Planning and Running
a Large Club Event
26 MODEL AVIATION
WHAT ARE SOME goals your club would like to accomplish with
its main event this year? Perhaps raising operating funds, attracting
new members, raising your club’s profile in the community,
improving the club’s reputation among other clubs in your area, or
generally making your event the social RC hit of the year in your
region.
Your group can accomplish many or all of these goals with its
major event of the year; all it takes is a strong team, hard work from
most of your club’s members, and solid organization. Did I mention
hard work?
The Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival—sponsored by the Love-
Air R/C club in northern Colorado, of which I am a member—is a
Giant Scale fly-in that celebrated its 10th anniversary in August
2003. With a history of demonstration pilots including Chip Hyde,
Quique Somenzini, Sean McMurtry, Bill Hempel, Garrett Morrison,
and Doug Gearman; more than 100 pilot participants; and an excess
of 2,500 spectators, this gathering has grown to be one of the
premier RC events in the region.
The fly-in brings thousands of dollars per year into the Love-Air
R/C’s operating fund, attracts 10-20 new members each year,
exposes thousands of spectators to the best of RC flying, and is now
a must-attend event for an ever-increasing number of RC fliers from
roughly 10 Western states.
In this article I will outline some of the keys to this event’s
success to help your club accomplish its goals with an event.
Many decisions made will depend on your club’s objectives for its
key event. Decide what the group wants to accomplish, and
include/exclude items from the plan to help get you along that path.
Some of the following points may not apply to your event;
however, they may allow your club to be more creative in planning
its next activity. And later we might read about your events in MA!
Our club and leadership team has learned a great deal in the past
decade about how to successfully manage an event that has grown
from a small club activity to a regional place to be. Love-Air R/C is
not a superclub; it is typical, with approximately 170 members.
However, we are blessed to have a great flying facility, and we have
a committed core of capable leaders managing the Big Bird Festival.
Key decisions were made in developing the gathering. They
were to:
• Pick a unique event focus and type.
by Neil Miles
A public raffle prize such as this 82-inch-span “Quinn” Kadet
RTF can increase crowd participation and interest.
Roped walkways provide overflow spectator areas. Pilot shade
structures at either end of flightline do not interfere with
spectator sight lines.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:05 am Page 26
July 2004 27
• Choose a consistent time of year that does
not conflict with other regional activities.
• Include the public as spectators and plan
for their enjoyment and parking.
• Raise club funds through the public raffle
of a custom-built RTF aircraft.
• Market the event in MA and in local
newspapers, and produce a color brochure.
• Bring in some of the top names in RC
Aerobatics as demonstration/air-show
pilots.
As you plan your club’s event, look
around to see what would be interesting,
fun, and could attract pilots from an event
type and time-frame standpoint. Consider
your flying facility and what type of events
would work best (e.g., jets and close-in
trees may not be the optimal fit). Then the
serious planning can begin.
Planning: Planning is the key to making
any major event work well. We start team
meetings in January or February to decide
on the show pilots and get a start on the
marketing for the August event.
We try to request our event sanction
early from AMA to ensure that our ads will
run and that we get on the calendar. We
submit event announcements to AMA’s
Competition Department for MA’s “Contest
Calendar” in March, and we submit our 1⁄4-
page ad to MA in March or April,
depending on the ad deadlines. Deadlines
for advertising depend on the time of year
of your event. Contact your target
Air bosses with radio headsets control runway access and flight operations at an event.
You can see the flight-station safety fencing in the background.
Providing designated warbird flight times brings out the showmanship from the Scale
pilots. Most spectators will respond to this type of aircraft.
The raffle-prize aircraft is shown to the crowd throughout the day
to generate incremental ticket sales.
Left: Separate 3-D flying times showcase IMAC and hotdog pilots’
flying skills in a more controlled environment.
Photos courtesy ActionPic9.com
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:23 am Page 27
28 MODEL AVIATION
A local pilot’s Hawker Sea Fury really spiced up the noon air show, and
it included realistic warbird sounds.
The Love Air R/C club’s best pilots also got to participate in the airshow
program. Smoke is a crowd pleaser!
Garrett Morrison was the featured pilot at the 2003 Rocky
Mountain Big Bird Festival. The crowd loved his
performance!
Garrett Morrison’s 3-D model in the rolling-harrier portion
of his crowd-pleasing Freestyle routine.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:29 am Page 28
July 2004 29
This turbine-powered Eurofighter wowed the crowd with its
sound and speed. Safety is paramount with this type of model.
A wide variety of aircraft types, such as this Scale biplane, help
attract and hold the spectators’ interest.
Sport-flying times at the festival included more traditional
aerobatics. Biplanes are a spectator favorite.
publication and work your ads back from their submission
deadlines.
A critical factor is appointing committee leads for each
important facet of the team structure. The event director and contest
director lead the team, and they take care of many duties by
themselves.
Additional committee directors cover field preparation, running
our public raffle, public relations/marketing, sponsors/prize
donations, air-show-pilot coordination, the air-boss team,
concessions/vendor relations, public-address (PA)/music-system
direction, the transmitter impound, and, most important, the parking
team.
We hold monthly meetings before our regular club meetings to
keep the team aligned, moving forward, and handling any issues
that arise. We also regularly discuss the festival in our club
meetings to keep the membership informed, answer questions,
recruit additional volunteers, and collect any new ideas the members
have.
Your event’s theme and type should reflect your club’s interests
to encourage as many critical volunteers as possible. Inevitably, at
every well-managed RC event, a sizable portion of the club’s
members are involved in running it. We have found that nothing
works better than a heartfelt personal invitation to get a volunteer
signed up. Our committee leads reach out to help club members
volunteer for their teams.
Safety Considerations: Safety should be the number-one
consideration when running any event. Pilot and spectator safety are
combined in our hobby because of the observers’ proximity to the
aircraft.
A competent event staff must perform careful pilot/airplane
inspections before any aircraft leaves the ground—especially for
large Scale or Aerobatics models. Thorough inspections include
checking such items as hinges, linkages, and propeller condition.
Proper safety fencing, spectator/crowd control, and strictly
monitoring the participants’ flying ensure spectator safety. We use a
team of air bosses with radio systems, fluorescent vests, and
coordination with the announcers to keep the flightline safe and
enjoyable for all. The air bosses watch for erratic flying or
violations of the specified no-fly zones; if they see an infraction,
they ask the offending pilot to land immediately.
Our field has three taxi entrances to the runway. The air bosses
control the flow of on-deck pilots at two of the entrances and the
safe landing, shutdown, and collection of models at the third.
The air bosses call changes in the wind direction and tell the
pilots when they must flip the flying and landing pattern. They are
also responsible for informing all pilots if a landing or dead-stick
approach is underway or called. A polite, firm voice and some
experience are air-boss requirements, so older club members are
typically more successful than our junior members.
To keep each participant better aware of the situation
surrounding his or her aircraft, we require all pilots to have callers
with them at the designated pilot stations. Some initially resist this
rule since we hold more of a fun-fly event, but with as many as six
models in the air, with their different types and speeds, fliers soon
realize that flying with a buddy is much safer.
Besides, only the caller can really watch the other airplanes, pay
attention to the air bosses, relay the good-natured ribbing that takes
place, correct the announcer on the aircraft’s description, and
retrieve the model at the end of its flight.
A well-functioning transmitter impound is mandatory for a wellmanaged
event. Our impound team is a good-natured bunch, and we
supply a weatherproof trailer with temporary shelving inside to
make the impound process enjoyable and safe for all pilots.
We use a frequency analyzer to check for transmitters left on and
for radio problems. If turbine-powered jets are present, additional
fire extinguishers must be present and a fire crew must be standing
ready.
Remember to consider spectator/pilot physical separation for
safety’s sake, and check in with local fire and rescue services to
ensure that they know the best routes to your event and what they
can expect from a crowd and access standpoint. GPS (Global
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:33 am Page 29
series of modified Sig Kadets that one of our members originally
created. It is constructed by one of our members who custom-builds
models for others.
The Kadet spans 82 inches and comes with the radio fully
installed. It is immaculately covered and truly ready to fly (except
for charging the batteries and adding fuel). This airplane has an
excellent reputation with the region’s pilots and looks great. Since
we fly identical models on spectator buddy-box machines during
our event, visitors can see that it flies extremely well. The quality of
our raffle airplane helps us sell a good quantity of raffle tickets each
year.
Although most club members can sell raffle tickets, certain
unique individuals truly excel at it. Our resident supersalesman
knows nearly every business owner in our area and could sell
iceboxes to Eskimos. Engaging your supersalesmen/women and
finding the right prize(s) will enable your raffle to generate enough
funds to cover costs and help build excitement.
Although the entire club sells raffle tickets for months before the
event, we sell many tickets during the festival, and we hold the
drawing at the close of the event. Every year crowd members stay in
the stands hoping they will win the model.
Remember to follow all state rules for holding a public raffle.
Register it with the correct authorities, and handle the ticket
numbers and stubs according to their regulations. We have a team
who does the necessary research and runs our raffle beautifully each
year.
Another way we help to cover event costs is to ask for a $2
donation per vehicle for parking. We rent an additional field from a
local farmer, where we park more than 800 spectator cars each day.
Parking money is kept as a donation to eliminate liabilities and
income issues. It usually covers the cost of bringing the air-show
pilots in and renting the extra field.
You will probably have 15 people packed in a Suburban who
refuse to pay. Our parking-team members have learned to reach into
their own pockets and say, “I’ll just pay it for you.” This gets most
holdouts to contribute, but not all. However, some spectators give us
$10 or $20 and tell us they really appreciate the event; they love to
come out every year and are quite willing to help with event costs.
We sell souvenir Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival T-shirts
each year, but mostly to the pilots and crew. They usually sell out at
a marginal profit. We also sell club-logo ball caps, and spectators
often purchase them. These are not big money-makers for our club,
but they have become traditions that help pilots remember their time
with us when they go back to their home clubs and flying fields.
Field Preparation/Parking: To get ready for the event, we hold a
field-cleanup-and-safety-fence-extension party. We have the 1⁄3-mile
access road to our facility graded and prepped to handle the crowds
and minimize the dust. (Colorado dryness/washboard is our
problem; other regions face different issues.)
We spruce up the paint on our shade shelter and our signs, and
then we bring in the spectator stands we rent from a local school
district. Luckily we have a generous house-moving-company
sponsor that helps transport the stands to and from our field each
year.
We extend our spectator separation fence using a rope divider
across the entire width of the flying-field property (which fills up
with pilots’ trailers and RVs anyway), and then we rope off an 8-
foot spectator walkway the entire width of the property. This allows
the audience to walk safely behind the flightline/pit area to look at
the models and talk to the pilots. Since the stands fill up well before
the noon air show, the footpath acts as an overflow to ensure that all
who attend have a good view of the show.
Determining the best location for food vendors’ stands/tents
early in the planning process helps maintain satisfactory spectator
traffic flow and keeps almost everyone happy. We put the
concessions well behind the pit area, near the parking area.
If you have hobby vendors at your event, plan for their location
in advance as well, so that they are near the pilots but not blocking
the spectators. We have also learned to control the location of
pilots’ tents/shade structures, to keep the audience’s sight lines as
clear as possible in the vicinity of the stands.
A pilots’ meeting is held at the start of every flying day, during
which rules, safety, and the day’s program are reviewed.
Things got interesting when the best 3-D pilots tried to
outmaneuver each other. Careful co-pilot spotting is a must!
Positioning System) coordinates often help emergency crews
understand exactly where you are in relation to your road access
points.
We maintain crowd control by having all club staff, pilots, and pit
crews wear badges while in the flying/pit areas. If someone crosses
the spectator fence line and is not wearing a badge, we ask that
person to step back to the spectator area for his or her own safety.
Generating Club Funds: The main source of revenue from our
event is a public raffle for an RTF Giant Scale model. It is one of a
30 MODEL AVIATION
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:34 am Page 30
July 2004 33
A good parking crew is critical to keeping
things flowing well. This is one of the most
important but undervalued jobs at the event.
The parking team is the first club contact the
spectators have at the event, and first
impressions are extremely important. It can be
a hot, dry, and dusty shift for the club
volunteers.
The parking team members hand all
spectator cars our full-color event brochure,
ask for the donation, and tell them about the
raffle. The parking officials direct visitors
where to park; they keep spectator vehicles in
a separate area and allow only pilot vehicles
close to the pits. There are many cars to
handle, and it is helpful to rope off parking
lanes to keep chaos out of the parking area.
One of the most important items in field
preparation is bringing in and positioning
mobile restroom facilities; close to 2,000
spectators and 200-300 pilots, crew, and staff
down a good quantity of coffee, soda, water,
hot dogs, and burgers each day. We learned
that with our crowds, we must contract for our
portable restrooms to be serviced on Friday
and Saturday.
Our wives designate some for women’s
use only and decorate them with flowers and
such. They stay much cleaner than the boys’
facilities. Consider prevailing wind direction
and campers’ locations when positioning the
temporary restroom facilities.
Another important factor when the public
is involved is garbage containers and
collection. We have learned to provide several
trash containers for the event and bring in an
industrial-sized trash dumpster to help us keep
on top of the situation; the 3,000 spectators
create a remarkable amount of trash in just
two days.
Providing for cigarette-butt disposal is a
fire-prevention must. They rarely end up in
the designated containers, but it is important
that they not go into the regular trash. We
clean up the cigarettes and garbage Friday
night and Saturday night, and we do a final
cleanup Sunday after the event.
Registration: We post a pilot sign-up form on
our club Web site—www.fortnet.org/
loveairrc—and include one in the event
brochure to facilitate advance registration.
Model inspections and check-in start Friday
afternoon, to help get ahead of the Saturdaymorning
rush.
We encourage advanced registration with
a reduced event/landing fee for those who sign
up early. There are typically 100-110 pilots,
and having at least one-third of them
preregistered has made the process more
streamlined on Friday afternoon and Saturday
morning.
We provide the fliers with name badges
and pit-crew badges. Cheerful volunteers for
registration and keeping the check-in table
close to the transmitter impound keeps things
running smoothly.
Event Program/Agenda: Balancing the
pilots’ desires for an enjoyable event and the
public’s desires for a great air show has been a
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Festival’s maturation. This balance is shown
in the program choices we make for the
event.
We decided to include a world-class flier
as our featured air-show demonstration pilot
each year. We pay a reasonable fee to bring
these special pilots in and pay their travel
expenses (gas or flight costs and hotel/meal
expenses).
We recoup this money by having
additional spectators and pilots attend and
selling incremental raffle tickets to the public
at the event. Including the words “World
Champ” and “National Champ” in the
marketing materials seems to work well in
attracting crowds and pilots.
Use any relationships that any of your
members have with top-shelf pilots to make
the invitation process smoother. If you don’t
have connections, attending events at which
good, potential air-show pilots perform is a
great way to introduce yourself and see how
different pilots would fit into your event.
We have learned a great deal through the
years about the event’s structure and flow of
flying and activities, such as to set specific
times for 3-D flying, warbirds, and a mix of
normal/sport flying and crowd buddy-box
flight instruction.
We found that those who spend many
hours on their warbirds like to fly together
and are displeased when other pilots pull 3-D
Harriers directly in front of their models. So
the warbird times become their own mini air
shows and allow the announcers to speak
about the pilots, their models, and the fullscale
aircraft and their histories to keep the
spectators engaged.
In a like manner, the set 3-D flying times
attract IMAC (International Miniature
Aerobatic Club) and Freestyle enthusiasts
who kick in the smoke systems, try formation
aerobatics, and Torque Roll their models for
the crowds.
Our featured air-show pilot is usually
asked to evaluate other pilots’ aircraft, and
the 3-D segment is a good time for these test
flights and for the air-show pilot to check out
his model before the noon demonstration.
Even with a set time for 3-D flying, we
mandate that Harriers and hovering
maneuvers be executed out from the runway
in the middle of the rectangular traffic
pattern, keeping the runway mostly clear in
case someone needs to land quickly for any
reason.
During regular flying times, we prohibit
3-D maneuvers, and the regular sport fliers
come to the flightline. We encourage normal
aerobatics, and the Cubs, World War I
aircraft, and sport models mix it up to the
crowd’s delight.
We try to keep the six pilot stations filled
at all times, but there is a natural ebb and flow
of pilot volume during the day. At slower
times we encourage volunteers from the
crowd to fly a Giant Scale model via a buddy
box and instructor. The audience loves to see
other crowd members fly a model then be
interviewed by the announcers.
During these instruction times each day,
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36 MODEL AVIATION
kits/ARFs. We ask the crowd members to raise
their hands if they would truly be interested in
getting into the hobby, and then only those
people receive tickets. Local hobby shops that
help sponsor the event donate the kits.
We distribute the raffle tickets and call the
winner out of the stands. The proud new kit
owner has his or her picture taken with the
hobby-store representative, takes a turn with
the buddy box/instructor, and then is
interviewed for the crowd. It is fun for the
audience, and there is no lack of volunteers to
take a turn flying a model.
We sell a good deal of raffle tickets for the
Kadet during these times since the crowd can
see firsthand that nearly anyone can fly with
good instruction. We sell even more tickets at
instruction time since our buddy-boxinstruction
airplanes are copies of the Quinn
Kadet that we raffle off, and crowd members
can see how excellent a well-set-up Giant
Scale model would be as a first airplane.
Free hourly pilot-prize drawings, major
pilot-prize raffles, and excellent pilot-prize
quality help keep participants returning year
after year. Our super salesperson obtains these
prizes.
Since the public is invited and comes for
the noon air show, the pilots who attend are
those who enjoy showing off their aircraft in a
noncompetitive but well-managed
environment. They come to enjoy the air-show
demonstration featuring a world-class pilot as
much as the spectators. Also allowing some
regional pilots with special airplanes and skills
to participate in the noon air show boosts their
pride in participation.
Our Sunday air show last year featured a
comedy skit featuring a 12-foot-wingspan
Cub, a Giant Scale-legal turbine jet, a 50-
pound Hawker Sea Fury, a 3-D and a turbine
helicopter, local pilots doing 3-D aerobatics,
and the finale: Garrett Morrison’s (Lodi CA)
amazing Freestyle Aerobatics demonstration.
During the event, the announcers are
constantly broadcasting over the PA system
the aircraft each pilot is flying; where the pilot
is from; and the engine, kit type, and special
features of the model and its full-scale
counterpart. This keeps the crowd informed
and involved, and it appeals to each pilot’s
pride in his or her aircraft. Humor in
announcing is a big asset in handling mishaps
and keeping the enthusiasm level up on the
flightline.
We use 70-volt horn speakers on poles
down the flightline in addition to the main PAsystem
cabinets to ensure proper sound
coverage for the crowd and the pilots. We
announce the pilot prizes and landings, ask for
applause for good flights, and help the
impound crew by calling for delinquent
frequency pins and announcing when pilots in
the queue can fly after their frequencies clear
up.
To help encourage visiting pilots to get
early stick time at the event, we often ask club
members to refrain from flying Saturday
morning to let the visitors have the first crack
at it that day. Normal club flying starts each
day at the end of the formal event hours, and
we close the impound and distribute the radios
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July 2004 39
to their owners until the next morning. We run
the event impound and frequency control
during event hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and
9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, when the Kadet is
raffled off.
Social Activities: Pilots who attend the event,
some every year, enjoy the social aspect and
bring their RVs for dry camping starting the
Tuesday and Wednesday before the event, to
ensure a good spot.
We hold a potluck dinner Friday evening
and a pig-roast dinner Saturday evening during
the event. One of our member families handles
the potluck dinner, and another family runs the
pig roast. We have tried Saturday-evening
catered dinners throughout the years, but that
has presented mixed success and increased
costs.
The less-formal potluck and pig roast
dinners have become fun traditions and are
followed by a round of night flying starting at
dusk Friday and Saturday evening. All manner
of contraptions show up in the sky, and people
either watch the craft or simply visit with
friends down the line of campers and RVs.
Event Promotion: Properly marketing the flyin
has made a big difference in continuing to
attract participants and increasing the number
of spectators. Our first year with real marketing
was coincident with having Quique Somenzini
as our air-show pilot, and we went from 300
spectators the previous year to 2,500 spectators
that year.
Our marketing efforts are multifaceted and
consist of our Web site; more than 3,000 fullcolor,
two-sided, 11 x 17-inch brochures; two
“Contest Calendar” ads in MA that run for
several months; a 1⁄4-page black-and-white ad
in MA; small ads in each of the local
newspapers; and feature articles in each local
paper in northern Colorado (three newspapers
in three cities).
We place ads in local newspapers the
Friday and Saturday right before and at the
start of the festival, and they reinforce the
photo articles that each newspaper publishes
promoting the event. We put a great deal of
effort into trying to get the papers to come out
and publicize the fly-in beforehand, and our
objective is to have articles running on Friday
or Saturday morning along with our ads.
Our event brochure has evolved through the
years. We now use one large, two-sided, color
leaflet. The front side has large pictures and
much of the spectator information. The reverse
side has pilot information, a preregistration
form, a map, an event schedule, and detailed
directions.
These handouts feature a good-size picture
of the previous year’s raffle model and enough
photos to show the size and variety of aircraft
that will be present. We promote our guest airshow
pilot and direct people to our Web site
for additional information.
We are only able to have a brochure of this
quality because a generous club member owns
a printing business. A member lays out the ads
and the pamphlets, and our printer creates and
donates the brochures in awesome color and
quantity.
This allows our members to distribute them
at regional contests and use the photos to help
sell raffle tickets. We distribute the leaflets to
clubs and hobby stores across the state and to
our mailing list of past attendees. The brochure
is big enough to use as a window poster at the
hobby stores. Since it has complete spectator
and pilot information, the one brochure works
for friends and modelers.
In previous years we tried separate pilot
and spectator brochures, and you always had
the wrong one in your car or field box when
someone asked about the event. It also doubled
the cost and work for the printer.
We also use the brochure at our mall show
later in the year, to show the public what our
main fly-in is like (we use stickers to correct
the dates for the next year). See what printing
connections you have within your club, and
use them to the max.
Last year we made a connection with an
excellent professional sports photographer—
Bill Sallaz of ActionPic9.com—who shot
some amazing photos of Saturday’s activities.
His pictures accompany this article. Bill will
be at our future events, and we will be using
his photography in our marketing efforts this
year.
Having top-quality photographs available
for purchase will be another drawing card to
encourage pilots to attend our event with their
airplanes this year. Good photography can
increase the results of your club’s marketing
efforts and Web-site work.
Television coverage is possible but hard to
obtain without a good contact at the station.
We did get a news crew out one year, and they
did a super spot for us, but we have been
unable to get them to come out again because
of our distance from Denver. Any connections
your members have with photographers, the
press, or TV stations are valuable and should
be shamelessly exploited.
Anything is possible for your event. Our team
has been amazed at the type of fly-in the
Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival has
become. The last time Chip Hyde was our
featured pilot, he said, “Man, you guys just
have fun at this thing!” Our goals mix
financial, promotional, and membership
aspects. For more information or to contact our
club, use our Web site.
You can use your event for anything you
want to accomplish. Your team can merge the
members’ strengths and create an exciting
event that shows your club and the hobby in
the best light.
Full-scale air shows are being increasingly
controlled by spectator liability issues and are
moving the crowds farther and farther from the
action. You can get people closer to greatlooking
aircraft and really get them excited
about model aviation.
Our hobby and your next big event can
provide a unique opportunity to engage the
public, attract members, and help finance your
club’s operations. Set your goals, pick your
team, and make it happen. MA
Neil Miles
2007 Coastal Ct.
Fort Collins CO 80528
07sig2.QXD 4/26/04 8:21 am Page 39
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/07
Page Numbers: 26,27,28,29,30,33,34,36,39
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/07
Page Numbers: 26,27,28,29,30,33,34,36,39
Planning and Running
a Large Club Event
26 MODEL AVIATION
WHAT ARE SOME goals your club would like to accomplish with
its main event this year? Perhaps raising operating funds, attracting
new members, raising your club’s profile in the community,
improving the club’s reputation among other clubs in your area, or
generally making your event the social RC hit of the year in your
region.
Your group can accomplish many or all of these goals with its
major event of the year; all it takes is a strong team, hard work from
most of your club’s members, and solid organization. Did I mention
hard work?
The Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival—sponsored by the Love-
Air R/C club in northern Colorado, of which I am a member—is a
Giant Scale fly-in that celebrated its 10th anniversary in August
2003. With a history of demonstration pilots including Chip Hyde,
Quique Somenzini, Sean McMurtry, Bill Hempel, Garrett Morrison,
and Doug Gearman; more than 100 pilot participants; and an excess
of 2,500 spectators, this gathering has grown to be one of the
premier RC events in the region.
The fly-in brings thousands of dollars per year into the Love-Air
R/C’s operating fund, attracts 10-20 new members each year,
exposes thousands of spectators to the best of RC flying, and is now
a must-attend event for an ever-increasing number of RC fliers from
roughly 10 Western states.
In this article I will outline some of the keys to this event’s
success to help your club accomplish its goals with an event.
Many decisions made will depend on your club’s objectives for its
key event. Decide what the group wants to accomplish, and
include/exclude items from the plan to help get you along that path.
Some of the following points may not apply to your event;
however, they may allow your club to be more creative in planning
its next activity. And later we might read about your events in MA!
Our club and leadership team has learned a great deal in the past
decade about how to successfully manage an event that has grown
from a small club activity to a regional place to be. Love-Air R/C is
not a superclub; it is typical, with approximately 170 members.
However, we are blessed to have a great flying facility, and we have
a committed core of capable leaders managing the Big Bird Festival.
Key decisions were made in developing the gathering. They
were to:
• Pick a unique event focus and type.
by Neil Miles
A public raffle prize such as this 82-inch-span “Quinn” Kadet
RTF can increase crowd participation and interest.
Roped walkways provide overflow spectator areas. Pilot shade
structures at either end of flightline do not interfere with
spectator sight lines.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:05 am Page 26
July 2004 27
• Choose a consistent time of year that does
not conflict with other regional activities.
• Include the public as spectators and plan
for their enjoyment and parking.
• Raise club funds through the public raffle
of a custom-built RTF aircraft.
• Market the event in MA and in local
newspapers, and produce a color brochure.
• Bring in some of the top names in RC
Aerobatics as demonstration/air-show
pilots.
As you plan your club’s event, look
around to see what would be interesting,
fun, and could attract pilots from an event
type and time-frame standpoint. Consider
your flying facility and what type of events
would work best (e.g., jets and close-in
trees may not be the optimal fit). Then the
serious planning can begin.
Planning: Planning is the key to making
any major event work well. We start team
meetings in January or February to decide
on the show pilots and get a start on the
marketing for the August event.
