lower! Lower!” to the
pilots with each pass until all of the
balloons are cut or Mother Earth reaches
up and pulls the models to the ground.
The feature acts portray historical
aviation events or tell stories of world
events in which aircraft played important
roles. Replicas depict such famous firsts as
Charles A. Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic
Ocean in the Spirit of St. Louis and Chuck
Yeager breaking the sound barrier in the
X-1, dropped from the belly of a 12-footwingspan
B-29.
In celebration of the achievement of
the Voyager that Burt Rutan designed, a
club member designed and built an
electric-powered, 24-foot-wingspan
model of the craft for the Flying Circus.
His reward was not only the crowd’s
applause, but also an invitation from the
Rutans to the 20th anniversary of that
flight. The model is now on permanent
display at the Rutan museum.
The need for speed in pre-World War
II aviation was captured in the Golden
Age of Racing. Spectators at the Flying
Circus are treated to models of that era
racing around pylons as announcers talk
about the likes of Jimmy Doolittle and his
famed Gee Bee racer, Wally Post, and
Roscoe Turner.
Postwar and modern-day Reno Air
Racing is captured on the miniature
course, where going fast and turning left
is the norm. Replicas of Rare Bear, Miss
America, September Fury, and other
highly modified warbirds blow by at
much faster speeds than expected, and
split-second decisions can lead to crowdpleasing
photo finishes.
No air show is complete without a
salute to the warbird eras. Special club
tributes are given to both WW I and WW
II, and they include the aircraft and
missions flown.
The Great War has its roots in original
“dogfighting,” and the Flying Circus
represents that. The sky fills with as many
as 10 aircraft of that era, and pilots
simulate mass confusion. A modern-day
version of the film Hell’s Angels is
portrayed in real time; Camels and Dr.Is
fill the sky in a flurry of stick-and-rudder
performance.
The most prolific time for aviation in
US history was WW II, and the Flying
Circus gives it its due. In 2008, eight
GCRCC members built B-25 bombers and
the coning tower of the USS Hornet, to
tell the story of the Doolittle Raid.
In 2009, 12 club members constructed
models of several Japanese carrier-based
airplanes, to simulate the surprise attack
on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. At
the same time, the crowd heard specially
selected tracks from radio broadcasts—
climaxing with President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s famous speech declaring war
on Japan.
This led into more than 25 WW II
fighters and bombers conducting several
bombing and strafing runs on mock cities
that exploded with special choreographed
pyrotechnics. The conclusion of the WW
II performance was a lone flight of a B-
29, dropping the atomic bomb that ended
WW II.
To pay tribute to that moment, taps
was played and several spectators and
pilots wiped tears from their eyes.
Recent years have seen the development
of turbine technology and significant
advancements in helicopters, and the
Flying Circus would not be outdone in
those areas. As the air show increased in
age, quality of performances, and number
of acts, expansion became a necessity.
In 2003, the event took its next big
step; the GCRCC decided to move the
show to a local airport. That year
coincided with the 100th anniversary of
the Wright brothers’ famous first flight,
so it changed the Flying Circus’s
planning.
This involved working with airport
management, local governments, the
FAA, police, fire departments, full-scale
aircraft owners and pilots, the EAA, local
warbird groups, etc. For the first time, the
GCRCC’s show included full-scale
aviation. Presentations ranged from flying
demonstrations to static displays.
In 2009 the 49th annual Flying Circus
was held August 8-9 at the Butler County
Regional Airport, which is located in the
northwest suburbs of Cincinnati, on the
border of the cities of Hamilton and
Fairfield. It was the seventh year at that
site and another safe and successful show.
Estimates were that 8,000 spectators
attended.
No air show can take place without
publicity. This is probably the most
important aspect of the Flying Circus’s
attendance. It involves time and patience.
Imagine trying to convince all forms of
local media how important this event is
and how much of a positive impact it has
on the community. Even with all of the
entertainment “competition,” it is
regularly featured on multiple TV and
radio shows, as well as in articles in local
newspapers.
Unsung heroes of this air show are the
countless nonflying team members who
take time off from their day jobs to attend
a full-day work party on Friday before the
event, to prepare the airport grounds.
Remarkably, within a few hours after the
show, the property is reverted to a clean
and fully operational full-scale airport.
GCRCC members are often asked (and
they ask themselves) why they expend so
much time, effort, and money to put on
the Flying Circus. There are many
answers and points of view, but in general
they believe that it’s a great way to give
back to local communities.
The proceeds fund many activities,
while keeping the individual member’s
dues affordable, thus encouraging model
aviation. The club holds multiple free flyins
for the RC community and conducts
an AMA TAG (Take off And Grow) day,
which includes free food and a trainer
that is given to a participant.
In addition, the GCRCC hosts a picnic
for families of the Spina Bifida
Association of Cincinnati and conducts an
auction of donated items to benefit the
cause. Last year the club donated more
than $4,000 to charities.
A show such as the Flying Circus
keeps model aviation in the public eye,
which helps groups attain flying sites and
increases membership for the GCRCC
and other local clubs.
As you read this the GCRCC is planning
its 50th Annual Flying Circus, to be held
the second weekend in August: the 7th and
8th. The group hopes to put on another
great event that will include all of the
signature acts, music, great food and
drinks, new features, and possibly some
surprise “guests.”
See you there! MA
Mark Feist
[email protected]
Randy Adams
[email protected]
Sources:
Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club
www.gcrcc.ne
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/06
Page Numbers: 18,19,20,21,22,23,25
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/06
Page Numbers: 18,19,20,21,22,23,25
The Greater Cincinnati Radio
Control Club’s annual air show
FC18.tif Left: Pyrotechnics excite the crowd. This
special effect is not handled nonchalantly;
safety precautions are well covered and
rehearsed.
by Randy Adams and Mark Feist
HOW WOULD your club react if its
leaders proposed to hold an annual RC
model air show? A fair number of
members would probably say “sure,”
and the club would give it a try.
But what if the challenge is that the
show has to last four hours each day it
is held, a Saturday and a Sunday, in
early August? Specifications are for 30
individual acts and the involvement of
at least 175 aircraft that represent every
A pilots’ meeting/safety briefing is held
approximately an hour before the show begins.
Using a golf cart makes the CD’s job much easier.
18 MODEL AVIATION
06sig1.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 4/22/10 2:02 PM Page 18
Above: Routines with turbine-powered
aircraft attract lots of attention.
Photos by the authors
st
aspect of model aviation.
Each performance must last no less
than six but no more than nine minutes.
There is to be no more than 30 seconds
of dead air between each act.
The presentations need to be
planned and set to music, which is
broadcast via a public address system
that rivals that of a modern ballpark.
The announcers must be club members
and have the public personas of
professional air show presenters.
To promote a safe environment,
each aircraft is required to have safety
inspections and be flown before the
show, to qualify it and the pilot.
Participants are challenged to build
models for feature acts that focus on
fun for the audience and re-enactments
of significant achievements in aviation
history. To add to the challenge, the
show has to be held at a regional
airport and coordinated with local FAA
and airport management.
In addition to the 50-plus pilots, the
club has to supply 100 volunteers, who
consist mostly of members, family, and
friends, to support parking, concession
stands, and all other customer-friendly
services that this show provides. Those
volunteers need to be prepared to serve
food and drinks to more than 7,500
people during the weekend.
All of that might seem crazy, but the
Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club
(GCRCC) in Ohio pulls off these feats
every year with its Flying Circus air
show. It’s one of the longest-running
and most unique aeromodeling events
in the country.
A B-29 climbs out with a rocket-powered X-1 in tow. The GCRCC’s B-29 and X-1 have
been performing at this event for more than 10 years.
June 2010 19
WW I dogfighting is one
of the feature acts that
includes pyrotechnics.
06sig1.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 4/22/10 2:08 PM Page 19
The Flying Circus has not always been
the affair it is today. However, its roots
run deep, with a history of 49 consecutive
years.
The show started as a manufacturers’
fly-in in 1961, sponsored by World
Engines, a nearby distributor, and the late
John Maloney. The event’s purpose was to
gather model aviation industry leaders so
they could show their wares to the public
and introduce the then-new technology of
radio-controlled model airplanes.
Within a few years, the annual gettogether
evolved into the Flying Circus
that the GCRCC put on for the public. The
show grew steadily in the 1960s and
1970s, to a level that featured roughly 50
airplanes flying in 20-minute acts.
The affair was promoted in the local
neighborhoods and drew nice-size crowds
at the suburban field in northern
Cincinnati. It required a great deal of
effort by the membership, but the reward
was that the Flying Circus reached the
break-even point financially.
