211,670.29 raised this year.
Help us reach our goal of of $400,000!
A giant 76 pound, 25-foot wing spanned Stein Adler Glider took flight at the Pomona Valley Model Airplane Club in California during their Toys for Tots event. The glider was purchased by an AMA Member, Cal Orr, from the AMA Foundation at the Toledo show. Watch the video here. 
The Casa Grande Rc Flyers will host their 6th annual Air Show at their club field on March 9 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be a swap meet the morning of the event. Admission is free and the event will benefit the Valley Humane Society. The Air Show will feature model aircraft flights by professional pilots using fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and drones. A radio-controlled care race demonstration on the clubs car track will also be featured at the show. Superstition Hobbies will be at the event to offer both car and airplane products. A representative from Horizon Hobby will hold a Spektrum transmitter programming seminar at 10 a.m. In addition, a member of "Team Horizon" will fly in the air show featuring some of Horizon's best products. There will be a raffle with many prizes including a complete model aircraft ready for the winner to fly. Gates open at 8 a.m. for the swap meet and vendor set-up. The event will officially begin at 9 a.m.
The Beresford Aera Radio Flyers recently received an AMA club recognition and reward grant for $75. The club is located in Alcester, SD. The club recently donated $250 to The Beresford Area Transit/ROCS to help with their mission of providing transportation to local residents. The Beresford Area Transit has two vans and a 16 passenger bus that is equipped to handle wheelchairs. The transit normally has 20 to 25 trips per week. Funding for the Beresford Area Transit group comes from the fees, grants from the counties, grants from the city and from donations. The club hosts four events each year. The club hosts the "Frozen Finger Fun Fly" in January, a fun fly for all models in June, a two-day fun fly event in July and a show at the Centre Mall in Sioux Center, IA in March. All events are free to the public. The AMA Club Recognition and Reward Program was established to encourage clubs to promote model aviation. The AMA offers clubs cash incentives for positive local media coverage for a public event, public service, club announcement, or other coverage. Click here to learn more about this program.
The Flying For Good featured January submission is the Casa Grade RC Flyers. The club is located in Casa Grande, AZ. The club hosted their first annual "Fly-In For Hospice" event on January 12 at the club's field. The club invited other AMA members as well as other clubs to join them for flying and a swap meet. The event offered free first-person views from devices flying around the field. The visitors were able to view flights through special goggles connected to a camera mounted in the aircraft. Representatives from hospice were at the field entry gate accepting donations from visitors. The club also holds a fundraiser for the Casa Grande Food Bank in December. Altogether, the club helps three charities each year including the Valley Humane Society, the Casa Grande Food Bank and the Hospice Charitable Fund. The club raised about $500.00 for Hospice. To learn more about the Casa Grande RC Flyers, visit www.casagrandercflyers.com. The AMA Foundation wants to know how your club has given back to charity. To learn more about the Flying For Good Program, click here.
The National Model Aviation Museum will be hosting Black Wings: American Dreams of Flight, a Smithsonian traveling exhibition. The exhibit will be on display February 1, in celebration of Black History Month, and will run through March 31. The exhibition is based on the book Black Wings: 
Courageous Stories of African Americans in Aviation and Space History. The exhibit was created by exhibition curator Von Hardesty of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. In 1903, America's fascination with flight was sparked by the Wright brothers. Many African Americans were enthusiastic about flight but faced racial discrimination. They were denied access to formal training to become pilots and mechanics. The Smithsonian traveling exhibition, Black Wings: American Dreams of Flight, chronicles a powerful group of aviation proponents who challenged these obstacles and created their own legacy in the world of flight. 
Developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the exhibition was made possible by the generous support of the MetLife Foundation. To learn more about upcoming events at the International Aeromodeling Center, home of the AMA in Muncie, Ind., visit www.modelaircraft.org/IAC.
The AMA and AMA Foundation would like to welcome David Martin into the Heritage and Legacy Societies. David is an active member of the Cape Coral R/Seahawks club located in Cape Coral, FL. David is a retired SMSgt USAF reserve. He worked on b-52, KC-135, F-4, F-16 and C-5 aircraft doing sheet metal and fiberglass repair. He currently does steel, aluminum and sheet metal fabrication and welding. He flew RC planes occasionally in the mid-'80s and then returned to the hobby in the late '90s. Click here to learn more about the AMA Foundation Heritage and Legacy Societies.