We try to request our event sanction
early from AMA to ensure that our ads will
run and that we get on the calendar. We
submit event announcements to AMA’s
Competition Department for MA’s “Contest
Calendar” in March, and we submit our 1⁄4-
page ad to MA in March or April,
depending on the ad deadlines. Deadlines
for advertising depend on the time of year
of your event. Contact your target
Air bosses with radio headsets control runway access and flight operations at an event.
You can see the flight-station safety fencing in the background.
Providing designated warbird flight times brings out the showmanship from the Scale
pilots. Most spectators will respond to this type of aircraft.
The raffle-prize aircraft is shown to the crowd throughout the day
to generate incremental ticket sales.
Left: Separate 3-D flying times showcase IMAC and hotdog pilots’
flying skills in a more controlled environment.
Photos courtesy ActionPic9.com
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:23 am Page 27
28 MODEL AVIATION
A local pilot’s Hawker Sea Fury really spiced up the noon air show, and
it included realistic warbird sounds.
The Love Air R/C club’s best pilots also got to participate in the airshow
program. Smoke is a crowd pleaser!
Garrett Morrison was the featured pilot at the 2003 Rocky
Mountain Big Bird Festival. The crowd loved his
performance!
Garrett Morrison’s 3-D model in the rolling-harrier portion
of his crowd-pleasing Freestyle routine.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:29 am Page 28
July 2004 29
This turbine-powered Eurofighter wowed the crowd with its
sound and speed. Safety is paramount with this type of model.
A wide variety of aircraft types, such as this Scale biplane, help
attract and hold the spectators’ interest.
Sport-flying times at the festival included more traditional
aerobatics. Biplanes are a spectator favorite.
publication and work your ads back from their submission
deadlines.
A critical factor is appointing committee leads for each
important facet of the team structure. The event director and contest
director lead the team, and they take care of many duties by
themselves.
Additional committee directors cover field preparation, running
our public raffle, public relations/marketing, sponsors/prize
donations, air-show-pilot coordination, the air-boss team,
concessions/vendor relations, public-address (PA)/music-system
direction, the transmitter impound, and, most important, the parking
team.
We hold monthly meetings before our regular club meetings to
keep the team aligned, moving forward, and handling any issues
that arise. We also regularly discuss the festival in our club
meetings to keep the membership informed, answer questions,
recruit additional volunteers, and collect any new ideas the members
have.
Your event’s theme and type should reflect your club’s interests
to encourage as many critical volunteers as possible. Inevitably, at
every well-managed RC event, a sizable portion of the club’s
members are involved in running it. We have found that nothing
works better than a heartfelt personal invitation to get a volunteer
signed up. Our committee leads reach out to help club members
volunteer for their teams.
Safety Considerations: Safety should be the number-one
consideration when running any event. Pilot and spectator safety are
combined in our hobby because of the observers’ proximity to the
aircraft.
A competent event staff must perform careful pilot/airplane
inspections before any aircraft leaves the ground—especially for
large Scale or Aerobatics models. Thorough inspections include
checking such items as hinges, linkages, and propeller condition.
Proper safety fencing, spectator/crowd control, and strictly
monitoring the participants’ flying ensure spectator safety. We use a
team of air bosses with radio systems, fluorescent vests, and
coordination with the announcers to keep the flightline safe and
enjoyable for all. The air bosses watch for erratic flying or
violations of the specified no-fly zones; if they see an infraction,
they ask the offending pilot to land immediately.
Our field has three taxi entrances to the runway. The air bosses
control the flow of on-deck pilots at two of the entrances and the
safe landing, shutdown, and collection of models at the third.
The air bosses call changes in the wind direction and tell the
pilots when they must flip the flying and landing pattern. They are
also responsible for informing all pilots if a landing or dead-stick
approach is underway or called. A polite, firm voice and some
experience are air-boss requirements, so older club members are
typically more successful than our junior members.
To keep each participant better aware of the situation
surrounding his or her aircraft, we require all pilots to have callers
with them at the designated pilot stations. Some initially resist this
rule since we hold more of a fun-fly event, but with as many as six
models in the air, with their different types and speeds, fliers soon
realize that flying with a buddy is much safer.
Besides, only the caller can really watch the other airplanes, pay
attention to the air bosses, relay the good-natured ribbing that takes
place, correct the announcer on the aircraft’s description, and
retrieve the model at the end of its flight.
A well-functioning transmitter impound is mandatory for a wellmanaged
event. Our impound team is a good-natured bunch, and we
supply a weatherproof trailer with temporary shelving inside to
make the impound process enjoyable and safe for all pilots.
We use a frequency analyzer to check for transmitters left on and
for radio problems. If turbine-powered jets are present, additional
fire extinguishers must be present and a fire crew must be standing
ready.
Remember to consider spectator/pilot physical separation for
safety’s sake, and check in with local fire and rescue services to
ensure that they know the best routes to your event and what they
can expect from a crowd and access standpoint. GPS (Global
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:33 am Page 29
series of modified Sig Kadets that one of our members originally
created. It is constructed by one of our members who custom-builds
models for others.
The Kadet spans 82 inches and comes with the radio fully
installed. It is immaculately covered and truly ready to fly (except
for charging the batteries and adding fuel). This airplane has an
excellent reputation with the region’s pilots and looks great. Since
we fly identical models on spectator buddy-box machines during
our event, visitors can see that it flies extremely well. The quality of
our raffle airplane helps us sell a good quantity of raffle tickets each
year.
Although most club members can sell raffle tickets, certain
unique individuals truly excel at it. Our resident supersalesman
knows nearly every business owner in our area and could sell
iceboxes to Eskimos. Engaging your supersalesmen/women and
finding the right prize(s) will enable your raffle to generate enough
funds to cover costs and help build excitement.
Although the entire club sells raffle tickets for months before the
event, we sell many tickets during the festival, and we hold the
drawing at the close of the event. Every year crowd members stay in
the stands hoping they will win the model.
Remember to follow all state rules for holding a public raffle.
Register it with the correct authorities, and handle the ticket
numbers and stubs according to their regulations. We have a team
who does the necessary research and runs our raffle beautifully each
year.
Another way we help to cover event costs is to ask for a $2
donation per vehicle for parking. We rent an additional field from a
local farmer, where we park more than 800 spectator cars each day.
Parking money is kept as a donation to eliminate liabilities and
income issues. It usually covers the cost of bringing the air-show
pilots in and renting the extra field.
You will probably have 15 people packed in a Suburban who
refuse to pay. Our parking-team members have learned to reach into
their own pockets and say, “I’ll just pay it for you.” This gets most
holdouts to contribute, but not all. However, some spectators give us
$10 or $20 and tell us they really appreciate the event; they love to
come out every year and are quite willing to help with event costs.
We sell souvenir Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival T-shirts
each year, but mostly to the pilots and crew. They usually sell out at
a marginal profit. We also sell club-logo ball caps, and spectators
often purchase them. These are not big money-makers for our club,
but they have become traditions that help pilots remember their time
with us when they go back to their home clubs and flying fields.
Field Preparation/Parking: To get ready for the event, we hold a
field-cleanup-and-safety-fence-extension party. We have the 1⁄3-mile
access road to our facility graded and prepped to handle the crowds
and minimize the dust. (Colorado dryness/washboard is our
problem; other regions face different issues.)
We spruce up the paint on our shade shelter and our signs, and
then we bring in the spectator stands we rent from a local school
district. Luckily we have a generous house-moving-company
sponsor that helps transport the stands to and from our field each
year.
We extend our spectator separation fence using a rope divider
across the entire width of the flying-field property (which fills up
with pilots’ trailers and RVs anyway), and then we rope off an 8-
foot spectator walkway the entire width of the property. This allows
the audience to walk safely behind the flightline/pit area to look at
the models and talk to the pilots. Since the stands fill up well before
the noon air show, the footpath acts as an overflow to ensure that all
who attend have a good view of the show.
Determining the best location for food vendors’ stands/tents
early in the planning process helps maintain satisfactory spectator
traffic flow and keeps almost everyone happy. We put the
concessions well behind the pit area, near the parking area.
If you have hobby vendors at your event, plan for their location
in advance as well, so that they are near the pilots but not blocking
the spectators. We have also learned to control the location of
pilots’ tents/shade structures, to keep the audience’s sight lines as
clear as possible in the vicinity of the stands.
A pilots’ meeting is held at the start of every flying day, during
which rules, safety, and the day’s program are reviewed.
Things got interesting when the best 3-D pilots tried to
outmaneuver each other. Careful co-pilot spotting is a must!
Positioning System) coordinates often help emergency crews
understand exactly where you are in relation to your road access
points.
We maintain crowd control by having all club staff, pilots, and pit
crews wear badges while in the flying/pit areas. If someone crosses
the spectator fence line and is not wearing a badge, we ask that
person to step back to the spectator area for his or her own safety.
Generating Club Funds: The main source of revenue from our
event is a public raffle for an RTF Giant Scale model. It is one of a
30 MODEL AVIATION
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:34 am Page 30
July 2004 33
A good parking crew is critical to keeping
things flowing well. This is one of the most
important but undervalued jobs at the event.
The parking team is the first club contact the
spectators have at the event, and first
impressions are extremely important. It can be
a hot, dry, and dusty shift for the club
volunteers.
The parking team members hand all
spectator cars our full-color event brochure,
ask for the donation, and tell them about the
raffle. The parking officials direct visitors
where to park; they keep spectator vehicles in
a separate area and allow only pilot vehicles
close to the pits. There are many cars to
handle, and it is helpful to rope off parking
lanes to keep chaos out of the parking area.
One of the most important items in field
preparation is bringing in and positioning
mobile restroom facilities; close to 2,000
spectators and 200-300 pilots, crew, and staff
down a good quantity of coffee, soda, water,
hot dogs, and burgers each day. We learned
that with our crowds, we must contract for our
portable restrooms to be serviced on Friday
and Saturday.
Our wives designate some for women’s
use only and decorate them with flowers and
such. They stay much cleaner than the boys’
facilities. Consider prevailing wind direction
and campers’ locations when positioning the
temporary restroom facilities.
Another important factor when the public
is involved is garbage containers and
collection. We have learned to provide several
trash containers for the event and bring in an
industrial-sized trash dumpster to help us keep
on top of the situation; the 3,000 spectators
create a remarkable amount of trash in just
two days.
Providing for cigarette-butt disposal is a
fire-prevention must. They rarely end up in
the designated containers, but it is important
that they not go into the regular trash. We
clean up the cigarettes and garbage Friday
night and Saturday night, and we do a final
cleanup Sunday after the event.
Registration: We post a pilot sign-up form on
our club Web site—www.fortnet.org/
loveairrc—and include one in the event
brochure to facilitate advance registration.
Model inspections and check-in start Friday
afternoon, to help get ahead of the Saturdaymorning
rush.
We encourage advanced registration with
a reduced event/landing fee for those who sign
up early. There are typically 100-110 pilots,
and having at least one-third of them
preregistered has made the process more
streamlined on Friday afternoon and Saturday
morning.
We provide the fliers with name badges
and pit-crew badges. Cheerful volunteers for
registration and keeping the check-in table
close to the transmitter impound keeps things
running smoothly.
Event Program/Agenda: Balancing the
pilots’ desires for an enjoyable event and the
public’s desires for a great air show has been a
key facet of the Rocky Mountain Big Bird
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Festival’s maturation. This balance is shown
in the program choices we make for the
event.
We decided to include a world-class flier
as our featured air-show demonstration pilot
each year. We pay a reasonable fee to bring
these special pilots in and pay their travel
expenses (gas or flight costs and hotel/meal
expenses).
We recoup this money by having
additional spectators and pilots attend and
selling incremental raffle tickets to the public
at the event. Including the words “World
Champ” and “National Champ” in the
marketing materials seems to work well in
attracting crowds and pilots.
Use any relationships that any of your
members have with top-shelf pilots to make
the invitation process smoother. If you don’t
have connections, attending events at which
good, potential air-show pilots perform is a
great way to introduce yourself and see how
different pilots would fit into your event.
We have learned a great deal through the
years about the event’s structure and flow of
flying and activities, such as to set specific
times for 3-D flying, warbirds, and a mix of
normal/sport flying and crowd buddy-box
flight instruction.
We found that those who spend many
hours on their warbirds like to fly together
and are displeased when other pilots pull 3-D
Harriers directly in front of their models. So
the warbird times become their own mini air
shows and allow the announcers to speak
about the pilots, their models, and the fullscale
aircraft and their histories to keep the
spectators engaged.
In a like manner, the set 3-D flying times
attract IMAC (International Miniature
Aerobatic Club) and Freestyle enthusiasts
who kick in the smoke systems, try formation
aerobatics, and Torque Roll their models for
the crowds.
Our featured air-show pilot is usually
asked to evaluate other pilots’ aircraft, and
the 3-D segment is a good time for these test
flights and for the air-show pilot to check out
his model before the noon demonstration.
Even with a set time for 3-D flying, we
mandate that Harriers and hovering
maneuvers be executed out from the runway
in the middle of the rectangular traffic
pattern, keeping the runway mostly clear in
case someone needs to land quickly for any
reason.
During regular flying times, we prohibit
3-D maneuvers, and the regular sport fliers
come to the flightline. We encourage normal
aerobatics, and the Cubs, World War I
aircraft, and sport models mix it up to the
crowd’s delight.
We try to keep the six pilot stations filled
at all times, but there is a natural ebb and flow
of pilot volume during the day. At slower
times we encourage volunteers from the
crowd to fly a Giant Scale model via a buddy
box and instructor. The audience loves to see
other crowd members fly a model then be
interviewed by the announcers.
During these instruction times each day,
we hold free public raffles for 40-size trainer
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36 MODEL AVIATION
kits/ARFs. We ask the crowd members to raise
their hands if they would truly be interested in
getting into the hobby, and then only those
people receive tickets. Local hobby shops that
help sponsor the event donate the kits.
We distribute the raffle tickets and call the
winner out of the stands. The proud new kit
owner has his or her picture taken with the
hobby-store representative, takes a turn with
the buddy box/instructor, and then is
interviewed for the crowd. It is fun for the
audience, and there is no lack of volunteers to
take a turn flying a model.
We sell a good deal of raffle tickets for the
Kadet during these times since the crowd can
see firsthand that nearly anyone can fly with
good instruction. We sell even more tickets at
instruction time since our buddy-boxinstruction
airplanes are copies of the Quinn
Kadet that we raffle off, and crowd members
can see how excellent a well-set-up Giant
Scale model would be as a first airplane.
Free hourly pilot-prize drawings, major
pilot-prize raffles, and excellent pilot-prize
quality help keep participants returning year
after year. Our super salesperson obtains these
prizes.
Since the public is invited and comes for
the noon air show, the pilots who attend are
those who enjoy showing off their aircraft in a
noncompetitive but well-managed
environment. They come to enjoy the air-show
demonstration featuring a world-class pilot as
much as the spectators. Also allowing some
regional pilots with special airplanes and skills
to participate in the noon air show boosts their
pride in participation.
Our Sunday air show last year featured a
comedy skit featuring a 12-foot-wingspan
Cub, a Giant Scale-legal turbine jet, a 50-
pound Hawker Sea Fury, a 3-D and a turbine
helicopter, local pilots doing 3-D aerobatics,
and the finale: Garrett Morrison’s (Lodi CA)
amazing Freestyle Aerobatics demonstration.
During the event, the announcers are
constantly broadcasting over the PA system
the aircraft each pilot is flying; where the pilot
is from; and the engine, kit type, and special
features of the model and its full-scale
counterpart. This keeps the crowd informed
and involved, and it appeals to each pilot’s
pride in his or her aircraft. Humor in
announcing is a big asset in handling mishaps
and keeping the enthusiasm level up on the
flightline.
We use 70-volt horn speakers on poles
down the flightline in addition to the main PAsystem
cabinets to ensure proper sound
coverage for the crowd and the pilots. We
announce the pilot prizes and landings, ask for
applause for good flights, and help the
impound crew by calling for delinquent
frequency pins and announcing when pilots in
the queue can fly after their frequencies clear
up.
To help encourage visiting pilots to get
early stick time at the event, we often ask club
members to refrain from flying Saturday
morning to let the visitors have the first crack
at it that day. Normal club flying starts each
day at the end of the formal event hours, and
we close the impound and distribute the radios
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July 2004 39
to their owners until the next morning. We run
the event impound and frequency control
during event hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and
9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, when the Kadet is
raffled off.
Social Activities: Pilots who attend the event,
some every year, enjoy the social aspect and
bring their RVs for dry camping starting the
Tuesday and Wednesday before the event, to
ensure a good spot.
We hold a potluck dinner Friday evening
and a pig-roast dinner Saturday evening during
the event. One of our member families handles
the potluck dinner, and another family runs the
pig roast. We have tried Saturday-evening
catered dinners throughout the years, but that
has presented mixed success and increased
costs.
The less-formal potluck and pig roast
dinners have become fun traditions and are
followed by a round of night flying starting at
dusk Friday and Saturday evening. All manner
of contraptions show up in the sky, and people
either watch the craft or simply visit with
friends down the line of campers and RVs.
Event Promotion: Properly marketing the flyin
has made a big difference in continuing to
attract participants and increasing the number
of spectators. Our first year with real marketing
was coincident with having Quique Somenzini
as our air-show pilot, and we went from 300
spectators the previous year to 2,500 spectators
that year.
Our marketing efforts are multifaceted and
consist of our Web site; more than 3,000 fullcolor,
two-sided, 11 x 17-inch brochures; two
“Contest Calendar” ads in MA that run for
several months; a 1⁄4-page black-and-white ad
in MA; small ads in each of the local
newspapers; and feature articles in each local
paper in northern Colorado (three newspapers
in three cities).
We place ads in local newspapers the
Friday and Saturday right before and at the
start of the festival, and they reinforce the
photo articles that each newspaper publishes
promoting the event. We put a great deal of
effort into trying to get the papers to come out
and publicize the fly-in beforehand, and our
objective is to have articles running on Friday
or Saturday morning along with our ads.
Our event brochure has evolved through the
years. We now use one large, two-sided, color
leaflet. The front side has large pictures and
much of the spectator information. The reverse
side has pilot information, a preregistration
form, a map, an event schedule, and detailed
directions.
These handouts feature a good-size picture
of the previous year’s raffle model and enough
photos to show the size and variety of aircraft
that will be present. We promote our guest airshow
pilot and direct people to our Web site
for additional information.
We are only able to have a brochure of this
quality because a generous club member owns
a printing business. A member lays out the ads
and the pamphlets, and our printer creates and
donates the brochures in awesome color and
quantity.
This allows our members to distribute them
at regional contests and use the photos to help
sell raffle tickets. We distribute the leaflets to
clubs and hobby stores across the state and to
our mailing list of past attendees. The brochure
is big enough to use as a window poster at the
hobby stores. Since it has complete spectator
and pilot information, the one brochure works
for friends and modelers.
In previous years we tried separate pilot
and spectator brochures, and you always had
the wrong one in your car or field box when
someone asked about the event. It also doubled
the cost and work for the printer.
We also use the brochure at our mall show
later in the year, to show the public what our
main fly-in is like (we use stickers to correct
the dates for the next year). See what printing
connections you have within your club, and
use them to the max.
Last year we made a connection with an
excellent professional sports photographer—
Bill Sallaz of ActionPic9.com—who shot
some amazing photos of Saturday’s activities.
His pictures accompany this article. Bill will
be at our future events, and we will be using
his photography in our marketing efforts this
year.
Having top-quality photographs available
for purchase will be another drawing card to
encourage pilots to attend our event with their
airplanes this year. Good photography can
increase the results of your club’s marketing
efforts and Web-site work.
Television coverage is possible but hard to
obtain without a good contact at the station.
We did get a news crew out one year, and they
did a super spot for us, but we have been
unable to get them to come out again because
of our distance from Denver. Any connections
your members have with photographers, the
press, or TV stations are valuable and should
be shamelessly exploited.
Anything is possible for your event. Our team
has been amazed at the type of fly-in the
Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival has
become. The last time Chip Hyde was our
featured pilot, he said, “Man, you guys just
have fun at this thing!” Our goals mix
financial, promotional, and membership
aspects. For more information or to contact our
club, use our Web site.
You can use your event for anything you
want to accomplish. Your team can merge the
members’ strengths and create an exciting
event that shows your club and the hobby in
the best light.
Full-scale air shows are being increasingly
controlled by spectator liability issues and are
moving the crowds farther and farther from the
action. You can get people closer to greatlooking
aircraft and really get them excited
about model aviation.
Our hobby and your next big event can
provide a unique opportunity to engage the
public, attract members, and help finance your
club’s operations. Set your goals, pick your
team, and make it happen. MA
Neil Miles
2007 Coastal Ct.
Fort Collins CO 80528
07sig2.QXD 4/26/04 8:21 am Page 39
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/07
Page Numbers: 26,27,28,29,30,33,34,36,39
Planning and Running
a Large Club Event
26 MODEL AVIATION
WHAT ARE SOME goals your club would like to accomplish with
its main event this year? Perhaps raising operating funds, attracting
new members, raising your club’s profile in the community,
improving the club’s reputation among other clubs in your area, or
generally making your event the social RC hit of the year in your
region.
Your group can accomplish many or all of these goals with its
major event of the year; all it takes is a strong team, hard work from
most of your club’s members, and solid organization. Did I mention
hard work?
The Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival—sponsored by the Love-
Air R/C club in northern Colorado, of which I am a member—is a
Giant Scale fly-in that celebrated its 10th anniversary in August
2003. With a history of demonstration pilots including Chip Hyde,
Quique Somenzini, Sean McMurtry, Bill Hempel, Garrett Morrison,
and Doug Gearman; more than 100 pilot participants; and an excess
of 2,500 spectators, this gathering has grown to be one of the
premier RC events in the region.
The fly-in brings thousands of dollars per year into the Love-Air
R/C’s operating fund, attracts 10-20 new members each year,
exposes thousands of spectators to the best of RC flying, and is now
a must-attend event for an ever-increasing number of RC fliers from
roughly 10 Western states.
In this article I will outline some of the keys to this event’s
success to help your club accomplish its goals with an event.
Many decisions made will depend on your club’s objectives for its
key event. Decide what the group wants to accomplish, and
include/exclude items from the plan to help get you along that path.
Some of the following points may not apply to your event;
however, they may allow your club to be more creative in planning
its next activity. And later we might read about your events in MA!
Our club and leadership team has learned a great deal in the past
decade about how to successfully manage an event that has grown
from a small club activity to a regional place to be. Love-Air R/C is
not a superclub; it is typical, with approximately 170 members.
However, we are blessed to have a great flying facility, and we have
a committed core of capable leaders managing the Big Bird Festival.
Key decisions were made in developing the gathering. They
were to:
• Pick a unique event focus and type.
by Neil Miles
A public raffle prize such as this 82-inch-span “Quinn” Kadet
RTF can increase crowd participation and interest.
Roped walkways provide overflow spectator areas. Pilot shade
structures at either end of flightline do not interfere with
spectator sight lines.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:05 am Page 26
July 2004 27
• Choose a consistent time of year that does
not conflict with other regional activities.
• Include the public as spectators and plan
for their enjoyment and parking.
• Raise club funds through the public raffle
of a custom-built RTF aircraft.
• Market the event in MA and in local
newspapers, and produce a color brochure.
• Bring in some of the top names in RC
Aerobatics as demonstration/air-show
pilots.
As you plan your club’s event, look
around to see what would be interesting,
fun, and could attract pilots from an event
type and time-frame standpoint. Consider
your flying facility and what type of events
would work best (e.g., jets and close-in
trees may not be the optimal fit). Then the
serious planning can begin.
Planning: Planning is the key to making
any major event work well. We start team
meetings in January or February to decide
on the show pilots and get a start on the
marketing for the August event.
We try to request our event sanction
early from AMA to ensure that our ads will
run and that we get on the calendar. We
submit event announcements to AMA’s
Competition Department for MA’s “Contest
Calendar” in March, and we submit our 1⁄4-
page ad to MA in March or April,
depending on the ad deadlines. Deadlines
for advertising depend on the time of year
of your event. Contact your target
Air bosses with radio headsets control runway access and flight operations at an event.
You can see the flight-station safety fencing in the background.
Providing designated warbird flight times brings out the showmanship from the Scale
pilots. Most spectators will respond to this type of aircraft.
The raffle-prize aircraft is shown to the crowd throughout the day
to generate incremental ticket sales.
Left: Separate 3-D flying times showcase IMAC and hotdog pilots’
flying skills in a more controlled environment.
Photos courtesy ActionPic9.com
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:23 am Page 27
28 MODEL AVIATION
A local pilot’s Hawker Sea Fury really spiced up the noon air show, and
it included realistic warbird sounds.
The Love Air R/C club’s best pilots also got to participate in the airshow
program. Smoke is a crowd pleaser!
Garrett Morrison was the featured pilot at the 2003 Rocky
Mountain Big Bird Festival. The crowd loved his
performance!
Garrett Morrison’s 3-D model in the rolling-harrier portion
of his crowd-pleasing Freestyle routine.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:29 am Page 28
July 2004 29
This turbine-powered Eurofighter wowed the crowd with its
sound and speed. Safety is paramount with this type of model.
A wide variety of aircraft types, such as this Scale biplane, help
attract and hold the spectators’ interest.
Sport-flying times at the festival included more traditional
aerobatics. Biplanes are a spectator favorite.
publication and work your ads back from their submission
deadlines.
A critical factor is appointing committee leads for each
important facet of the team structure. The event director and contest
director lead the team, and they take care of many duties by
themselves.
Additional committee directors cover field preparation, running
our public raffle, public relations/marketing, sponsors/prize
donations, air-show-pilot coordination, the air-boss team,
concessions/vendor relations, public-address (PA)/music-system
direction, the transmitter impound, and, most important, the parking
team.
We hold monthly meetings before our regular club meetings to
keep the team aligned, moving forward, and handling any issues
that arise. We also regularly discuss the festival in our club
meetings to keep the membership informed, answer questions,
recruit additional volunteers, and collect any new ideas the members
have.
Your event’s theme and type should reflect your club’s interests
to encourage as many critical volunteers as possible. Inevitably, at
every well-managed RC event, a sizable portion of the club’s
members are involved in running it. We have found that nothing
works better than a heartfelt personal invitation to get a volunteer
signed up. Our committee leads reach out to help club members
volunteer for their teams.
Safety Considerations: Safety should be the number-one
consideration when running any event. Pilot and spectator safety are
combined in our hobby because of the observers’ proximity to the
aircraft.
A competent event staff must perform careful pilot/airplane
inspections before any aircraft leaves the ground—especially for
large Scale or Aerobatics models. Thorough inspections include
checking such items as hinges, linkages, and propeller condition.
