District III
Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia
We have been keeping abreast of the ongoing model aviation activities in District III during the “off season” by email, Facebook, and club websites. It is amazing to see the parallels between clubs, but equally impressive is to see the personalities and events that make up the clubs’ social bonding and community outreach programs. We encourage you to submit your monthly club newsletters and events reports so we can use them as part of this column and on our social media sites.
My first road trip outside of southwest Ohio was the annual auction held by the Licking County RC Club at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Hall in Newark, Ohio, east of Columbus. I received a warm welcome and enjoyed the auction, a tour of their nice flying site, and lunch.
The following report was submitted by Associate Vice President (AVP) Jeff Black in mid-Pennsylvania.
The Balsa Buster Flying Club held a fly-in on July 1-2, 2023, at the club’s field in Brookville, Pennsylvania. The event drew several pilots from Pennsylvania to enjoy a weekend of flying and fellowship. I was honored to present Jimmy Florio with the District Service Award for his contribution to the RC hobby. Jimmy is the owner of the Florio Flyer Corporation that designs and sells airplanes.
The Capital Area Flyers (CAF) held an event on July 30, 2023, at the club’s field in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. In attendance were Congressman Scott Perry and his two daughters. The club wanted to show the congressman how much fun the hobby is and how family-oriented it can be. Each of Scott’s daughters got a chance to fly. Club member Daniel Keely built an airplane that he called the Perry Plane in honor of Scott.
The Susquehanna Valley Modelers did a model build with EAA Chapter 1641 of the Young Eagles, and on November 5, 2023, they test-flew it. After a successful test flight, some of the Young Eagles and advisor Mollie Fause had a chance to fly the Kadet LT 40. Mollie commented that she felt that it was harder to fly than the full-scale airplane that she flies.
The club supported the kit build throughout several months, and club member Dave Hughes said that they had roughly 400 hours of build time. Eight Young Eagles participated in the build project. This is another great example of how to promote model aviation.
Community outreach is key to the promotion of model aviation.
