District I
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
Unfortunately, in the past 5 years, more AMA clubs have lost flying sites in public and private locations for security, safety, and sale of site reasons. Associate Vice President (AVP) Andrew Figlar describes his club’s loss of flying sites and what the members decided to do when they were unable to acquire a new one.
The Connecticut Model Airplane Club (CMAC) was one of the oldest RC clubs in the Northeast, founded in the 1950s to fly gas-powered airplanes at the Bridgeport Airport in Connecticut. The club grew to more than 150 members by the 1980s. As time passed, the club lost three home fields in Stratford, Plymouth, and the final one in Monroe, Connecticut. Membership declined and, after several years of failing to find a new site in the area, the once mighty club had no home base.
The two remaining officers, club president Bill Roy and I (as the treasurer) decided, in accordance with club bylaws for dissolution, to donate $1,000 to the Stratford Eagles Civil Air Patrol (SECAP) and $1,000 to the Connecticut Air & Space Center (CASC) museum.
We learned that the CASC museum had Martin Irons, the author of the book Corsair Down, as a guest speaker for its April 2022 meeting and
The restored Goodyear FG-1D Corsair at the CASC museum.
that the SECAP cadets would also be attending. This was a great opportunity for us to present the donations to the two recipients. AMA member Chet Galemba, who is a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) patron, arranged for us to present the donations during the museum’s meeting.
Mr. Irons discussed his book and was enjoyed by all, especially because the museum has a restored and painted Goodyear FG-1D Corsair. The president of the museum, Mark Corvino, spoke about efforts to fund the restoration of the 16,000 sq. ft. 1929 Curtiss Flying School building, a national heritage landmark. Deputy Commander of CAP, Capt. James Riccio, outlined their purpose to establish a cadet program starting at age 12 for leadership training, learning military and aviation history, technical education on aerospace and robotics, and experience orientation flights in aircraft, as well as developing other skillsets, after which I presented Mark and James each with the CMAC $1,000 donations.
Thanks, Andrew, for reporting on the CMAC donations to the two deserving organizations for worthwhile aviation-related purposes.
AVP Andy Figlar (R) presented $1,000 donations to Mark Corvino (separate photo at left), president of the CASC museum, and to CAP Capt. James Riccio, Deputy Commander, SECAP (next to Andy).
