Just hours after flying his Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter into a combat zone with airplanes, tanks, warships, and fiery explosions, Paul Edmunds watched his fiancée, Cindy Schneider, walk down the aisle on the battlefield’s edge. The field, of course, was an outdoor stage that showcased one of the biggest and most elaborate RC air shows in history—and Paul and Cindy played a notable role.
For years, Paul, a longtime RC pilot and radio expert, flew in the world-famous Striking Back air show that was hosted by legendary kit maker and entrepreneur Byron Godbersen in Ida Grove, Iowa. Cindy (now Cindy Edmunds) acted as his spotter and coordinated the miniature one-man tanks that wowed tens of thousands of spectators every summer.
The Expo was quite the sight, and their wedding on August 10, 1991—the show’s 10-year anniversary—was just as memorable. "She’s always been my copilot, whether flying RC or our 1956 Piper Tri-Pacer," Paul said.
A World-Famous Show
The Byron Originals Aviation Expo drew as many as 50,000 spectators every year to Ida Grove, a tiny western Iowa town approximately 100 miles north of Omaha, Nebraska.
In the spring of 1982, the now-defunct International Miniature Aircraft Association (IMAA) asked Byron to host its second annual gathering of large-scale RC model airplane enthusiasts. Byron, who dreamed and lived big, transformed his backyard into a giant show set with a model mountain, church, railroad, walkway, and other structures.
Throughout the years, the show featured vintage warbird models, civilian airplanes, glow-powered fighter jets, battleships, trains with tracks and a bridge, an oil refinery, a water tower, and a hangar. Miniature pilots who were "shot down" in combat parachuted from their smoking model airplanes. A monstrous, 385-pound B-29 warbird with remote start rumbled into the air. Another airplane, a glow-powered MiG-15 fighter jet, spun a 6-inch-wide ducted fan at 20,000 rpm. Full-scale aircraft flew as well, including a wingwalker biplane, the Eagles Aerobatic Team, and a one-man micro-jet.
"Byron’s goal at the outset was to make the best possible flying site any RC’er could ever dream of," proclaimed an article in the show’s 1991 program.
The Expo initially included a three-day jet rally in June, followed by a large-scale show in August. Both shows ended each day with the Striking Back air show, which simulated World War II Pacific Theater battles. Paul joined the show as a radio checker, using a spectrum analyzer to ensure that all of the standard 72 MHz transmitters had gold or silver stickers and were good to go. Soon, he found himself flying. "It just kept growing every couple of years," he said.
A Voice on the Telephone
Paul and Cindy met through their jobs at different Omaha auto parts suppliers. The stores served as warehouses for one another, and when one didn’t have a specific part, Paul and Cindy occasionally talked.
"She was a voice on the phone four or five years before I ever met her," Paul said.
One Monday, Cindy called, and they chatted as Paul flipped through the shop’s catalog. "She asked me what I had done that weekend, and I told her I sat on my behind and watched the world go by," Paul stated. "She said, ‘You should have called. We could have done that together.’" Paul took the hint.
For one of their early dates, Cindy joined him at a flying practice in Ida Grove. Before long, she became a full-fledged part of the team. While Paul flew his Zero, Cindy coordinated the drivers of two miniature Army tanks that Byron had built to create a realistic-looking battle. "It was fun," she said. "I had a good time, and I met a lot of people from all over the place."
The Big Day
The morning of their wedding, Paul and Cindy arrived at the show field to find Paul’s Zero decorated with hearts, toilet paper, and a string of pop cans tied to the tail. Fittingly, they tied the knot in front of a large model chapel on the show’s set. Their teammates ignited window-rattling ground charges to celebrate and fired off some of the show’s biggest guns. Skydivers fell from the heavens. A full-scale P-51 Mustang buzzed their wedding upside down. As a wedding gift, Byron gave them a Van’s Aircraft RV-4 model kit.