Proper safety fencing, spectator/crowd control, and strictly
monitoring the participants’ flying ensure spectator safety. We use a
team of air bosses with radio systems, fluorescent vests, and
coordination with the announcers to keep the flightline safe and
enjoyable for all. The air bosses watch for erratic flying or
violations of the specified no-fly zones; if they see an infraction,
they ask the offending pilot to land immediately.
Our field has three taxi entrances to the runway. The air bosses
control the flow of on-deck pilots at two of the entrances and the
safe landing, shutdown, and collection of models at the third.
The air bosses call changes in the wind direction and tell the
pilots when they must flip the flying and landing pattern. They are
also responsible for informing all pilots if a landing or dead-stick
approach is underway or called. A polite, firm voice and some
experience are air-boss requirements, so older club members are
typically more successful than our junior members.
To keep each participant better aware of the situation
surrounding his or her aircraft, we require all pilots to have callers
with them at the designated pilot stations. Some initially resist this
rule since we hold more of a fun-fly event, but with as many as six
models in the air, with their different types and speeds, fliers soon
realize that flying with a buddy is much safer.
Besides, only the caller can really watch the other airplanes, pay
attention to the air bosses, relay the good-natured ribbing that takes
place, correct the announcer on the aircraft’s description, and
retrieve the model at the end of its flight.
A well-functioning transmitter impound is mandatory for a wellmanaged
event. Our impound team is a good-natured bunch, and we
supply a weatherproof trailer with temporary shelving inside to
make the impound process enjoyable and safe for all pilots.
We use a frequency analyzer to check for transmitters left on and
for radio problems. If turbine-powered jets are present, additional
fire extinguishers must be present and a fire crew must be standing
ready.
Remember to consider spectator/pilot physical separation for
safety’s sake, and check in with local fire and rescue services to
ensure that they know the best routes to your event and what they
can expect from a crowd and access standpoint. GPS (Global
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:33 am Page 29
series of modified Sig Kadets that one of our members originally
created. It is constructed by one of our members who custom-builds
models for others.
The Kadet spans 82 inches and comes with the radio fully
installed. It is immaculately covered and truly ready to fly (except
for charging the batteries and adding fuel). This airplane has an
excellent reputation with the region’s pilots and looks great. Since
we fly identical models on spectator buddy-box machines during
our event, visitors can see that it flies extremely well. The quality of
our raffle airplane helps us sell a good quantity of raffle tickets each
year.
Although most club members can sell raffle tickets, certain
unique individuals truly excel at it. Our resident supersalesman
knows nearly every business owner in our area and could sell
iceboxes to Eskimos. Engaging your supersalesmen/women and
finding the right prize(s) will enable your raffle to generate enough
funds to cover costs and help build excitement.
Although the entire club sells raffle tickets for months before the
event, we sell many tickets during the festival, and we hold the
drawing at the close of the event. Every year crowd members stay in
the stands hoping they will win the model.
Remember to follow all state rules for holding a public raffle.
Register it with the correct authorities, and handle the ticket
numbers and stubs according to their regulations. We have a team
who does the necessary research and runs our raffle beautifully each
year.
Another way we help to cover event costs is to ask for a $2
donation per vehicle for parking. We rent an additional field from a
local farmer, where we park more than 800 spectator cars each day.
Parking money is kept as a donation to eliminate liabilities and
income issues. It usually covers the cost of bringing the air-show
pilots in and renting the extra field.
You will probably have 15 people packed in a Suburban who
refuse to pay. Our parking-team members have learned to reach into
their own pockets and say, “I’ll just pay it for you.” This gets most
holdouts to contribute, but not all. However, some spectators give us
$10 or $20 and tell us they really appreciate the event; they love to
come out every year and are quite willing to help with event costs.
We sell souvenir Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival T-shirts
each year, but mostly to the pilots and crew. They usually sell out at
a marginal profit. We also sell club-logo ball caps, and spectators
often purchase them. These are not big money-makers for our club,
but they have become traditions that help pilots remember their time
with us when they go back to their home clubs and flying fields.
Field Preparation/Parking: To get ready for the event, we hold a
field-cleanup-and-safety-fence-extension party. We have the 1⁄3-mile
access road to our facility graded and prepped to handle the crowds
and minimize the dust. (Colorado dryness/washboard is our
problem; other regions face different issues.)
We spruce up the paint on our shade shelter and our signs, and
then we bring in the spectator stands we rent from a local school
district. Luckily we have a generous house-moving-company
sponsor that helps transport the stands to and from our field each
year.
We extend our spectator separation fence using a rope divider
across the entire width of the flying-field property (which fills up
with pilots’ trailers and RVs anyway), and then we rope off an 8-
foot spectator walkway the entire width of the property. This allows
the audience to walk safely behind the flightline/pit area to look at
the models and talk to the pilots. Since the stands fill up well before
the noon air show, the footpath acts as an overflow to ensure that all
who attend have a good view of the show.
Determining the best location for food vendors’ stands/tents
early in the planning process helps maintain satisfactory spectator
traffic flow and keeps almost everyone happy. We put the
concessions well behind the pit area, near the parking area.
If you have hobby vendors at your event, plan for their location
in advance as well, so that they are near the pilots but not blocking
the spectators. We have also learned to control the location of
pilots’ tents/shade structures, to keep the audience’s sight lines as
clear as possible in the vicinity of the stands.
A pilots’ meeting is held at the start of every flying day, during
which rules, safety, and the day’s program are reviewed.
Things got interesting when the best 3-D pilots tried to
outmaneuver each other. Careful co-pilot spotting is a must!
Positioning System) coordinates often help emergency crews
understand exactly where you are in relation to your road access
points.
We maintain crowd control by having all club staff, pilots, and pit
crews wear badges while in the flying/pit areas. If someone crosses
the spectator fence line and is not wearing a badge, we ask that
person to step back to the spectator area for his or her own safety.
Generating Club Funds: The main source of revenue from our
event is a public raffle for an RTF Giant Scale model. It is one of a
30 MODEL AVIATION
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:34 am Page 30
July 2004 33
A good parking crew is critical to keeping
things flowing well. This is one of the most
important but undervalued jobs at the event.
The parking team is the first club contact the
spectators have at the event, and first
impressions are extremely important. It can be
a hot, dry, and dusty shift for the club
volunteers.
The parking team members hand all
spectator cars our full-color event brochure,
ask for the donation, and tell them about the
raffle. The parking officials direct visitors
where to park; they keep spectator vehicles in
a separate area and allow only pilot vehicles
close to the pits. There are many cars to
handle, and it is helpful to rope off parking
lanes to keep chaos out of the parking area.
One of the most important items in field
preparation is bringing in and positioning
mobile restroom facilities; close to 2,000
spectators and 200-300 pilots, crew, and staff
down a good quantity of coffee, soda, water,
hot dogs, and burgers each day. We learned
that with our crowds, we must contract for our
portable restrooms to be serviced on Friday
and Saturday.
Our wives designate some for women’s
use only and decorate them with flowers and
such. They stay much cleaner than the boys’
facilities. Consider prevailing wind direction
and campers’ locations when positioning the
temporary restroom facilities.
Another important factor when the public
is involved is garbage containers and
collection. We have learned to provide several
trash containers for the event and bring in an
industrial-sized trash dumpster to help us keep
on top of the situation; the 3,000 spectators
create a remarkable amount of trash in just
two days.
Providing for cigarette-butt disposal is a
fire-prevention must. They rarely end up in
the designated containers, but it is important
that they not go into the regular trash. We
clean up the cigarettes and garbage Friday
night and Saturday night, and we do a final
cleanup Sunday after the event.
Registration: We post a pilot sign-up form on
our club Web site—www.fortnet.org/
loveairrc—and include one in the event
brochure to facilitate advance registration.
Model inspections and check-in start Friday
afternoon, to help get ahead of the Saturdaymorning
rush.
We encourage advanced registration with
a reduced event/landing fee for those who sign
up early. There are typically 100-110 pilots,
and having at least one-third of them
preregistered has made the process more
streamlined on Friday afternoon and Saturday
morning.
We provide the fliers with name badges
and pit-crew badges. Cheerful volunteers for
registration and keeping the check-in table
close to the transmitter impound keeps things
running smoothly.
Event Program/Agenda: Balancing the
pilots’ desires for an enjoyable event and the
public’s desires for a great air show has been a
key facet of the Rocky Mountain Big Bird
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Festival’s maturation. This balance is shown
in the program choices we make for the
event.
We decided to include a world-class flier
as our featured air-show demonstration pilot
each year. We pay a reasonable fee to bring
these special pilots in and pay their travel
expenses (gas or flight costs and hotel/meal
expenses).
We recoup this money by having
additional spectators and pilots attend and
selling incremental raffle tickets to the public
at the event. Including the words “World
Champ” and “National Champ” in the
marketing materials seems to work well in
attracting crowds and pilots.
Use any relationships that any of your
members have with top-shelf pilots to make
the invitation process smoother. If you don’t
have connections, attending events at which
good, potential air-show pilots perform is a
great way to introduce yourself and see how
different pilots would fit into your event.
We have learned a great deal through the
years about the event’s structure and flow of
flying and activities, such as to set specific
times for 3-D flying, warbirds, and a mix of
normal/sport flying and crowd buddy-box
flight instruction.
We found that those who spend many
hours on their warbirds like to fly together
and are displeased when other pilots pull 3-D
Harriers directly in front of their models. So
the warbird times become their own mini air
shows and allow the announcers to speak
about the pilots, their models, and the fullscale
aircraft and their histories to keep the
spectators engaged.
In a like manner, the set 3-D flying times
attract IMAC (International Miniature
Aerobatic Club) and Freestyle enthusiasts
who kick in the smoke systems, try formation
aerobatics, and Torque Roll their models for
the crowds.
Our featured air-show pilot is usually
asked to evaluate other pilots’ aircraft, and
the 3-D segment is a good time for these test
flights and for the air-show pilot to check out
his model before the noon demonstration.
Even with a set time for 3-D flying, we
mandate that Harriers and hovering
maneuvers be executed out from the runway
in the middle of the rectangular traffic
pattern, keeping the runway mostly clear in
case someone needs to land quickly for any
reason.
During regular flying times, we prohibit
3-D maneuvers, and the regular sport fliers
come to the flightline. We encourage normal
aerobatics, and the Cubs, World War I
aircraft, and sport models mix it up to the
crowd’s delight.
We try to keep the six pilot stations filled
at all times, but there is a natural ebb and flow
of pilot volume during the day. At slower
times we encourage volunteers from the
crowd to fly a Giant Scale model via a buddy
box and instructor. The audience loves to see
other crowd members fly a model then be
interviewed by the announcers.
During these instruction times each day,
we hold free public raffles for 40-size trainer
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36 MODEL AVIATION
kits/ARFs. We ask the crowd members to raise
their hands if they would truly be interested in
getting into the hobby, and then only those
people receive tickets. Local hobby shops that
help sponsor the event donate the kits.
We distribute the raffle tickets and call the
winner out of the stands. The proud new kit
owner has his or her picture taken with the
hobby-store representative, takes a turn with
the buddy box/instructor, and then is
interviewed for the crowd. It is fun for the
audience, and there is no lack of volunteers to
take a turn flying a model.
We sell a good deal of raffle tickets for the
Kadet during these times since the crowd can
see firsthand that nearly anyone can fly with
good instruction. We sell even more tickets at
instruction time since our buddy-boxinstruction
airplanes are copies of the Quinn
Kadet that we raffle off, and crowd members
can see how excellent a well-set-up Giant
Scale model would be as a first airplane.
Free hourly pilot-prize drawings, major
pilot-prize raffles, and excellent pilot-prize
quality help keep participants returning year
after year. Our super salesperson obtains these
prizes.
Since the public is invited and comes for
the noon air show, the pilots who attend are
those who enjoy showing off their aircraft in a
noncompetitive but well-managed
environment. They come to enjoy the air-show
demonstration featuring a world-class pilot as
much as the spectators. Also allowing some
regional pilots with special airplanes and skills
to participate in the noon air show boosts their
pride in participation.
Our Sunday air show last year featured a
comedy skit featuring a 12-foot-wingspan
Cub, a Giant Scale-legal turbine jet, a 50-
pound Hawker Sea Fury, a 3-D and a turbine
helicopter, local pilots doing 3-D aerobatics,
and the finale: Garrett Morrison’s (Lodi CA)
amazing Freestyle Aerobatics demonstration.
During the event, the announcers are
constantly broadcasting over the PA system
the aircraft each pilot is flying; where the pilot
is from; and the engine, kit type, and special
features of the model and its full-scale
counterpart. This keeps the crowd informed
and involved, and it appeals to each pilot’s
pride in his or her aircraft. Humor in
announcing is a big asset in handling mishaps
and keeping the enthusiasm level up on the
flightline.
We use 70-volt horn speakers on poles
down the flightline in addition to the main PAsystem
cabinets to ensure proper sound
coverage for the crowd and the pilots. We
announce the pilot prizes and landings, ask for
applause for good flights, and help the
impound crew by calling for delinquent
frequency pins and announcing when pilots in
the queue can fly after their frequencies clear
up.
To help encourage visiting pilots to get
early stick time at the event, we often ask club
members to refrain from flying Saturday
morning to let the visitors have the first crack
at it that day. Normal club flying starts each
day at the end of the formal event hours, and
we close the impound and distribute the radios
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July 2004 39
to their owners until the next morning. We run
the event impound and frequency control
during event hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and
9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, when the Kadet is
raffled off.
Social Activities: Pilots who attend the event,
some every year, enjoy the social aspect and
bring their RVs for dry camping starting the
Tuesday and Wednesday before the event, to
ensure a good spot.
We hold a potluck dinner Friday evening
and a pig-roast dinner Saturday evening during
the event. One of our member families handles
the potluck dinner, and another family runs the
pig roast. We have tried Saturday-evening
catered dinners throughout the years, but that
has presented mixed success and increased
costs.
The less-formal potluck and pig roast
dinners have become fun traditions and are
followed by a round of night flying starting at
dusk Friday and Saturday evening. All manner
of contraptions show up in the sky, and people
either watch the craft or simply visit with
friends down the line of campers and RVs.
Event Promotion: Properly marketing the flyin
has made a big difference in continuing to
attract participants and increasing the number
of spectators. Our first year with real marketing
was coincident with having Quique Somenzini
as our air-show pilot, and we went from 300
spectators the previous year to 2,500 spectators
that year.
Our marketing efforts are multifaceted and
consist of our Web site; more than 3,000 fullcolor,
two-sided, 11 x 17-inch brochures; two
“Contest Calendar” ads in MA that run for
several months; a 1⁄4-page black-and-white ad
in MA; small ads in each of the local
newspapers; and feature articles in each local
paper in northern Colorado (three newspapers
in three cities).
We place ads in local newspapers the
Friday and Saturday right before and at the
start of the festival, and they reinforce the
photo articles that each newspaper publishes
promoting the event. We put a great deal of
effort into trying to get the papers to come out
and publicize the fly-in beforehand, and our
objective is to have articles running on Friday
or Saturday morning along with our ads.
Our event brochure has evolved through the
years. We now use one large, two-sided, color
leaflet. The front side has large pictures and
much of the spectator information. The reverse
side has pilot information, a preregistration
form, a map, an event schedule, and detailed
directions.
These handouts feature a good-size picture
of the previous year’s raffle model and enough
photos to show the size and variety of aircraft
that will be present. We promote our guest airshow
pilot and direct people to our Web site
for additional information.
We are only able to have a brochure of this
quality because a generous club member owns
a printing business. A member lays out the ads
and the pamphlets, and our printer creates and
donates the brochures in awesome color and
quantity.
This allows our members to distribute them
at regional contests and use the photos to help
sell raffle tickets. We distribute the leaflets to
clubs and hobby stores across the state and to
our mailing list of past attendees. The brochure
is big enough to use as a window poster at the
hobby stores. Since it has complete spectator
and pilot information, the one brochure works
for friends and modelers.
In previous years we tried separate pilot
and spectator brochures, and you always had
the wrong one in your car or field box when
someone asked about the event. It also doubled
the cost and work for the printer.
We also use the brochure at our mall show
later in the year, to show the public what our
main fly-in is like (we use stickers to correct
the dates for the next year). See what printing
connections you have within your club, and
use them to the max.
Last year we made a connection with an
excellent professional sports photographer—
Bill Sallaz of ActionPic9.com—who shot
some amazing photos of Saturday’s activities.
His pictures accompany this article. Bill will
be at our future events, and we will be using
his photography in our marketing efforts this
year.
Having top-quality photographs available
for purchase will be another drawing card to
encourage pilots to attend our event with their
airplanes this year. Good photography can
increase the results of your club’s marketing
efforts and Web-site work.
Television coverage is possible but hard to
obtain without a good contact at the station.
We did get a news crew out one year, and they
did a super spot for us, but we have been
unable to get them to come out again because
of our distance from Denver. Any connections
your members have with photographers, the
press, or TV stations are valuable and should
be shamelessly exploited.
Anything is possible for your event. Our team
has been amazed at the type of fly-in the
Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival has
become. The last time Chip Hyde was our
featured pilot, he said, “Man, you guys just
have fun at this thing!” Our goals mix
financial, promotional, and membership
aspects. For more information or to contact our
club, use our Web site.
You can use your event for anything you
want to accomplish. Your team can merge the
members’ strengths and create an exciting
event that shows your club and the hobby in
the best light.
Full-scale air shows are being increasingly
controlled by spectator liability issues and are
moving the crowds farther and farther from the
action. You can get people closer to greatlooking
aircraft and really get them excited
about model aviation.
Our hobby and your next big event can
provide a unique opportunity to engage the
public, attract members, and help finance your
club’s operations. Set your goals, pick your
team, and make it happen. MA
Neil Miles
2007 Coastal Ct.
Fort Collins CO 80528
07sig2.QXD 4/26/04 8:21 am Page 39
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/07
Page Numbers: 26,27,28,29,30,33,34,36,39
Planning and Running
a Large Club Event
26 MODEL AVIATION
WHAT ARE SOME goals your club would like to accomplish with
its main event this year? Perhaps raising operating funds, attracting
new members, raising your club’s profile in the community,
improving the club’s reputation among other clubs in your area, or
generally making your event the social RC hit of the year in your
region.
Your group can accomplish many or all of these goals with its
major event of the year; all it takes is a strong team, hard work from
most of your club’s members, and solid organization. Did I mention
hard work?
The Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival—sponsored by the Love-
Air R/C club in northern Colorado, of which I am a member—is a
Giant Scale fly-in that celebrated its 10th anniversary in August
2003. With a history of demonstration pilots including Chip Hyde,
Quique Somenzini, Sean McMurtry, Bill Hempel, Garrett Morrison,
and Doug Gearman; more than 100 pilot participants; and an excess
of 2,500 spectators, this gathering has grown to be one of the
premier RC events in the region.
The fly-in brings thousands of dollars per year into the Love-Air
R/C’s operating fund, attracts 10-20 new members each year,
exposes thousands of spectators to the best of RC flying, and is now
a must-attend event for an ever-increasing number of RC fliers from
roughly 10 Western states.
In this article I will outline some of the keys to this event’s
success to help your club accomplish its goals with an event.
Many decisions made will depend on your club’s objectives for its
key event. Decide what the group wants to accomplish, and
include/exclude items from the plan to help get you along that path.
Some of the following points may not apply to your event;
however, they may allow your club to be more creative in planning
its next activity. And later we might read about your events in MA!
Our club and leadership team has learned a great deal in the past
decade about how to successfully manage an event that has grown
from a small club activity to a regional place to be. Love-Air R/C is
not a superclub; it is typical, with approximately 170 members.
However, we are blessed to have a great flying facility, and we have
a committed core of capable leaders managing the Big Bird Festival.
Key decisions were made in developing the gathering. They
were to:
• Pick a unique event focus and type.
by Neil Miles
A public raffle prize such as this 82-inch-span “Quinn” Kadet
RTF can increase crowd participation and interest.
Roped walkways provide overflow spectator areas. Pilot shade
structures at either end of flightline do not interfere with
spectator sight lines.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:05 am Page 26
July 2004 27
• Choose a consistent time of year that does
not conflict with other regional activities.
• Include the public as spectators and plan
for their enjoyment and parking.
• Raise club funds through the public raffle
of a custom-built RTF aircraft.
• Market the event in MA and in local
newspapers, and produce a color brochure.
• Bring in some of the top names in RC
Aerobatics as demonstration/air-show
pilots.
As you plan your club’s event, look
around to see what would be interesting,
fun, and could attract pilots from an event
type and time-frame standpoint. Consider
your flying facility and what type of events
would work best (e.g., jets and close-in
trees may not be the optimal fit). Then the
serious planning can begin.
Planning: Planning is the key to making
any major event work well. We start team
meetings in January or February to decide
on the show pilots and get a start on the
marketing for the August event.
We try to request our event sanction
early from AMA to ensure that our ads will
run and that we get on the calendar. We
submit event announcements to AMA’s
Competition Department for MA’s “Contest
Calendar” in March, and we submit our 1⁄4-
page ad to MA in March or April,
depending on the ad deadlines. Deadlines
for advertising depend on the time of year
of your event. Contact your target
Air bosses with radio headsets control runway access and flight operations at an event.
You can see the flight-station safety fencing in the background.
Providing designated warbird flight times brings out the showmanship from the Scale
pilots. Most spectators will respond to this type of aircraft.
The raffle-prize aircraft is shown to the crowd throughout the day
to generate incremental ticket sales.
Left: Separate 3-D flying times showcase IMAC and hotdog pilots’
flying skills in a more controlled environment.
Photos courtesy ActionPic9.com
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:23 am Page 27
28 MODEL AVIATION
A local pilot’s Hawker Sea Fury really spiced up the noon air show, and
it included realistic warbird sounds.
The Love Air R/C club’s best pilots also got to participate in the airshow
program. Smoke is a crowd pleaser!
Garrett Morrison was the featured pilot at the 2003 Rocky
Mountain Big Bird Festival. The crowd loved his
performance!
Garrett Morrison’s 3-D model in the rolling-harrier portion
of his crowd-pleasing Freestyle routine.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:29 am Page 28
July 2004 29
This turbine-powered Eurofighter wowed the crowd with its
sound and speed. Safety is paramount with this type of model.
A wide variety of aircraft types, such as this Scale biplane, help
attract and hold the spectators’ interest.
Sport-flying times at the festival included more traditional
aerobatics. Biplanes are a spectator favorite.
publication and work your ads back from their submission
deadlines.
A critical factor is appointing committee leads for each
important facet of the team structure. The event director and contest
director lead the team, and they take care of many duties by
themselves.
Additional committee directors cover field preparation, running
our public raffle, public relations/marketing, sponsors/prize
donations, air-show-pilot coordination, the air-boss team,
concessions/vendor relations, public-address (PA)/music-system
direction, the transmitter impound, and, most important, the parking
team.
We hold monthly meetings before our regular club meetings to
keep the team aligned, moving forward, and handling any issues
that arise. We also regularly discuss the festival in our club
meetings to keep the membership informed, answer questions,
recruit additional volunteers, and collect any new ideas the members
have.
Your event’s theme and type should reflect your club’s interests
to encourage as many critical volunteers as possible. Inevitably, at
every well-managed RC event, a sizable portion of the club’s
members are involved in running it. We have found that nothing
works better than a heartfelt personal invitation to get a volunteer
signed up. Our committee leads reach out to help club members
volunteer for their teams.
Safety Considerations: Safety should be the number-one
consideration when running any event. Pilot and spectator safety are
combined in our hobby because of the observers’ proximity to the
aircraft.
A competent event staff must perform careful pilot/airplane
inspections before any aircraft leaves the ground—especially for
large Scale or Aerobatics models. Thorough inspections include
checking such items as hinges, linkages, and propeller condition.
Proper safety fencing, spectator/crowd control, and strictly
monitoring the participants’ flying ensure spectator safety. We use a
team of air bosses with radio systems, fluorescent vests, and
coordination with the announcers to keep the flightline safe and
enjoyable for all. The air bosses watch for erratic flying or
violations of the specified no-fly zones; if they see an infraction,
they ask the offending pilot to land immediately.
Our field has three taxi entrances to the runway. The air bosses
control the flow of on-deck pilots at two of the entrances and the
safe landing, shutdown, and collection of models at the third.
The air bosses call changes in the wind direction and tell the
pilots when they must flip the flying and landing pattern. They are
also responsible for informing all pilots if a landing or dead-stick
approach is underway or called. A polite, firm voice and some
experience are air-boss requirements, so older club members are
typically more successful than our junior members.
To keep each participant better aware of the situation
surrounding his or her aircraft, we require all pilots to have callers
with them at the designated pilot stations. Some initially resist this
rule since we hold more of a fun-fly event, but with as many as six
models in the air, with their different types and speeds, fliers soon
realize that flying with a buddy is much safer.
Besides, only the caller can really watch the other airplanes, pay
attention to the air bosses, relay the good-natured ribbing that takes
place, correct the announcer on the aircraft’s description, and
retrieve the model at the end of its flight.
A well-functioning transmitter impound is mandatory for a wellmanaged
event. Our impound team is a good-natured bunch, and we
supply a weatherproof trailer with temporary shelving inside to
make the impound process enjoyable and safe for all pilots.
We use a frequency analyzer to check for transmitters left on and
for radio problems. If turbine-powered jets are present, additional
fire extinguishers must be present and a fire crew must be standing
ready.
Remember to consider spectator/pilot physical separation for
safety’s sake, and check in with local fire and rescue services to
ensure that they know the best routes to your event and what they
can expect from a crowd and access standpoint. GPS (Global
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:33 am Page 29
series of modified Sig Kadets that one of our members originally
created. It is constructed by one of our members who custom-builds
models for others.
The Kadet spans 82 inches and comes with the radio fully
installed. It is immaculately covered and truly ready to fly (except
for charging the batteries and adding fuel). This airplane has an
excellent reputation with the region’s pilots and looks great. Since
we fly identical models on spectator buddy-box machines during
our event, visitors can see that it flies extremely well. The quality of
our raffle airplane helps us sell a good quantity of raffle tickets each
year.
Although most club members can sell raffle tickets, certain
unique individuals truly excel at it. Our resident supersalesman
knows nearly every business owner in our area and could sell
iceboxes to Eskimos. Engaging your supersalesmen/women and
finding the right prize(s) will enable your raffle to generate enough
funds to cover costs and help build excitement.
Although the entire club sells raffle tickets for months before the
event, we sell many tickets during the festival, and we hold the
drawing at the close of the event. Every year crowd members stay in
the stands hoping they will win the model.
Remember to follow all state rules for holding a public raffle.
Register it with the correct authorities, and handle the ticket
numbers and stubs according to their regulations. We have a team
who does the necessary research and runs our raffle beautifully each
year.
