Hi all. It’s that time again and another month has gone by. The AMA Northwest Jamboree is getting closer. Be sure to mark your calendars for June 20-22, 2024, and join me for a great time.
I really need some help. I am looking for a media person to maintain the district website and Facebook page. I try, but I don’t have time and it doesn’t get done. Please contact me if you are interested in filling this position.
Associate Vice President (AVP) Brian Diffendaffer attended the Boise Area Radio Kontrol Society STEM Night at Horizon Elementary. There was a big turnout. The students, parents, and teachers got a big dose of model aviation!
Our District XI Control Line (CL) coordinator, Mike Hazel, asked me to remind you about the 52nd Annual Northwest Control Line Regionals. The dates are May 23-25, 2025, featuring every discipline of CL. It will be held at Roseburg Airport in Oregon again. Spectators are welcome. Competitors will be coming from the entire West Coast and Canada. More details can be found at www.flyinglines.org.
Last summer, AVP Joe Miller visited Muncie, Indiana, with me. Here is a bit from his experience.
I went to the museum and wandered through the exhibits. Michael Smith, the National Model Aviation Museum director, even gave us a tour of the entire museum and the area where they store items waiting to be cataloged and displayed. Someone should digitize his brain. He knows everything about each piece in the collection!
There was one item with a District XI connection that fascinated me. It is the model that holds the continuous-flight record for a CL aircraft. It was 64.5 hours. It was set by the Eugene Prop Spinners, of Eugene, Oregon. I recognized one of the names on display, Fred Hazel, and wondered if it could be a relation to Mike Hazel, the District XI Free Flight/CL event sanction coordinator.
I called Mike and learned that Fred is his dad. I arranged to interview Fred about the event. I sent off my interview and photos to Michael at the museum. I hope someday it will be included with the display.
It was amazing that we happened to discover this, and that Joe followed through to help preserve a remarkable story. If you have any stories you’d like to share, please send them to me and I’ll get them to the museum.
Next month, I will highlight the RC Scale competition that we have in our district. At the bottom is a picture of my latest project, a Top Flite Giant Scale P-47. It will be at flying sites near you soon.
That’s it for this month. Keep building and flying!