After the wedding, the newlyweds flew to Canada in Paul’s Tri-Pacer to spend a week fishing at a lake cabin and watching the northern lights.
"It Made It More Realistic"
The air show drew enormous crowds from all over the US, plus England, Germany, France, Japan, and Australia. With rooms booked solid in Ida Grove, visitors stayed in hotels as far away as Omaha; Sioux City, Iowa; and Des Moines, Iowa.
"People came from all over," Paul said. "We never, ever looked behind us until after the show was over because of the size and the amount of people in the stands."
Two 1/5-scale model PT boats drove around in shallow water on a pretend lake. A scale aircraft carrier served as a launchpad for some RC airplanes. At the show’s end, uniformed U.S. Marines (service members who lived nearby) recreated the famous flag raising at Iwo Jima.
To maximize the drama and realism, Paul took off from the southwest side of the mountain, beyond the view of spectators, and "attacked" the tanks. At Cindy’s signal, the two tank drivers triggered explosions as Paul flew by.
After a few minutes of attacking the tanks, Paul would maneuver his Zero in front of an Allied airplane and set off smoke cartridges to simulate battle damage and cause his pilot to "eject" from the airplane with a parachute. "When I knew he was coming around, I’d get the tanks into position on the ground but away from the crowd," Cindy said.
Byron pushed to make the show more realistic yet still safe. The explosions got bigger. The flight team wore matching white shirts for every smoke-filled show, but as Cindy quickly learned, "They weren’t white by the end of the show."
Not every show went as expected. Damaged airplanes required constant repairs and parts replacements. Pilots kept at least one backup airplane at the ready. Many nights after a show, the team went to Byron’s factory and spent three to four hours fixing airplanes.
Lynn Jorgensen, Paul’s best man in the wedding, once flew a model P-51 right through a fireball, requiring a wing restoration and repainting job so that it looked good for the next day’s show. On another flight, Paul was making a low pass at one of the tanks when a big explosion knocked him back into Cindy. Disoriented, he lost control for a moment and his Zero snagged a wingtip on the side of the set’s mountain. To the crowd’s delight, the smoke-spewing Zero cartwheeled down the set and slammed into a nearby tree, setting it on fire.
"That looked good," Byron told him the next day. "But … you burned down one of my new trees!"
A Special Mission
In 1992, the show moved to Ankeny, Iowa, a Des Moines suburb. It remained popular but faced challenges. When floods ravaged Iowa in 1993, so much rain fell that the show’s air boss needed to borrow an eight-wheel John Deere tractor to pull cars out of the mud.
One year, air boss Joe Schumacher sent Paul and Cindy to the Des Moines airport to pick up some special visitors: the flight crew of the Enola Gay, the airplane that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in WW II.
"If they wanted to do anything or go anywhere, that was our job," Paul said. "If we weren’t flying in the show, we were doing something with them."
Still Active
Today, Paul and Cindy are still very active in the RC scene through the Omahawks RC Club in Omaha and are always willing to support the community.
When a good friend, Chuck Inserra, passed away from cancer, Paul helped sell more than 140 kits, motors, and electronics that Chuck had accumulated to help his widow. Kits went out to new owners in Texas, California, Oregon, the Carolinas, and other states. Paul kept a three-engine Italian bomber, however, and built it with four fellow Omahawks club members to honor Chuck, who was Italian.
Paul and Cindy also spend a lot of time at the Omahawks club field. They volunteer in all types of events, from the Memorial Day pancake breakfast to the club’s yearly auction and—perhaps most importantly—the Labor Day Air Show that raises thousands of dollars annually for Make-a-Wish Nebraska.
"It’s a good time," Paul said, "and we’re always happy to help."
SOURCES:
"Spectacular Byron Originals R/C Air Show, Ida Grove, Iowa 1989"
YouTube
"Smoke on the water, Fire in the sky" by Fred Berman
Model Aviation, February 1994
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