Another way we help to cover event costs is to ask for a $2
donation per vehicle for parking. We rent an additional field from a
local farmer, where we park more than 800 spectator cars each day.
Parking money is kept as a donation to eliminate liabilities and
income issues. It usually covers the cost of bringing the air-show
pilots in and renting the extra field.
You will probably have 15 people packed in a Suburban who
refuse to pay. Our parking-team members have learned to reach into
their own pockets and say, “I’ll just pay it for you.” This gets most
holdouts to contribute, but not all. However, some spectators give us
$10 or $20 and tell us they really appreciate the event; they love to
come out every year and are quite willing to help with event costs.
We sell souvenir Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival T-shirts
each year, but mostly to the pilots and crew. They usually sell out at
a marginal profit. We also sell club-logo ball caps, and spectators
often purchase them. These are not big money-makers for our club,
but they have become traditions that help pilots remember their time
with us when they go back to their home clubs and flying fields.
Field Preparation/Parking: To get ready for the event, we hold a
field-cleanup-and-safety-fence-extension party. We have the 1⁄3-mile
access road to our facility graded and prepped to handle the crowds
and minimize the dust. (Colorado dryness/washboard is our
problem; other regions face different issues.)
We spruce up the paint on our shade shelter and our signs, and
then we bring in the spectator stands we rent from a local school
district. Luckily we have a generous house-moving-company
sponsor that helps transport the stands to and from our field each
year.
We extend our spectator separation fence using a rope divider
across the entire width of the flying-field property (which fills up
with pilots’ trailers and RVs anyway), and then we rope off an 8-
foot spectator walkway the entire width of the property. This allows
the audience to walk safely behind the flightline/pit area to look at
the models and talk to the pilots. Since the stands fill up well before
the noon air show, the footpath acts as an overflow to ensure that all
who attend have a good view of the show.
Determining the best location for food vendors’ stands/tents
early in the planning process helps maintain satisfactory spectator
traffic flow and keeps almost everyone happy. We put the
concessions well behind the pit area, near the parking area.
If you have hobby vendors at your event, plan for their location
in advance as well, so that they are near the pilots but not blocking
the spectators. We have also learned to control the location of
pilots’ tents/shade structures, to keep the audience’s sight lines as
clear as possible in the vicinity of the stands.
A pilots’ meeting is held at the start of every flying day, during
which rules, safety, and the day’s program are reviewed.
Things got interesting when the best 3-D pilots tried to
outmaneuver each other. Careful co-pilot spotting is a must!
Positioning System) coordinates often help emergency crews
understand exactly where you are in relation to your road access
points.
We maintain crowd control by having all club staff, pilots, and pit
crews wear badges while in the flying/pit areas. If someone crosses
the spectator fence line and is not wearing a badge, we ask that
person to step back to the spectator area for his or her own safety.
Generating Club Funds: The main source of revenue from our
event is a public raffle for an RTF Giant Scale model. It is one of a
30 MODEL AVIATION
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:34 am Page 30
July 2004 33
A good parking crew is critical to keeping
things flowing well. This is one of the most
important but undervalued jobs at the event.
The parking team is the first club contact the
spectators have at the event, and first
impressions are extremely important. It can be
a hot, dry, and dusty shift for the club
volunteers.
The parking team members hand all
spectator cars our full-color event brochure,
ask for the donation, and tell them about the
raffle. The parking officials direct visitors
where to park; they keep spectator vehicles in
a separate area and allow only pilot vehicles
close to the pits. There are many cars to
handle, and it is helpful to rope off parking
lanes to keep chaos out of the parking area.
One of the most important items in field
preparation is bringing in and positioning
mobile restroom facilities; close to 2,000
spectators and 200-300 pilots, crew, and staff
down a good quantity of coffee, soda, water,
hot dogs, and burgers each day. We learned
that with our crowds, we must contract for our
portable restrooms to be serviced on Friday
and Saturday.
Our wives designate some for women’s
use only and decorate them with flowers and
such. They stay much cleaner than the boys’
facilities. Consider prevailing wind direction
and campers’ locations when positioning the
temporary restroom facilities.
Another important factor when the public
is involved is garbage containers and
collection. We have learned to provide several
trash containers for the event and bring in an
industrial-sized trash dumpster to help us keep
on top of the situation; the 3,000 spectators
create a remarkable amount of trash in just
two days.
Providing for cigarette-butt disposal is a
fire-prevention must. They rarely end up in
the designated containers, but it is important
that they not go into the regular trash. We
clean up the cigarettes and garbage Friday
night and Saturday night, and we do a final
cleanup Sunday after the event.
Registration: We post a pilot sign-up form on
our club Web site—www.fortnet.org/
loveairrc—and include one in the event
brochure to facilitate advance registration.
Model inspections and check-in start Friday
afternoon, to help get ahead of the Saturdaymorning
rush.
We encourage advanced registration with
a reduced event/landing fee for those who sign
up early. There are typically 100-110 pilots,
and having at least one-third of them
preregistered has made the process more
streamlined on Friday afternoon and Saturday
morning.
We provide the fliers with name badges
and pit-crew badges. Cheerful volunteers for
registration and keeping the check-in table
close to the transmitter impound keeps things
running smoothly.
Event Program/Agenda: Balancing the
pilots’ desires for an enjoyable event and the
public’s desires for a great air show has been a
key facet of the Rocky Mountain Big Bird
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07sig2.QXD 4/26/04 8:20 am Page 33
Festival’s maturation. This balance is shown
in the program choices we make for the
event.
We decided to include a world-class flier
as our featured air-show demonstration pilot
each year. We pay a reasonable fee to bring
these special pilots in and pay their travel
expenses (gas or flight costs and hotel/meal
expenses).
We recoup this money by having
additional spectators and pilots attend and
selling incremental raffle tickets to the public
at the event. Including the words “World
Champ” and “National Champ” in the
marketing materials seems to work well in
attracting crowds and pilots.
Use any relationships that any of your
members have with top-shelf pilots to make
the invitation process smoother. If you don’t
have connections, attending events at which
good, potential air-show pilots perform is a
great way to introduce yourself and see how
different pilots would fit into your event.
We have learned a great deal through the
years about the event’s structure and flow of
flying and activities, such as to set specific
times for 3-D flying, warbirds, and a mix of
normal/sport flying and crowd buddy-box
flight instruction.
We found that those who spend many
hours on their warbirds like to fly together
and are displeased when other pilots pull 3-D
Harriers directly in front of their models. So
the warbird times become their own mini air
shows and allow the announcers to speak
about the pilots, their models, and the fullscale
aircraft and their histories to keep the
spectators engaged.
In a like manner, the set 3-D flying times
attract IMAC (International Miniature
Aerobatic Club) and Freestyle enthusiasts
who kick in the smoke systems, try formation
aerobatics, and Torque Roll their models for
the crowds.
Our featured air-show pilot is usually
asked to evaluate other pilots’ aircraft, and
the 3-D segment is a good time for these test
flights and for the air-show pilot to check out
his model before the noon demonstration.
Even with a set time for 3-D flying, we
mandate that Harriers and hovering
maneuvers be executed out from the runway
in the middle of the rectangular traffic
pattern, keeping the runway mostly clear in
case someone needs to land quickly for any
reason.
During regular flying times, we prohibit
3-D maneuvers, and the regular sport fliers
come to the flightline. We encourage normal
aerobatics, and the Cubs, World War I
aircraft, and sport models mix it up to the
crowd’s delight.
We try to keep the six pilot stations filled
at all times, but there is a natural ebb and flow
of pilot volume during the day. At slower
times we encourage volunteers from the
crowd to fly a Giant Scale model via a buddy
box and instructor. The audience loves to see
other crowd members fly a model then be
interviewed by the announcers.
During these instruction times each day,
we hold free public raffles for 40-size trainer
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36 MODEL AVIATION
kits/ARFs. We ask the crowd members to raise
their hands if they would truly be interested in
getting into the hobby, and then only those
people receive tickets. Local hobby shops that
help sponsor the event donate the kits.
We distribute the raffle tickets and call the
winner out of the stands. The proud new kit
owner has his or her picture taken with the
hobby-store representative, takes a turn with
the buddy box/instructor, and then is
interviewed for the crowd. It is fun for the
audience, and there is no lack of volunteers to
take a turn flying a model.
We sell a good deal of raffle tickets for the
Kadet during these times since the crowd can
see firsthand that nearly anyone can fly with
good instruction. We sell even more tickets at
instruction time since our buddy-boxinstruction
airplanes are copies of the Quinn
Kadet that we raffle off, and crowd members
can see how excellent a well-set-up Giant
Scale model would be as a first airplane.
Free hourly pilot-prize drawings, major
pilot-prize raffles, and excellent pilot-prize
quality help keep participants returning year
after year. Our super salesperson obtains these
prizes.
Since the public is invited and comes for
the noon air show, the pilots who attend are
those who enjoy showing off their aircraft in a
noncompetitive but well-managed
environment. They come to enjoy the air-show
demonstration featuring a world-class pilot as
much as the spectators. Also allowing some
regional pilots with special airplanes and skills
to participate in the noon air show boosts their
pride in participation.
Our Sunday air show last year featured a
comedy skit featuring a 12-foot-wingspan
Cub, a Giant Scale-legal turbine jet, a 50-
pound Hawker Sea Fury, a 3-D and a turbine
helicopter, local pilots doing 3-D aerobatics,
and the finale: Garrett Morrison’s (Lodi CA)
amazing Freestyle Aerobatics demonstration.
During the event, the announcers are
constantly broadcasting over the PA system
the aircraft each pilot is flying; where the pilot
is from; and the engine, kit type, and special
features of the model and its full-scale
counterpart. This keeps the crowd informed
and involved, and it appeals to each pilot’s
pride in his or her aircraft. Humor in
announcing is a big asset in handling mishaps
and keeping the enthusiasm level up on the
flightline.
We use 70-volt horn speakers on poles
down the flightline in addition to the main PAsystem
cabinets to ensure proper sound
coverage for the crowd and the pilots. We
announce the pilot prizes and landings, ask for
applause for good flights, and help the
impound crew by calling for delinquent
frequency pins and announcing when pilots in
the queue can fly after their frequencies clear
up.
To help encourage visiting pilots to get
early stick time at the event, we often ask club
members to refrain from flying Saturday
morning to let the visitors have the first crack
at it that day. Normal club flying starts each
day at the end of the formal event hours, and
we close the impound and distribute the radios
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July 2004 39
to their owners until the next morning. We run
the event impound and frequency control
during event hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and
9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, when the Kadet is
raffled off.
Social Activities: Pilots who attend the event,
some every year, enjoy the social aspect and
bring their RVs for dry camping starting the
Tuesday and Wednesday before the event, to
ensure a good spot.
We hold a potluck dinner Friday evening
and a pig-roast dinner Saturday evening during
the event. One of our member families handles
the potluck dinner, and another family runs the
pig roast. We have tried Saturday-evening
catered dinners throughout the years, but that
has presented mixed success and increased
costs.
The less-formal potluck and pig roast
dinners have become fun traditions and are
followed by a round of night flying starting at
dusk Friday and Saturday evening. All manner
of contraptions show up in the sky, and people
either watch the craft or simply visit with
friends down the line of campers and RVs.
Event Promotion: Properly marketing the flyin
has made a big difference in continuing to
attract participants and increasing the number
of spectators. Our first year with real marketing
was coincident with having Quique Somenzini
as our air-show pilot, and we went from 300
spectators the previous year to 2,500 spectators
that year.
Our marketing efforts are multifaceted and
consist of our Web site; more than 3,000 fullcolor,
two-sided, 11 x 17-inch brochures; two
“Contest Calendar” ads in MA that run for
several months; a 1⁄4-page black-and-white ad
in MA; small ads in each of the local
newspapers; and feature articles in each local
paper in northern Colorado (three newspapers
in three cities).
We place ads in local newspapers the
Friday and Saturday right before and at the
start of the festival, and they reinforce the
photo articles that each newspaper publishes
promoting the event. We put a great deal of
effort into trying to get the papers to come out
and publicize the fly-in beforehand, and our
objective is to have articles running on Friday
or Saturday morning along with our ads.
Our event brochure has evolved through the
years. We now use one large, two-sided, color
leaflet. The front side has large pictures and
much of the spectator information. The reverse
side has pilot information, a preregistration
form, a map, an event schedule, and detailed
directions.
These handouts feature a good-size picture
of the previous year’s raffle model and enough
photos to show the size and variety of aircraft
that will be present. We promote our guest airshow
pilot and direct people to our Web site
for additional information.
We are only able to have a brochure of this
quality because a generous club member owns
a printing business. A member lays out the ads
and the pamphlets, and our printer creates and
donates the brochures in awesome color and
quantity.
This allows our members to distribute them
at regional contests and use the photos to help
sell raffle tickets. We distribute the leaflets to
clubs and hobby stores across the state and to
our mailing list of past attendees. The brochure
is big enough to use as a window poster at the
hobby stores. Since it has complete spectator
and pilot information, the one brochure works
for friends and modelers.
In previous years we tried separate pilot
and spectator brochures, and you always had
the wrong one in your car or field box when
someone asked about the event. It also doubled
the cost and work for the printer.
We also use the brochure at our mall show
later in the year, to show the public what our
main fly-in is like (we use stickers to correct
the dates for the next year). See what printing
connections you have within your club, and
use them to the max.
Last year we made a connection with an
excellent professional sports photographer—
Bill Sallaz of ActionPic9.com—who shot
some amazing photos of Saturday’s activities.
His pictures accompany this article. Bill will
be at our future events, and we will be using
his photography in our marketing efforts this
year.
Having top-quality photographs available
for purchase will be another drawing card to
encourage pilots to attend our event with their
airplanes this year. Good photography can
increase the results of your club’s marketing
efforts and Web-site work.
Television coverage is possible but hard to
obtain without a good contact at the station.
We did get a news crew out one year, and they
did a super spot for us, but we have been
unable to get them to come out again because
of our distance from Denver. Any connections
your members have with photographers, the
press, or TV stations are valuable and should
be shamelessly exploited.
Anything is possible for your event. Our team
has been amazed at the type of fly-in the
Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival has
become. The last time Chip Hyde was our
featured pilot, he said, “Man, you guys just
have fun at this thing!” Our goals mix
financial, promotional, and membership
aspects. For more information or to contact our
club, use our Web site.
You can use your event for anything you
want to accomplish. Your team can merge the
members’ strengths and create an exciting
event that shows your club and the hobby in
the best light.
Full-scale air shows are being increasingly
controlled by spectator liability issues and are
moving the crowds farther and farther from the
action. You can get people closer to greatlooking
aircraft and really get them excited
about model aviation.
Our hobby and your next big event can
provide a unique opportunity to engage the
public, attract members, and help finance your
club’s operations. Set your goals, pick your
team, and make it happen. MA
Neil Miles
2007 Coastal Ct.
Fort Collins CO 80528
07sig2.QXD 4/26/04 8:21 am Page 39
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/07
Page Numbers: 26,27,28,29,30,33,34,36,39
Planning and Running
a Large Club Event
26 MODEL AVIATION
WHAT ARE SOME goals your club would like to accomplish with
its main event this year? Perhaps raising operating funds, attracting
new members, raising your club’s profile in the community,
improving the club’s reputation among other clubs in your area, or
generally making your event the social RC hit of the year in your
region.
Your group can accomplish many or all of these goals with its
major event of the year; all it takes is a strong team, hard work from
most of your club’s members, and solid organization. Did I mention
hard work?
The Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival—sponsored by the Love-
Air R/C club in northern Colorado, of which I am a member—is a
Giant Scale fly-in that celebrated its 10th anniversary in August
2003. With a history of demonstration pilots including Chip Hyde,
Quique Somenzini, Sean McMurtry, Bill Hempel, Garrett Morrison,
and Doug Gearman; more than 100 pilot participants; and an excess
of 2,500 spectators, this gathering has grown to be one of the
premier RC events in the region.
The fly-in brings thousands of dollars per year into the Love-Air
R/C’s operating fund, attracts 10-20 new members each year,
exposes thousands of spectators to the best of RC flying, and is now
a must-attend event for an ever-increasing number of RC fliers from
roughly 10 Western states.
In this article I will outline some of the keys to this event’s
success to help your club accomplish its goals with an event.
Many decisions made will depend on your club’s objectives for its
key event. Decide what the group wants to accomplish, and
include/exclude items from the plan to help get you along that path.
Some of the following points may not apply to your event;
however, they may allow your club to be more creative in planning
its next activity. And later we might read about your events in MA!
Our club and leadership team has learned a great deal in the past
decade about how to successfully manage an event that has grown
from a small club activity to a regional place to be. Love-Air R/C is
not a superclub; it is typical, with approximately 170 members.
However, we are blessed to have a great flying facility, and we have
a committed core of capable leaders managing the Big Bird Festival.
Key decisions were made in developing the gathering. They
were to:
• Pick a unique event focus and type.
by Neil Miles
A public raffle prize such as this 82-inch-span “Quinn” Kadet
RTF can increase crowd participation and interest.
Roped walkways provide overflow spectator areas. Pilot shade
structures at either end of flightline do not interfere with
spectator sight lines.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:05 am Page 26
July 2004 27
• Choose a consistent time of year that does
not conflict with other regional activities.
• Include the public as spectators and plan
for their enjoyment and parking.
• Raise club funds through the public raffle
of a custom-built RTF aircraft.
• Market the event in MA and in local
newspapers, and produce a color brochure.
• Bring in some of the top names in RC
Aerobatics as demonstration/air-show
pilots.
As you plan your club’s event, look
around to see what would be interesting,
fun, and could attract pilots from an event
type and time-frame standpoint. Consider
your flying facility and what type of events
would work best (e.g., jets and close-in
trees may not be the optimal fit). Then the
serious planning can begin.
Planning: Planning is the key to making
any major event work well. We start team
meetings in January or February to decide
on the show pilots and get a start on the
marketing for the August event.
We try to request our event sanction
early from AMA to ensure that our ads will
run and that we get on the calendar. We
submit event announcements to AMA’s
Competition Department for MA’s “Contest
Calendar” in March, and we submit our 1⁄4-
page ad to MA in March or April,
depending on the ad deadlines. Deadlines
for advertising depend on the time of year
of your event. Contact your target
Air bosses with radio headsets control runway access and flight operations at an event.
You can see the flight-station safety fencing in the background.
Providing designated warbird flight times brings out the showmanship from the Scale
pilots. Most spectators will respond to this type of aircraft.
The raffle-prize aircraft is shown to the crowd throughout the day
to generate incremental ticket sales.
Left: Separate 3-D flying times showcase IMAC and hotdog pilots’
flying skills in a more controlled environment.
Photos courtesy ActionPic9.com
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:23 am Page 27
28 MODEL AVIATION
A local pilot’s Hawker Sea Fury really spiced up the noon air show, and
it included realistic warbird sounds.
The Love Air R/C club’s best pilots also got to participate in the airshow
program. Smoke is a crowd pleaser!
Garrett Morrison was the featured pilot at the 2003 Rocky
Mountain Big Bird Festival. The crowd loved his
performance!
Garrett Morrison’s 3-D model in the rolling-harrier portion
of his crowd-pleasing Freestyle routine.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:29 am Page 28
July 2004 29
This turbine-powered Eurofighter wowed the crowd with its
sound and speed. Safety is paramount with this type of model.
A wide variety of aircraft types, such as this Scale biplane, help
attract and hold the spectators’ interest.
Sport-flying times at the festival included more traditional
aerobatics. Biplanes are a spectator favorite.
publication and work your ads back from their submission
deadlines.
A critical factor is appointing committee leads for each
important facet of the team structure. The event director and contest
director lead the team, and they take care of many duties by
themselves.
Additional committee directors cover field preparation, running
our public raffle, public relations/marketing, sponsors/prize
donations, air-show-pilot coordination, the air-boss team,
concessions/vendor relations, public-address (PA)/music-system
direction, the transmitter impound, and, most important, the parking
team.
We hold monthly meetings before our regular club meetings to
keep the team aligned, moving forward, and handling any issues
that arise. We also regularly discuss the festival in our club
meetings to keep the membership informed, answer questions,
recruit additional volunteers, and collect any new ideas the members
have.
Your event’s theme and type should reflect your club’s interests
to encourage as many critical volunteers as possible. Inevitably, at
every well-managed RC event, a sizable portion of the club’s
members are involved in running it. We have found that nothing
works better than a heartfelt personal invitation to get a volunteer
signed up. Our committee leads reach out to help club members
volunteer for their teams.
Safety Considerations: Safety should be the number-one
consideration when running any event. Pilot and spectator safety are
combined in our hobby because of the observers’ proximity to the
aircraft.
A competent event staff must perform careful pilot/airplane
inspections before any aircraft leaves the ground—especially for
large Scale or Aerobatics models. Thorough inspections include
checking such items as hinges, linkages, and propeller condition.
Proper safety fencing, spectator/crowd control, and strictly
monitoring the participants’ flying ensure spectator safety. We use a
team of air bosses with radio systems, fluorescent vests, and
coordination with the announcers to keep the flightline safe and
enjoyable for all. The air bosses watch for erratic flying or
violations of the specified no-fly zones; if they see an infraction,
they ask the offending pilot to land immediately.
Our field has three taxi entrances to the runway. The air bosses
control the flow of on-deck pilots at two of the entrances and the
safe landing, shutdown, and collection of models at the third.
The air bosses call changes in the wind direction and tell the
pilots when they must flip the flying and landing pattern. They are
also responsible for informing all pilots if a landing or dead-stick
approach is underway or called. A polite, firm voice and some
experience are air-boss requirements, so older club members are
typically more successful than our junior members.
To keep each participant better aware of the situation
surrounding his or her aircraft, we require all pilots to have callers
with them at the designated pilot stations. Some initially resist this
rule since we hold more of a fun-fly event, but with as many as six
models in the air, with their different types and speeds, fliers soon
realize that flying with a buddy is much safer.
Besides, only the caller can really watch the other airplanes, pay
attention to the air bosses, relay the good-natured ribbing that takes
place, correct the announcer on the aircraft’s description, and
retrieve the model at the end of its flight.
A well-functioning transmitter impound is mandatory for a wellmanaged
event. Our impound team is a good-natured bunch, and we
supply a weatherproof trailer with temporary shelving inside to
make the impound process enjoyable and safe for all pilots.
We use a frequency analyzer to check for transmitters left on and
for radio problems. If turbine-powered jets are present, additional
fire extinguishers must be present and a fire crew must be standing
ready.
Remember to consider spectator/pilot physical separation for
safety’s sake, and check in with local fire and rescue services to
ensure that they know the best routes to your event and what they
can expect from a crowd and access standpoint. GPS (Global
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:33 am Page 29
series of modified Sig Kadets that one of our members originally
created. It is constructed by one of our members who custom-builds
models for others.
The Kadet spans 82 inches and comes with the radio fully
installed. It is immaculately covered and truly ready to fly (except
for charging the batteries and adding fuel). This airplane has an
excellent reputation with the region’s pilots and looks great. Since
we fly identical models on spectator buddy-box machines during
our event, visitors can see that it flies extremely well. The quality of
our raffle airplane helps us sell a good quantity of raffle tickets each
year.
Although most club members can sell raffle tickets, certain
unique individuals truly excel at it. Our resident supersalesman
knows nearly every business owner in our area and could sell
iceboxes to Eskimos. Engaging your supersalesmen/women and
finding the right prize(s) will enable your raffle to generate enough
funds to cover costs and help build excitement.
Although the entire club sells raffle tickets for months before the
event, we sell many tickets during the festival, and we hold the
drawing at the close of the event. Every year crowd members stay in
the stands hoping they will win the model.
Remember to follow all state rules for holding a public raffle.
Register it with the correct authorities, and handle the ticket
numbers and stubs according to their regulations. We have a team
who does the necessary research and runs our raffle beautifully each
year.
Another way we help to cover event costs is to ask for a $2
donation per vehicle for parking. We rent an additional field from a
local farmer, where we park more than 800 spectator cars each day.
Parking money is kept as a donation to eliminate liabilities and
income issues. It usually covers the cost of bringing the air-show
pilots in and renting the extra field.
You will probably have 15 people packed in a Suburban who
refuse to pay. Our parking-team members have learned to reach into
their own pockets and say, “I’ll just pay it for you.” This gets most
holdouts to contribute, but not all. However, some spectators give us
$10 or $20 and tell us they really appreciate the event; they love to
come out every year and are quite willing to help with event costs.
We sell souvenir Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival T-shirts
each year, but mostly to the pilots and crew. They usually sell out at
a marginal profit. We also sell club-logo ball caps, and spectators
often purchase them. These are not big money-makers for our club,
but they have become traditions that help pilots remember their time
with us when they go back to their home clubs and flying fields.
Field Preparation/Parking: To get ready for the event, we hold a
field-cleanup-and-safety-fence-extension party. We have the 1⁄3-mile
access road to our facility graded and prepped to handle the crowds
and minimize the dust. (Colorado dryness/washboard is our
problem; other regions face different issues.)
We spruce up the paint on our shade shelter and our signs, and
then we bring in the spectator stands we rent from a local school
district. Luckily we have a generous house-moving-company
sponsor that helps transport the stands to and from our field each
year.
We extend our spectator separation fence using a rope divider
across the entire width of the flying-field property (which fills up
with pilots’ trailers and RVs anyway), and then we rope off an 8-
foot spectator walkway the entire width of the property. This allows
the audience to walk safely behind the flightline/pit area to look at
the models and talk to the pilots. Since the stands fill up well before
the noon air show, the footpath acts as an overflow to ensure that all
who attend have a good view of the show.
Determining the best location for food vendors’ stands/tents
early in the planning process helps maintain satisfactory spectator
traffic flow and keeps almost everyone happy. We put the
concessions well behind the pit area, near the parking area.
If you have hobby vendors at your event, plan for their location
in advance as well, so that they are near the pilots but not blocking
the spectators. We have also learned to control the location of
pilots’ tents/shade structures, to keep the audience’s sight lines as
clear as possible in the vicinity of the stands.
A pilots’ meeting is held at the start of every flying day, during
which rules, safety, and the day’s program are reviewed.
Things got interesting when the best 3-D pilots tried to
outmaneuver each other. Careful co-pilot spotting is a must!
Positioning System) coordinates often help emergency crews
understand exactly where you are in relation to your road access
points.
We maintain crowd control by having all club staff, pilots, and pit
crews wear badges while in the flying/pit areas. If someone crosses
the spectator fence line and is not wearing a badge, we ask that
person to step back to the spectator area for his or her own safety.
Generating Club Funds: The main source of revenue from our
event is a public raffle for an RTF Giant Scale model. It is one of a
30 MODEL AVIATION
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:34 am Page 30
July 2004 33
A good parking crew is critical to keeping
things flowing well. This is one of the most
important but undervalued jobs at the event.
