Tell us about your club....

This may be fun..

Tell us about your club.

Name, Location, Flying field, Interests, Contests, Beginners, New Members, Personalities, Occupations, Do you have a News Letter, Anything else you want to say about your club...

Take it away Sam......

Well. I am strictly a Control Line flier, so it may seem paradoxical that my local club is the Burlington Radio Control Modelers, but that's the local club, and if I want to fly, I have to belong (unless I'm willing to buy a few acres of land...). We're in Burlington, Ontario, Canada (hence the name), which is also, interestingly enough, the national headquarters of MAAC (our model aeronautics governing body).

The club maintains two flying fields - one near the eastern boundary of the city (at Bronte Creek Provincial Park), and another near the western boundary (at Bayview Park). Our Control Line circle is at Bayview, but they recently closed the circle until spring (or summer) due to construction work, so for now we have a temporary circle at Bronte.

At present we have about four or five Control Line members in the club, one of whom is a World-Class competitor - Konstantin Bajaikine. He took fifth place at the US Nats this year, and earned his place on the Canadian F2B team as well. He's been at two previous World competitions. It's inspiring to watch him fly!

I am the club's webmaster - the site is http://www.brcm.org. The site as it is at present is my own design (I redesigned it when I took over last year). It's somewhat out of date at the moment - I need to add some pictures from this year, and update the meeting notice. We do have a newsletter, which is posted on the website.

We were hoping to have a C/L contest at our field this year, but the only available date got clobbered by another event. Maybe next year...

Our club is called The Alberta control line flying club (ACFC) and we are located in Alberta, Canada with the main site located just north of the Namao air force base. The site resides on a school playground area by some old never used baseball diamonds. 2 circles are kept cut with room for 4 as experienced at our last contest which is held every August which is called the Prairie fire. Bruce Perry is our president (expert pa)and canadian team member while his wife Allana (beginner, soon to be intermediate)is our secretary. Rob Duckering (me, advanced) is the vice-president, Neil Rogers (advanced) is our treasurer, Ken Halliday (Intermediate) heads up the social committee. Paul Gibeault is our resident speed flyer(canadian team member)and has now taken over some social function duties.Les Akre (nationals speed champ) helps out too. We also have a few members in Calgary (Will Reeb, Brian Carr). We promote the family aspect of our hobby and encourage new members to fly some coroplast 1/2a models that we have that were developed by the Winnipeg perfect circle club. Our website is at www.acfc.ca I know it could use some updating as it only has information up to 2002.

I fly at the birthplace of control line flying Portland, Oregon. In the late 40's Jim Walker owned most of what is DELTA PARK. After the Vanport flood of 1948 Delta park was twenty feet under water. Dikes were built and The Jim Walker Flying Field was born. ABOUT 1958 Jim Donated the land to the city for a park and control line field. Jim dyed in 1959. The area we use today is called the Jim Walker Memorial Flying Field. The club back then was call the "areoliners". Today we are the "Northwest Fireballs" named after Walkers Fireball.
The club has about twenty-five members and about another twenty-five people that just fly because they love to. All aspects of control line modeling are present here, with STUNT with the most following. Our club includes many diverse people. Doctor’s, Teachers, Lumberman, Military, and high tech workers. The average age I would say is 50. Most people from the NW Fireballs also belong to the “NORTHWEST FIRECATS AMA CONTROL LINE SHOW TEAM”. We perform at many events around the Portland area. The largest event is the Portland-Hillsboro Air Show with about 100,000 people that come and watch. We also Fly at the fourth of JULY Fireworks show in Vancouver Washington. It’s the largest show west of the Mississippi. With about 75,000-125,000 people. There is always someone at the field flying during the spring, summer and fall. Winter we have January first as a day we all get together rain, snow, wind and fly the first flights of the new year! For more info I’m always just a call away.