In the mid-1980s, the GCRCC decided
to take the show to a new level. It
increased the number of events, created
theme music, asked members to build
models specifically for the show, added
pyrotechnics, and featured such events as
World War II re-enactments. The results
were dramatic, and the club saw the show
turn into something special in the Greater
Cincinnati area.
Many who attend the event are return
visitors, and they have commented to
leaders that they now schedule it as one of
their summer family outings. The tenure
of the show has made it a generational
event for those families as well as the
GCRCC membership.
The Flying Circus focuses on entire days
of entertainment for spectators by
combining a bit of flying “craziness” and
replication of full-scale aviation. The
show-opening parade flight mixes
everyday RC airplanes with Scale
biplanes, helicopters, RC skydivers, and
models pulling the American flag while
the national anthem plays.
The sequence of acts is selected to
pique the spectators’ interest and make
them wonder what is next. Many
performances include what those in RC
circles call “nonscale” or “specialty”
aircraft. In one segment, Snoopy’s
Doghouse battles a Fokker Dr.I while the
1960s hit song “Snoopy Vs. the Red
Baron” plays.
A flying-broom parasail model
carrying a likeness of Harry Potter putts
around the sky, while young crowd
members especially look on in
amazement. A simulated pylon race with
flying race cars takes place, and
announcers interest spectators with
descriptions of the action, from passing to
crashing.
The balloon-bust acts tend to get the
guests into a festive mode and ready for
what’s to come. GCRCC members fly
their models low and fast toward a short
Styrofoam wall on which balloons are
attached to strings. The pilots try to
separate balloons from the wall without
crashing their airplanes.
In the end, the fliers might not cut all
the strings. However, they do sacrifice
their aircraft by plowing them through the
standing structure or skipping them across
the ground in hopes of taking out the
balloons.
This act is repeated later in the show,
but this time the airplanes must be
inverted when they cross and cut the lines.
Announcers get crowd members into the
event by selecting kids from the audience
to chant “Lower! Lower! Lower!” to the
pilots with each pass until all of the
balloons are cut or Mother Earth reaches
up and pulls the models to the ground.
The feature acts portray historical
aviation events or tell stories of world
events in which aircraft played important
roles. Replicas depict such famous firsts as
Charles A. Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic
Ocean in the Spirit of St. Louis and Chuck
Yeager breaking the sound barrier in the
X-1, dropped from the belly of a 12-footwingspan
B-29.
In celebration of the achievement of
the Voyager that Burt Rutan designed, a
club member designed and built an
electric-powered, 24-foot-wingspan
model of the craft for the Flying Circus.
His reward was not only the crowd’s
applause, but also an invitation from the
Rutans to the 20th anniversary of that
flight. The model is now on permanent
display at the Rutan museum.
The need for speed in pre-World War
II aviation was captured in the Golden
Age of Racing. Spectators at the Flying
Circus are treated to models of that era
racing around pylons as announcers talk
about the likes of Jimmy Doolittle and his
famed Gee Bee racer, Wally Post, and
Roscoe Turner.
Postwar and modern-day Reno Air
Racing is captured on the miniature
course, where going fast and turning left
is the norm. Replicas of Rare Bear, Miss
America, September Fury, and other
highly modified warbirds blow by at
much faster speeds than expected, and
split-second decisions can lead to crowdpleasing
photo finishes.
No air show is complete without a
salute to the warbird eras. Special club
tributes are given to both WW I and WW
II, and they include the aircraft and
missions flown.
The Great War has its roots in original
“dogfighting,” and the Flying Circus
represents that. The sky fills with as many
as 10 aircraft of that era, and pilots
simulate mass confusion. A modern-day
version of the film Hell’s Angels is
portrayed in real time; Camels and Dr.Is
fill the sky in a flurry of stick-and-rudder
performance.
The most prolific time for aviation in
US history was WW II, and the Flying
Circus gives it its due. In 2008, eight
GCRCC members built B-25 bombers and
the coning tower of the USS Hornet, to
tell the story of the Doolittle Raid.
In 2009, 12 club members constructed
models of several Japanese carrier-based
airplanes, to simulate the surprise attack
on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. At
the same time, the crowd heard specially
selected tracks from radio broadcasts—
climaxing with President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s famous speech declaring war
on Japan.
This led into more than 25 WW II
fighters and bombers conducting several
bombing and strafing runs on mock cities
that exploded with special choreographed
pyrotechnics. The conclusion of the WW
II performance was a lone flight of a B-
29, dropping the atomic bomb that ended
WW II.
To pay tribute to that moment, taps
was played and several spectators and
pilots wiped tears from their eyes.
Recent years have seen the development
of turbine technology and significant
advancements in helicopters, and the
Flying Circus would not be outdone in
those areas. As the air show increased in
age, quality of performances, and number
of acts, expansion became a necessity.
In 2003, the event took its next big
step; the GCRCC decided to move the
show to a local airport. That year
coincided with the 100th anniversary of
the Wright brothers’ famous first flight,
so it changed the Flying Circus’s
planning.
This involved working with airport
management, local governments, the
FAA, police, fire departments, full-scale
aircraft owners and pilots, the EAA, local
warbird groups, etc. For the first time, the
GCRCC’s show included full-scale
aviation. Presentations ranged from flying
demonstrations to static displays.
In 2009 the 49th annual Flying Circus
was held August 8-9 at the Butler County
Regional Airport, which is located in the
northwest suburbs of Cincinnati, on the
border of the cities of Hamilton and
Fairfield. It was the seventh year at that
site and another safe and successful show.
Estimates were that 8,000 spectators
attended.
No air show can take place without
publicity. This is probably the most
important aspect of the Flying Circus’s
attendance. It involves time and patience.
Imagine trying to convince all forms of
local media how important this event is
and how much of a positive impact it has
on the community. Even with all of the
entertainment “competition,” it is
regularly featured on multiple TV and
radio shows, as well as in articles in local
newspapers.
Unsung heroes of this air show are the
countless nonflying team members who
take time off from their day jobs to attend
a full-day work party on Friday before the
event, to prepare the airport grounds.
Remarkably, within a few hours after the
show, the property is reverted to a clean
and fully operational full-scale airport.
GCRCC members are often asked (and
they ask themselves) why they expend so
much time, effort, and money to put on
the Flying Circus. There are many
answers and points of view, but in general
they believe that it’s a great way to give
back to local communities.
The proceeds fund many activities,
while keeping the individual member’s
dues affordable, thus encouraging model
aviation. The club holds multiple free flyins
for the RC community and conducts
an AMA TAG (Take off And Grow) day,
which includes free food and a trainer
that is given to a participant.
In addition, the GCRCC hosts a picnic
for families of the Spina Bifida
Association of Cincinnati and conducts an
auction of donated items to benefit the
cause. Last year the club donated more
than $4,000 to charities.
A show such as the Flying Circus
keeps model aviation in the public eye,
which helps groups attain flying sites and
increases membership for the GCRCC
and other local clubs.
As you read this the GCRCC is planning
its 50th Annual Flying Circus, to be held
the second weekend in August: the 7th and
8th. The group hopes to put on another
great event that will include all of the
signature acts, music, great food and
drinks, new features, and possibly some
surprise “guests.”
See you there! MA
Mark Feist
[email protected]
Randy Adams
[email protected]
Sources:
Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club
www.gcrcc.ne
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/06
Page Numbers: 18,19,20,21,22,23,25
The Greater Cincinnati Radio
Control Club’s annual air show
FC18.tif Left: Pyrotechnics excite the crowd. This
special effect is not handled nonchalantly;
safety precautions are well covered and
rehearsed.
by Randy Adams and Mark Feist
HOW WOULD your club react if its
leaders proposed to hold an annual RC
model air show? A fair number of
members would probably say “sure,”
and the club would give it a try.
But what if the challenge is that the
show has to last four hours each day it
is held, a Saturday and a Sunday, in
early August? Specifications are for 30
individual acts and the involvement of
at least 175 aircraft that represent every
A pilots’ meeting/safety briefing is held
approximately an hour before the show begins.
Using a golf cart makes the CD’s job much easier.
18 MODEL AVIATION
06sig1.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 4/22/10 2:02 PM Page 18
Above: Routines with turbine-powered
aircraft attract lots of attention.
Photos by the authors
st
aspect of model aviation.
Each performance must last no less
than six but no more than nine minutes.
There is to be no more than 30 seconds
of dead air between each act.
The presentations need to be
planned and set to music, which is
broadcast via a public address system
that rivals that of a modern ballpark.