The parking team is the first club contact the
spectators have at the event, and first
impressions are extremely important. It can be
a hot, dry, and dusty shift for the club
volunteers.
The parking team members hand all
spectator cars our full-color event brochure,
ask for the donation, and tell them about the
raffle. The parking officials direct visitors
where to park; they keep spectator vehicles in
a separate area and allow only pilot vehicles
close to the pits. There are many cars to
handle, and it is helpful to rope off parking
lanes to keep chaos out of the parking area.
One of the most important items in field
preparation is bringing in and positioning
mobile restroom facilities; close to 2,000
spectators and 200-300 pilots, crew, and staff
down a good quantity of coffee, soda, water,
hot dogs, and burgers each day. We learned
that with our crowds, we must contract for our
portable restrooms to be serviced on Friday
and Saturday.
Our wives designate some for women’s
use only and decorate them with flowers and
such. They stay much cleaner than the boys’
facilities. Consider prevailing wind direction
and campers’ locations when positioning the
temporary restroom facilities.
Another important factor when the public
is involved is garbage containers and
collection. We have learned to provide several
trash containers for the event and bring in an
industrial-sized trash dumpster to help us keep
on top of the situation; the 3,000 spectators
create a remarkable amount of trash in just
two days.
Providing for cigarette-butt disposal is a
fire-prevention must. They rarely end up in
the designated containers, but it is important
that they not go into the regular trash. We
clean up the cigarettes and garbage Friday
night and Saturday night, and we do a final
cleanup Sunday after the event.
Registration: We post a pilot sign-up form on
our club Web site—www.fortnet.org/
loveairrc—and include one in the event
brochure to facilitate advance registration.
Model inspections and check-in start Friday
afternoon, to help get ahead of the Saturdaymorning
rush.
We encourage advanced registration with
a reduced event/landing fee for those who sign
up early. There are typically 100-110 pilots,
and having at least one-third of them
preregistered has made the process more
streamlined on Friday afternoon and Saturday
morning.
We provide the fliers with name badges
and pit-crew badges. Cheerful volunteers for
registration and keeping the check-in table
close to the transmitter impound keeps things
running smoothly.
Event Program/Agenda: Balancing the
pilots’ desires for an enjoyable event and the
public’s desires for a great air show has been a
key facet of the Rocky Mountain Big Bird
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Festival’s maturation. This balance is shown
in the program choices we make for the
event.
We decided to include a world-class flier
as our featured air-show demonstration pilot
each year. We pay a reasonable fee to bring
these special pilots in and pay their travel
expenses (gas or flight costs and hotel/meal
expenses).
We recoup this money by having
additional spectators and pilots attend and
selling incremental raffle tickets to the public
at the event. Including the words “World
Champ” and “National Champ” in the
marketing materials seems to work well in
attracting crowds and pilots.
Use any relationships that any of your
members have with top-shelf pilots to make
the invitation process smoother. If you don’t
have connections, attending events at which
good, potential air-show pilots perform is a
great way to introduce yourself and see how
different pilots would fit into your event.
We have learned a great deal through the
years about the event’s structure and flow of
flying and activities, such as to set specific
times for 3-D flying, warbirds, and a mix of
normal/sport flying and crowd buddy-box
flight instruction.
We found that those who spend many
hours on their warbirds like to fly together
and are displeased when other pilots pull 3-D
Harriers directly in front of their models. So
the warbird times become their own mini air
shows and allow the announcers to speak
about the pilots, their models, and the fullscale
aircraft and their histories to keep the
spectators engaged.
In a like manner, the set 3-D flying times
attract IMAC (International Miniature
Aerobatic Club) and Freestyle enthusiasts
who kick in the smoke systems, try formation
aerobatics, and Torque Roll their models for
the crowds.
Our featured air-show pilot is usually
asked to evaluate other pilots’ aircraft, and
the 3-D segment is a good time for these test
flights and for the air-show pilot to check out
his model before the noon demonstration.
Even with a set time for 3-D flying, we
mandate that Harriers and hovering
maneuvers be executed out from the runway
in the middle of the rectangular traffic
pattern, keeping the runway mostly clear in
case someone needs to land quickly for any
reason.
During regular flying times, we prohibit
3-D maneuvers, and the regular sport fliers
come to the flightline. We encourage normal
aerobatics, and the Cubs, World War I
aircraft, and sport models mix it up to the
crowd’s delight.
We try to keep the six pilot stations filled
at all times, but there is a natural ebb and flow
of pilot volume during the day. At slower
times we encourage volunteers from the
crowd to fly a Giant Scale model via a buddy
box and instructor. The audience loves to see
other crowd members fly a model then be
interviewed by the announcers.
During these instruction times each day,
we hold free public raffles for 40-size trainer
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36 MODEL AVIATION
kits/ARFs. We ask the crowd members to raise
their hands if they would truly be interested in
getting into the hobby, and then only those
people receive tickets. Local hobby shops that
help sponsor the event donate the kits.
We distribute the raffle tickets and call the
winner out of the stands. The proud new kit
owner has his or her picture taken with the
hobby-store representative, takes a turn with
the buddy box/instructor, and then is
interviewed for the crowd. It is fun for the
audience, and there is no lack of volunteers to
take a turn flying a model.
We sell a good deal of raffle tickets for the
Kadet during these times since the crowd can
see firsthand that nearly anyone can fly with
good instruction. We sell even more tickets at
instruction time since our buddy-boxinstruction
airplanes are copies of the Quinn
Kadet that we raffle off, and crowd members
can see how excellent a well-set-up Giant
Scale model would be as a first airplane.
Free hourly pilot-prize drawings, major
pilot-prize raffles, and excellent pilot-prize
quality help keep participants returning year
after year. Our super salesperson obtains these
prizes.
Since the public is invited and comes for
the noon air show, the pilots who attend are
those who enjoy showing off their aircraft in a
noncompetitive but well-managed
environment. They come to enjoy the air-show
demonstration featuring a world-class pilot as
much as the spectators. Also allowing some
regional pilots with special airplanes and skills
to participate in the noon air show boosts their
pride in participation.
Our Sunday air show last year featured a
comedy skit featuring a 12-foot-wingspan
Cub, a Giant Scale-legal turbine jet, a 50-
pound Hawker Sea Fury, a 3-D and a turbine
helicopter, local pilots doing 3-D aerobatics,
and the finale: Garrett Morrison’s (Lodi CA)
amazing Freestyle Aerobatics demonstration.
During the event, the announcers are
constantly broadcasting over the PA system
the aircraft each pilot is flying; where the pilot
is from; and the engine, kit type, and special
features of the model and its full-scale
counterpart. This keeps the crowd informed
and involved, and it appeals to each pilot’s
pride in his or her aircraft. Humor in
announcing is a big asset in handling mishaps
and keeping the enthusiasm level up on the
flightline.
We use 70-volt horn speakers on poles
down the flightline in addition to the main PAsystem
cabinets to ensure proper sound
coverage for the crowd and the pilots. We
announce the pilot prizes and landings, ask for
applause for good flights, and help the
impound crew by calling for delinquent
frequency pins and announcing when pilots in
the queue can fly after their frequencies clear
up.
To help encourage visiting pilots to get
early stick time at the event, we often ask club
members to refrain from flying Saturday
morning to let the visitors have the first crack
at it that day. Normal club flying starts each
day at the end of the formal event hours, and
we close the impound and distribute the radios
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July 2004 39
to their owners until the next morning. We run
the event impound and frequency control
during event hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and
9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, when the Kadet is
raffled off.
Social Activities: Pilots who attend the event,
some every year, enjoy the social aspect and
bring their RVs for dry camping starting the
Tuesday and Wednesday before the event, to
ensure a good spot.
We hold a potluck dinner Friday evening
and a pig-roast dinner Saturday evening during
the event. One of our member families handles
the potluck dinner, and another family runs the
pig roast. We have tried Saturday-evening
catered dinners throughout the years, but that
has presented mixed success and increased
costs.
The less-formal potluck and pig roast
dinners have become fun traditions and are
followed by a round of night flying starting at
dusk Friday and Saturday evening. All manner
of contraptions show up in the sky, and people
either watch the craft or simply visit with
friends down the line of campers and RVs.
Event Promotion: Properly marketing the flyin
has made a big difference in continuing to
attract participants and increasing the number
of spectators. Our first year with real marketing
was coincident with having Quique Somenzini
as our air-show pilot, and we went from 300
spectators the previous year to 2,500 spectators
that year.
Our marketing efforts are multifaceted and
consist of our Web site; more than 3,000 fullcolor,
two-sided, 11 x 17-inch brochures; two
“Contest Calendar” ads in MA that run for
several months; a 1⁄4-page black-and-white ad
in MA; small ads in each of the local
newspapers; and feature articles in each local
paper in northern Colorado (three newspapers
in three cities).
We place ads in local newspapers the
Friday and Saturday right before and at the
start of the festival, and they reinforce the
photo articles that each newspaper publishes
promoting the event. We put a great deal of
effort into trying to get the papers to come out
and publicize the fly-in beforehand, and our
objective is to have articles running on Friday
or Saturday morning along with our ads.
Our event brochure has evolved through the
years. We now use one large, two-sided, color
leaflet. The front side has large pictures and
much of the spectator information. The reverse
side has pilot information, a preregistration
form, a map, an event schedule, and detailed
directions.
These handouts feature a good-size picture
of the previous year’s raffle model and enough
photos to show the size and variety of aircraft
that will be present. We promote our guest airshow
pilot and direct people to our Web site
for additional information.
We are only able to have a brochure of this
quality because a generous club member owns
a printing business. A member lays out the ads
and the pamphlets, and our printer creates and
donates the brochures in awesome color and
quantity.
This allows our members to distribute them
at regional contests and use the photos to help
sell raffle tickets. We distribute the leaflets to
clubs and hobby stores across the state and to
our mailing list of past attendees. The brochure
is big enough to use as a window poster at the
hobby stores. Since it has complete spectator
and pilot information, the one brochure works
for friends and modelers.
In previous years we tried separate pilot
and spectator brochures, and you always had
the wrong one in your car or field box when
someone asked about the event. It also doubled
the cost and work for the printer.
We also use the brochure at our mall show
later in the year, to show the public what our
main fly-in is like (we use stickers to correct
the dates for the next year). See what printing
connections you have within your club, and
use them to the max.
Last year we made a connection with an
excellent professional sports photographer—
Bill Sallaz of ActionPic9.com—who shot
some amazing photos of Saturday’s activities.
His pictures accompany this article. Bill will
be at our future events, and we will be using
his photography in our marketing efforts this
year.
Having top-quality photographs available
for purchase will be another drawing card to
encourage pilots to attend our event with their
airplanes this year. Good photography can
increase the results of your club’s marketing
efforts and Web-site work.
Television coverage is possible but hard to
obtain without a good contact at the station.
We did get a news crew out one year, and they
did a super spot for us, but we have been
unable to get them to come out again because
of our distance from Denver. Any connections
your members have with photographers, the
press, or TV stations are valuable and should
be shamelessly exploited.
Anything is possible for your event. Our team
has been amazed at the type of fly-in the
Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival has
become. The last time Chip Hyde was our
featured pilot, he said, “Man, you guys just
have fun at this thing!” Our goals mix
financial, promotional, and membership
aspects. For more information or to contact our
club, use our Web site.
You can use your event for anything you
want to accomplish. Your team can merge the
members’ strengths and create an exciting
event that shows your club and the hobby in
the best light.
Full-scale air shows are being increasingly
controlled by spectator liability issues and are
moving the crowds farther and farther from the
action. You can get people closer to greatlooking
aircraft and really get them excited
about model aviation.
Our hobby and your next big event can
provide a unique opportunity to engage the
public, attract members, and help finance your
club’s operations. Set your goals, pick your
team, and make it happen. MA
Neil Miles
2007 Coastal Ct.
Fort Collins CO 80528
07sig2.QXD 4/26/04 8:21 am Page 39
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/07
Page Numbers: 26,27,28,29,30,33,34,36,39
Planning and Running
a Large Club Event
26 MODEL AVIATION
WHAT ARE SOME goals your club would like to accomplish with
its main event this year? Perhaps raising operating funds, attracting
new members, raising your club’s profile in the community,
improving the club’s reputation among other clubs in your area, or
generally making your event the social RC hit of the year in your
region.
Your group can accomplish many or all of these goals with its
major event of the year; all it takes is a strong team, hard work from
most of your club’s members, and solid organization. Did I mention
hard work?
The Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival—sponsored by the Love-
Air R/C club in northern Colorado, of which I am a member—is a
Giant Scale fly-in that celebrated its 10th anniversary in August
2003. With a history of demonstration pilots including Chip Hyde,
Quique Somenzini, Sean McMurtry, Bill Hempel, Garrett Morrison,
and Doug Gearman; more than 100 pilot participants; and an excess
of 2,500 spectators, this gathering has grown to be one of the
premier RC events in the region.
The fly-in brings thousands of dollars per year into the Love-Air
R/C’s operating fund, attracts 10-20 new members each year,
exposes thousands of spectators to the best of RC flying, and is now
a must-attend event for an ever-increasing number of RC fliers from
roughly 10 Western states.
In this article I will outline some of the keys to this event’s
success to help your club accomplish its goals with an event.
Many decisions made will depend on your club’s objectives for its
key event. Decide what the group wants to accomplish, and
include/exclude items from the plan to help get you along that path.
Some of the following points may not apply to your event;
however, they may allow your club to be more creative in planning
its next activity. And later we might read about your events in MA!
Our club and leadership team has learned a great deal in the past
decade about how to successfully manage an event that has grown
from a small club activity to a regional place to be. Love-Air R/C is
not a superclub; it is typical, with approximately 170 members.
However, we are blessed to have a great flying facility, and we have
a committed core of capable leaders managing the Big Bird Festival.
Key decisions were made in developing the gathering. They
were to:
• Pick a unique event focus and type.
by Neil Miles
A public raffle prize such as this 82-inch-span “Quinn” Kadet
RTF can increase crowd participation and interest.
Roped walkways provide overflow spectator areas. Pilot shade
structures at either end of flightline do not interfere with
spectator sight lines.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:05 am Page 26
July 2004 27
• Choose a consistent time of year that does
not conflict with other regional activities.
• Include the public as spectators and plan
for their enjoyment and parking.
• Raise club funds through the public raffle
of a custom-built RTF aircraft.
• Market the event in MA and in local
newspapers, and produce a color brochure.
• Bring in some of the top names in RC
Aerobatics as demonstration/air-show
pilots.
As you plan your club’s event, look
around to see what would be interesting,
fun, and could attract pilots from an event
type and time-frame standpoint. Consider
your flying facility and what type of events
would work best (e.g., jets and close-in
trees may not be the optimal fit). Then the
serious planning can begin.
Planning: Planning is the key to making
any major event work well. We start team
meetings in January or February to decide
on the show pilots and get a start on the
marketing for the August event.
We try to request our event sanction
early from AMA to ensure that our ads will
run and that we get on the calendar. We
submit event announcements to AMA’s
Competition Department for MA’s “Contest
Calendar” in March, and we submit our 1⁄4-
page ad to MA in March or April,
depending on the ad deadlines. Deadlines
for advertising depend on the time of year
of your event. Contact your target
Air bosses with radio headsets control runway access and flight operations at an event.
You can see the flight-station safety fencing in the background.
Providing designated warbird flight times brings out the showmanship from the Scale
pilots. Most spectators will respond to this type of aircraft.
The raffle-prize aircraft is shown to the crowd throughout the day
to generate incremental ticket sales.
Left: Separate 3-D flying times showcase IMAC and hotdog pilots’
flying skills in a more controlled environment.
Photos courtesy ActionPic9.com
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:23 am Page 27
28 MODEL AVIATION
A local pilot’s Hawker Sea Fury really spiced up the noon air show, and
it included realistic warbird sounds.
The Love Air R/C club’s best pilots also got to participate in the airshow
program. Smoke is a crowd pleaser!
Garrett Morrison was the featured pilot at the 2003 Rocky
Mountain Big Bird Festival. The crowd loved his
performance!
Garrett Morrison’s 3-D model in the rolling-harrier portion
of his crowd-pleasing Freestyle routine.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:29 am Page 28
July 2004 29
This turbine-powered Eurofighter wowed the crowd with its
sound and speed. Safety is paramount with this type of model.
A wide variety of aircraft types, such as this Scale biplane, help
attract and hold the spectators’ interest.
Sport-flying times at the festival included more traditional
aerobatics. Biplanes are a spectator favorite.
publication and work your ads back from their submission
deadlines.
A critical factor is appointing committee leads for each
important facet of the team structure. The event director and contest
director lead the team, and they take care of many duties by
themselves.
Additional committee directors cover field preparation, running
our public raffle, public relations/marketing, sponsors/prize
donations, air-show-pilot coordination, the air-boss team,
concessions/vendor relations, public-address (PA)/music-system
direction, the transmitter impound, and, most important, the parking
team.
We hold monthly meetings before our regular club meetings to
keep the team aligned, moving forward, and handling any issues
that arise. We also regularly discuss the festival in our club
meetings to keep the membership informed, answer questions,
recruit additional volunteers, and collect any new ideas the members
have.
Your event’s theme and type should reflect your club’s interests
to encourage as many critical volunteers as possible. Inevitably, at
every well-managed RC event, a sizable portion of the club’s
members are involved in running it. We have found that nothing
works better than a heartfelt personal invitation to get a volunteer
signed up. Our committee leads reach out to help club members
volunteer for their teams.
Safety Considerations: Safety should be the number-one
consideration when running any event. Pilot and spectator safety are
combined in our hobby because of the observers’ proximity to the
aircraft.
A competent event staff must perform careful pilot/airplane
inspections before any aircraft leaves the ground—especially for
large Scale or Aerobatics models. Thorough inspections include
checking such items as hinges, linkages, and propeller condition.
Proper safety fencing, spectator/crowd control, and strictly
monitoring the participants’ flying ensure spectator safety. We use a
team of air bosses with radio systems, fluorescent vests, and
coordination with the announcers to keep the flightline safe and
enjoyable for all. The air bosses watch for erratic flying or
violations of the specified no-fly zones; if they see an infraction,
they ask the offending pilot to land immediately.
Our field has three taxi entrances to the runway. The air bosses
control the flow of on-deck pilots at two of the entrances and the
safe landing, shutdown, and collection of models at the third.
The air bosses call changes in the wind direction and tell the
pilots when they must flip the flying and landing pattern. They are
also responsible for informing all pilots if a landing or dead-stick
approach is underway or called. A polite, firm voice and some
experience are air-boss requirements, so older club members are
typically more successful than our junior members.
To keep each participant better aware of the situation
surrounding his or her aircraft, we require all pilots to have callers
with them at the designated pilot stations. Some initially resist this
rule since we hold more of a fun-fly event, but with as many as six
models in the air, with their different types and speeds, fliers soon
realize that flying with a buddy is much safer.
Besides, only the caller can really watch the other airplanes, pay
attention to the air bosses, relay the good-natured ribbing that takes
place, correct the announcer on the aircraft’s description, and
retrieve the model at the end of its flight.
A well-functioning transmitter impound is mandatory for a wellmanaged
event. Our impound team is a good-natured bunch, and we
supply a weatherproof trailer with temporary shelving inside to
make the impound process enjoyable and safe for all pilots.
We use a frequency analyzer to check for transmitters left on and
for radio problems. If turbine-powered jets are present, additional
fire extinguishers must be present and a fire crew must be standing
ready.
Remember to consider spectator/pilot physical separation for
safety’s sake, and check in with local fire and rescue services to
ensure that they know the best routes to your event and what they
can expect from a crowd and access standpoint. GPS (Global
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:33 am Page 29
series of modified Sig Kadets that one of our members originally
created. It is constructed by one of our members who custom-builds
models for others.
The Kadet spans 82 inches and comes with the radio fully
installed. It is immaculately covered and truly ready to fly (except
for charging the batteries and adding fuel). This airplane has an
excellent reputation with the region’s pilots and looks great. Since
we fly identical models on spectator buddy-box machines during
our event, visitors can see that it flies extremely well. The quality of
our raffle airplane helps us sell a good quantity of raffle tickets each
year.
Although most club members can sell raffle tickets, certain
unique individuals truly excel at it. Our resident supersalesman
knows nearly every business owner in our area and could sell
iceboxes to Eskimos. Engaging your supersalesmen/women and
finding the right prize(s) will enable your raffle to generate enough
funds to cover costs and help build excitement.
Although the entire club sells raffle tickets for months before the
event, we sell many tickets during the festival, and we hold the
drawing at the close of the event. Every year crowd members stay in
the stands hoping they will win the model.
Remember to follow all state rules for holding a public raffle.
Register it with the correct authorities, and handle the ticket
numbers and stubs according to their regulations. We have a team
who does the necessary research and runs our raffle beautifully each
year.
Another way we help to cover event costs is to ask for a $2
donation per vehicle for parking. We rent an additional field from a
local farmer, where we park more than 800 spectator cars each day.
Parking money is kept as a donation to eliminate liabilities and
income issues. It usually covers the cost of bringing the air-show
pilots in and renting the extra field.
You will probably have 15 people packed in a Suburban who
refuse to pay. Our parking-team members have learned to reach into
their own pockets and say, “I’ll just pay it for you.” This gets most
holdouts to contribute, but not all. However, some spectators give us
$10 or $20 and tell us they really appreciate the event; they love to
come out every year and are quite willing to help with event costs.
We sell souvenir Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival T-shirts
each year, but mostly to the pilots and crew. They usually sell out at
a marginal profit. We also sell club-logo ball caps, and spectators
often purchase them. These are not big money-makers for our club,
but they have become traditions that help pilots remember their time
with us when they go back to their home clubs and flying fields.
Field Preparation/Parking: To get ready for the event, we hold a
field-cleanup-and-safety-fence-extension party. We have the 1⁄3-mile
access road to our facility graded and prepped to handle the crowds
and minimize the dust. (Colorado dryness/washboard is our
problem; other regions face different issues.)
We spruce up the paint on our shade shelter and our signs, and
then we bring in the spectator stands we rent from a local school
district. Luckily we have a generous house-moving-company
sponsor that helps transport the stands to and from our field each
year.
We extend our spectator separation fence using a rope divider
across the entire width of the flying-field property (which fills up
with pilots’ trailers and RVs anyway), and then we rope off an 8-
foot spectator walkway the entire width of the property. This allows
the audience to walk safely behind the flightline/pit area to look at
the models and talk to the pilots. Since the stands fill up well before
the noon air show, the footpath acts as an overflow to ensure that all
who attend have a good view of the show.
Determining the best location for food vendors’ stands/tents
early in the planning process helps maintain satisfactory spectator
traffic flow and keeps almost everyone happy. We put the
concessions well behind the pit area, near the parking area.
If you have hobby vendors at your event, plan for their location
in advance as well, so that they are near the pilots but not blocking
the spectators. We have also learned to control the location of
pilots’ tents/shade structures, to keep the audience’s sight lines as
clear as possible in the vicinity of the stands.
A pilots’ meeting is held at the start of every flying day, during
which rules, safety, and the day’s program are reviewed.
Things got interesting when the best 3-D pilots tried to
outmaneuver each other. Careful co-pilot spotting is a must!
Positioning System) coordinates often help emergency crews
understand exactly where you are in relation to your road access
points.
We maintain crowd control by having all club staff, pilots, and pit
crews wear badges while in the flying/pit areas. If someone crosses
the spectator fence line and is not wearing a badge, we ask that
person to step back to the spectator area for his or her own safety.
Generating Club Funds: The main source of revenue from our
event is a public raffle for an RTF Giant Scale model. It is one of a
30 MODEL AVIATION
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:34 am Page 30
July 2004 33
A good parking crew is critical to keeping
things flowing well. This is one of the most
important but undervalued jobs at the event.
The parking team is the first club contact the
spectators have at the event, and first
impressions are extremely important. It can be
a hot, dry, and dusty shift for the club
volunteers.
The parking team members hand all
spectator cars our full-color event brochure,
ask for the donation, and tell them about the
raffle. The parking officials direct visitors
where to park; they keep spectator vehicles in
a separate area and allow only pilot vehicles
close to the pits. There are many cars to
handle, and it is helpful to rope off parking
lanes to keep chaos out of the parking area.
One of the most important items in field
preparation is bringing in and positioning
mobile restroom facilities; close to 2,000
spectators and 200-300 pilots, crew, and staff
down a good quantity of coffee, soda, water,
hot dogs, and burgers each day. We learned
that with our crowds, we must contract for our
portable restrooms to be serviced on Friday
and Saturday.
Our wives designate some for women’s
use only and decorate them with flowers and
such. They stay much cleaner than the boys’
facilities. Consider prevailing wind direction
and campers’ locations when positioning the
temporary restroom facilities.
Another important factor when the public
is involved is garbage containers and
collection. We have learned to provide several
trash containers for the event and bring in an
industrial-sized trash dumpster to help us keep
on top of the situation; the 3,000 spectators
create a remarkable amount of trash in just
two days.
Providing for cigarette-butt disposal is a
fire-prevention must. They rarely end up in
the designated containers, but it is important
that they not go into the regular trash. We
clean up the cigarettes and garbage Friday
night and Saturday night, and we do a final
cleanup Sunday after the event.
Registration: We post a pilot sign-up form on
our club Web site—www.fortnet.org/
loveairrc—and include one in the event
brochure to facilitate advance registration.
Model inspections and check-in start Friday
afternoon, to help get ahead of the Saturdaymorning
rush.
We encourage advanced registration with
a reduced event/landing fee for those who sign
up early. There are typically 100-110 pilots,
and having at least one-third of them
preregistered has made the process more
streamlined on Friday afternoon and Saturday
morning.
We provide the fliers with name badges
and pit-crew badges. Cheerful volunteers for
registration and keeping the check-in table
close to the transmitter impound keeps things
running smoothly.
Event Program/Agenda: Balancing the
pilots’ desires for an enjoyable event and the
public’s desires for a great air show has been a
key facet of the Rocky Mountain Big Bird
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Festival’s maturation. This balance is shown
in the program choices we make for the
event.
We decided to include a world-class flier
as our featured air-show demonstration pilot
each year. We pay a reasonable fee to bring
these special pilots in and pay their travel
expenses (gas or flight costs and hotel/meal
expenses).
We recoup this money by having
additional spectators and pilots attend and
selling incremental raffle tickets to the public
at the event. Including the words “World
Champ” and “National Champ” in the
marketing materials seems to work well in
attracting crowds and pilots.
Use any relationships that any of your
members have with top-shelf pilots to make
the invitation process smoother. If you don’t
have connections, attending events at which
good, potential air-show pilots perform is a
great way to introduce yourself and see how
different pilots would fit into your event.