Scott(love the hobbie)Riese

NEW PEOPLE(FLYERS)WELCOME ANYTIME

My local club is the Aylesbury club - mainly R/C with some F/F - I've not applied to join - despite their website saying that they welcome all types of aeromodellers tentative approaches hint that this does not include control line - nasty noisy bricks on strings....

I belong to the Milton Keynes club - a control line only club - they have at least one field - Manor Fields - actually in Fenny Stratford and may have another (Wroughton?).

They've just lost a better field to Wimbledon football club who are moving there - as a disliker of football I can't understand how a football club can move many miles away from their home town and still claim to be Wimbledon - surely they should be called Milton Keynes?

My main bugbear with MKM is that nobody seems to fly Sundays - this is because most of them are competition flyers and hence at competitions!

However I'm really weird in that I don't drive which rather limits things!

I may start investigating other places to fly actually in Aylesbury next season.

Hi Guys,

Access th AMA District IV website then scroll to the NVCL and click on the link. You will find everything you need to know about the NVCL. We have a junior flyer program that is killer. Learn to solo on the club trainers and receive a free Top Flight ARF flight streak with engine I believe - from a sponsor of our club. Neat Huh?

I joined the 3A, (Assiciação de Aeromodelismo do Aterro). Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The city built a flying site at a beautiful park nera the sea.

We are sponsored by the Brazlilian Air Force (no money, but we have the Logo on the entrance, with a warning "For Airmodels only".

Gives us some respect.

There are 2 circles, one for big ships (21 meters) and one for the small ones, some 15 meters.

The only problem is some trees nearby, the only times you get a nice stunt breeze is between 6AM/10 Am and from 4 PM to 6 PM.

At those times the wind comes from the sea, and it's stunt heaven.

The city takes care of the grass (the center and the outer ring are cement, but sometimes the take too long to cut it, and a nasty weed called "Pé de Galinha" gets too tall, if you are flying alone on a stooge you might get your lines on that stuff, a drag!

I almost lost a ship one fine morning. When the pé de galinha is too tall I spend an hour on my knes -noy praying fur mercy- pickin' up the tallest weeds for some quarter lap. Landing under these condition is also a grag, the lines get stuck and the plane comes onto the circle, but since the engine is out, it's no big deal.

One way to avoid it is to rais your arm as high as you can, and keep clear.

God bless you!

In Christ,

I belong to the Signal Seekers RC Club the Westland Michigan. While it is an RC club we have a good CL contingent which includes Bob McDonald who is also the club president. Others included are Tom Polk, Curt Nixon, Ray Marlow, Rich Malick, Big Art Adamisin and formerly Pete Bergstrom. We have, as you can see, some pretty good talent here. We try to keep people coming, but in reality we don't actively recruit. Those that have stuck around have preogressed tremendously making good showings at the Nats for the last few years. As for myself, I never seem to have time to get enough practice, so I brag the guys up and CD our August contest.

We've been at our field for 30 odd, maybe into the 40's years. One control line circle is maintained and we use the main RC area for our contests which gives us 2 more circles. We are under a warning however that this long occupation may be coming to an end in the near future. The RCers in the club are very supportive of our CL activities and a number of them always fall out to man the contest duty roster.

My husband (Mary's Husband ) and I have been members of the Garden State Circle Burners in New Jersey for the last 10 years. Our Club will be celebrating it's 45th anniversary this year. The main group who started the club were flying in different spots long before the club was "officially" formed.

The Circle Burners have a very rich history and at last year's awards banquet we inducted John Miske as the very first G.S.C.B. Hall of Fame member. John was not only a vital member in helping to keep the club together during the 80's, he also brought us OTS, which is still to this day being flown.

Bob Hunt, another member of our club, a very acomplished man, he and his family are responsible for beginning the Reinhardt Cup tradition, which is done with a fly-off at our June Meet.

Then we also have "LS Hisself" Larry, "Is it my turn yet" Scarinzi. What more can I say?

