Let the Show Begin
Before we get into what the AMA Show Teams are up to, let's get into what an AMA Air Show Team is. An AMA Air Show Team is a group of men, women, and children who love model aviation and want to promote our great hobby/sport to the general public. They do this by putting on air shows around the United States. These shows range from demonstration flights at local events to coordinated programs which entail uniforms, elaborate PA systems with announcers, background music, and such novelty acts as flying witches, cars, lawn mowers, and other weird stuff. Show teams take in nearly all facets of model flying. Some teams specialize in Scale aircraft, while others fly only Control Line. AMA teams may produce a show that includes gliders (launched or towed like full-scale), Control Line, Electric power, and Free Flight to give the audience a full potpourri of model aviation.
Weird Flying Stuff
WE are all intrigued by gadgets that fly-that's why we read Model Aviation. These devices can be full-scale or scale models of Piper Cubs or B-29s. They can be birds, flying wings, maple seeds, fish, squirrels. . . Wait a minute. This is beginning to sound like another Glenn Stucker story. Stucker, Stucker, let's see. . .oh yes! He's the guy from Cincinnati who cuts up perfectly good Styrofoam (the heavier blue stuff), sticks an old .40 in it, refuses to use a computer or newfangled radios, and flies fish, shirts, saucers, and stop signs. He's the guy who I said has 52 models in his basement and garage.
The 3 Wonder
Have you been wanting: ( A cheap airplane (because you're saving your money for the coming tax increases)? ( A small model that will fit in a super-subcompact car (because of the proposed gas tax increase?) ( An airplane that can be flown in a large back yard (because you don't want to drive to the flying field)?
Let The Show Begin: AMA Air Show Teams
As this being written, the show season is into full swing in most parts of the country. Some AMA members may be saying, "What show season?" The Academy of Model Aeronautics' sanctioned Show Teams are out doing their thing-enlightening the general public about the wonders of model aviation. How did you first learn of model airplanes? "Why, I've been building models since I was a kid. My dad started me." Great! But how many dads today are building models and are working with their kids? Enough to give our great hobby the boost it needs as we go into the next century?
Signs of the Times
Are you trying to squeeze some final credit from your card so that you can get a new kit that everyone else will have by the time you're finished? Are you tired of researching to find out how that P-51 of the Fourth Fighter Group stationed at Debden Field looked on the morning of June 8, 1944? And are you really tired of putting up with all of those construction signs on the way to work? Take heart -Glen Stucker of Cincinnati, Ohio has a cheap outlet that takes care of all of those frustrations. He is the one who makes all of those strange things from StyrofoamTM, such as flying saucers, flying irons, and shirts. He's still on the loose, and he's still at it - only this time he's making flying traffic signs.