We have learned a great deal through the
years about the event’s structure and flow of
flying and activities, such as to set specific
times for 3-D flying, warbirds, and a mix of
normal/sport flying and crowd buddy-box
flight instruction.
We found that those who spend many
hours on their warbirds like to fly together
and are displeased when other pilots pull 3-D
Harriers directly in front of their models. So
the warbird times become their own mini air
shows and allow the announcers to speak
about the pilots, their models, and the fullscale
aircraft and their histories to keep the
spectators engaged.
In a like manner, the set 3-D flying times
attract IMAC (International Miniature
Aerobatic Club) and Freestyle enthusiasts
who kick in the smoke systems, try formation
aerobatics, and Torque Roll their models for
the crowds.
Our featured air-show pilot is usually
asked to evaluate other pilots’ aircraft, and
the 3-D segment is a good time for these test
flights and for the air-show pilot to check out
his model before the noon demonstration.
Even with a set time for 3-D flying, we
mandate that Harriers and hovering
maneuvers be executed out from the runway
in the middle of the rectangular traffic
pattern, keeping the runway mostly clear in
case someone needs to land quickly for any
reason.
During regular flying times, we prohibit
3-D maneuvers, and the regular sport fliers
come to the flightline. We encourage normal
aerobatics, and the Cubs, World War I
aircraft, and sport models mix it up to the
crowd’s delight.
We try to keep the six pilot stations filled
at all times, but there is a natural ebb and flow
of pilot volume during the day. At slower
times we encourage volunteers from the
crowd to fly a Giant Scale model via a buddy
box and instructor. The audience loves to see
other crowd members fly a model then be
interviewed by the announcers.
During these instruction times each day,
we hold free public raffles for 40-size trainer
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36 MODEL AVIATION
kits/ARFs. We ask the crowd members to raise
their hands if they would truly be interested in
getting into the hobby, and then only those
people receive tickets. Local hobby shops that
help sponsor the event donate the kits.
We distribute the raffle tickets and call the
winner out of the stands. The proud new kit
owner has his or her picture taken with the
hobby-store representative, takes a turn with
the buddy box/instructor, and then is
interviewed for the crowd. It is fun for the
audience, and there is no lack of volunteers to
take a turn flying a model.
We sell a good deal of raffle tickets for the
Kadet during these times since the crowd can
see firsthand that nearly anyone can fly with
good instruction. We sell even more tickets at
instruction time since our buddy-boxinstruction
airplanes are copies of the Quinn
Kadet that we raffle off, and crowd members
can see how excellent a well-set-up Giant
Scale model would be as a first airplane.
Free hourly pilot-prize drawings, major
pilot-prize raffles, and excellent pilot-prize
quality help keep participants returning year
after year. Our super salesperson obtains these
prizes.
Since the public is invited and comes for
the noon air show, the pilots who attend are
those who enjoy showing off their aircraft in a
noncompetitive but well-managed
environment. They come to enjoy the air-show
demonstration featuring a world-class pilot as
much as the spectators. Also allowing some
regional pilots with special airplanes and skills
to participate in the noon air show boosts their
pride in participation.
Our Sunday air show last year featured a
comedy skit featuring a 12-foot-wingspan
Cub, a Giant Scale-legal turbine jet, a 50-
pound Hawker Sea Fury, a 3-D and a turbine
helicopter, local pilots doing 3-D aerobatics,
and the finale: Garrett Morrison’s (Lodi CA)
amazing Freestyle Aerobatics demonstration.
During the event, the announcers are
constantly broadcasting over the PA system
the aircraft each pilot is flying; where the pilot
is from; and the engine, kit type, and special
features of the model and its full-scale
counterpart. This keeps the crowd informed
and involved, and it appeals to each pilot’s
pride in his or her aircraft. Humor in
announcing is a big asset in handling mishaps
and keeping the enthusiasm level up on the
flightline.
We use 70-volt horn speakers on poles
down the flightline in addition to the main PAsystem
cabinets to ensure proper sound
coverage for the crowd and the pilots. We
announce the pilot prizes and landings, ask for
applause for good flights, and help the
impound crew by calling for delinquent
frequency pins and announcing when pilots in
the queue can fly after their frequencies clear
up.
To help encourage visiting pilots to get
early stick time at the event, we often ask club
members to refrain from flying Saturday
morning to let the visitors have the first crack
at it that day. Normal club flying starts each
day at the end of the formal event hours, and
we close the impound and distribute the radios
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July 2004 39
to their owners until the next morning. We run
the event impound and frequency control
during event hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and
9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, when the Kadet is
raffled off.
Social Activities: Pilots who attend the event,
some every year, enjoy the social aspect and
bring their RVs for dry camping starting the
Tuesday and Wednesday before the event, to
ensure a good spot.
We hold a potluck dinner Friday evening
and a pig-roast dinner Saturday evening during
the event. One of our member families handles
the potluck dinner, and another family runs the
pig roast. We have tried Saturday-evening
catered dinners throughout the years, but that
has presented mixed success and increased
costs.
The less-formal potluck and pig roast
dinners have become fun traditions and are
followed by a round of night flying starting at
dusk Friday and Saturday evening. All manner
of contraptions show up in the sky, and people
either watch the craft or simply visit with
friends down the line of campers and RVs.
Event Promotion: Properly marketing the flyin
has made a big difference in continuing to
attract participants and increasing the number
of spectators. Our first year with real marketing
was coincident with having Quique Somenzini
as our air-show pilot, and we went from 300
spectators the previous year to 2,500 spectators
that year.
Our marketing efforts are multifaceted and
consist of our Web site; more than 3,000 fullcolor,
two-sided, 11 x 17-inch brochures; two
“Contest Calendar” ads in MA that run for
several months; a 1⁄4-page black-and-white ad
in MA; small ads in each of the local
newspapers; and feature articles in each local
paper in northern Colorado (three newspapers
in three cities).
We place ads in local newspapers the
Friday and Saturday right before and at the
start of the festival, and they reinforce the
photo articles that each newspaper publishes
promoting the event. We put a great deal of
effort into trying to get the papers to come out
and publicize the fly-in beforehand, and our
objective is to have articles running on Friday
or Saturday morning along with our ads.
Our event brochure has evolved through the
years. We now use one large, two-sided, color
leaflet. The front side has large pictures and
much of the spectator information. The reverse
side has pilot information, a preregistration
form, a map, an event schedule, and detailed
directions.
These handouts feature a good-size picture
of the previous year’s raffle model and enough
photos to show the size and variety of aircraft
that will be present. We promote our guest airshow
pilot and direct people to our Web site
for additional information.
We are only able to have a brochure of this
quality because a generous club member owns
a printing business. A member lays out the ads
and the pamphlets, and our printer creates and
donates the brochures in awesome color and
quantity.
This allows our members to distribute them
at regional contests and use the photos to help
sell raffle tickets. We distribute the leaflets to
clubs and hobby stores across the state and to
our mailing list of past attendees. The brochure
is big enough to use as a window poster at the
hobby stores. Since it has complete spectator
and pilot information, the one brochure works
for friends and modelers.
In previous years we tried separate pilot
and spectator brochures, and you always had
the wrong one in your car or field box when
someone asked about the event. It also doubled
the cost and work for the printer.
We also use the brochure at our mall show
later in the year, to show the public what our
main fly-in is like (we use stickers to correct
the dates for the next year). See what printing
connections you have within your club, and
use them to the max.
Last year we made a connection with an
excellent professional sports photographer—
Bill Sallaz of ActionPic9.com—who shot
some amazing photos of Saturday’s activities.
His pictures accompany this article. Bill will
be at our future events, and we will be using
his photography in our marketing efforts this
year.
Having top-quality photographs available
for purchase will be another drawing card to
encourage pilots to attend our event with their
airplanes this year. Good photography can
increase the results of your club’s marketing
efforts and Web-site work.
Television coverage is possible but hard to
obtain without a good contact at the station.
We did get a news crew out one year, and they
did a super spot for us, but we have been
unable to get them to come out again because
of our distance from Denver. Any connections
your members have with photographers, the
press, or TV stations are valuable and should
be shamelessly exploited.
Anything is possible for your event. Our team
has been amazed at the type of fly-in the
Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival has
become. The last time Chip Hyde was our
featured pilot, he said, “Man, you guys just
have fun at this thing!” Our goals mix
financial, promotional, and membership
aspects. For more information or to contact our
club, use our Web site.
You can use your event for anything you
want to accomplish. Your team can merge the
members’ strengths and create an exciting
event that shows your club and the hobby in
the best light.
Full-scale air shows are being increasingly
controlled by spectator liability issues and are
moving the crowds farther and farther from the
action. You can get people closer to greatlooking
aircraft and really get them excited
about model aviation.
Our hobby and your next big event can
provide a unique opportunity to engage the
public, attract members, and help finance your
club’s operations. Set your goals, pick your
team, and make it happen. MA
Neil Miles
2007 Coastal Ct.
Fort Collins CO 80528
07sig2.QXD 4/26/04 8:21 am Page 39
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/07
Page Numbers: 26,27,28,29,30,33,34,36,39
Planning and Running
a Large Club Event
26 MODEL AVIATION
WHAT ARE SOME goals your club would like to accomplish with
its main event this year? Perhaps raising operating funds, attracting
new members, raising your club’s profile in the community,
improving the club’s reputation among other clubs in your area, or
generally making your event the social RC hit of the year in your
region.
Your group can accomplish many or all of these goals with its
major event of the year; all it takes is a strong team, hard work from
most of your club’s members, and solid organization. Did I mention
hard work?
The Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival—sponsored by the Love-
Air R/C club in northern Colorado, of which I am a member—is a
Giant Scale fly-in that celebrated its 10th anniversary in August
2003. With a history of demonstration pilots including Chip Hyde,
Quique Somenzini, Sean McMurtry, Bill Hempel, Garrett Morrison,
and Doug Gearman; more than 100 pilot participants; and an excess
of 2,500 spectators, this gathering has grown to be one of the
premier RC events in the region.
The fly-in brings thousands of dollars per year into the Love-Air
R/C’s operating fund, attracts 10-20 new members each year,
exposes thousands of spectators to the best of RC flying, and is now
a must-attend event for an ever-increasing number of RC fliers from
roughly 10 Western states.
In this article I will outline some of the keys to this event’s
success to help your club accomplish its goals with an event.
Many decisions made will depend on your club’s objectives for its
key event. Decide what the group wants to accomplish, and
include/exclude items from the plan to help get you along that path.
Some of the following points may not apply to your event;
however, they may allow your club to be more creative in planning
its next activity. And later we might read about your events in MA!
Our club and leadership team has learned a great deal in the past
decade about how to successfully manage an event that has grown
from a small club activity to a regional place to be. Love-Air R/C is
not a superclub; it is typical, with approximately 170 members.
However, we are blessed to have a great flying facility, and we have
a committed core of capable leaders managing the Big Bird Festival.
Key decisions were made in developing the gathering. They
were to:
• Pick a unique event focus and type.
by Neil Miles
A public raffle prize such as this 82-inch-span “Quinn” Kadet
RTF can increase crowd participation and interest.
Roped walkways provide overflow spectator areas. Pilot shade
structures at either end of flightline do not interfere with
spectator sight lines.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:05 am Page 26
July 2004 27
• Choose a consistent time of year that does
not conflict with other regional activities.
• Include the public as spectators and plan
for their enjoyment and parking.
• Raise club funds through the public raffle
of a custom-built RTF aircraft.
• Market the event in MA and in local
newspapers, and produce a color brochure.
• Bring in some of the top names in RC
Aerobatics as demonstration/air-show
pilots.
As you plan your club’s event, look
around to see what would be interesting,
fun, and could attract pilots from an event
type and time-frame standpoint. Consider
your flying facility and what type of events
would work best (e.g., jets and close-in
trees may not be the optimal fit). Then the
serious planning can begin.
Planning: Planning is the key to making
any major event work well. We start team
meetings in January or February to decide
on the show pilots and get a start on the
marketing for the August event.
We try to request our event sanction
early from AMA to ensure that our ads will
run and that we get on the calendar. We
submit event announcements to AMA’s
Competition Department for MA’s “Contest
Calendar” in March, and we submit our 1⁄4-
page ad to MA in March or April,
depending on the ad deadlines. Deadlines
for advertising depend on the time of year
of your event. Contact your target
Air bosses with radio headsets control runway access and flight operations at an event.
You can see the flight-station safety fencing in the background.
Providing designated warbird flight times brings out the showmanship from the Scale
pilots. Most spectators will respond to this type of aircraft.
The raffle-prize aircraft is shown to the crowd throughout the day
to generate incremental ticket sales.
Left: Separate 3-D flying times showcase IMAC and hotdog pilots’
flying skills in a more controlled environment.
Photos courtesy ActionPic9.com
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:23 am Page 27
28 MODEL AVIATION
A local pilot’s Hawker Sea Fury really spiced up the noon air show, and
it included realistic warbird sounds.
The Love Air R/C club’s best pilots also got to participate in the airshow
program. Smoke is a crowd pleaser!
Garrett Morrison was the featured pilot at the 2003 Rocky
Mountain Big Bird Festival. The crowd loved his
performance!
Garrett Morrison’s 3-D model in the rolling-harrier portion
of his crowd-pleasing Freestyle routine.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:29 am Page 28
July 2004 29
This turbine-powered Eurofighter wowed the crowd with its
sound and speed. Safety is paramount with this type of model.
A wide variety of aircraft types, such as this Scale biplane, help
attract and hold the spectators’ interest.
Sport-flying times at the festival included more traditional
aerobatics. Biplanes are a spectator favorite.
publication and work your ads back from their submission
deadlines.
A critical factor is appointing committee leads for each
important facet of the team structure. The event director and contest
director lead the team, and they take care of many duties by
themselves.
Additional committee directors cover field preparation, running
our public raffle, public relations/marketing, sponsors/prize
donations, air-show-pilot coordination, the air-boss team,
concessions/vendor relations, public-address (PA)/music-system
direction, the transmitter impound, and, most important, the parking
team.
We hold monthly meetings before our regular club meetings to
keep the team aligned, moving forward, and handling any issues
that arise. We also regularly discuss the festival in our club
meetings to keep the membership informed, answer questions,
recruit additional volunteers, and collect any new ideas the members
have.
Your event’s theme and type should reflect your club’s interests
to encourage as many critical volunteers as possible. Inevitably, at
every well-managed RC event, a sizable portion of the club’s
members are involved in running it. We have found that nothing
works better than a heartfelt personal invitation to get a volunteer
signed up. Our committee leads reach out to help club members
volunteer for their teams.
Safety Considerations: Safety should be the number-one
consideration when running any event. Pilot and spectator safety are
combined in our hobby because of the observers’ proximity to the
aircraft.
A competent event staff must perform careful pilot/airplane
inspections before any aircraft leaves the ground—especially for
large Scale or Aerobatics models. Thorough inspections include
checking such items as hinges, linkages, and propeller condition.
Proper safety fencing, spectator/crowd control, and strictly
monitoring the participants’ flying ensure spectator safety. We use a
team of air bosses with radio systems, fluorescent vests, and
coordination with the announcers to keep the flightline safe and
enjoyable for all. The air bosses watch for erratic flying or
violations of the specified no-fly zones; if they see an infraction,
they ask the offending pilot to land immediately.
Our field has three taxi entrances to the runway. The air bosses
control the flow of on-deck pilots at two of the entrances and the
safe landing, shutdown, and collection of models at the third.
The air bosses call changes in the wind direction and tell the
pilots when they must flip the flying and landing pattern. They are
also responsible for informing all pilots if a landing or dead-stick
approach is underway or called. A polite, firm voice and some
experience are air-boss requirements, so older club members are
typically more successful than our junior members.
To keep each participant better aware of the situation
surrounding his or her aircraft, we require all pilots to have callers
with them at the designated pilot stations. Some initially resist this
rule since we hold more of a fun-fly event, but with as many as six
models in the air, with their different types and speeds, fliers soon
realize that flying with a buddy is much safer.
Besides, only the caller can really watch the other airplanes, pay
attention to the air bosses, relay the good-natured ribbing that takes
place, correct the announcer on the aircraft’s description, and
retrieve the model at the end of its flight.
A well-functioning transmitter impound is mandatory for a wellmanaged
event. Our impound team is a good-natured bunch, and we
supply a weatherproof trailer with temporary shelving inside to
make the impound process enjoyable and safe for all pilots.
We use a frequency analyzer to check for transmitters left on and
for radio problems. If turbine-powered jets are present, additional
fire extinguishers must be present and a fire crew must be standing
ready.
Remember to consider spectator/pilot physical separation for
safety’s sake, and check in with local fire and rescue services to
ensure that they know the best routes to your event and what they
can expect from a crowd and access standpoint. GPS (Global
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:33 am Page 29
series of modified Sig Kadets that one of our members originally
created. It is constructed by one of our members who custom-builds
models for others.
The Kadet spans 82 inches and comes with the radio fully
installed. It is immaculately covered and truly ready to fly (except
for charging the batteries and adding fuel). This airplane has an
excellent reputation with the region’s pilots and looks great. Since
we fly identical models on spectator buddy-box machines during
our event, visitors can see that it flies extremely well. The quality of
our raffle airplane helps us sell a good quantity of raffle tickets each
year.
Although most club members can sell raffle tickets, certain
unique individuals truly excel at it. Our resident supersalesman
knows nearly every business owner in our area and could sell
iceboxes to Eskimos. Engaging your supersalesmen/women and
finding the right prize(s) will enable your raffle to generate enough
funds to cover costs and help build excitement.
Although the entire club sells raffle tickets for months before the
event, we sell many tickets during the festival, and we hold the
drawing at the close of the event. Every year crowd members stay in
the stands hoping they will win the model.
Remember to follow all state rules for holding a public raffle.
Register it with the correct authorities, and handle the ticket
numbers and stubs according to their regulations. We have a team
who does the necessary research and runs our raffle beautifully each
year.
Another way we help to cover event costs is to ask for a $2
donation per vehicle for parking. We rent an additional field from a
local farmer, where we park more than 800 spectator cars each day.
Parking money is kept as a donation to eliminate liabilities and
income issues. It usually covers the cost of bringing the air-show
pilots in and renting the extra field.
You will probably have 15 people packed in a Suburban who
refuse to pay. Our parking-team members have learned to reach into
their own pockets and say, “I’ll just pay it for you.” This gets most
holdouts to contribute, but not all. However, some spectators give us
$10 or $20 and tell us they really appreciate the event; they love to
come out every year and are quite willing to help with event costs.
We sell souvenir Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival T-shirts
each year, but mostly to the pilots and crew. They usually sell out at
a marginal profit. We also sell club-logo ball caps, and spectators
often purchase them. These are not big money-makers for our club,
but they have become traditions that help pilots remember their time
with us when they go back to their home clubs and flying fields.
Field Preparation/Parking: To get ready for the event, we hold a
field-cleanup-and-safety-fence-extension party. We have the 1⁄3-mile
access road to our facility graded and prepped to handle the crowds
and minimize the dust. (Colorado dryness/washboard is our
problem; other regions face different issues.)
We spruce up the paint on our shade shelter and our signs, and
then we bring in the spectator stands we rent from a local school
district. Luckily we have a generous house-moving-company
sponsor that helps transport the stands to and from our field each
year.
We extend our spectator separation fence using a rope divider
across the entire width of the flying-field property (which fills up
with pilots’ trailers and RVs anyway), and then we rope off an 8-
foot spectator walkway the entire width of the property. This allows
the audience to walk safely behind the flightline/pit area to look at
the models and talk to the pilots. Since the stands fill up well before
the noon air show, the footpath acts as an overflow to ensure that all
who attend have a good view of the show.
Determining the best location for food vendors’ stands/tents
early in the planning process helps maintain satisfactory spectator
traffic flow and keeps almost everyone happy. We put the
concessions well behind the pit area, near the parking area.
If you have hobby vendors at your event, plan for their location
in advance as well, so that they are near the pilots but not blocking
the spectators. We have also learned to control the location of
pilots’ tents/shade structures, to keep the audience’s sight lines as
clear as possible in the vicinity of the stands.
A pilots’ meeting is held at the start of every flying day, during
which rules, safety, and the day’s program are reviewed.
Things got interesting when the best 3-D pilots tried to
outmaneuver each other. Careful co-pilot spotting is a must!
Positioning System) coordinates often help emergency crews
understand exactly where you are in relation to your road access
points.
We maintain crowd control by having all club staff, pilots, and pit
crews wear badges while in the flying/pit areas. If someone crosses
the spectator fence line and is not wearing a badge, we ask that
person to step back to the spectator area for his or her own safety.
Generating Club Funds: The main source of revenue from our
event is a public raffle for an RTF Giant Scale model. It is one of a
30 MODEL AVIATION
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:34 am Page 30
July 2004 33
A good parking crew is critical to keeping
things flowing well. This is one of the most
important but undervalued jobs at the event.
The parking team is the first club contact the
spectators have at the event, and first
impressions are extremely important. It can be
a hot, dry, and dusty shift for the club
volunteers.
The parking team members hand all
spectator cars our full-color event brochure,
ask for the donation, and tell them about the
raffle. The parking officials direct visitors
where to park; they keep spectator vehicles in
a separate area and allow only pilot vehicles
close to the pits. There are many cars to
handle, and it is helpful to rope off parking
lanes to keep chaos out of the parking area.
One of the most important items in field
preparation is bringing in and positioning
mobile restroom facilities; close to 2,000
spectators and 200-300 pilots, crew, and staff
down a good quantity of coffee, soda, water,
hot dogs, and burgers each day. We learned
that with our crowds, we must contract for our
portable restrooms to be serviced on Friday
and Saturday.
Our wives designate some for women’s
use only and decorate them with flowers and
such. They stay much cleaner than the boys’
facilities. Consider prevailing wind direction
and campers’ locations when positioning the
temporary restroom facilities.
Another important factor when the public
is involved is garbage containers and
collection. We have learned to provide several
trash containers for the event and bring in an
industrial-sized trash dumpster to help us keep
on top of the situation; the 3,000 spectators
create a remarkable amount of trash in just
two days.
Providing for cigarette-butt disposal is a
fire-prevention must. They rarely end up in
the designated containers, but it is important
that they not go into the regular trash. We
clean up the cigarettes and garbage Friday
night and Saturday night, and we do a final
cleanup Sunday after the event.
Registration: We post a pilot sign-up form on
our club Web site—www.fortnet.org/
loveairrc—and include one in the event
brochure to facilitate advance registration.
Model inspections and check-in start Friday
afternoon, to help get ahead of the Saturdaymorning
rush.
We encourage advanced registration with
a reduced event/landing fee for those who sign
up early. There are typically 100-110 pilots,
and having at least one-third of them
preregistered has made the process more
streamlined on Friday afternoon and Saturday
morning.
We provide the fliers with name badges
and pit-crew badges. Cheerful volunteers for
registration and keeping the check-in table
close to the transmitter impound keeps things
running smoothly.
Event Program/Agenda: Balancing the
pilots’ desires for an enjoyable event and the
public’s desires for a great air show has been a
key facet of the Rocky Mountain Big Bird
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Festival’s maturation. This balance is shown
in the program choices we make for the
event.
We decided to include a world-class flier
as our featured air-show demonstration pilot
each year. We pay a reasonable fee to bring
these special pilots in and pay their travel
expenses (gas or flight costs and hotel/meal
expenses).
We recoup this money by having
additional spectators and pilots attend and
selling incremental raffle tickets to the public
at the event. Including the words “World
Champ” and “National Champ” in the
marketing materials seems to work well in
attracting crowds and pilots.
Use any relationships that any of your
members have with top-shelf pilots to make
the invitation process smoother. If you don’t
have connections, attending events at which
good, potential air-show pilots perform is a
great way to introduce yourself and see how
different pilots would fit into your event.
We have learned a great deal through the
years about the event’s structure and flow of
flying and activities, such as to set specific
times for 3-D flying, warbirds, and a mix of
normal/sport flying and crowd buddy-box
flight instruction.
We found that those who spend many
hours on their warbirds like to fly together
and are displeased when other pilots pull 3-D
Harriers directly in front of their models. So
the warbird times become their own mini air
shows and allow the announcers to speak
about the pilots, their models, and the fullscale
aircraft and their histories to keep the
spectators engaged.
In a like manner, the set 3-D flying times
attract IMAC (International Miniature
Aerobatic Club) and Freestyle enthusiasts
who kick in the smoke systems, try formation
aerobatics, and Torque Roll their models for
the crowds.
Our featured air-show pilot is usually
asked to evaluate other pilots’ aircraft, and
the 3-D segment is a good time for these test
flights and for the air-show pilot to check out
his model before the noon demonstration.
Even with a set time for 3-D flying, we
mandate that Harriers and hovering
maneuvers be executed out from the runway
in the middle of the rectangular traffic
pattern, keeping the runway mostly clear in
case someone needs to land quickly for any
reason.
During regular flying times, we prohibit
3-D maneuvers, and the regular sport fliers
come to the flightline. We encourage normal
aerobatics, and the Cubs, World War I
aircraft, and sport models mix it up to the
crowd’s delight.
We try to keep the six pilot stations filled
at all times, but there is a natural ebb and flow
of pilot volume during the day. At slower
times we encourage volunteers from the
crowd to fly a Giant Scale model via a buddy
box and instructor. The audience loves to see
other crowd members fly a model then be
interviewed by the announcers.
During these instruction times each day,
we hold free public raffles for 40-size trainer
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36 MODEL AVIATION
kits/ARFs. We ask the crowd members to raise
their hands if they would truly be interested in
getting into the hobby, and then only those
people receive tickets. Local hobby shops that
help sponsor the event donate the kits.
We distribute the raffle tickets and call the
winner out of the stands. The proud new kit
owner has his or her picture taken with the
hobby-store representative, takes a turn with
the buddy box/instructor, and then is
interviewed for the crowd. It is fun for the
audience, and there is no lack of volunteers to
take a turn flying a model.
We sell a good deal of raffle tickets for the
Kadet during these times since the crowd can
see firsthand that nearly anyone can fly with
good instruction. We sell even more tickets at
instruction time since our buddy-boxinstruction
airplanes are copies of the Quinn
Kadet that we raffle off, and crowd members
can see how excellent a well-set-up Giant
Scale model would be as a first airplane.
Free hourly pilot-prize drawings, major
pilot-prize raffles, and excellent pilot-prize
quality help keep participants returning year
after year. Our super salesperson obtains these
prizes.
Since the public is invited and comes for
the noon air show, the pilots who attend are
those who enjoy showing off their aircraft in a
noncompetitive but well-managed
environment. They come to enjoy the air-show
demonstration featuring a world-class pilot as
much as the spectators. Also allowing some
regional pilots with special airplanes and skills
to participate in the noon air show boosts their
pride in participation.