The announcers must be club members
and have the public personas of
professional air show presenters.
To promote a safe environment,
each aircraft is required to have safety
inspections and be flown before the
show, to qualify it and the pilot.
Participants are challenged to build
models for feature acts that focus on
fun for the audience and re-enactments
of significant achievements in aviation
history. To add to the challenge, the
show has to be held at a regional
airport and coordinated with local FAA
and airport management.
In addition to the 50-plus pilots, the
club has to supply 100 volunteers, who
consist mostly of members, family, and
friends, to support parking, concession
stands, and all other customer-friendly
services that this show provides. Those
volunteers need to be prepared to serve
food and drinks to more than 7,500
people during the weekend.
All of that might seem crazy, but the
Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club
(GCRCC) in Ohio pulls off these feats
every year with its Flying Circus air
show. It’s one of the longest-running
and most unique aeromodeling events
in the country.
A B-29 climbs out with a rocket-powered X-1 in tow. The GCRCC’s B-29 and X-1 have
been performing at this event for more than 10 years.
June 2010 19
WW I dogfighting is one
of the feature acts that
includes pyrotechnics.
06sig1.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 4/22/10 2:08 PM Page 19
The Flying Circus has not always been
the affair it is today. However, its roots
run deep, with a history of 49 consecutive
years.
The show started as a manufacturers’
fly-in in 1961, sponsored by World
Engines, a nearby distributor, and the late
John Maloney. The event’s purpose was to
gather model aviation industry leaders so
they could show their wares to the public
and introduce the then-new technology of
radio-controlled model airplanes.
Within a few years, the annual gettogether
evolved into the Flying Circus
that the GCRCC put on for the public. The
show grew steadily in the 1960s and
1970s, to a level that featured roughly 50
airplanes flying in 20-minute acts.
The affair was promoted in the local
neighborhoods and drew nice-size crowds
at the suburban field in northern
Cincinnati. It required a great deal of
effort by the membership, but the reward
was that the Flying Circus reached the
break-even point financially.
In the mid-1980s, the GCRCC decided
to take the show to a new level. It
increased the number of events, created
theme music, asked members to build
models specifically for the show, added
pyrotechnics, and featured such events as
World War II re-enactments. The results
were dramatic, and the club saw the show
turn into something special in the Greater
Cincinnati area.
Many who attend the event are return
visitors, and they have commented to
leaders that they now schedule it as one of
their summer family outings. The tenure
of the show has made it a generational
event for those families as well as the
GCRCC membership.
The Flying Circus focuses on entire days
of entertainment for spectators by
combining a bit of flying “craziness” and
replication of full-scale aviation. The
show-opening parade flight mixes
everyday RC airplanes with Scale
biplanes, helicopters, RC skydivers, and
models pulling the American flag while
the national anthem plays.
The sequence of acts is selected to
pique the spectators’ interest and make
them wonder what is next. Many
performances include what those in RC
circles call “nonscale” or “specialty”
aircraft. In one segment, Snoopy’s
Doghouse battles a Fokker Dr.I while the
1960s hit song “Snoopy Vs. the Red
Baron” plays.
A flying-broom parasail model
carrying a likeness of Harry Potter putts
around the sky, while young crowd
members especially look on in
amazement. A simulated pylon race with
flying race cars takes place, and
announcers interest spectators with
descriptions of the action, from passing to
crashing.
The balloon-bust acts tend to get the
guests into a festive mode and ready for
what’s to come. GCRCC members fly
their models low and fast toward a short
Styrofoam wall on which balloons are
attached to strings. The pilots try to
separate balloons from the wall without
crashing their airplanes.
In the end, the fliers might not cut all
the strings. However, they do sacrifice
their aircraft by plowing them through the
standing structure or skipping them across
the ground in hopes of taking out the
balloons.
This act is repeated later in the show,
but this time the airplanes must be
inverted when they cross and cut the lines.
Announcers get crowd members into the
event by selecting kids from the audience
to chant “Lower! Lower! Lower!” to the
pilots with each pass until all of the
balloons are cut or Mother Earth reaches
up and pulls the models to the ground.
The feature acts portray historical
aviation events or tell stories of world
events in which aircraft played important
roles. Replicas depict such famous firsts as
Charles A. Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic
Ocean in the Spirit of St. Louis and Chuck
Yeager breaking the sound barrier in the
X-1, dropped from the belly of a 12-footwingspan
B-29.
In celebration of the achievement of
the Voyager that Burt Rutan designed, a
club member designed and built an
electric-powered, 24-foot-wingspan
model of the craft for the Flying Circus.
His reward was not only the crowd’s
applause, but also an invitation from the
Rutans to the 20th anniversary of that
flight. The model is now on permanent
display at the Rutan museum.
The need for speed in pre-World War
II aviation was captured in the Golden
Age of Racing. Spectators at the Flying
Circus are treated to models of that era
racing around pylons as announcers talk
about the likes of Jimmy Doolittle and his
famed Gee Bee racer, Wally Post, and
Roscoe Turner.
Postwar and modern-day Reno Air
Racing is captured on the miniature
course, where going fast and turning left
is the norm. Replicas of Rare Bear, Miss
America, September Fury, and other
highly modified warbirds blow by at
much faster speeds than expected, and
split-second decisions can lead to crowdpleasing
photo finishes.
No air show is complete without a
salute to the warbird eras. Special club
tributes are given to both WW I and WW
II, and they include the aircraft and
missions flown.
The Great War has its roots in original
“dogfighting,” and the Flying Circus
represents that. The sky fills with as many
as 10 aircraft of that era, and pilots
simulate mass confusion. A modern-day
version of the film Hell’s Angels is
portrayed in real time; Camels and Dr.Is
fill the sky in a flurry of stick-and-rudder
performance.
The most prolific time for aviation in
US history was WW II, and the Flying
Circus gives it its due. In 2008, eight
GCRCC members built B-25 bombers and
the coning tower of the USS Hornet, to
tell the story of the Doolittle Raid.
In 2009, 12 club members constructed
models of several Japanese carrier-based
airplanes, to simulate the surprise attack
on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. At
the same time, the crowd heard specially
selected tracks from radio broadcasts—
climaxing with President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s famous speech declaring war
on Japan.
This led into more than 25 WW II
fighters and bombers conducting several
bombing and strafing runs on mock cities
that exploded with special choreographed
pyrotechnics. The conclusion of the WW
II performance was a lone flight of a B-
29, dropping the atomic bomb that ended
WW II.
To pay tribute to that moment, taps
was played and several spectators and
pilots wiped tears from their eyes.
Recent years have seen the development
of turbine technology and significant
advancements in helicopters, and the
Flying Circus would not be outdone in
those areas. As the air show increased in
age, quality of performances, and number
of acts, expansion became a necessity.
In 2003, the event took its next big
step; the GCRCC decided to move the
show to a local airport. That year
coincided with the 100th anniversary of
the Wright brothers’ famous first flight,
so it changed the Flying Circus’s
planning.
This involved working with airport
management, local governments, the
FAA, police, fire departments, full-scale
aircraft owners and pilots, the EAA, local
warbird groups, etc. For the first time, the
GCRCC’s show included full-scale
aviation. Presentations ranged from flying
demonstrations to static displays.
In 2009 the 49th annual Flying Circus
was held August 8-9 at the Butler County
Regional Airport, which is located in the
northwest suburbs of Cincinnati, on the
border of the cities of Hamilton and
Fairfield. It was the seventh year at that
site and another safe and successful show.
Estimates were that 8,000 spectators
attended.
No air show can take place without
publicity. This is probably the most
important aspect of the Flying Circus’s
attendance. It involves time and patience.
Imagine trying to convince all forms of
local media how important this event is
and how much of a positive impact it has
on the community. Even with all of the
entertainment “competition,” it is
regularly featured on multiple TV and
radio shows, as well as in articles in local
newspapers.
Unsung heroes of this air show are the
countless nonflying team members who
take time off from their day jobs to attend
a full-day work party on Friday before the
event, to prepare the airport grounds.
Remarkably, within a few hours after the
show, the property is reverted to a clean
and fully operational full-scale airport.
GCRCC members are often asked (and
they ask themselves) why they expend so
much time, effort, and money to put on
the Flying Circus. There are many
answers and points of view, but in general
they believe that it’s a great way to give
back to local communities.
The proceeds fund many activities,
while keeping the individual member’s
dues affordable, thus encouraging model
aviation. The club holds multiple free flyins
for the RC community and conducts
an AMA TAG (Take off And Grow) day,
which includes free food and a trainer
that is given to a participant.
