District XI—Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington
Chuck Bower
Vice President
cbower@whidbey.com
6075 S. Coles Rd., Langley WA 98260
Tel.: (360) 632-9211; www.amadistrict-xi.org
Warbirds Over District XI: Clubs in Bellingham, Washington, Wenatchee, Washington, and Nampa, Idaho, sent in reports of military aircraft events this month.
The Bell-Air RC Flyers hosted the Warbirds Over Whatcom. Warbirds are as popular as ever here in Northwest Washington. This was our 11th year and everyone had a great time. Twenty-two pilots with twice as many airplanes made for a real show. The parking lot was lined with RVs as many pilots made a weekend out of it.
As always, Saturday was the biggest day and everyone made the most out of the good weather. I don’t think there was an airplane present that didn’t fly. The swap meet was a busy place with quite a few airplanes changing hands. It seems as though sooner or later everyone needs something new or more room in the shop for the next project.
Next year’s Warbirds Over Whatcom will be roughly the last weekend in July. Club president Mike Miller’s daughter is a professional photographer and she spent the day with us taking pictures as only a professional can. A slideshow was put together with music and posted on the club website. It is worth a look (www.bellairrcflyers.com).
The Wenatchee Red Apple Flyers hosted Warbirds Over Wenatchee.
Several years ago the Wenatchee Red Apple Flyers decided to donate all of the proceeds from Warbirds Over Wenatchee to Veterans Helping Veterans. This includes our landing fees for the event, and funds from the raffle, banquet, and camping. This year we were able to give this worthy organization $2,300.
Warbirds Over Wenatchee has grown steadily over the years and is well attended. For more information, go to www.redappleflyers.org.
Warbirds Over Nampa is an AMA sanctioned event with plenty of beautiful warbirds from World War I through current military airplanes. There were more than 35 aircraft at the event and most of them were flown. Nice etched mirror plaques were awarded for Best of Show and various categories as determined by votes from the pilots.
The club sold tickets and raffled off numerous prizes, many provided by the local hobby shop, Action Hobbies (expensive new kits, some prebuilt airplanes, batteries, epoxies, tools, and gift certificates).
In addition to the pilots, there were plenty of spectators. Food and drinks were available. The weather was very good and everyone had a great time. You can see on YouTube a video provided by a professional photographer. Search for Frederick A. Johnson’s channel Airailimages and “RC Warbirds Over Nampa 2017” for some of the flying.
The Nampa Model Aviators website is at www.nampamodelaviators.org.
There are so many events to see in our area. I hope you got a chance to visit other clubs’ events. Warbirds were alive and well in District XI this summer.
Charge, fuel, or wind and fly those aircraft. See you at the field.