The Casa Grande RC Flyers have added new events to their calendar. The club is located in Casa Grande, AZ. Every Thursday throughout the winter months, the club will hold airplane dog flights, also called "combat flights". These events give members a chance to increase their skills. It also allows people who are new to the hobby to enhance their skills. The "fights" begin at approximately 10 a.m. and conclude after one aircraft remains in the air. The club also planned their next swap meet for Feb. 9 at the club airfield. The gates will open at 8 a.m. for people wishing to set up tables. The swap meet will start at 9 a.m. The event is free and open to the public. The club recently started using a sign in book for the airfield users to log when they are at the field. The log book shows that the field is used almost daily by members. The club welcomes new members and offers free lessons using special training models under the dual control of an instructor. For more information, visit https://www.casagrandercflyers.com.
The Sunday Flyers recently received an AMA Club recognition and reward grant for $150. The club is located in Middle River, MD.
The club was featured on episode 3101 of "Outdoors Maryland". The club was established in 1955 and is chartered with the AMA for flying fixed wing aircraft and helicopters. The Sunday Flyers currently have 90 members but have had up to 160 members of all ages. They have one flying location with a 350-foot runway located off Bird River Beach Road in Maryland.
The club members meet at their flying field every week on Saturday. Some of the flying field rules include that a person must have an AMA card prior to flying and after three visits, the person must be a Sunday Flyers member.
To watch the full story on the Sunday Flyers, click here. The segment "Pilot Park" starts at 9:45.
The AMA Club Recognition and Reward Program was established to encourage clubs to promote model aviation. The AMA offers clubs cash incentives for positive local media coverage for a public event, public service, club announcement, or other coverage. Click here to learn more about this program.
The Flying For Good featured December submission is the Heart of Texas Miniature Aircraft Club, Inc. The club is located in Waco, TX. The club provides a $1,000 scholarship for one local student from the county or immediate surrounding counties attending Texas State Tech College Aviation Pilot program who demonstrates financial need. In 2017, the club wanted to start a community charity and later came up with the idea to fund a scholarship. The Waco Chamber of Commerce, Aviation Alliance Division, helped the club announce the new scholarship to the local press and community at their first quarterly luncheon of 2018. In January 2018, the scholarship was awarded to Hunter Anderson, a local student from the immediate area. In mid-February, Hunter and two aviation instructors from TSTC attended the clubs monthly meeting where he was presented as the first HOTMAC scholarship recipient. The club hosts their Annual Greater Southwest Jet Rally to help raise money for the scholarship fund. Also, donations from the clubs Big Bird event and Spring Club 40/EF1 races contribute towards the scholarship and the clubs maintenance. The scholarship program is set to continue in 2019. The AMA Foundation wants to know how your club has given back to charity. To learn more about the Flying For Good Program, click here.
Patrick W. Beagan, of Arlington, Massachusetts, passed away at the age of 45 in June 2017. Patrick studied mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and pursued a decades-long career in software design and development. He founded a small software company in the late 1990s and then held senior positions at several software companies in the Boston area. Most recently, he was awarded a patent for an innovative software design at Oracle Corporation. Complementing his professional career and long-held interest in flying, Patrick discovered the art of flying and the science of building multirotor FPV racing drones in 2014. He was immediately captivated by this hobby that combined the reward of designing and building his own aircraft, the analysis and problem solving of debugging issues, and the thrill of first-person flight—not to mention the camaraderie of the local FPV flying community. Patrick was a founding member of the Boston Multi Rotor Club in 2015, and at one time, was one of the top-ranked pilots in the New England area. He made a nice group of friends in the local racing community and was always willing to lend a hand or spare parts. In addition to his professional life and newfound passion in all things drones, Patrick pursued many outdoor sports in his lifetime including skiing, snowboarding, windsurfing, kitesurfing, and cycling. He and his wife of nine years, Andrea, were also ardent travelers and nature lovers—having traveled together across the US and in 30-plus countries around the world. Patrick's wife is sponsoring a scholarship for the 2019 UAS4STEM program in her husband’s memory. She is keen to acknowledge how this hobby touched Patrick's life through continual learning, competition, and fun. Her hope is to help promote the same enthusiasm and learning opportunity for the next generation. The UAS4STEM drone challenge was designed by the AMA to encourage teamwork, competition, and success through a STEM-based education platform. The program provides teams of four to 10 middle and high school students with training, insurance, and equipment to compete in a waypoint and payload delivery challenge. To learn more about UAS4STEM visit https://uas4stem.org/.