In addition, the GCRCC hosts a picnic
for families of the Spina Bifida
Association of Cincinnati and conducts an
auction of donated items to benefit the
cause. Last year the club donated more
than $4,000 to charities.
A show such as the Flying Circus
keeps model aviation in the public eye,
which helps groups attain flying sites and
increases membership for the GCRCC
and other local clubs.
As you read this the GCRCC is planning
its 50th Annual Flying Circus, to be held
the second weekend in August: the 7th and
8th. The group hopes to put on another
great event that will include all of the
signature acts, music, great food and
drinks, new features, and possibly some
surprise “guests.”
See you there! MA
Mark Feist
[email protected]
Randy Adams
[email protected]
Sources:
Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club
www.gcrcc.ne
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/06
Page Numbers: 18,19,20,21,22,23,25
The Greater Cincinnati Radio
Control Club’s annual air show
FC18.tif Left: Pyrotechnics excite the crowd. This
special effect is not handled nonchalantly;
safety precautions are well covered and
rehearsed.
by Randy Adams and Mark Feist
HOW WOULD your club react if its
leaders proposed to hold an annual RC
model air show? A fair number of
members would probably say “sure,”
and the club would give it a try.
But what if the challenge is that the
show has to last four hours each day it
is held, a Saturday and a Sunday, in
early August? Specifications are for 30
individual acts and the involvement of
at least 175 aircraft that represent every
A pilots’ meeting/safety briefing is held
approximately an hour before the show begins.
Using a golf cart makes the CD’s job much easier.
18 MODEL AVIATION
06sig1.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 4/22/10 2:02 PM Page 18
Above: Routines with turbine-powered
aircraft attract lots of attention.
Photos by the authors
st
aspect of model aviation.
Each performance must last no less
than six but no more than nine minutes.
There is to be no more than 30 seconds
of dead air between each act.
The presentations need to be
planned and set to music, which is
broadcast via a public address system
that rivals that of a modern ballpark.
The announcers must be club members
and have the public personas of
professional air show presenters.
To promote a safe environment,
each aircraft is required to have safety
inspections and be flown before the
show, to qualify it and the pilot.
Participants are challenged to build
models for feature acts that focus on
fun for the audience and re-enactments
of significant achievements in aviation
history. To add to the challenge, the
show has to be held at a regional
airport and coordinated with local FAA
and airport management.
In addition to the 50-plus pilots, the
club has to supply 100 volunteers, who
consist mostly of members, family, and
friends, to support parking, concession
stands, and all other customer-friendly
services that this show provides. Those
volunteers need to be prepared to serve
food and drinks to more than 7,500
people during the weekend.
All of that might seem crazy, but the
Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club
(GCRCC) in Ohio pulls off these feats
every year with its Flying Circus air
show. It’s one of the longest-running
and most unique aeromodeling events
in the country.
A B-29 climbs out with a rocket-powered X-1 in tow. The GCRCC’s B-29 and X-1 have
been performing at this event for more than 10 years.
June 2010 19
WW I dogfighting is one
of the feature acts that
includes pyrotechnics.
06sig1.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 4/22/10 2:08 PM Page 19
The Flying Circus has not always been
the affair it is today. However, its roots
run deep, with a history of 49 consecutive
years.
The show started as a manufacturers’
fly-in in 1961, sponsored by World
Engines, a nearby distributor, and the late
John Maloney. The event’s purpose was to
gather model aviation industry leaders so
they could show their wares to the public
and introduce the then-new technology of
radio-controlled model airplanes.
Within a few years, the annual gettogether
evolved into the Flying Circus
that the GCRCC put on for the public. The
show grew steadily in the 1960s and
1970s, to a level that featured roughly 50
airplanes flying in 20-minute acts.
The affair was promoted in the local
neighborhoods and drew nice-size crowds
at the suburban field in northern
Cincinnati. It required a great deal of
effort by the membership, but the reward
was that the Flying Circus reached the
break-even point financially.
In the mid-1980s, the GCRCC decided
to take the show to a new level. It
increased the number of events, created
theme music, asked members to build
models specifically for the show, added
pyrotechnics, and featured such events as
World War II re-enactments. The results
were dramatic, and the club saw the show
turn into something special in the Greater
Cincinnati area.
Many who attend the event are return
visitors, and they have commented to
leaders that they now schedule it as one of
their summer family outings. The tenure
of the show has made it a generational
event for those families as well as the
GCRCC membership.
The Flying Circus focuses on entire days
of entertainment for spectators by
combining a bit of flying “craziness” and
replication of full-scale aviation. The
show-opening parade flight mixes
everyday RC airplanes with Scale
biplanes, helicopters, RC skydivers, and
models pulling the American flag while
the national anthem plays.
The sequence of acts is selected to
pique the spectators’ interest and make
them wonder what is next. Many
performances include what those in RC
circles call “nonscale” or “specialty”
aircraft. In one segment, Snoopy’s
Doghouse battles a Fokker Dr.I while the
1960s hit song “Snoopy Vs. the Red
Baron” plays.
A flying-broom parasail model
carrying a likeness of Harry Potter putts
around the sky, while young crowd
members especially look on in
amazement. A simulated pylon race with
flying race cars takes place, and
announcers interest spectators with
descriptions of the action, from passing to
crashing.
The balloon-bust acts tend to get the
guests into a festive mode and ready for
what’s to come. GCRCC members fly
their models low and fast toward a short
Styrofoam wall on which balloons are
attached to strings. The pilots try to
separate balloons from the wall without
crashing their airplanes.
In the end, the fliers might not cut all
the strings. However, they do sacrifice
their aircraft by plowing them through the
standing structure or skipping them across
the ground in hopes of taking out the
balloons.
This act is repeated later in the show,
but this time the airplanes must be
inverted when they cross and cut the lines.
Announcers get crowd members into the
event by selecting kids from the audience
to chant “Lower! Lower! Lower!” to the
pilots with each pass until all of the
balloons are cut or Mother Earth reaches
up and pulls the models to the ground.
The feature acts portray historical
aviation events or tell stories of world
events in which aircraft played important
roles. Replicas depict such famous firsts as
Charles A. Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic
Ocean in the Spirit of St. Louis and Chuck
Yeager breaking the sound barrier in the
X-1, dropped from the belly of a 12-footwingspan
B-29.
In celebration of the achievement of
the Voyager that Burt Rutan designed, a
club member designed and built an
electric-powered, 24-foot-wingspan
model of the craft for the Flying Circus.
His reward was not only the crowd’s
applause, but also an invitation from the
Rutans to the 20th anniversary of that
flight. The model is now on permanent
display at the Rutan museum.
The need for speed in pre-World War
II aviation was captured in the Golden
Age of Racing. Spectators at the Flying
Circus are treated to models of that era
racing around pylons as announcers talk
about the likes of Jimmy Doolittle and his
famed Gee Bee racer, Wally Post, and
Roscoe Turner.
Postwar and modern-day Reno Air
Racing is captured on the miniature
course, where going fast and turning left
is the norm. Replicas of Rare Bear, Miss
America, September Fury, and other
highly modified warbirds blow by at
much faster speeds than expected, and
split-second decisions can lead to crowdpleasing
photo finishes.
No air show is complete without a
salute to the warbird eras. Special club
tributes are given to both WW I and WW
II, and they include the aircraft and
missions flown.
The Great War has its roots in original
“dogfighting,” and the Flying Circus
represents that. The sky fills with as many
as 10 aircraft of that era, and pilots
simulate mass confusion. A modern-day
version of the film Hell’s Angels is
portrayed in real time; Camels and Dr.Is
fill the sky in a flurry of stick-and-rudder
performance.
The most prolific time for aviation in
US history was WW II, and the Flying
Circus gives it its due. In 2008, eight
GCRCC members built B-25 bombers and
the coning tower of the USS Hornet, to
tell the story of the Doolittle Raid.
In 2009, 12 club members constructed
models of several Japanese carrier-based
airplanes, to simulate the surprise attack
on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. At
the same time, the crowd heard specially
selected tracks from radio broadcasts—
climaxing with President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s famous speech declaring war
on Japan.
This led into more than 25 WW II
fighters and bombers conducting several
bombing and strafing runs on mock cities
that exploded with special choreographed
pyrotechnics. The conclusion of the WW
II performance was a lone flight of a B-
29, dropping the atomic bomb that ended
WW II.
To pay tribute to that moment, taps
was played and several spectators and
pilots wiped tears from their eyes.