Q: What wears a plaid shirt, funny shades and McDonald's napkins and goes around 100 MPH?

A: Never mind...

Tom "Brodak CD" Hampshire, a very knowledgeable modeler and always ready to help.

Of course, there's always us, the Flying Knight's. What guy builds and flies, goes to the Nats, places in the top 10 of his class and is recognized everywhere as, "Aren't you Mary's husband?"

"Everyone Knows it's Windy", (remember the song?) no explanation here, he's aledgedly another Circle Burner.

There's also the infamous Circle Burner, nothing more need be said.

There are also others out there who have made their mark in the circle, too many to list. Tom Niebuhr, John D'Ottavio, just to mention a couple.

We maintain our flying site 100%. We pay to have the grass mowed by a club member and we lease our site. The price we pay is worth it to me to have a PRIVATE flying site. The cost is $7000 a year, not counting other field/club expenses. Sometimes being in a park, state or county, may be FREE, but you are not always certain how long you'll be there. If you have a flying site, USE IT, DON"T LOSE IT!

Well, again, I ran off at the mouth, or, er uh keyboard. One day I hope I can type more than two words a minute. I'm getting tired of staying up three days straight to post my thoughts.

We don't have a club, but we have the best flying site hands down! Right in that back yard of Johnny Paris' house. Paris' Field is the home of 4 or 5 of us. John, of course, Jimmy Morway, Dan Miles, after a hip replacement, And myself. No club, but Johnny has tried to collect dues several times with no luck. We had a great stunt clinic with Big Art himself helping us along.
We are also in the process of getting the City of Flint to fix up the paved flying circle in Broome park. The circle has been neglected for several years but it is still there for anyone to use. Having a choice sure is nice as the constable has been out to John's house due to complaints of noise. We manage to do some heavy flying in the summer as I went thru 2 cases and 2 gallons alone. You could find us out there almost every Saturday and several times during the week. No wonder we brought home 29 Trophies between John, Jim and myself.
Jay

I am spoiled here in the UK as the nearest flying field for me is a three minute walk away from my front door and it's a public space.

Having said that I belong to two clubs, Morley and District Model Aircraft Club, MADMAC and the Wharfedale club. Bizzarly Morley was a C/L club that mutated into a free flight only club and Wharfedale was a FF club that became a top C/L only club specialising in team racing.

Hey WR,

"I am also a member of the Topeka Control Line Associatioon, (TOPCLASS) from Topeka, Kansas. I'd like to get to Topeka and the paved circle and Control Line Guru's at least once a month, but I think I made it twice this summer and that includes contest day!"

I know of at least two times that you made it out to our (TOPCLASS) circle this year; so if you were at the contest, that makes three. I am the safety officer for TOPCLASS. Been sort a kind a hanging around with the club for about 6-7 years. Kirby Chilton is the president. Melvin Schuette is the vice president. Jim Lee is the Secretary/Treasurer/Newsletter Editor. Jim is also the real heart and soul of the club.

We have a fairly nice paved circle which I am sure a number of the forum dudes here know about because they have been to our contest which is held every year on the Memorial Day weekend. It is located at Gauge Park in Topeka. For the contest we also have a couple of grass circles for the carrier and old-time events. We've had a couple of newcomers join this past year. And, a couple or three oldies but goodies decide to get back into it. So maybe things are looking up on the membership end of things.

Cheers,

John R

Ryan and I belong to the Minneapolis Piston Poppers. In continuous existence since 1960. About 40 or so members. Mostly stunt now, but a long history with racing and combat. We fly on the grounds of the Hennepin County Technical College in Brooklyn Park, MN and meet on the last Thursday at the EAA chapter building at the Anoka-Blaine County airport. We do a lot of kid activities. Had a Kid's Kontest last spring that let 23 kids get some handle time. The youngest was three! And all got a prize of some kind, and several got raffle prizes. Great group of guys!

http://www.pistonpoppers.com/