INDIANA FLYING SITE RENAMED
Photos by Jennifer Alderman
AN AMA CHARTERED CLUB in Indiana has renamed its field in honor and memory of the man who established the club’s flying site.
The Rosewood RC Flyers club, of Rosewood, Indiana, held a dedication ceremony during its event, The Fall Jet Classic, which took place October 6-9, 2021, and renamed its field the Bill Beach Airfield. William “Bill” Beach died April 2, 2021, at age 83. The club also renamed its fall jet event The Bill Beach Jet Classic.
Bill discovered his mechanical skills at an early age. As a senior in high school in 1955, he designed a metal drill press that is still working today. It was the first in a long line of tools built by him. In 1972, he founded Beach Mold & Tool, which became the 58th largest injection-molding company in the US.
In 2006, Bill began searching for an RC flying site. In 2007, he purchased 110 acres along the Ohio River, on the Indiana side of the river. Part of the land would be used by a local farmer for crops, while 24 acres would be converted into a flying site. Construction on the field began in 2007 and it was used by the Ohio River View RC Flyers.
The next phases of development included the construction of two large concrete pads with covered shelters, electricity, and water from an artesian well. The pumped water provided in-ground irrigation for the entire grass runway.
In 2014, a second well for irrigation and additional concrete pads were added to the site. The paved runway was scraped and resurfaced in 2016. At this point, all of the expenses of building and maintaining the field, including mowing, irrigation, fertilizing, and weed control, were paid by Bill.
In 2017, Bill approached some of the club members and said that he could no longer be involved in the flying field operations because of his expanding business and age. He deeded the property to the club and sold the surrounding property to a farmer. On January 1, 2018, the new club, Rosewood RC Flyers, was born.
In addition to renaming the flying site in Bill’s honor, the club flew a missing man formation and unveiled a memorial bench at the field. His wife, Juanita, his daughters, friends, and other family members attended the dedication ceremony.
WRITER, PHOTOGRAPHER PASSES
Photos courtesy of WIBU and AMA
A LONGTIME AMA MEMBER who was a talented writer and photographer has passed away. Ruth Chin, age 97, died October 1, 2021, at Morrison Woods Health Campus in Muncie, Indiana.
Born in Chicago, she later moved to Muncie, where she graduated from Muncie Central High School in 1942. Ruth graduated from MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1946, majoring in art and minoring in English. She also attended the John Heron Art Institute in Indianapolis and the Chicago Art Institute.
Immediately following college, Ruth began her career as a photographer for the Muncie Star and the Evening Press newspapers for seven years before starting her own business, Ruth Chin Photography, in 1953. Her family opened the first Chinese restaurant in Muncie, called the Mandarin Inn.
Ruth became an AMA member in approximately 1995 and wrote an article for the October 1997 issue of Model Aviation titled, “You’re Never Too Old ...” She also co-authored an article in Model Aviation about an event.
Ruth was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 2014. She was a former board member of the Academy for Community Leadership and the Girl Scouts. In 2018, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Business Unlimited (WIBU) in Muncie.
She is survived by two nieces and two great-nephews.
AMA Launches New Member Benefit
IF YOU ENJOY TRAVELING— and especially enjoy visiting the International Aeromodeling Center (IAC) in Muncie, Indiana—AMA has a new membership benefit that can make planning your trips easier.
AMA has formed a partnership with Go Camp Life of Elwood, Indiana. AMA members can now rent travel trailers at a discounted rate to use for events at the IAC and for personal travel. If you choose to take advantage of this member benefit for your stay at the IAC, Go Camp Life will provide full setup and removal of the travel trailer of your choice at a discounted rate. If you choose to stay somewhere other than the IAC, you can still take advantage of a great AMA member discount. Log in to www.modelaircraft.org and access your exclusive member benefits to see the discount code. Provide the code when reserving your travel trailer.
Go Camp Life offers a variety of unique camping trailers that are small, lightweight pull-behind campers that weigh 1,250 to 3,850 pounds. The hard-side campers are stocked with dishes and utensils for four, basic cooking pans, a coffee maker, toaster, and basic cleaning supplies. The pop-up campers do not come with cooking utensils, but they can be added for a small fee.
To learn more, visit https://gocam-life.com. Check out other great exclusive AMA membership benefits at www.modelaircraft.org/membership/benefits/exclusive-offers.
nation. All of his leisure time is taken up with this sport. He went back to school to study some of the engineering principles involved, graduated from one of the technical high schools, and is now saving his earnings to send himself through an engineering course at one of the universities, and has dropped out completely from the crap shooting avocation.”(1)
In 1925, at the age of 17, John set a world speed record for model airplanes, covering a 100-foot course in 1.2 seconds at 57.2 mph.(2) Accolades would follow, including seven Chicago City Model Airplane Tournament championships and multiple first-place finishes at the 1927 Nats.
The parks department immediately capitalized on John’s success, as well as his apparent interest in teaching the art of model airplanes. In 1926, the Chicago Parks and Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce sponsored possibly his first class and a presentation to the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Conopus Club.(3)
In 1928, speaking to a group of more than 200 boys in Kenosha, Wisconsin, John stated “Anybody can do these things I have done if they have a little bit of patience and can work with their brains as well as their hands.”(4)
This combination of classes and demonstrations, using models of his own design and supported by city park departments and fraternal organizations, would be repeated throughout the Midwest during the next several years. Some parks departments even started aeromodeling clubs.
Following his visit to Kenosha, a new club was formed called the Johnny Rappold Aeronautics Club.
John was in Muncie, Indiana, July 16-20, 1928, giving a morning and afternoon class each day. He also provided a program to the Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, demonstrated his models at the Muncie airport, and presented a class to playground leaders. The following week, he returned and hosted a model airplane contest for the adults and one for the kids, with the top three children winning an airplane ride courtesy of the Welch Aircraft Company of Anderson, Indiana.(5) (6)
In later years, John continued his support of the Chicago parks, hosting kite-building classes and contests. In 1940, he supervised the Midwestern States Gas Model contest and was the contest director for the National Aeromodeling Championships held in Chicago.(7)
Although John passed away in 1976 at the age of 68, his influence would reach the moon. In 1971, one of his students, Dr. Robert Gilruth, was part of the team awarded the Collier Trophy “as representative of the engineering genius of the manned space flight team, culminating in Apollo 15, man’s most prolonged and scientifically productive lunar mission.”(8)
SOURCES:
- William, Thomas, The Child in America: Behavior Problems and Programs, 1928, p. 199
- The South Bend Tribune, Oct. 22, 1925.
- Local Boys to Learn Art of Making Model Planes from Chicago Champ, The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) March 24, 1926, p. 7.
- Easy to Make Model Planes Rappold Says, Kenosha Evening News (Kenosha WI) April 5, 1928.
- Champion Model Builder Is Here, Muncie Evening Press, July 16, 1928.
- Three Boys Will Get Ride in Airplane, Muncie Evening Press, July 23, 1928.
- 14th Annual National Model Airplane Championships daily, Personnel Set-up, National Model Aviation Museum archives.
- AMA History Project Biography for Dr. Robert Gilruth, www.modelaircraft.org/sites/default/files/files/GilruthDrRobertR.pdf.