Recent years have seen the development
of turbine technology and significant
advancements in helicopters, and the
Flying Circus would not be outdone in
those areas. As the air show increased in
age, quality of performances, and number
of acts, expansion became a necessity.
In 2003, the event took its next big
step; the GCRCC decided to move the
show to a local airport. That year
coincided with the 100th anniversary of
the Wright brothers’ famous first flight,
so it changed the Flying Circus’s
planning.
This involved working with airport
management, local governments, the
FAA, police, fire departments, full-scale
aircraft owners and pilots, the EAA, local
warbird groups, etc. For the first time, the
GCRCC’s show included full-scale
aviation. Presentations ranged from flying
demonstrations to static displays.
In 2009 the 49th annual Flying Circus
was held August 8-9 at the Butler County
Regional Airport, which is located in the
northwest suburbs of Cincinnati, on the
border of the cities of Hamilton and
Fairfield. It was the seventh year at that
site and another safe and successful show.
Estimates were that 8,000 spectators
attended.
No air show can take place without
publicity. This is probably the most
important aspect of the Flying Circus’s
attendance. It involves time and patience.
Imagine trying to convince all forms of
local media how important this event is
and how much of a positive impact it has
on the community. Even with all of the
entertainment “competition,” it is
regularly featured on multiple TV and
radio shows, as well as in articles in local
newspapers.
Unsung heroes of this air show are the
countless nonflying team members who
take time off from their day jobs to attend
a full-day work party on Friday before the
event, to prepare the airport grounds.
Remarkably, within a few hours after the
show, the property is reverted to a clean
and fully operational full-scale airport.
GCRCC members are often asked (and
they ask themselves) why they expend so
much time, effort, and money to put on
the Flying Circus. There are many
answers and points of view, but in general
they believe that it’s a great way to give
back to local communities.
The proceeds fund many activities,
while keeping the individual member’s
dues affordable, thus encouraging model
aviation. The club holds multiple free flyins
for the RC community and conducts
an AMA TAG (Take off And Grow) day,
which includes free food and a trainer
that is given to a participant.
In addition, the GCRCC hosts a picnic
for families of the Spina Bifida
Association of Cincinnati and conducts an
auction of donated items to benefit the
cause. Last year the club donated more
than $4,000 to charities.
A show such as the Flying Circus
keeps model aviation in the public eye,
which helps groups attain flying sites and
increases membership for the GCRCC
and other local clubs.
As you read this the GCRCC is planning
its 50th Annual Flying Circus, to be held
the second weekend in August: the 7th and
8th. The group hopes to put on another
great event that will include all of the
signature acts, music, great food and
drinks, new features, and possibly some
surprise “guests.”
See you there! MA
Mark Feist
[email protected]
Randy Adams
[email protected]
Sources:
Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club
www.gcrcc.ne
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/06
Page Numbers: 18,19,20,21,22,23,25
The Greater Cincinnati Radio
Control Club’s annual air show
FC18.tif Left: Pyrotechnics excite the crowd. This
special effect is not handled nonchalantly;
safety precautions are well covered and
rehearsed.
by Randy Adams and Mark Feist
HOW WOULD your club react if its
leaders proposed to hold an annual RC
model air show? A fair number of
members would probably say “sure,”
and the club would give it a try.
But what if the challenge is that the
show has to last four hours each day it
is held, a Saturday and a Sunday, in
early August? Specifications are for 30
individual acts and the involvement of
at least 175 aircraft that represent every
A pilots’ meeting/safety briefing is held
approximately an hour before the show begins.
Using a golf cart makes the CD’s job much easier.
18 MODEL AVIATION
06sig1.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 4/22/10 2:02 PM Page 18
Above: Routines with turbine-powered
aircraft attract lots of attention.
Photos by the authors
st
aspect of model aviation.
Each performance must last no less
than six but no more than nine minutes.
There is to be no more than 30 seconds
of dead air between each act.
The presentations need to be
planned and set to music, which is
broadcast via a public address system
that rivals that of a modern ballpark.
The announcers must be club members
and have the public personas of
professional air show presenters.
To promote a safe environment,
each aircraft is required to have safety
inspections and be flown before the
show, to qualify it and the pilot.
Participants are challenged to build
models for feature acts that focus on
fun for the audience and re-enactments
of significant achievements in aviation
history. To add to the challenge, the
show has to be held at a regional
airport and coordinated with local FAA
and airport management.
In addition to the 50-plus pilots, the
club has to supply 100 volunteers, who
consist mostly of members, family, and
friends, to support parking, concession
stands, and all other customer-friendly
services that this show provides. Those
volunteers need to be prepared to serve
food and drinks to more than 7,500
people during the weekend.
All of that might seem crazy, but the
Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club
(GCRCC) in Ohio pulls off these feats
every year with its Flying Circus air
show. It’s one of the longest-running
and most unique aeromodeling events
in the country.
A B-29 climbs out with a rocket-powered X-1 in tow. The GCRCC’s B-29 and X-1 have
been performing at this event for more than 10 years.
June 2010 19
WW I dogfighting is one
of the feature acts that
includes pyrotechnics.
06sig1.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 4/22/10 2:08 PM Page 19
The Flying Circus has not always been
the affair it is today. However, its roots
run deep, with a history of 49 consecutive
years.
The show started as a manufacturers’
fly-in in 1961, sponsored by World
Engines, a nearby distributor, and the late
John Maloney. The event’s purpose was to
gather model aviation industry leaders so
they could show their wares to the public
and introduce the then-new technology of
radio-controlled model airplanes.
Within a few years, the annual gettogether
evolved into the Flying Circus
that the GCRCC put on for the public. The
show grew steadily in the 1960s and
1970s, to a level that featured roughly 50
airplanes flying in 20-minute acts.
The affair was promoted in the local
neighborhoods and drew nice-size crowds
at the suburban field in northern
Cincinnati. It required a great deal of
effort by the membership, but the reward
was that the Flying Circus reached the
break-even point financially.
In the mid-1980s, the GCRCC decided
to take the show to a new level. It
increased the number of events, created
theme music, asked members to build
models specifically for the show, added
pyrotechnics, and featured such events as
World War II re-enactments. The results
were dramatic, and the club saw the show
turn into something special in the Greater
Cincinnati area.
Many who attend the event are return
visitors, and they have commented to
leaders that they now schedule it as one of
their summer family outings. The tenure
of the show has made it a generational
event for those families as well as the
GCRCC membership.
The Flying Circus focuses on entire days
of entertainment for spectators by
combining a bit of flying “craziness” and
replication of full-scale aviation. The
show-opening parade flight mixes
everyday RC airplanes with Scale
biplanes, helicopters, RC skydivers, and
models pulling the American flag while
the national anthem plays.
The sequence of acts is selected to
pique the spectators’ interest and make
them wonder what is next. Many
performances include what those in RC
circles call “nonscale” or “specialty”
aircraft. In one segment, Snoopy’s
Doghouse battles a Fokker Dr.I while the
1960s hit song “Snoopy Vs. the Red
Baron” plays.
A flying-broom parasail model
carrying a likeness of Harry Potter putts
around the sky, while young crowd
members especially look on in
amazement. A simulated pylon race with
flying race cars takes place, and
announcers interest spectators with
descriptions of the action, from passing to
crashing.
The balloon-bust acts tend to get the
guests into a festive mode and ready for
what’s to come. GCRCC members fly
their models low and fast toward a short
Styrofoam wall on which balloons are
attached to strings. The pilots try to
separate balloons from the wall without
crashing their airplanes.
In the end, the fliers might not cut all
the strings. However, they do sacrifice
their aircraft by plowing them through the
standing structure or skipping them across
the ground in hopes of taking out the
balloons.
This act is repeated later in the show,
but this time the airplanes must be
inverted when they cross and cut the lines.
Announcers get crowd members into the
event by selecting kids from the audience
to chant “Lower! Lower! Lower!” to the
pilots with each pass until all of the
balloons are cut or Mother Earth reaches
up and pulls the models to the ground.
The feature acts portray historical
aviation events or tell stories of world
events in which aircraft played important
roles. Replicas depict such famous firsts as
Charles A. Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic
Ocean in the Spirit of St. Louis and Chuck
Yeager breaking the sound barrier in the
X-1, dropped from the belly of a 12-footwingspan
B-29.
In celebration of the achievement of
the Voyager that Burt Rutan designed, a
club member designed and built an
electric-powered, 24-foot-wingspan
model of the craft for the Flying Circus.
His reward was not only the crowd’s
applause, but also an invitation from the
Rutans to the 20th anniversary of that
flight. The model is now on permanent
display at the Rutan museum.
