hat has 17 flight stations, 712
registered pilots, and very hot
weather? If you guessed the
IRCHA (International Radio Controlled
Helicopter Association) Jamboree at the
AMA National Flying Site in Muncie,
Indiana, you are right.
Before this event the Joe Nall Fly-In
this year in Woodruff, South Carolina,
was the largest gathering of modelers for
a single-weekend event. The IRCHA
Jamboree passed that by a significant
margin.
What was the secret formula for this
success? If I knew I would patent it and
spread it everywhere, but all I can do is
guess why this event has become so
popular. It presents a wide variety of
opportunities for people who are
interested in RC helicopters to enjoy
themselves.
The Jamboree featured seminars on a
wide variety of subjects of interest to
rotor heads, seemingly from dawn to
dusk. There were roughly 40 vendors
selling almost anything one could need to
build, or repair, an RC helicopter, and
some people came primarily to shop!
Add to that an area of flight
demonstrations conducted by a large
variety of manufacturers and distributors
that was constantly operating, showing
off the latest and greatest. In addition, of
course, there was plenty of open flying.
President’s Perspective
AMA President Dave Brown
W Some of the heroes of the activity, with
their extreme 3-D proficiency, flew
alongside newcomers just learning this
craft.
The beauty was that it all flowed
seamlessly and everyone got along well.
There were a few competition events
such as T-Rex Pylon and drag racing, but
those were secondary.
Announcers worked the event nearly
the entire time and the sponsors received
much promotion and recognition. This
may be partly responsible for the event’s
success. Many people are not too thrilled
with the commercialization of
aeromodeling, but if we are to grow and
enjoy the recognition events such as this
can give us, we must accept that sponsors
are a major key to this aspect of our
sport.
An event such as this doesn’t just
happen. I had the opportunity to look at
the organizational plans and manual for
this event, and believe me IRCHA put a
great deal of planning and effort into it.
The manual addressed nearly every
detail and each aspect of the operation
was assigned to someone to handle. Dave
Milner, IRCHA president, was the
“orchestra leader” and the band played
some mighty sweet music.
Was everything planned perfectly?
Obviously, there were some glitches, but
with all of the normal stuff so well
The Academy of Model Aeronautics is a world-class association of modelers organized for the purpose of
promotion, development, education, advancement and safeguard of modeling activities.
The Academy provides leadership, organization, competition, communication, protection, representation,
recognition, education, and scientific/technical development to modelers.
Mission Statement
planned, full attention was brought to
those few areas of difficulty and any
problems were hardly noticeable.
This event and similar ones in the
future are the epitome of the dream we
had years ago when we first started
thinking about AMA’s having a National
Flying Site. I would like to see more
such events with broad appeal involving
a wide range of opportunities for AMA
members to learn more and enjoy this
wonderful sport. This activity and the
people who enjoy it so much deserve it.
I hope other organizations will look at
this model for success and duplicate it
for their aspect of aeromodeling. Thanks
to IRCHA, we have a model for how it
can be done.
I even got in some flying, so how
about that? MA
Until next month.
Dave Brown
AMA president
[email protected]
October 2007 5
An event such as this doesn’t just happen.
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Edition: Model Aviation - 2007/10
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