Radio Control Helicopters
Mark Fadely [[email protected]]
Great ideas are planned for the Southern Rotary Classic
KEEP THOSE CARDS and letters coming—I mean e-mails. I appreciate all the good information you have been sending me.
This month I have the pleasure of introducing you to my friend Terry Dawson. He is from Texas and runs the Southern Rotary Classic. It has grown into a major event, and the 2008 edition is scheduled for September 19–21.
Terry wrote:
History of the event
Bill Crain and Weldon Freeman started the Southern Rotary Classic RC helicopter event in Mt. Pleasant, Texas in 1987. The 2008 SRC will be the 22nd edition of the event and it is now one of the largest RC helicopter events in the Southwest United States. For many years it was held in early October, but after a few years of really bad weather the event was moved to the latter part of September.
The first event started small but attendance has continued to grow and it attracts a number of well-known pilots. The list of pilots that have attended reads like a who's-who list, including:
- Curtis Youngblood
- Dave Story
- Bob Simms
- Gary Wright
- Len Mount (England)
- Anthony Jager
- Eric Larson
- Jason Krause
- Todd Bennett
- Alan Szabo Jr.
- Dwight Shilling
- Larry Bergen
- Malorie Zastrow
- Vic Campbell
- Ron Lund
- Nathan Spencer
Last year we had Curtis, Alan, Ron Lund, and Nathan Spencer returning along with Anthony Jager. We also had first-timers:
- Scott Gray
- Bert Kammerer
- Bobby Watts
- Andy Rummer (Germany)
- Tyler Bonta
- Leon Luke
- Jamie Robertson
I’m sure there are some names I’ve forgotten, but we’ve enjoyed hosting all the well-known pilots and everyone else who has attended over the years and we look forward to seeing them return year after year.
I have been the event director for three years and have been going to the event for over 12 years. The most registered pilots I remember was 156; I have been told there were over 170 pilots one year.
The Fun-Fly is not just for the well-known pilots — it’s for everyone to come and have fun. We work hard to have a variety of contests, demos, and pilot prizes for everyone.
Speaking of past history, Vic Campbell of V-Blades got his start selling blades at the Southern Rotary Classic some years ago. Vic had been making stronger blades using carbon fiber and brought some of them to our event. Ron Lund saw them and placed the first order to sell them. Vic has been one of the major blade manufacturers ever since.
Local field
We are fortunate to have a really nice field situated right behind a big beautiful lake. The field and surrounding area stretches nearly two miles from one end to the other, and extends a couple of hundred yards out front.
The lake is named Lake Bob Sandlin. It's a 9,000-acre lake and it has a power plant on the edge of it that lights up like a city at night. That is a really nice background for night flying.
Mount Pleasant, Texas
The town of Mt. Pleasant is a small city of nearly 20,000 people and there are a number of local area attractions. In late April they have speedboat racing, and there is an annual rodeo, county fair, circus and a number of other fun things to do along with the annual Southern Rotary Classic RC helicopter event.
2007 event
About three years ago we invited Alan Szabo Jr. to come to our event. Alan is one of the hottest young pilots in the RC hobby, and his attendance helped raise our profile even more — many thanks, Alan.
Last year's event was one of our best. We had 112 registered pilots, which is good considering the influx of new Fun-Flys and the price of gas. One of the things we have done the last few years to promote the event is run an article in the local paper; last year the response was outstanding.
There must have been two to three hundred spectators that came out last year to watch the demo and night flying part of our program, and I think the pros like having a lot of people enjoying their demo flights. Mark Ryder was also there to report on the event and he provided us with a lot of good coverage with his photos and videos.
2008 event
This year should be one of our best ever. Our committed list of top pilots includes Curtis (everyone knows him just by his first name). Alan Szabo Sr. said the family plans to come this year, so maybe we will have Danny and Alan together.
With Curtis, Alan Jr., and Jason Krause coming, we have three of the biggest names in the hobby headed our way September 19–21. Bobby Watts has confirmed for this year as well.
Our event is not just about top pilots. We try to have a number of activities for everyone:
- Scale activities (Weldon, one of our contest directors, especially enjoys the scale part of the event)
- Novice contests
- An auto contest
- Target Drop competition
Michael Prewitt (proprietor of raptortechnique.com) developed the Target Drop. He made a device you can attach to your helicopter to drop objects onto a designated target. You need both a pilot and someone to operate the target drop device. It’s a lot of fun.
We also have something new that we started last year: a Non-Sponsored Demo contest. It gives up-and-coming pilots who might like to be sponsored a chance to be viewed by the audience. We don't guarantee sponsorship to the winner but the last two winners were soon sponsored. After the Non-Sponsored guys finish, the sponsored pilots show everyone how it is done with demos of their products. This is typically the highlight of the Fun-Fly.
We plan to have at least 4–5 seminars this year. Planned seminars include:
- Autorotation seminar: Nathan Spencer and Ron Lund (two of the best autorotation pilots in the business)
- Turbine seminar: Gary Travis
- Aerobatics seminars: Jason Krause, Matt Botos, and Carl Bonta
This will give people a chance to hear directly from some of these top pilots.
We also plan some night flying. Last year Bobby, Bert and Andy Rummer put on a great show.
We will be posting more information on the forums as the event grows nearer. The price of gas is still going up, but we feel that this event is so special everyone will enjoy coming. It should be a really great event. See ya there.
Thanks for the great write-up about your Fun-Fly, Terry! I hope you can set a new attendance record this year. Thanks for all the hard work you guys put into making this an enjoyable weekend for everyone. Write back and let us know how it went.
MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
