Welcome back, everyone! Last year, Gateway RC, in Jacksonville, Florida, hosted its first annual Big Little Airshow, where the public, city council members, parks department directors, and the media were invited. They deemed it a success when a little more than 100 people from the general public attended to see what the club was all about. The club repeated the event in early April of this year with the cooperation of the City of Jacksonville’s and JaxParks’ social media marketing teams, who put out information on Facebook and other platforms. The result was 600-plus people in attendance!
The event was managed by Bill Daniel and the club’s vice president, Jeremy Lee, with Wayne Clark providing flightline control and scheduling to keep the demonstration flights running smoothly. Computer flight simulators were in use all day, AMA provided Foam Plate Glider-9 (FPG-9) kits for the kids, and the club provided parachutes that the kids colored and were then dropped by a club member’s cargo airplane.
I did a few different flight demonstrations, including a Scale 700-size Bell TOW Cobra helicopter, a ¼-scale Spitfire warbird, and an ASK-21 glider that was towed up by Adam Strong with a 60cc CubCrafters XCub.
It was great weather, and a wonderful time was had by all. The club invited a food truck to take care of the concessions. Everyone loved the food; in fact, they ran out of several items!
Wayne Richardson, from the Lake Aircraft Radio Kontrol Society (LARKS) in Tavares, Florida, wrote to me about an event the club hosted at its field. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at University of Central Florida (AIAA@UCF; aiaaucf.com) is an organization of more than 200 UCF students and is one of the largest and most active such student clubs on the campus, made up of those who are pursuing degrees in aerospace, mechanical and electrical engineering, and computer science. This is the second year that LARKS has hosted the young people who will be our future in aerospace and other critical, related industries.
I couldn’t be more proud of the club for working with these kids and teaching them proper building techniques, balance, trimming, etc. Us old people know a thing or two about making stuff fly—I’ve been doing it since ninth grade when I turned in my homework that was carved on stone tablets. Keep up the good work, and thanks for spreading the love!
Until next month, stay safe and fly a lot!