Our Sunday air show last year featured a
comedy skit featuring a 12-foot-wingspan
Cub, a Giant Scale-legal turbine jet, a 50-
pound Hawker Sea Fury, a 3-D and a turbine
helicopter, local pilots doing 3-D aerobatics,
and the finale: Garrett Morrison’s (Lodi CA)
amazing Freestyle Aerobatics demonstration.
During the event, the announcers are
constantly broadcasting over the PA system
the aircraft each pilot is flying; where the pilot
is from; and the engine, kit type, and special
features of the model and its full-scale
counterpart. This keeps the crowd informed
and involved, and it appeals to each pilot’s
pride in his or her aircraft. Humor in
announcing is a big asset in handling mishaps
and keeping the enthusiasm level up on the
flightline.
We use 70-volt horn speakers on poles
down the flightline in addition to the main PAsystem
cabinets to ensure proper sound
coverage for the crowd and the pilots. We
announce the pilot prizes and landings, ask for
applause for good flights, and help the
impound crew by calling for delinquent
frequency pins and announcing when pilots in
the queue can fly after their frequencies clear
up.
To help encourage visiting pilots to get
early stick time at the event, we often ask club
members to refrain from flying Saturday
morning to let the visitors have the first crack
at it that day. Normal club flying starts each
day at the end of the formal event hours, and
we close the impound and distribute the radios
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July 2004 39
to their owners until the next morning. We run
the event impound and frequency control
during event hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and
9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, when the Kadet is
raffled off.
Social Activities: Pilots who attend the event,
some every year, enjoy the social aspect and
bring their RVs for dry camping starting the
Tuesday and Wednesday before the event, to
ensure a good spot.
We hold a potluck dinner Friday evening
and a pig-roast dinner Saturday evening during
the event. One of our member families handles
the potluck dinner, and another family runs the
pig roast. We have tried Saturday-evening
catered dinners throughout the years, but that
has presented mixed success and increased
costs.
The less-formal potluck and pig roast
dinners have become fun traditions and are
followed by a round of night flying starting at
dusk Friday and Saturday evening. All manner
of contraptions show up in the sky, and people
either watch the craft or simply visit with
friends down the line of campers and RVs.
Event Promotion: Properly marketing the flyin
has made a big difference in continuing to
attract participants and increasing the number
of spectators. Our first year with real marketing
was coincident with having Quique Somenzini
as our air-show pilot, and we went from 300
spectators the previous year to 2,500 spectators
that year.
Our marketing efforts are multifaceted and
consist of our Web site; more than 3,000 fullcolor,
two-sided, 11 x 17-inch brochures; two
“Contest Calendar” ads in MA that run for
several months; a 1⁄4-page black-and-white ad
in MA; small ads in each of the local
newspapers; and feature articles in each local
paper in northern Colorado (three newspapers
in three cities).
We place ads in local newspapers the
Friday and Saturday right before and at the
start of the festival, and they reinforce the
photo articles that each newspaper publishes
promoting the event. We put a great deal of
effort into trying to get the papers to come out
and publicize the fly-in beforehand, and our
objective is to have articles running on Friday
or Saturday morning along with our ads.
Our event brochure has evolved through the
years. We now use one large, two-sided, color
leaflet. The front side has large pictures and
much of the spectator information. The reverse
side has pilot information, a preregistration
form, a map, an event schedule, and detailed
directions.
These handouts feature a good-size picture
of the previous year’s raffle model and enough
photos to show the size and variety of aircraft
that will be present. We promote our guest airshow
pilot and direct people to our Web site
for additional information.
We are only able to have a brochure of this
quality because a generous club member owns
a printing business. A member lays out the ads
and the pamphlets, and our printer creates and
donates the brochures in awesome color and
quantity.
This allows our members to distribute them
at regional contests and use the photos to help
sell raffle tickets. We distribute the leaflets to
clubs and hobby stores across the state and to
our mailing list of past attendees. The brochure
is big enough to use as a window poster at the
hobby stores. Since it has complete spectator
and pilot information, the one brochure works
for friends and modelers.
In previous years we tried separate pilot
and spectator brochures, and you always had
the wrong one in your car or field box when
someone asked about the event. It also doubled
the cost and work for the printer.
We also use the brochure at our mall show
later in the year, to show the public what our
main fly-in is like (we use stickers to correct
the dates for the next year). See what printing
connections you have within your club, and
use them to the max.
Last year we made a connection with an
excellent professional sports photographer—
Bill Sallaz of ActionPic9.com—who shot
some amazing photos of Saturday’s activities.
His pictures accompany this article. Bill will
be at our future events, and we will be using
his photography in our marketing efforts this
year.
Having top-quality photographs available
for purchase will be another drawing card to
encourage pilots to attend our event with their
airplanes this year. Good photography can
increase the results of your club’s marketing
efforts and Web-site work.
Television coverage is possible but hard to
obtain without a good contact at the station.
We did get a news crew out one year, and they
did a super spot for us, but we have been
unable to get them to come out again because
of our distance from Denver. Any connections
your members have with photographers, the
press, or TV stations are valuable and should
be shamelessly exploited.
Anything is possible for your event. Our team
has been amazed at the type of fly-in the
Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival has
become. The last time Chip Hyde was our
featured pilot, he said, “Man, you guys just
have fun at this thing!” Our goals mix
financial, promotional, and membership
aspects. For more information or to contact our
club, use our Web site.
You can use your event for anything you
want to accomplish. Your team can merge the
members’ strengths and create an exciting
event that shows your club and the hobby in
the best light.
Full-scale air shows are being increasingly
controlled by spectator liability issues and are
moving the crowds farther and farther from the
action. You can get people closer to greatlooking
aircraft and really get them excited
about model aviation.
Our hobby and your next big event can
provide a unique opportunity to engage the
public, attract members, and help finance your
club’s operations. Set your goals, pick your
team, and make it happen. MA
Neil Miles
2007 Coastal Ct.
Fort Collins CO 80528
07sig2.QXD 4/26/04 8:21 am Page 39
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/07
Page Numbers: 26,27,28,29,30,33,34,36,39
Planning and Running
a Large Club Event
26 MODEL AVIATION
WHAT ARE SOME goals your club would like to accomplish with
its main event this year? Perhaps raising operating funds, attracting
new members, raising your club’s profile in the community,
improving the club’s reputation among other clubs in your area, or
generally making your event the social RC hit of the year in your
region.
Your group can accomplish many or all of these goals with its
major event of the year; all it takes is a strong team, hard work from
most of your club’s members, and solid organization. Did I mention
hard work?
The Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival—sponsored by the Love-
Air R/C club in northern Colorado, of which I am a member—is a
Giant Scale fly-in that celebrated its 10th anniversary in August
2003. With a history of demonstration pilots including Chip Hyde,
Quique Somenzini, Sean McMurtry, Bill Hempel, Garrett Morrison,
and Doug Gearman; more than 100 pilot participants; and an excess
of 2,500 spectators, this gathering has grown to be one of the
premier RC events in the region.
The fly-in brings thousands of dollars per year into the Love-Air
R/C’s operating fund, attracts 10-20 new members each year,
exposes thousands of spectators to the best of RC flying, and is now
a must-attend event for an ever-increasing number of RC fliers from
roughly 10 Western states.
In this article I will outline some of the keys to this event’s
success to help your club accomplish its goals with an event.
Many decisions made will depend on your club’s objectives for its
key event. Decide what the group wants to accomplish, and
include/exclude items from the plan to help get you along that path.
Some of the following points may not apply to your event;
however, they may allow your club to be more creative in planning
its next activity. And later we might read about your events in MA!
Our club and leadership team has learned a great deal in the past
decade about how to successfully manage an event that has grown
from a small club activity to a regional place to be. Love-Air R/C is
not a superclub; it is typical, with approximately 170 members.
However, we are blessed to have a great flying facility, and we have
a committed core of capable leaders managing the Big Bird Festival.
Key decisions were made in developing the gathering. They
were to:
• Pick a unique event focus and type.
by Neil Miles
A public raffle prize such as this 82-inch-span “Quinn” Kadet
RTF can increase crowd participation and interest.
Roped walkways provide overflow spectator areas. Pilot shade
structures at either end of flightline do not interfere with
spectator sight lines.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:05 am Page 26
July 2004 27
• Choose a consistent time of year that does
not conflict with other regional activities.
• Include the public as spectators and plan
for their enjoyment and parking.
• Raise club funds through the public raffle
of a custom-built RTF aircraft.
• Market the event in MA and in local
newspapers, and produce a color brochure.
• Bring in some of the top names in RC
Aerobatics as demonstration/air-show
pilots.
As you plan your club’s event, look
around to see what would be interesting,
fun, and could attract pilots from an event
type and time-frame standpoint. Consider
your flying facility and what type of events
would work best (e.g., jets and close-in
trees may not be the optimal fit). Then the
serious planning can begin.
Planning: Planning is the key to making
any major event work well. We start team
meetings in January or February to decide
on the show pilots and get a start on the
marketing for the August event.
We try to request our event sanction
early from AMA to ensure that our ads will
run and that we get on the calendar. We
submit event announcements to AMA’s
Competition Department for MA’s “Contest
Calendar” in March, and we submit our 1⁄4-
page ad to MA in March or April,
depending on the ad deadlines. Deadlines
for advertising depend on the time of year
of your event. Contact your target
Air bosses with radio headsets control runway access and flight operations at an event.
You can see the flight-station safety fencing in the background.
Providing designated warbird flight times brings out the showmanship from the Scale
pilots. Most spectators will respond to this type of aircraft.
The raffle-prize aircraft is shown to the crowd throughout the day
to generate incremental ticket sales.
Left: Separate 3-D flying times showcase IMAC and hotdog pilots’
flying skills in a more controlled environment.
Photos courtesy ActionPic9.com
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:23 am Page 27
28 MODEL AVIATION
A local pilot’s Hawker Sea Fury really spiced up the noon air show, and
it included realistic warbird sounds.
The Love Air R/C club’s best pilots also got to participate in the airshow
program. Smoke is a crowd pleaser!
Garrett Morrison was the featured pilot at the 2003 Rocky
Mountain Big Bird Festival. The crowd loved his
performance!
Garrett Morrison’s 3-D model in the rolling-harrier portion
of his crowd-pleasing Freestyle routine.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:29 am Page 28
July 2004 29
This turbine-powered Eurofighter wowed the crowd with its
sound and speed. Safety is paramount with this type of model.
A wide variety of aircraft types, such as this Scale biplane, help
attract and hold the spectators’ interest.
Sport-flying times at the festival included more traditional
aerobatics. Biplanes are a spectator favorite.
publication and work your ads back from their submission
deadlines.
A critical factor is appointing committee leads for each
important facet of the team structure. The event director and contest
director lead the team, and they take care of many duties by
themselves.
Additional committee directors cover field preparation, running
our public raffle, public relations/marketing, sponsors/prize
donations, air-show-pilot coordination, the air-boss team,
concessions/vendor relations, public-address (PA)/music-system
direction, the transmitter impound, and, most important, the parking
team.
We hold monthly meetings before our regular club meetings to
keep the team aligned, moving forward, and handling any issues
that arise. We also regularly discuss the festival in our club
meetings to keep the membership informed, answer questions,
recruit additional volunteers, and collect any new ideas the members
have.
Your event’s theme and type should reflect your club’s interests
to encourage as many critical volunteers as possible. Inevitably, at
every well-managed RC event, a sizable portion of the club’s
members are involved in running it. We have found that nothing
works better than a heartfelt personal invitation to get a volunteer
signed up. Our committee leads reach out to help club members
volunteer for their teams.
Safety Considerations: Safety should be the number-one
consideration when running any event. Pilot and spectator safety are
combined in our hobby because of the observers’ proximity to the
aircraft.
A competent event staff must perform careful pilot/airplane
inspections before any aircraft leaves the ground—especially for
large Scale or Aerobatics models. Thorough inspections include
checking such items as hinges, linkages, and propeller condition.
Proper safety fencing, spectator/crowd control, and strictly
monitoring the participants’ flying ensure spectator safety. We use a
team of air bosses with radio systems, fluorescent vests, and
coordination with the announcers to keep the flightline safe and
enjoyable for all. The air bosses watch for erratic flying or
violations of the specified no-fly zones; if they see an infraction,
they ask the offending pilot to land immediately.
Our field has three taxi entrances to the runway. The air bosses
control the flow of on-deck pilots at two of the entrances and the
safe landing, shutdown, and collection of models at the third.
The air bosses call changes in the wind direction and tell the
pilots when they must flip the flying and landing pattern. They are
also responsible for informing all pilots if a landing or dead-stick
approach is underway or called. A polite, firm voice and some
experience are air-boss requirements, so older club members are
typically more successful than our junior members.
To keep each participant better aware of the situation
surrounding his or her aircraft, we require all pilots to have callers
with them at the designated pilot stations. Some initially resist this
rule since we hold more of a fun-fly event, but with as many as six
models in the air, with their different types and speeds, fliers soon
realize that flying with a buddy is much safer.
Besides, only the caller can really watch the other airplanes, pay
attention to the air bosses, relay the good-natured ribbing that takes
place, correct the announcer on the aircraft’s description, and
retrieve the model at the end of its flight.
A well-functioning transmitter impound is mandatory for a wellmanaged
event. Our impound team is a good-natured bunch, and we
supply a weatherproof trailer with temporary shelving inside to
make the impound process enjoyable and safe for all pilots.
We use a frequency analyzer to check for transmitters left on and
for radio problems. If turbine-powered jets are present, additional
fire extinguishers must be present and a fire crew must be standing
ready.
Remember to consider spectator/pilot physical separation for
safety’s sake, and check in with local fire and rescue services to
ensure that they know the best routes to your event and what they
can expect from a crowd and access standpoint. GPS (Global
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:33 am Page 29
series of modified Sig Kadets that one of our members originally
created. It is constructed by one of our members who custom-builds
models for others.
The Kadet spans 82 inches and comes with the radio fully
installed. It is immaculately covered and truly ready to fly (except
for charging the batteries and adding fuel). This airplane has an
excellent reputation with the region’s pilots and looks great. Since
we fly identical models on spectator buddy-box machines during
our event, visitors can see that it flies extremely well. The quality of
our raffle airplane helps us sell a good quantity of raffle tickets each
year.
Although most club members can sell raffle tickets, certain
unique individuals truly excel at it. Our resident supersalesman
knows nearly every business owner in our area and could sell
iceboxes to Eskimos. Engaging your supersalesmen/women and
finding the right prize(s) will enable your raffle to generate enough
funds to cover costs and help build excitement.
Although the entire club sells raffle tickets for months before the
event, we sell many tickets during the festival, and we hold the
drawing at the close of the event. Every year crowd members stay in
the stands hoping they will win the model.
Remember to follow all state rules for holding a public raffle.
Register it with the correct authorities, and handle the ticket
numbers and stubs according to their regulations. We have a team
who does the necessary research and runs our raffle beautifully each
year.
Another way we help to cover event costs is to ask for a $2
donation per vehicle for parking. We rent an additional field from a
local farmer, where we park more than 800 spectator cars each day.
Parking money is kept as a donation to eliminate liabilities and
income issues. It usually covers the cost of bringing the air-show
pilots in and renting the extra field.
You will probably have 15 people packed in a Suburban who
refuse to pay. Our parking-team members have learned to reach into
their own pockets and say, “I’ll just pay it for you.” This gets most
holdouts to contribute, but not all. However, some spectators give us
$10 or $20 and tell us they really appreciate the event; they love to
come out every year and are quite willing to help with event costs.
We sell souvenir Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival T-shirts
each year, but mostly to the pilots and crew. They usually sell out at
a marginal profit. We also sell club-logo ball caps, and spectators
often purchase them. These are not big money-makers for our club,
but they have become traditions that help pilots remember their time
with us when they go back to their home clubs and flying fields.
Field Preparation/Parking: To get ready for the event, we hold a
field-cleanup-and-safety-fence-extension party. We have the 1⁄3-mile
access road to our facility graded and prepped to handle the crowds
and minimize the dust. (Colorado dryness/washboard is our
problem; other regions face different issues.)
We spruce up the paint on our shade shelter and our signs, and
then we bring in the spectator stands we rent from a local school
district. Luckily we have a generous house-moving-company
sponsor that helps transport the stands to and from our field each
year.
We extend our spectator separation fence using a rope divider
across the entire width of the flying-field property (which fills up
with pilots’ trailers and RVs anyway), and then we rope off an 8-
foot spectator walkway the entire width of the property. This allows
the audience to walk safely behind the flightline/pit area to look at
the models and talk to the pilots. Since the stands fill up well before
the noon air show, the footpath acts as an overflow to ensure that all
who attend have a good view of the show.
Determining the best location for food vendors’ stands/tents
early in the planning process helps maintain satisfactory spectator
traffic flow and keeps almost everyone happy. We put the
concessions well behind the pit area, near the parking area.
If you have hobby vendors at your event, plan for their location
in advance as well, so that they are near the pilots but not blocking
the spectators. We have also learned to control the location of
pilots’ tents/shade structures, to keep the audience’s sight lines as
clear as possible in the vicinity of the stands.
A pilots’ meeting is held at the start of every flying day, during
which rules, safety, and the day’s program are reviewed.
Things got interesting when the best 3-D pilots tried to
outmaneuver each other. Careful co-pilot spotting is a must!
Positioning System) coordinates often help emergency crews
understand exactly where you are in relation to your road access
points.
We maintain crowd control by having all club staff, pilots, and pit
crews wear badges while in the flying/pit areas. If someone crosses
the spectator fence line and is not wearing a badge, we ask that
person to step back to the spectator area for his or her own safety.
Generating Club Funds: The main source of revenue from our
event is a public raffle for an RTF Giant Scale model. It is one of a
30 MODEL AVIATION
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:34 am Page 30
July 2004 33
A good parking crew is critical to keeping
things flowing well. This is one of the most
important but undervalued jobs at the event.
The parking team is the first club contact the
spectators have at the event, and first
impressions are extremely important. It can be
a hot, dry, and dusty shift for the club
volunteers.
The parking team members hand all
spectator cars our full-color event brochure,
ask for the donation, and tell them about the
raffle. The parking officials direct visitors
where to park; they keep spectator vehicles in
a separate area and allow only pilot vehicles
close to the pits. There are many cars to
handle, and it is helpful to rope off parking
lanes to keep chaos out of the parking area.
One of the most important items in field
preparation is bringing in and positioning
mobile restroom facilities; close to 2,000
spectators and 200-300 pilots, crew, and staff
down a good quantity of coffee, soda, water,
hot dogs, and burgers each day. We learned
that with our crowds, we must contract for our
portable restrooms to be serviced on Friday
and Saturday.
Our wives designate some for women’s
use only and decorate them with flowers and
such. They stay much cleaner than the boys’
facilities. Consider prevailing wind direction
and campers’ locations when positioning the
temporary restroom facilities.
Another important factor when the public
is involved is garbage containers and
collection. We have learned to provide several
trash containers for the event and bring in an
industrial-sized trash dumpster to help us keep
on top of the situation; the 3,000 spectators
create a remarkable amount of trash in just
two days.
Providing for cigarette-butt disposal is a
fire-prevention must. They rarely end up in
the designated containers, but it is important
that they not go into the regular trash. We
clean up the cigarettes and garbage Friday
night and Saturday night, and we do a final
cleanup Sunday after the event.
Registration: We post a pilot sign-up form on
our club Web site—www.fortnet.org/
loveairrc—and include one in the event
brochure to facilitate advance registration.
Model inspections and check-in start Friday
afternoon, to help get ahead of the Saturdaymorning
rush.
We encourage advanced registration with
a reduced event/landing fee for those who sign
up early. There are typically 100-110 pilots,
and having at least one-third of them
preregistered has made the process more
streamlined on Friday afternoon and Saturday
morning.
We provide the fliers with name badges
and pit-crew badges. Cheerful volunteers for
registration and keeping the check-in table
close to the transmitter impound keeps things
running smoothly.
Event Program/Agenda: Balancing the
pilots’ desires for an enjoyable event and the
public’s desires for a great air show has been a
key facet of the Rocky Mountain Big Bird
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Festival’s maturation. This balance is shown
in the program choices we make for the
event.
We decided to include a world-class flier
as our featured air-show demonstration pilot
each year. We pay a reasonable fee to bring
these special pilots in and pay their travel
expenses (gas or flight costs and hotel/meal
expenses).
We recoup this money by having
additional spectators and pilots attend and
selling incremental raffle tickets to the public
at the event. Including the words “World
Champ” and “National Champ” in the
marketing materials seems to work well in
attracting crowds and pilots.
Use any relationships that any of your
members have with top-shelf pilots to make
the invitation process smoother. If you don’t
have connections, attending events at which
good, potential air-show pilots perform is a
great way to introduce yourself and see how
different pilots would fit into your event.
We have learned a great deal through the
years about the event’s structure and flow of
flying and activities, such as to set specific
times for 3-D flying, warbirds, and a mix of
normal/sport flying and crowd buddy-box
flight instruction.
We found that those who spend many
hours on their warbirds like to fly together
and are displeased when other pilots pull 3-D
Harriers directly in front of their models. So
the warbird times become their own mini air
shows and allow the announcers to speak
about the pilots, their models, and the fullscale
aircraft and their histories to keep the
spectators engaged.
In a like manner, the set 3-D flying times
attract IMAC (International Miniature
Aerobatic Club) and Freestyle enthusiasts
who kick in the smoke systems, try formation
aerobatics, and Torque Roll their models for
the crowds.
Our featured air-show pilot is usually
asked to evaluate other pilots’ aircraft, and
the 3-D segment is a good time for these test
flights and for the air-show pilot to check out
his model before the noon demonstration.
Even with a set time for 3-D flying, we
mandate that Harriers and hovering
maneuvers be executed out from the runway
in the middle of the rectangular traffic
pattern, keeping the runway mostly clear in
case someone needs to land quickly for any
reason.
During regular flying times, we prohibit
3-D maneuvers, and the regular sport fliers
come to the flightline. We encourage normal
aerobatics, and the Cubs, World War I
aircraft, and sport models mix it up to the
crowd’s delight.
We try to keep the six pilot stations filled
at all times, but there is a natural ebb and flow
of pilot volume during the day. At slower
times we encourage volunteers from the
crowd to fly a Giant Scale model via a buddy
box and instructor. The audience loves to see
other crowd members fly a model then be
interviewed by the announcers.
During these instruction times each day,
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36 MODEL AVIATION
kits/ARFs. We ask the crowd members to raise
their hands if they would truly be interested in
getting into the hobby, and then only those
people receive tickets. Local hobby shops that
help sponsor the event donate the kits.
We distribute the raffle tickets and call the
winner out of the stands. The proud new kit
owner has his or her picture taken with the
hobby-store representative, takes a turn with
the buddy box/instructor, and then is
interviewed for the crowd. It is fun for the
audience, and there is no lack of volunteers to
take a turn flying a model.
We sell a good deal of raffle tickets for the
Kadet during these times since the crowd can
see firsthand that nearly anyone can fly with
good instruction. We sell even more tickets at
instruction time since our buddy-boxinstruction
airplanes are copies of the Quinn
Kadet that we raffle off, and crowd members
can see how excellent a well-set-up Giant
Scale model would be as a first airplane.
Free hourly pilot-prize drawings, major
pilot-prize raffles, and excellent pilot-prize
quality help keep participants returning year
after year. Our super salesperson obtains these
prizes.
Since the public is invited and comes for
the noon air show, the pilots who attend are
those who enjoy showing off their aircraft in a
noncompetitive but well-managed
environment. They come to enjoy the air-show
demonstration featuring a world-class pilot as
much as the spectators. Also allowing some
regional pilots with special airplanes and skills
to participate in the noon air show boosts their
pride in participation.
Our Sunday air show last year featured a
comedy skit featuring a 12-foot-wingspan
Cub, a Giant Scale-legal turbine jet, a 50-
pound Hawker Sea Fury, a 3-D and a turbine
helicopter, local pilots doing 3-D aerobatics,
and the finale: Garrett Morrison’s (Lodi CA)
amazing Freestyle Aerobatics demonstration.
During the event, the announcers are
constantly broadcasting over the PA system
the aircraft each pilot is flying; where the pilot
is from; and the engine, kit type, and special
features of the model and its full-scale
counterpart. This keeps the crowd informed
and involved, and it appeals to each pilot’s
pride in his or her aircraft. Humor in
announcing is a big asset in handling mishaps
and keeping the enthusiasm level up on the
flightline.
We use 70-volt horn speakers on poles
down the flightline in addition to the main PAsystem
cabinets to ensure proper sound
coverage for the crowd and the pilots. We
announce the pilot prizes and landings, ask for
applause for good flights, and help the
impound crew by calling for delinquent
frequency pins and announcing when pilots in
the queue can fly after their frequencies clear
up.
To help encourage visiting pilots to get
early stick time at the event, we often ask club
members to refrain from flying Saturday
morning to let the visitors have the first crack
at it that day. Normal club flying starts each
day at the end of the formal event hours, and
we close the impound and distribute the radios
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July 2004 39
to their owners until the next morning. We run
the event impound and frequency control
during event hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and
9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, when the Kadet is
raffled off.
Social Activities: Pilots who attend the event,
some every year, enjoy the social aspect and
bring their RVs for dry camping starting the
Tuesday and Wednesday before the event, to
ensure a good spot.
We hold a potluck dinner Friday evening
and a pig-roast dinner Saturday evening during
the event. One of our member families handles
the potluck dinner, and another family runs the
pig roast. We have tried Saturday-evening
catered dinners throughout the years, but that
has presented mixed success and increased
costs.
The less-formal potluck and pig roast
dinners have become fun traditions and are
followed by a round of night flying starting at
dusk Friday and Saturday evening. All manner
of contraptions show up in the sky, and people
either watch the craft or simply visit with
friends down the line of campers and RVs.
Event Promotion: Properly marketing the flyin
has made a big difference in continuing to
attract participants and increasing the number
of spectators. Our first year with real marketing
was coincident with having Quique Somenzini
as our air-show pilot, and we went from 300
spectators the previous year to 2,500 spectators
that year.
Our marketing efforts are multifaceted and
consist of our Web site; more than 3,000 fullcolor,
two-sided, 11 x 17-inch brochures; two
“Contest Calendar” ads in MA that run for
several months; a 1⁄4-page black-and-white ad
in MA; small ads in each of the local
newspapers; and feature articles in each local
paper in northern Colorado (three newspapers
in three cities).