The need for speed in pre-World War
II aviation was captured in the Golden
Age of Racing. Spectators at the Flying
Circus are treated to models of that era
racing around pylons as announcers talk
about the likes of Jimmy Doolittle and his
famed Gee Bee racer, Wally Post, and
Roscoe Turner.
Postwar and modern-day Reno Air
Racing is captured on the miniature
course, where going fast and turning left
is the norm. Replicas of Rare Bear, Miss
America, September Fury, and other
highly modified warbirds blow by at
much faster speeds than expected, and
split-second decisions can lead to crowdpleasing
photo finishes.
No air show is complete without a
salute to the warbird eras. Special club
tributes are given to both WW I and WW
II, and they include the aircraft and
missions flown.
The Great War has its roots in original
“dogfighting,” and the Flying Circus
represents that. The sky fills with as many
as 10 aircraft of that era, and pilots
simulate mass confusion. A modern-day
version of the film Hell’s Angels is
portrayed in real time; Camels and Dr.Is
fill the sky in a flurry of stick-and-rudder
performance.
The most prolific time for aviation in
US history was WW II, and the Flying
Circus gives it its due. In 2008, eight
GCRCC members built B-25 bombers and
the coning tower of the USS Hornet, to
tell the story of the Doolittle Raid.
In 2009, 12 club members constructed
models of several Japanese carrier-based
airplanes, to simulate the surprise attack
on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. At
the same time, the crowd heard specially
selected tracks from radio broadcasts—
climaxing with President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s famous speech declaring war
on Japan.
This led into more than 25 WW II
fighters and bombers conducting several
bombing and strafing runs on mock cities
that exploded with special choreographed
pyrotechnics. The conclusion of the WW
II performance was a lone flight of a B-
29, dropping the atomic bomb that ended
WW II.
To pay tribute to that moment, taps
was played and several spectators and
pilots wiped tears from their eyes.
Recent years have seen the development
of turbine technology and significant
advancements in helicopters, and the
Flying Circus would not be outdone in
those areas. As the air show increased in
age, quality of performances, and number
of acts, expansion became a necessity.
In 2003, the event took its next big
step; the GCRCC decided to move the
show to a local airport. That year
coincided with the 100th anniversary of
the Wright brothers’ famous first flight,
so it changed the Flying Circus’s
planning.
This involved working with airport
management, local governments, the
FAA, police, fire departments, full-scale
aircraft owners and pilots, the EAA, local
warbird groups, etc. For the first time, the
GCRCC’s show included full-scale
aviation. Presentations ranged from flying
demonstrations to static displays.
In 2009 the 49th annual Flying Circus
was held August 8-9 at the Butler County
Regional Airport, which is located in the
northwest suburbs of Cincinnati, on the
border of the cities of Hamilton and
Fairfield. It was the seventh year at that
site and another safe and successful show.
Estimates were that 8,000 spectators
attended.
No air show can take place without
publicity. This is probably the most
important aspect of the Flying Circus’s
attendance. It involves time and patience.
Imagine trying to convince all forms of
local media how important this event is
and how much of a positive impact it has
on the community. Even with all of the
entertainment “competition,” it is
regularly featured on multiple TV and
radio shows, as well as in articles in local
newspapers.
Unsung heroes of this air show are the
countless nonflying team members who
take time off from their day jobs to attend
a full-day work party on Friday before the
event, to prepare the airport grounds.
Remarkably, within a few hours after the
show, the property is reverted to a clean
and fully operational full-scale airport.
GCRCC members are often asked (and
they ask themselves) why they expend so
much time, effort, and money to put on
the Flying Circus. There are many
answers and points of view, but in general
they believe that it’s a great way to give
back to local communities.
The proceeds fund many activities,
while keeping the individual member’s
dues affordable, thus encouraging model
aviation. The club holds multiple free flyins
for the RC community and conducts
an AMA TAG (Take off And Grow) day,
which includes free food and a trainer
that is given to a participant.
In addition, the GCRCC hosts a picnic
for families of the Spina Bifida
Association of Cincinnati and conducts an
auction of donated items to benefit the
cause. Last year the club donated more
than $4,000 to charities.
A show such as the Flying Circus
keeps model aviation in the public eye,
which helps groups attain flying sites and
increases membership for the GCRCC
and other local clubs.
As you read this the GCRCC is planning
its 50th Annual Flying Circus, to be held
the second weekend in August: the 7th and
8th. The group hopes to put on another
great event that will include all of the
signature acts, music, great food and
drinks, new features, and possibly some
surprise “guests.”
See you there! MA
Mark Feist
[email protected]
Randy Adams
[email protected]
Sources:
Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club
www.gcrcc.ne
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/06
Page Numbers: 18,19,20,21,22,23,25
The Greater Cincinnati Radio
Control Club’s annual air show
FC18.tif Left: Pyrotechnics excite the crowd. This
special effect is not handled nonchalantly;
safety precautions are well covered and
rehearsed.
by Randy Adams and Mark Feist
HOW WOULD your club react if its
leaders proposed to hold an annual RC
model air show? A fair number of
members would probably say “sure,”
and the club would give it a try.
But what if the challenge is that the
show has to last four hours each day it
is held, a Saturday and a Sunday, in
early August? Specifications are for 30
individual acts and the involvement of
at least 175 aircraft that represent every
A pilots’ meeting/safety briefing is held
approximately an hour before the show begins.
Using a golf cart makes the CD’s job much easier.
18 MODEL AVIATION
06sig1.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 4/22/10 2:02 PM Page 18
Above: Routines with turbine-powered
aircraft attract lots of attention.
Photos by the authors
st
aspect of model aviation.
Each performance must last no less
than six but no more than nine minutes.
There is to be no more than 30 seconds
of dead air between each act.
The presentations need to be
planned and set to music, which is
broadcast via a public address system
that rivals that of a modern ballpark.
The announcers must be club members
and have the public personas of
professional air show presenters.
To promote a safe environment,
each aircraft is required to have safety
inspections and be flown before the
show, to qualify it and the pilot.
Participants are challenged to build
models for feature acts that focus on
fun for the audience and re-enactments
of significant achievements in aviation
history. To add to the challenge, the
show has to be held at a regional
airport and coordinated with local FAA
and airport management.
In addition to the 50-plus pilots, the
club has to supply 100 volunteers, who
consist mostly of members, family, and
friends, to support parking, concession
stands, and all other customer-friendly
services that this show provides. Those
volunteers need to be prepared to serve
food and drinks to more than 7,500
people during the weekend.
All of that might seem crazy, but the
Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club
(GCRCC) in Ohio pulls off these feats
every year with its Flying Circus air
show. It’s one of the longest-running
and most unique aeromodeling events
in the country.
A B-29 climbs out with a rocket-powered X-1 in tow. The GCRCC’s B-29 and X-1 have
been performing at this event for more than 10 years.
June 2010 19
WW I dogfighting is one
of the feature acts that
includes pyrotechnics.
06sig1.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 4/22/10 2:08 PM Page 19
The Flying Circus has not always been
the affair it is today. However, its roots
run deep, with a history of 49 consecutive
years.
The show started as a manufacturers’
fly-in in 1961, sponsored by World
Engines, a nearby distributor, and the late
John Maloney. The event’s purpose was to
gather model aviation industry leaders so
they could show their wares to the public
and introduce the then-new technology of
radio-controlled model airplanes.
Within a few years, the annual gettogether
evolved into the Flying Circus
that the GCRCC put on for the public. The
show grew steadily in the 1960s and
1970s, to a level that featured roughly 50
airplanes flying in 20-minute acts.
The affair was promoted in the local
neighborhoods and drew nice-size crowds
at the suburban field in northern
Cincinnati. It required a great deal of
effort by the membership, but the reward
was that the Flying Circus reached the
break-even point financially.
In the mid-1980s, the GCRCC decided
to take the show to a new level. It
increased the number of events, created
theme music, asked members to build
models specifically for the show, added
pyrotechnics, and featured such events as
World War II re-enactments. The results
were dramatic, and the club saw the show
turn into something special in the Greater
Cincinnati area.
Many who attend the event are return
visitors, and they have commented to
leaders that they now schedule it as one of
their summer family outings. The tenure
of the show has made it a generational
event for those families as well as the
GCRCC membership.
The Flying Circus focuses on entire days
of entertainment for spectators by
combining a bit of flying “craziness” and
replication of full-scale aviation. The
show-opening parade flight mixes
everyday RC airplanes with Scale
biplanes, helicopters, RC skydivers, and
models pulling the American flag while
the national anthem plays.
