Author: Mark Fadely
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/08
Page Numbers: 116,117,118
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Radio Control Helicopters

Mark Fadely <[email protected]>

Huge helicopter happenings in Muncie, Indiana

The month of August will be big for RC helicopter activity. The 2009 Helicopter World Championships will be held at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana.

The "mother of all RC events" will immediately follow the World Championships: the IRCHA (International Radio Controlled Helicopter Association) Jamboree. Boasting more than 700 pilots in 2008, the IRCHA gathering is one of the biggest RC events in the world.

Event dates:

  • World Championships: August 2–11, 2009
  • IRCHA Jamboree: August 12–16, 2009

You will be rewarded if you visit Muncie for either or both of these events.

The Jamboree is a once-a-year get-together strictly for helicopter enthusiasts of all skill levels and interests. Last year, scale and vintage helicopters were well represented among the many entries. You do not have to be a 3-D pilot to have a blast at this event.

As a group, we owe much to the organizers and volunteers who run these gatherings. Dave Milner is the president of IRCHA, and he and the other organization leaders have been instrumental in expanding the Jamboree.

Local helicopter fun‑flys are the foundation of our hobby. Pilots meet at these events and establish friendships that can last many years. The amount of knowledge and flying progress you can gain by attending only one fun‑fly is incredible. Person‑to‑person interaction is the best way to exchange information.

Organizing a fun‑fly is not an easy task, but it's not an insurmountable obstacle. You could help your club and the helicopter hobby by hosting a local helicopter fun‑fly.

I know a man who would like to share some valuable information about how to get a helicopter fun‑fly off the ground. My friend Jake Kirsch has helped his New York club build its helicopter fun‑fly into a nationally recognized event. Following is what Jake has to share about getting your local helicopter event started.

Jake Kirsch — Running the Northeast Model Helicopter Jamboree

On the weekend of August 28–30, 2009 (Friday through Sunday), the Rochester Aero Modeling Society (RAMS) will host the 7th Annual Northeast Model Helicopter Jamboree at its Macedon, NY field.

Our event has drawn an average of 75 pilots from all over the Northeast US and Canada. Several of those pilots have come every year, which has contributed to making it a nice, comfortable gathering to mark the end of summer flying. To my knowledge, this event is the longest running fun‑fly dedicated to helicopters in the Northeast US.

One word comes to mind that I think is the reason for our success: consistency. One consistent theme since the first Northeast Model Helicopter Jamboree is to feature a "named" pilot. I remember reading an e‑mail from Ray Stacy stating that Curtis Youngblood was going to attend. I thought it had to be a mistake. The Curtis Youngblood?

This person whom I had read about and whose videos I couldn't download enough of was going to be flying in my area? Not only did this happen once, but it happened three times, each with buddy‑box flight schools.

To this day, my investment in one of those training sessions to learn autorotations has turned would‑be crashes into safe landings. And I learned it from Curtis!

So, how do you get a named pilot? It's simpler than you would think — just ask! There is a reason these guys have been chosen to represent the hobby. Everyone I have met is a down‑to‑earth person and is easy to talk to. Travel expenses, room and board are a small price to pay to get a named pilot and all of their experience. We are fortunate to have such great representatives for our hobby who are willing to donate their time to help make it grow.

Another consistency is our field. As is true for many things, location helps. Being located just east of Rochester in Upstate New York makes it convenient for many pilots. Off the top of my head, pilots come from:

  • New York
  • Vermont
  • New Hampshire
  • Connecticut
  • Massachusetts
  • New Jersey
  • Pennsylvania
  • Ohio
  • Michigan
  • Ontario, Canada

Our field can be divided into three flight boxes about 300 feet wide, which is plenty for 3‑D flying, especially when working with a spotter. We also use our U‑control/hover area for training guests for a small donation. More flying space would be nice, but we aren't looking at being "IRCHA‑size" where golf carts are needed to get to a flight station in a timely manner. In fact, pilots rarely wait for a station to fly at our event.

We are also fortunate to have a core group of pilots who have attended year after year. Not only is this consistency, but it's also dedication. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those guys who continue to come and support this event. It's nice to get together and catch up with these guys and learn what they've been working on.

We have representation from many aspects of the hobby including prize‑winning scale modelers, top‑notch 3‑D pilots, turbine pilots, sport pilots, and beginners. Everyone is willing to spend time to answer questions, give advice, or even pitch in wrenching on a machine after a crash.

Traditions are an inadvertent result of our consistency. One tradition is the Saturday dinner followed by night flying. Most people have arrived on Saturday and spend the night, so this dinner is a great opportunity to kick back and catch up with friends. The night flying has continued to grow each year, and I'm beginning to think we have an underground following.

We also started creating souvenir T‑shirts to give to the pilots upon registration. We've received tremendous feedback about that benefit, and I'm happy to say that we are well underway with this year's edition.

A final aspect of consistency deals with the public. Our hobby will only continue to survive by bringing in new blood, and an event like this is one way to accomplish that. It starts with advertising such as:

  • Posting posters on community bulletin boards
  • Distributing flyers at local RC events
  • Listing the event in community calendars (many newspapers and penny‑savers list community events for free)
  • Contacting local TV stations for coverage at the beginning of the weekend

The general public has no concept of what RC helicopters can do, and having video coverage will certainly draw attention. Local newspapers have often published special features after our events, which help to advertise the hobby and our club.

The Northeast Model Helicopter Jamboree has always been the last weekend of August, so the public knows when to expect it. It's two weeks after the IRCHA Jamboree, which gives attendees of both events some downtime. A wide variety of prizes attract the public thanks to very generous sponsors in the RC industry.

We leverage an amazing public address system to provide background music courtesy of an iPod or CD player, to inform the public about the hobby, describe what's currently happening, and advertise for our sponsors. The PA system gets put to the test during noon demos where interested pilots can show off their stuff with their flight music cranked. There isn't an open space along our safety fence during demos.

Afterward, the public will often stay to enjoy a lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs, or cool off with ice cream from our concession stand.

I hope that other clubs can use some of these ideas to start their own model helicopter jamboree. It is a lot of work, but the benefits are very rewarding and help promote our hobby.

I hope to see you at our event: please visit our web site and RunRyder for more info.

—Jake Kirsch

Thanks for all the great ideas, Jake.

Local fun‑flys are the lifeblood of the hobby. Pilots getting together, sharing ideas and information, and helping newer people is what it is all about. Ask any pilot who has been flying for a while, and he or she will probably tell you that many people helped along the way.

Thank you for checking in this month. Please e‑mail me with any ideas, material, or suggestions for this column. Be back with you next month.

—Mark Fadely

Sources

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.