District III
Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia
I participated in the RC Scale Nats, held on July 11-14, 2024, at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana. It sparked me to wonder how many District III members participated this year, so, I asked AMA Headquarters for some data. There were 79 who registered, broken down like this: Ohio-63, Pennsylvania-15, and West Virginia-1.
You can go to the AMA website to see where we all ended up placing in our events. I am not surprised in numbers since Ohio boarders Indiana, but I do find the numbers interesting, and I will dig a bit deeper to see in what event(s) each pilot participated.
On Saturday, July 20, the Penn Ohio Radio Kontrol Society (PORKS) in Pulaski, Pennsylvania, sponsored its 6th open house, and Associate Vice President (AVP) Dave Chisholm and I attended. The weather was perfect for the event and the PORKS members were very gracious in their welcoming of the public and the two of us.
The event director and club secretary, Ed Gantz, went out of his way to greet everyone who came through the gate. They estimated roughly 110 guests with 50 youth. There were two EAA chapter presidents in attendance and one even signed up for three years of AMA membership!
The Sharon Herald, the local newspaper, sent a reporter out who spent time chatting with club members and me for a feature article on model aviation and the PORKS. Another interesting fact is five other local clubs’ members came and supported this event through flying demonstrations and participation.
Dave provided his personal version of an Education Trailer with a flight simulator and AMA information. The club also has in its clubhouse two flight simulators. The combination of the three simulators were busy all day, and those interested took introductory flights with club president, Colin Reesey, on an Apprentice.
The club has a combination RC car and rock crawling tracks, and this has been extremely successful in introducing people to the club and showing them how RC hobbies can be fun.
One final fun fact, the raffle airplane winner was in town visiting her father from Texas, and she is an employee of NASA and a teacher, and she will use the airplane to instruct students about aviation and aerospace. How is that for community outreach? The club used the AMA Take off And Grow grant exactly as AMA likes to see it being used.
Community outreach at the grass-roots level is essential for awareness and growth. How do you do this, please let me know!