We place ads in local newspapers the
Friday and Saturday right before and at the
start of the festival, and they reinforce the
photo articles that each newspaper publishes
promoting the event. We put a great deal of
effort into trying to get the papers to come out
and publicize the fly-in beforehand, and our
objective is to have articles running on Friday
or Saturday morning along with our ads.
Our event brochure has evolved through the
years. We now use one large, two-sided, color
leaflet. The front side has large pictures and
much of the spectator information. The reverse
side has pilot information, a preregistration
form, a map, an event schedule, and detailed
directions.
These handouts feature a good-size picture
of the previous year’s raffle model and enough
photos to show the size and variety of aircraft
that will be present. We promote our guest airshow
pilot and direct people to our Web site
for additional information.
We are only able to have a brochure of this
quality because a generous club member owns
a printing business. A member lays out the ads
and the pamphlets, and our printer creates and
donates the brochures in awesome color and
quantity.
This allows our members to distribute them
at regional contests and use the photos to help
sell raffle tickets. We distribute the leaflets to
clubs and hobby stores across the state and to
our mailing list of past attendees. The brochure
is big enough to use as a window poster at the
hobby stores. Since it has complete spectator
and pilot information, the one brochure works
for friends and modelers.
In previous years we tried separate pilot
and spectator brochures, and you always had
the wrong one in your car or field box when
someone asked about the event. It also doubled
the cost and work for the printer.
We also use the brochure at our mall show
later in the year, to show the public what our
main fly-in is like (we use stickers to correct
the dates for the next year). See what printing
connections you have within your club, and
use them to the max.
Last year we made a connection with an
excellent professional sports photographer—
Bill Sallaz of ActionPic9.com—who shot
some amazing photos of Saturday’s activities.
His pictures accompany this article. Bill will
be at our future events, and we will be using
his photography in our marketing efforts this
year.
Having top-quality photographs available
for purchase will be another drawing card to
encourage pilots to attend our event with their
airplanes this year. Good photography can
increase the results of your club’s marketing
efforts and Web-site work.
Television coverage is possible but hard to
obtain without a good contact at the station.
We did get a news crew out one year, and they
did a super spot for us, but we have been
unable to get them to come out again because
of our distance from Denver. Any connections
your members have with photographers, the
press, or TV stations are valuable and should
be shamelessly exploited.
Anything is possible for your event. Our team
has been amazed at the type of fly-in the
Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival has
become. The last time Chip Hyde was our
featured pilot, he said, “Man, you guys just
have fun at this thing!” Our goals mix
financial, promotional, and membership
aspects. For more information or to contact our
club, use our Web site.
You can use your event for anything you
want to accomplish. Your team can merge the
members’ strengths and create an exciting
event that shows your club and the hobby in
the best light.
Full-scale air shows are being increasingly
controlled by spectator liability issues and are
moving the crowds farther and farther from the
action. You can get people closer to greatlooking
aircraft and really get them excited
about model aviation.
Our hobby and your next big event can
provide a unique opportunity to engage the
public, attract members, and help finance your
club’s operations. Set your goals, pick your
team, and make it happen. MA
Neil Miles
2007 Coastal Ct.
Fort Collins CO 80528
07sig2.QXD 4/26/04 8:21 am Page 39
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/07
Page Numbers: 26,27,28,29,30,33,34,36,39
Planning and Running
a Large Club Event
26 MODEL AVIATION
WHAT ARE SOME goals your club would like to accomplish with
its main event this year? Perhaps raising operating funds, attracting
new members, raising your club’s profile in the community,
improving the club’s reputation among other clubs in your area, or
generally making your event the social RC hit of the year in your
region.
Your group can accomplish many or all of these goals with its
major event of the year; all it takes is a strong team, hard work from
most of your club’s members, and solid organization. Did I mention
hard work?
The Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival—sponsored by the Love-
Air R/C club in northern Colorado, of which I am a member—is a
Giant Scale fly-in that celebrated its 10th anniversary in August
2003. With a history of demonstration pilots including Chip Hyde,
Quique Somenzini, Sean McMurtry, Bill Hempel, Garrett Morrison,
and Doug Gearman; more than 100 pilot participants; and an excess
of 2,500 spectators, this gathering has grown to be one of the
premier RC events in the region.
The fly-in brings thousands of dollars per year into the Love-Air
R/C’s operating fund, attracts 10-20 new members each year,
exposes thousands of spectators to the best of RC flying, and is now
a must-attend event for an ever-increasing number of RC fliers from
roughly 10 Western states.
In this article I will outline some of the keys to this event’s
success to help your club accomplish its goals with an event.
Many decisions made will depend on your club’s objectives for its
key event. Decide what the group wants to accomplish, and
include/exclude items from the plan to help get you along that path.
Some of the following points may not apply to your event;
however, they may allow your club to be more creative in planning
its next activity. And later we might read about your events in MA!
Our club and leadership team has learned a great deal in the past
decade about how to successfully manage an event that has grown
from a small club activity to a regional place to be. Love-Air R/C is
not a superclub; it is typical, with approximately 170 members.
However, we are blessed to have a great flying facility, and we have
a committed core of capable leaders managing the Big Bird Festival.
Key decisions were made in developing the gathering. They
were to:
• Pick a unique event focus and type.
by Neil Miles
A public raffle prize such as this 82-inch-span “Quinn” Kadet
RTF can increase crowd participation and interest.
Roped walkways provide overflow spectator areas. Pilot shade
structures at either end of flightline do not interfere with
spectator sight lines.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:05 am Page 26
July 2004 27
• Choose a consistent time of year that does
not conflict with other regional activities.
• Include the public as spectators and plan
for their enjoyment and parking.
• Raise club funds through the public raffle
of a custom-built RTF aircraft.
• Market the event in MA and in local
newspapers, and produce a color brochure.
• Bring in some of the top names in RC
Aerobatics as demonstration/air-show
pilots.
As you plan your club’s event, look
around to see what would be interesting,
fun, and could attract pilots from an event
type and time-frame standpoint. Consider
your flying facility and what type of events
would work best (e.g., jets and close-in
trees may not be the optimal fit). Then the
serious planning can begin.
Planning: Planning is the key to making
any major event work well. We start team
meetings in January or February to decide
on the show pilots and get a start on the
marketing for the August event.
We try to request our event sanction
early from AMA to ensure that our ads will
run and that we get on the calendar. We
submit event announcements to AMA’s
Competition Department for MA’s “Contest
Calendar” in March, and we submit our 1⁄4-
page ad to MA in March or April,
depending on the ad deadlines. Deadlines
for advertising depend on the time of year
of your event. Contact your target
Air bosses with radio headsets control runway access and flight operations at an event.
You can see the flight-station safety fencing in the background.
Providing designated warbird flight times brings out the showmanship from the Scale
pilots. Most spectators will respond to this type of aircraft.
The raffle-prize aircraft is shown to the crowd throughout the day
to generate incremental ticket sales.
Left: Separate 3-D flying times showcase IMAC and hotdog pilots’
flying skills in a more controlled environment.
Photos courtesy ActionPic9.com
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:23 am Page 27
28 MODEL AVIATION
A local pilot’s Hawker Sea Fury really spiced up the noon air show, and
it included realistic warbird sounds.
The Love Air R/C club’s best pilots also got to participate in the airshow
program. Smoke is a crowd pleaser!
Garrett Morrison was the featured pilot at the 2003 Rocky
Mountain Big Bird Festival. The crowd loved his
performance!
Garrett Morrison’s 3-D model in the rolling-harrier portion
of his crowd-pleasing Freestyle routine.
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:29 am Page 28
July 2004 29
This turbine-powered Eurofighter wowed the crowd with its
sound and speed. Safety is paramount with this type of model.
A wide variety of aircraft types, such as this Scale biplane, help
attract and hold the spectators’ interest.
Sport-flying times at the festival included more traditional
aerobatics. Biplanes are a spectator favorite.
publication and work your ads back from their submission
deadlines.
A critical factor is appointing committee leads for each
important facet of the team structure. The event director and contest
director lead the team, and they take care of many duties by
themselves.
Additional committee directors cover field preparation, running
our public raffle, public relations/marketing, sponsors/prize
donations, air-show-pilot coordination, the air-boss team,
concessions/vendor relations, public-address (PA)/music-system
direction, the transmitter impound, and, most important, the parking
team.
We hold monthly meetings before our regular club meetings to
keep the team aligned, moving forward, and handling any issues
that arise. We also regularly discuss the festival in our club
meetings to keep the membership informed, answer questions,
recruit additional volunteers, and collect any new ideas the members
have.
Your event’s theme and type should reflect your club’s interests
to encourage as many critical volunteers as possible. Inevitably, at
every well-managed RC event, a sizable portion of the club’s
members are involved in running it. We have found that nothing
works better than a heartfelt personal invitation to get a volunteer
signed up. Our committee leads reach out to help club members
volunteer for their teams.
Safety Considerations: Safety should be the number-one
consideration when running any event. Pilot and spectator safety are
combined in our hobby because of the observers’ proximity to the
aircraft.
A competent event staff must perform careful pilot/airplane
inspections before any aircraft leaves the ground—especially for
large Scale or Aerobatics models. Thorough inspections include
checking such items as hinges, linkages, and propeller condition.
Proper safety fencing, spectator/crowd control, and strictly
monitoring the participants’ flying ensure spectator safety. We use a
team of air bosses with radio systems, fluorescent vests, and
coordination with the announcers to keep the flightline safe and
enjoyable for all. The air bosses watch for erratic flying or
violations of the specified no-fly zones; if they see an infraction,
they ask the offending pilot to land immediately.
Our field has three taxi entrances to the runway. The air bosses
control the flow of on-deck pilots at two of the entrances and the
safe landing, shutdown, and collection of models at the third.
The air bosses call changes in the wind direction and tell the
pilots when they must flip the flying and landing pattern. They are
also responsible for informing all pilots if a landing or dead-stick
approach is underway or called. A polite, firm voice and some
experience are air-boss requirements, so older club members are
typically more successful than our junior members.
To keep each participant better aware of the situation
surrounding his or her aircraft, we require all pilots to have callers
with them at the designated pilot stations. Some initially resist this
rule since we hold more of a fun-fly event, but with as many as six
models in the air, with their different types and speeds, fliers soon
realize that flying with a buddy is much safer.
Besides, only the caller can really watch the other airplanes, pay
attention to the air bosses, relay the good-natured ribbing that takes
place, correct the announcer on the aircraft’s description, and
retrieve the model at the end of its flight.
A well-functioning transmitter impound is mandatory for a wellmanaged
event. Our impound team is a good-natured bunch, and we
supply a weatherproof trailer with temporary shelving inside to
make the impound process enjoyable and safe for all pilots.
We use a frequency analyzer to check for transmitters left on and
for radio problems. If turbine-powered jets are present, additional
fire extinguishers must be present and a fire crew must be standing
ready.
Remember to consider spectator/pilot physical separation for
safety’s sake, and check in with local fire and rescue services to
ensure that they know the best routes to your event and what they
can expect from a crowd and access standpoint. GPS (Global
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:33 am Page 29
series of modified Sig Kadets that one of our members originally
created. It is constructed by one of our members who custom-builds
models for others.
The Kadet spans 82 inches and comes with the radio fully
installed. It is immaculately covered and truly ready to fly (except
for charging the batteries and adding fuel). This airplane has an
excellent reputation with the region’s pilots and looks great. Since
we fly identical models on spectator buddy-box machines during
our event, visitors can see that it flies extremely well. The quality of
our raffle airplane helps us sell a good quantity of raffle tickets each
year.
Although most club members can sell raffle tickets, certain
unique individuals truly excel at it. Our resident supersalesman
knows nearly every business owner in our area and could sell
iceboxes to Eskimos. Engaging your supersalesmen/women and
finding the right prize(s) will enable your raffle to generate enough
funds to cover costs and help build excitement.
Although the entire club sells raffle tickets for months before the
event, we sell many tickets during the festival, and we hold the
drawing at the close of the event. Every year crowd members stay in
the stands hoping they will win the model.
Remember to follow all state rules for holding a public raffle.
Register it with the correct authorities, and handle the ticket
numbers and stubs according to their regulations. We have a team
who does the necessary research and runs our raffle beautifully each
year.
Another way we help to cover event costs is to ask for a $2
donation per vehicle for parking. We rent an additional field from a
local farmer, where we park more than 800 spectator cars each day.
Parking money is kept as a donation to eliminate liabilities and
income issues. It usually covers the cost of bringing the air-show
pilots in and renting the extra field.
You will probably have 15 people packed in a Suburban who
refuse to pay. Our parking-team members have learned to reach into
their own pockets and say, “I’ll just pay it for you.” This gets most
holdouts to contribute, but not all. However, some spectators give us
$10 or $20 and tell us they really appreciate the event; they love to
come out every year and are quite willing to help with event costs.
We sell souvenir Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival T-shirts
each year, but mostly to the pilots and crew. They usually sell out at
a marginal profit. We also sell club-logo ball caps, and spectators
often purchase them. These are not big money-makers for our club,
but they have become traditions that help pilots remember their time
with us when they go back to their home clubs and flying fields.
Field Preparation/Parking: To get ready for the event, we hold a
field-cleanup-and-safety-fence-extension party. We have the 1⁄3-mile
access road to our facility graded and prepped to handle the crowds
and minimize the dust. (Colorado dryness/washboard is our
problem; other regions face different issues.)
We spruce up the paint on our shade shelter and our signs, and
then we bring in the spectator stands we rent from a local school
district. Luckily we have a generous house-moving-company
sponsor that helps transport the stands to and from our field each
year.
We extend our spectator separation fence using a rope divider
across the entire width of the flying-field property (which fills up
with pilots’ trailers and RVs anyway), and then we rope off an 8-
foot spectator walkway the entire width of the property. This allows
the audience to walk safely behind the flightline/pit area to look at
the models and talk to the pilots. Since the stands fill up well before
the noon air show, the footpath acts as an overflow to ensure that all
who attend have a good view of the show.
Determining the best location for food vendors’ stands/tents
early in the planning process helps maintain satisfactory spectator
traffic flow and keeps almost everyone happy. We put the
concessions well behind the pit area, near the parking area.
If you have hobby vendors at your event, plan for their location
in advance as well, so that they are near the pilots but not blocking
the spectators. We have also learned to control the location of
pilots’ tents/shade structures, to keep the audience’s sight lines as
clear as possible in the vicinity of the stands.
A pilots’ meeting is held at the start of every flying day, during
which rules, safety, and the day’s program are reviewed.
Things got interesting when the best 3-D pilots tried to
outmaneuver each other. Careful co-pilot spotting is a must!
Positioning System) coordinates often help emergency crews
understand exactly where you are in relation to your road access
points.
We maintain crowd control by having all club staff, pilots, and pit
crews wear badges while in the flying/pit areas. If someone crosses
the spectator fence line and is not wearing a badge, we ask that
person to step back to the spectator area for his or her own safety.
Generating Club Funds: The main source of revenue from our
event is a public raffle for an RTF Giant Scale model. It is one of a
30 MODEL AVIATION
07sig1.QXD 4/26/04 10:34 am Page 30
July 2004 33
A good parking crew is critical to keeping
things flowing well. This is one of the most
important but undervalued jobs at the event.
The parking team is the first club contact the
spectators have at the event, and first
impressions are extremely important. It can be
a hot, dry, and dusty shift for the club
volunteers.
The parking team members hand all
spectator cars our full-color event brochure,
ask for the donation, and tell them about the
raffle. The parking officials direct visitors
where to park; they keep spectator vehicles in
a separate area and allow only pilot vehicles
close to the pits. There are many cars to
handle, and it is helpful to rope off parking
lanes to keep chaos out of the parking area.
One of the most important items in field
preparation is bringing in and positioning
mobile restroom facilities; close to 2,000
spectators and 200-300 pilots, crew, and staff
down a good quantity of coffee, soda, water,
hot dogs, and burgers each day. We learned
that with our crowds, we must contract for our
portable restrooms to be serviced on Friday
and Saturday.
Our wives designate some for women’s
use only and decorate them with flowers and
such. They stay much cleaner than the boys’
facilities. Consider prevailing wind direction
and campers’ locations when positioning the
temporary restroom facilities.
Another important factor when the public
is involved is garbage containers and
collection. We have learned to provide several
trash containers for the event and bring in an
industrial-sized trash dumpster to help us keep
on top of the situation; the 3,000 spectators
create a remarkable amount of trash in just
two days.
Providing for cigarette-butt disposal is a
fire-prevention must. They rarely end up in
the designated containers, but it is important
that they not go into the regular trash. We
clean up the cigarettes and garbage Friday
night and Saturday night, and we do a final
cleanup Sunday after the event.
Registration: We post a pilot sign-up form on
our club Web site—www.fortnet.org/
loveairrc—and include one in the event
brochure to facilitate advance registration.
Model inspections and check-in start Friday
afternoon, to help get ahead of the Saturdaymorning
rush.
We encourage advanced registration with
a reduced event/landing fee for those who sign
up early. There are typically 100-110 pilots,
and having at least one-third of them
preregistered has made the process more
streamlined on Friday afternoon and Saturday
morning.
We provide the fliers with name badges
and pit-crew badges. Cheerful volunteers for
registration and keeping the check-in table
close to the transmitter impound keeps things
running smoothly.
Event Program/Agenda: Balancing the
pilots’ desires for an enjoyable event and the
public’s desires for a great air show has been a
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Festival’s maturation. This balance is shown
in the program choices we make for the
event.
We decided to include a world-class flier
as our featured air-show demonstration pilot
each year. We pay a reasonable fee to bring
these special pilots in and pay their travel
expenses (gas or flight costs and hotel/meal
expenses).
We recoup this money by having
additional spectators and pilots attend and
selling incremental raffle tickets to the public
at the event. Including the words “World
Champ” and “National Champ” in the
marketing materials seems to work well in
attracting crowds and pilots.
Use any relationships that any of your
members have with top-shelf pilots to make
the invitation process smoother. If you don’t
have connections, attending events at which
good, potential air-show pilots perform is a
great way to introduce yourself and see how
different pilots would fit into your event.
We have learned a great deal through the
years about the event’s structure and flow of
flying and activities, such as to set specific
times for 3-D flying, warbirds, and a mix of
normal/sport flying and crowd buddy-box
flight instruction.
We found that those who spend many
hours on their warbirds like to fly together
and are displeased when other pilots pull 3-D
Harriers directly in front of their models. So
the warbird times become their own mini air
shows and allow the announcers to speak
about the pilots, their models, and the fullscale
aircraft and their histories to keep the
spectators engaged.
In a like manner, the set 3-D flying times
attract IMAC (International Miniature
Aerobatic Club) and Freestyle enthusiasts
who kick in the smoke systems, try formation
aerobatics, and Torque Roll their models for
the crowds.
Our featured air-show pilot is usually
asked to evaluate other pilots’ aircraft, and
the 3-D segment is a good time for these test
flights and for the air-show pilot to check out
his model before the noon demonstration.
Even with a set time for 3-D flying, we
mandate that Harriers and hovering
maneuvers be executed out from the runway
in the middle of the rectangular traffic
pattern, keeping the runway mostly clear in
case someone needs to land quickly for any
reason.
During regular flying times, we prohibit
3-D maneuvers, and the regular sport fliers
come to the flightline. We encourage normal
aerobatics, and the Cubs, World War I
aircraft, and sport models mix it up to the
crowd’s delight.
We try to keep the six pilot stations filled
at all times, but there is a natural ebb and flow
of pilot volume during the day. At slower
times we encourage volunteers from the
crowd to fly a Giant Scale model via a buddy
box and instructor. The audience loves to see
other crowd members fly a model then be
interviewed by the announcers.
During these instruction times each day,
we hold free public raffles for 40-size trainer
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36 MODEL AVIATION
kits/ARFs. We ask the crowd members to raise
their hands if they would truly be interested in
getting into the hobby, and then only those
people receive tickets. Local hobby shops that
help sponsor the event donate the kits.
We distribute the raffle tickets and call the
winner out of the stands. The proud new kit
owner has his or her picture taken with the
hobby-store representative, takes a turn with
the buddy box/instructor, and then is
interviewed for the crowd. It is fun for the
audience, and there is no lack of volunteers to
take a turn flying a model.
We sell a good deal of raffle tickets for the
Kadet during these times since the crowd can
see firsthand that nearly anyone can fly with
good instruction. We sell even more tickets at
instruction time since our buddy-boxinstruction
airplanes are copies of the Quinn
Kadet that we raffle off, and crowd members
can see how excellent a well-set-up Giant
Scale model would be as a first airplane.
Free hourly pilot-prize drawings, major
pilot-prize raffles, and excellent pilot-prize
quality help keep participants returning year
after year. Our super salesperson obtains these
prizes.
Since the public is invited and comes for
the noon air show, the pilots who attend are
those who enjoy showing off their aircraft in a
noncompetitive but well-managed
environment. They come to enjoy the air-show
demonstration featuring a world-class pilot as
much as the spectators. Also allowing some
regional pilots with special airplanes and skills
to participate in the noon air show boosts their
pride in participation.
Our Sunday air show last year featured a
comedy skit featuring a 12-foot-wingspan
Cub, a Giant Scale-legal turbine jet, a 50-
pound Hawker Sea Fury, a 3-D and a turbine
helicopter, local pilots doing 3-D aerobatics,
and the finale: Garrett Morrison’s (Lodi CA)
amazing Freestyle Aerobatics demonstration.
During the event, the announcers are
constantly broadcasting over the PA system
the aircraft each pilot is flying; where the pilot
is from; and the engine, kit type, and special
features of the model and its full-scale
counterpart. This keeps the crowd informed
and involved, and it appeals to each pilot’s
pride in his or her aircraft. Humor in
announcing is a big asset in handling mishaps
and keeping the enthusiasm level up on the
flightline.
We use 70-volt horn speakers on poles
down the flightline in addition to the main PAsystem
cabinets to ensure proper sound
coverage for the crowd and the pilots. We
announce the pilot prizes and landings, ask for
applause for good flights, and help the
impound crew by calling for delinquent
frequency pins and announcing when pilots in
the queue can fly after their frequencies clear
up.
To help encourage visiting pilots to get
early stick time at the event, we often ask club
members to refrain from flying Saturday
morning to let the visitors have the first crack
at it that day. Normal club flying starts each
day at the end of the formal event hours, and
we close the impound and distribute the radios
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July 2004 39
to their owners until the next morning. We run
the event impound and frequency control
during event hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and
9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, when the Kadet is
raffled off.
Social Activities: Pilots who attend the event,
some every year, enjoy the social aspect and
bring their RVs for dry camping starting the
Tuesday and Wednesday before the event, to
ensure a good spot.
We hold a potluck dinner Friday evening
and a pig-roast dinner Saturday evening during
the event. One of our member families handles
the potluck dinner, and another family runs the
pig roast. We have tried Saturday-evening
catered dinners throughout the years, but that
has presented mixed success and increased
costs.
The less-formal potluck and pig roast
dinners have become fun traditions and are
followed by a round of night flying starting at
dusk Friday and Saturday evening. All manner
of contraptions show up in the sky, and people
either watch the craft or simply visit with
friends down the line of campers and RVs.
Event Promotion: Properly marketing the flyin
has made a big difference in continuing to
attract participants and increasing the number
of spectators. Our first year with real marketing
was coincident with having Quique Somenzini
as our air-show pilot, and we went from 300
spectators the previous year to 2,500 spectators
that year.
Our marketing efforts are multifaceted and
consist of our Web site; more than 3,000 fullcolor,
two-sided, 11 x 17-inch brochures; two
“Contest Calendar” ads in MA that run for
several months; a 1⁄4-page black-and-white ad
in MA; small ads in each of the local
newspapers; and feature articles in each local
paper in northern Colorado (three newspapers
in three cities).
We place ads in local newspapers the
Friday and Saturday right before and at the
start of the festival, and they reinforce the
photo articles that each newspaper publishes
promoting the event. We put a great deal of
effort into trying to get the papers to come out
and publicize the fly-in beforehand, and our
objective is to have articles running on Friday
or Saturday morning along with our ads.
Our event brochure has evolved through the
years. We now use one large, two-sided, color
leaflet. The front side has large pictures and
much of the spectator information. The reverse
side has pilot information, a preregistration
form, a map, an event schedule, and detailed
directions.
These handouts feature a good-size picture
of the previous year’s raffle model and enough
photos to show the size and variety of aircraft
that will be present. We promote our guest airshow
pilot and direct people to our Web site
for additional information.
We are only able to have a brochure of this
quality because a generous club member owns
a printing business. A member lays out the ads
and the pamphlets, and our printer creates and
donates the brochures in awesome color and
quantity.
This allows our members to distribute them
at regional contests and use the photos to help
sell raffle tickets. We distribute the leaflets to
clubs and hobby stores across the state and to
our mailing list of past attendees. The brochure
is big enough to use as a window poster at the
hobby stores. Since it has complete spectator
and pilot information, the one brochure works
for friends and modelers.
In previous years we tried separate pilot
and spectator brochures, and you always had
the wrong one in your car or field box when
someone asked about the event. It also doubled
the cost and work for the printer.
We also use the brochure at our mall show
later in the year, to show the public what our
main fly-in is like (we use stickers to correct
the dates for the next year). See what printing
connections you have within your club, and
use them to the max.
Last year we made a connection with an
excellent professional sports photographer—
Bill Sallaz of ActionPic9.com—who shot
some amazing photos of Saturday’s activities.
His pictures accompany this article. Bill will
be at our future events, and we will be using
his photography in our marketing efforts this
year.
Having top-quality photographs available
for purchase will be another drawing card to
encourage pilots to attend our event with their
airplanes this year. Good photography can
increase the results of your club’s marketing
efforts and Web-site work.
Television coverage is possible but hard to
obtain without a good contact at the station.
We did get a news crew out one year, and they
did a super spot for us, but we have been
unable to get them to come out again because
of our distance from Denver. Any connections
your members have with photographers, the
press, or TV stations are valuable and should
be shamelessly exploited.
Anything is possible for your event. Our team
has been amazed at the type of fly-in the
Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival has
become. The last time Chip Hyde was our
featured pilot, he said, “Man, you guys just
have fun at this thing!” Our goals mix
financial, promotional, and membership
aspects. For more information or to contact our
club, use our Web site.
You can use your event for anything you
want to accomplish. Your team can merge the
members’ strengths and create an exciting
event that shows your club and the hobby in
the best light.
Full-scale air shows are being increasingly
controlled by spectator liability issues and are
moving the crowds farther and farther from the
action. You can get people closer to greatlooking
aircraft and really get them excited
about model aviation.
Our hobby and your next big event can
provide a unique opportunity to engage the
public, attract members, and help finance your
club’s operations. Set your goals, pick your
team, and make it happen. MA
Neil Miles
2007 Coastal Ct.
Fort Collins CO 80528
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