Foundation News

The Wintonbury Flying Club recently received an AMA Club Recognition and Reward Grant for $75. The club is located in Wethersfield, CT. The club had a Seabury Resident appreciation day at their flying field in Bloomfield on Aug. 5. The clubs flying field is located to the rear of the Seabury Retirement community and both groups share the use of the field for flying and enjoying the walking paths that surround the field. The AMA would like to thank the Wintonbury Flying Club for hosting an event to appreciate their neighbors. 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 Kootenai RC Flyers recently received an AMA Club Recognition and Reward Grant for $75. The club is located in Libby, MT. The club hosted their annual fun fly on July 14. Last year, the club had to skip the event altogether due to the production of past Fun Fly events made it too much work for the small, casual club. The club currently has around 17 members but the amount of members fluctuates for the 8-year old club. The club is also open to people who fly drones. The club has their very own flying instructor, Norm Crum. He doesn't charge for anyone interested in getting into radio control flying. The club even has their own "trainer" planes with controls that allow the trainer to take over if an inexperienced pilot has problems. The AMA would like to thank the Kootenai RC Flyers for hosting their annual event. For more information about the Kootenai RC Flyers, visit Facebook.com/KootenaiRCFlyers. 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 Blacksheep RC Modelers had their 11th Annual Warbird Fly-in on June 30. The event was hosted at Corsair Field in Danville, IN. The club’s event was open to the public and had a good turn out despite the hot and humid weather. There were many planes including Warbirds from WWI, modern day and giant scale models. There was a bomber gathering, a T-28 gathering and an EDF gathering featuring Motion RC EDF jets. Each registered pilot received a prize that was donated by the event sponsors. The prizes included a DX8E radio, multiple AS3X 6 channel receivers, tee shirts, hats and two micro planes from Horizon Hobby and Spektrum. Each year, a plane wins the title of Director’s Choice, Pilot’s Choice and People’s Choice. This year Director’s Choice was awarded to club member Stephan Woods’ large Balsa USA Fokker DVII. Pilots Choice was awarded to John Lawyer’s phoenix A-26, a rare plane that was nitro powered. People’s Choice was awarded to Bryan Baumer’s Freewing F-4 Phantom. The event also had an open raffle and proceeds went to support the club. The AMA would like to thank the Blacksheep RC Modelers for hosting this event each year. To learn more about the club and their events, click here.

In 2010, the Franklin County Radio Control Club had dwindled down to six or seven members. At the time, only two members were active flying members and their home airfield at Turners Falls Municipal Airport had become overwhelmed by vegetation and lack of care. The club decided to host a Father's Day Fun Fly to introduce more people to the hobby. The first year of the event, the club saw "way more people than expected" show up. By the following Tuesday, 14 people showed up to the group's regularly scheduled meeting who wanted to learn more about flying. Since then, the club has grown almost four times larger, with 23 members, 20 of which are actively flying. This year, the club hosted their eighth annual Father's Day Fun Fly at Turners Falls Municipal Airport on June 16-17. The event featured flyers showing off different miniature aircraft, from model planes and helicopters to drones. There was also extreme combat flying and races, special guest flyers, including national champion Dean Lampron, was at the event to show off many unique skills and abilities one can learn flying radio-controlled aircraft. Spectators were able to practice on a computer simulation, learning how to pilot a miniature aircraft. After practicing on a computer simulation, spectators were able to try flying through buddy box. Club vice president, David Korpieski, stated that the club chose to have an event on Father's Day due to the hobby's popularity among men and the event allows fathers to "pass the craft" onto their children. For more information about the Franklin County Radio Control Club, visit FranklinRC.com or find them on Facebook.