The sequence of acts is selected to
pique the spectators’ interest and make
them wonder what is next. Many
performances include what those in RC
circles call “nonscale” or “specialty”
aircraft. In one segment, Snoopy’s
Doghouse battles a Fokker Dr.I while the
1960s hit song “Snoopy Vs. the Red
Baron” plays.
A flying-broom parasail model
carrying a likeness of Harry Potter putts
around the sky, while young crowd
members especially look on in
amazement. A simulated pylon race with
flying race cars takes place, and
announcers interest spectators with
descriptions of the action, from passing to
crashing.
The balloon-bust acts tend to get the
guests into a festive mode and ready for
what’s to come. GCRCC members fly
their models low and fast toward a short
Styrofoam wall on which balloons are
attached to strings. The pilots try to
separate balloons from the wall without
crashing their airplanes.
In the end, the fliers might not cut all
the strings. However, they do sacrifice
their aircraft by plowing them through the
standing structure or skipping them across
the ground in hopes of taking out the
balloons.
This act is repeated later in the show,
but this time the airplanes must be
inverted when they cross and cut the lines.
Announcers get crowd members into the
event by selecting kids from the audience
to chant “Lower! Lower! Lower!” to the
pilots with each pass until all of the
balloons are cut or Mother Earth reaches
up and pulls the models to the ground.
The feature acts portray historical
aviation events or tell stories of world
events in which aircraft played important
roles. Replicas depict such famous firsts as
Charles A. Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic
Ocean in the Spirit of St. Louis and Chuck
Yeager breaking the sound barrier in the
X-1, dropped from the belly of a 12-footwingspan
B-29.
In celebration of the achievement of
the Voyager that Burt Rutan designed, a
club member designed and built an
electric-powered, 24-foot-wingspan
model of the craft for the Flying Circus.
His reward was not only the crowd’s
applause, but also an invitation from the
Rutans to the 20th anniversary of that
flight. The model is now on permanent
display at the Rutan museum.
The need for speed in pre-World War
II aviation was captured in the Golden
Age of Racing. Spectators at the Flying
Circus are treated to models of that era
racing around pylons as announcers talk
about the likes of Jimmy Doolittle and his
famed Gee Bee racer, Wally Post, and
Roscoe Turner.
Postwar and modern-day Reno Air
Racing is captured on the miniature
course, where going fast and turning left
is the norm. Replicas of Rare Bear, Miss
America, September Fury, and other
highly modified warbirds blow by at
much faster speeds than expected, and
split-second decisions can lead to crowdpleasing
photo finishes.
No air show is complete without a
salute to the warbird eras. Special club
tributes are given to both WW I and WW
II, and they include the aircraft and
missions flown.
The Great War has its roots in original
“dogfighting,” and the Flying Circus
represents that. The sky fills with as many
as 10 aircraft of that era, and pilots
simulate mass confusion. A modern-day
version of the film Hell’s Angels is
portrayed in real time; Camels and Dr.Is
fill the sky in a flurry of stick-and-rudder
performance.
The most prolific time for aviation in
US history was WW II, and the Flying
Circus gives it its due. In 2008, eight
GCRCC members built B-25 bombers and
the coning tower of the USS Hornet, to
tell the story of the Doolittle Raid.
In 2009, 12 club members constructed
models of several Japanese carrier-based
airplanes, to simulate the surprise attack
on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. At
the same time, the crowd heard specially
selected tracks from radio broadcasts—
climaxing with President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s famous speech declaring war
on Japan.
This led into more than 25 WW II
fighters and bombers conducting several
bombing and strafing runs on mock cities
that exploded with special choreographed
pyrotechnics. The conclusion of the WW
II performance was a lone flight of a B-
29, dropping the atomic bomb that ended
WW II.
To pay tribute to that moment, taps
was played and several spectators and
pilots wiped tears from their eyes.
Recent years have seen the development
of turbine technology and significant
advancements in helicopters, and the
Flying Circus would not be outdone in
those areas. As the air show increased in
age, quality of performances, and number
of acts, expansion became a necessity.
In 2003, the event took its next big
step; the GCRCC decided to move the
show to a local airport. That year
coincided with the 100th anniversary of
the Wright brothers’ famous first flight,
so it changed the Flying Circus’s
planning.
This involved working with airport
management, local governments, the
FAA, police, fire departments, full-scale
aircraft owners and pilots, the EAA, local
warbird groups, etc. For the first time, the
GCRCC’s show included full-scale
aviation. Presentations ranged from flying
demonstrations to static displays.
In 2009 the 49th annual Flying Circus
was held August 8-9 at the Butler County
Regional Airport, which is located in the
northwest suburbs of Cincinnati, on the
border of the cities of Hamilton and
Fairfield. It was the seventh year at that
site and another safe and successful show.
Estimates were that 8,000 spectators
attended.
No air show can take place without
publicity. This is probably the most
important aspect of the Flying Circus’s
attendance. It involves time and patience.
Imagine trying to convince all forms of
local media how important this event is
and how much of a positive impact it has
on the community. Even with all of the
entertainment “competition,” it is
regularly featured on multiple TV and
radio shows, as well as in articles in local
newspapers.
Unsung heroes of this air show are the
countless nonflying team members who
take time off from their day jobs to attend
a full-day work party on Friday before the
event, to prepare the airport grounds.
Remarkably, within a few hours after the
show, the property is reverted to a clean
and fully operational full-scale airport.
GCRCC members are often asked (and
they ask themselves) why they expend so
much time, effort, and money to put on
the Flying Circus. There are many
answers and points of view, but in general
they believe that it’s a great way to give
back to local communities.
The proceeds fund many activities,
while keeping the individual member’s
dues affordable, thus encouraging model
aviation. The club holds multiple free flyins
for the RC community and conducts
an AMA TAG (Take off And Grow) day,
which includes free food and a trainer
that is given to a participant.
In addition, the GCRCC hosts a picnic
for families of the Spina Bifida
Association of Cincinnati and conducts an
auction of donated items to benefit the
cause. Last year the club donated more
than $4,000 to charities.
A show such as the Flying Circus
keeps model aviation in the public eye,
which helps groups attain flying sites and
increases membership for the GCRCC
and other local clubs.
As you read this the GCRCC is planning
its 50th Annual Flying Circus, to be held
the second weekend in August: the 7th and
8th. The group hopes to put on another
great event that will include all of the
signature acts, music, great food and
drinks, new features, and possibly some
surprise “guests.”
See you there! MA
Mark Feist
[email protected]
Randy Adams
[email protected]
Sources:
Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club
www.gcrcc.ne
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/06
Page Numbers: 18,19,20,21,22,23,25
The Greater Cincinnati Radio
Control Club’s annual air show
FC18.tif Left: Pyrotechnics excite the crowd. This
special effect is not handled nonchalantly;
safety precautions are well covered and
rehearsed.
by Randy Adams and Mark Feist
HOW WOULD your club react if its
leaders proposed to hold an annual RC
model air show? A fair number of
members would probably say “sure,”
and the club would give it a try.
But what if the challenge is that the
show has to last four hours each day it
is held, a Saturday and a Sunday, in
early August? Specifications are for 30
individual acts and the involvement of
at least 175 aircraft that represent every
A pilots’ meeting/safety briefing is held
approximately an hour before the show begins.
Using a golf cart makes the CD’s job much easier.
18 MODEL AVIATION
06sig1.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 4/22/10 2:02 PM Page 18
Above: Routines with turbine-powered
aircraft attract lots of attention.
Photos by the authors
st
aspect of model aviation.
Each performance must last no less
than six but no more than nine minutes.
There is to be no more than 30 seconds
of dead air between each act.
The presentations need to be
planned and set to music, which is
broadcast via a public address system
that rivals that of a modern ballpark.
The announcers must be club members
and have the public personas of
professional air show presenters.
To promote a safe environment,
each aircraft is required to have safety
inspections and be flown before the
show, to qualify it and the pilot.
Participants are challenged to build
models for feature acts that focus on
fun for the audience and re-enactments
of significant achievements in aviation
history. To add to the challenge, the
show has to be held at a regional
airport and coordinated with local FAA
and airport management.
In addition to the 50-plus pilots, the
club has to supply 100 volunteers, who
consist mostly of members, family, and
friends, to support parking, concession
stands, and all other customer-friendly
services that this show provides. Those
volunteers need to be prepared to serve
food and drinks to more than 7,500
people during the weekend.
All of that might seem crazy, but the
Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club
(GCRCC) in Ohio pulls off these feats
every year with its Flying Circus air
show. It’s one of the longest-running
and most unique aeromodeling events
in the country.
A B-29 climbs out with a rocket-powered X-1 in tow. The GCRCC’s B-29 and X-1 have
been performing at this event for more than 10 years.
June 2010 19
WW I dogfighting is one
of the feature acts that
includes pyrotechnics.
06sig1.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 4/22/10 2:08 PM Page 19
The Flying Circus has not always been
the affair it is today. However, its roots
run deep, with a history of 49 consecutive
years.
The show started as a manufacturers’
fly-in in 1961, sponsored by World
Engines, a nearby distributor, and the late
John Maloney. The event’s purpose was to
gather model aviation industry leaders so
they could show their wares to the public
and introduce the then-new technology of
radio-controlled model airplanes.
Within a few years, the annual gettogether
evolved into the Flying Circus
that the GCRCC put on for the public. The
show grew steadily in the 1960s and
1970s, to a level that featured roughly 50
airplanes flying in 20-minute acts.
The affair was promoted in the local
neighborhoods and drew nice-size crowds
at the suburban field in northern
Cincinnati. It required a great deal of
effort by the membership, but the reward
was that the Flying Circus reached the
break-even point financially.
In the mid-1980s, the GCRCC decided
to take the show to a new level. It
increased the number of events, created
theme music, asked members to build
models specifically for the show, added
pyrotechnics, and featured such events as
World War II re-enactments. The results
were dramatic, and the club saw the show
turn into something special in the Greater
Cincinnati area.
Many who attend the event are return
visitors, and they have commented to
leaders that they now schedule it as one of
their summer family outings. The tenure
of the show has made it a generational
event for those families as well as the
GCRCC membership.
The Flying Circus focuses on entire days
of entertainment for spectators by
combining a bit of flying “craziness” and
replication of full-scale aviation. The
show-opening parade flight mixes
everyday RC airplanes with Scale
biplanes, helicopters, RC skydivers, and
models pulling the American flag while
the national anthem plays.
The sequence of acts is selected to
pique the spectators’ interest and make
them wonder what is next. Many
performances include what those in RC
circles call “nonscale” or “specialty”
aircraft. In one segment, Snoopy’s
Doghouse battles a Fokker Dr.I while the
1960s hit song “Snoopy Vs. the Red
Baron” plays.
A flying-broom parasail model
carrying a likeness of Harry Potter putts
around the sky, while young crowd
members especially look on in
amazement. A simulated pylon race with
flying race cars takes place, and
announcers interest spectators with
descriptions of the action, from passing to
crashing.
The balloon-bust acts tend to get the
guests into a festive mode and ready for
what’s to come. GCRCC members fly
their models low and fast toward a short
Styrofoam wall on which balloons are
attached to strings. The pilots try to
separate balloons from the wall without
crashing their airplanes.
In the end, the fliers might not cut all
the strings. However, they do sacrifice
their aircraft by plowing them through the
standing structure or skipping them across
the ground in hopes of taking out the
balloons.
This act is repeated later in the show,
but this time the airplanes must be
inverted when they cross and cut the lines.
Announcers get crowd members into the
event by selecting kids from the audience
to chant “Lower! Lower! Lower!” to the
pilots with each pass until all of the
balloons are cut or Mother Earth reaches
up and pulls the models to the ground.
The feature acts portray historical
aviation events or tell stories of world
events in which aircraft played important
roles. Replicas depict such famous firsts as
Charles A. Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic
Ocean in the Spirit of St. Louis and Chuck
Yeager breaking the sound barrier in the
X-1, dropped from the belly of a 12-footwingspan
B-29.
In celebration of the achievement of
the Voyager that Burt Rutan designed, a
club member designed and built an
electric-powered, 24-foot-wingspan
model of the craft for the Flying Circus.
His reward was not only the crowd’s
applause, but also an invitation from the
Rutans to the 20th anniversary of that
flight. The model is now on permanent
display at the Rutan museum.
The need for speed in pre-World War
II aviation was captured in the Golden
Age of Racing. Spectators at the Flying
Circus are treated to models of that era
racing around pylons as announcers talk
about the likes of Jimmy Doolittle and his
famed Gee Bee racer, Wally Post, and
Roscoe Turner.
Postwar and modern-day Reno Air
Racing is captured on the miniature
course, where going fast and turning left
is the norm. Replicas of Rare Bear, Miss
America, September Fury, and other
highly modified warbirds blow by at
much faster speeds than expected, and
split-second decisions can lead to crowdpleasing
photo finishes.
No air show is complete without a
salute to the warbird eras. Special club
tributes are given to both WW I and WW
II, and they include the aircraft and
missions flown.
The Great War has its roots in original
“dogfighting,” and the Flying Circus
represents that. The sky fills with as many
as 10 aircraft of that era, and pilots
simulate mass confusion. A modern-day
version of the film Hell’s Angels is
portrayed in real time; Camels and Dr.Is
fill the sky in a flurry of stick-and-rudder
performance.
The most prolific time for aviation in
US history was WW II, and the Flying
Circus gives it its due. In 2008, eight
GCRCC members built B-25 bombers and
the coning tower of the USS Hornet, to
tell the story of the Doolittle Raid.
In 2009, 12 club members constructed
models of several Japanese carrier-based
airplanes, to simulate the surprise attack
on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. At
the same time, the crowd heard specially
selected tracks from radio broadcasts—
climaxing with President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s famous speech declaring war
on Japan.
This led into more than 25 WW II
fighters and bombers conducting several
bombing and strafing runs on mock cities
that exploded with special choreographed
pyrotechnics. The conclusion of the WW
II performance was a lone flight of a B-
29, dropping the atomic bomb that ended
WW II.
To pay tribute to that moment, taps
was played and several spectators and
pilots wiped tears from their eyes.
Recent years have seen the development
of turbine technology and significant
advancements in helicopters, and the
Flying Circus would not be outdone in
those areas. As the air show increased in
age, quality of performances, and number
of acts, expansion became a necessity.
In 2003, the event took its next big
step; the GCRCC decided to move the
show to a local airport. That year
coincided with the 100th anniversary of
the Wright brothers’ famous first flight,
so it changed the Flying Circus’s
planning.
This involved working with airport
management, local governments, the
FAA, police, fire departments, full-scale
aircraft owners and pilots, the EAA, local
warbird groups, etc. For the first time, the
GCRCC’s show included full-scale
aviation. Presentations ranged from flying
demonstrations to static displays.
In 2009 the 49th annual Flying Circus
was held August 8-9 at the Butler County
Regional Airport, which is located in the
northwest suburbs of Cincinnati, on the
border of the cities of Hamilton and
Fairfield. It was the seventh year at that
site and another safe and successful show.
Estimates were that 8,000 spectators
attended.
No air show can take place without
publicity. This is probably the most
important aspect of the Flying Circus’s
attendance. It involves time and patience.
Imagine trying to convince all forms of
local media how important this event is
and how much of a positive impact it has
on the community. Even with all of the
entertainment “competition,” it is
regularly featured on multiple TV and
radio shows, as well as in articles in local
newspapers.
Unsung heroes of this air show are the
countless nonflying team members who
take time off from their day jobs to attend
a full-day work party on Friday before the
event, to prepare the airport grounds.
Remarkably, within a few hours after the
show, the property is reverted to a clean
and fully operational full-scale airport.
GCRCC members are often asked (and
they ask themselves) why they expend so
much time, effort, and money to put on
the Flying Circus. There are many
answers and points of view, but in general
they believe that it’s a great way to give
back to local communities.
The proceeds fund many activities,
while keeping the individual member’s
dues affordable, thus encouraging model
aviation. The club holds multiple free flyins
for the RC community and conducts
an AMA TAG (Take off And Grow) day,
which includes free food and a trainer
that is given to a participant.
In addition, the GCRCC hosts a picnic
for families of the Spina Bifida
Association of Cincinnati and conducts an
auction of donated items to benefit the
cause. Last year the club donated more
than $4,000 to charities.
A show such as the Flying Circus
keeps model aviation in the public eye,
which helps groups attain flying sites and
increases membership for the GCRCC
and other local clubs.
As you read this the GCRCC is planning
its 50th Annual Flying Circus, to be held
the second weekend in August: the 7th and
8th. The group hopes to put on another
great event that will include all of the
signature acts, music, great food and
drinks, new features, and possibly some
surprise “guests.”
See you there! MA
Mark Feist
[email protected]
Randy Adams
[email protected]
Sources:
Greater Cincinnati Radio Control Club
www.gcrcc.ne
