California Jets at Kings Canyon
By Scott Lampkin and Tom Messer
Inaugural event draws many pilots and spectators
By Scott Lampkin and Tom Messer
scottme262@gmail.com and nvdreamin@gmail.com
Photos by the Clovis RC Club and Marvin Alvarez
From October 22-25, 2025, the Clovis Area Modelers (CAM) club teamed up with the founder of California Jets, Dave Presta, to hold the largest jet event CAM has ever hosted. The site where the event was held, Peg Field, is one of two flying locations used by CAM. It's a former private crop duster strip in Reedley, California, about 20 minutes east of Fresno.
The original California Jets event was held in the early 2000s at Buttonwillow Airport, near Bakersfield, California. It was run very successfully for a number of years by Dave and Kenny Falconer, who were the founders. After a few years, it was replaced by the Best in the West Jet Rally at the same site, which became the biggest event in the West and the end-of-season event that pilots built their schedules around. All good things come to an end, however, and Best in the West was held for the last time in 2024.
With Best in the West no longer happening, there seemed to be a gaping hole in the event calendar. CAM holds its very successful Jets Over California event in the spring, but there was an opening in the club's schedule in October. Tom Messer, of CAM, and Dave thought, "Why not create a new end-of-the-season jet event at CAM's Peg Field?" Thus, California Jets at Kings Canyon was born.
We are so excited to relay that this first event welcomed more than 90 pilots who came from far and wide to participate. Pilots from Florida, Indiana, and Texas all made the trek to the Fresno area for the new California Jets event. Gabriel Pellegrini brought his perfectly detailed and highly weathered Fly Technique MiG-15 all the way from Brazil! For his efforts in the construction and Scale flying of the MiG-15, he was awarded Best of Show.
In addition, we had some youngsters show the adults how it's done, with teenager Shane Roswell amazing everyone with his precision flying skills. Shane, with his T-One F-22 Raptor, did seemingly impossible maneuvers and put the adults on notice—there is a new generation coming! He also flew a T-One Hawk, T-One Razor, and a Bandit Models Diamondback, and received the Bob Hoover Best Pilot Award for his efforts. His father, Jason, formed the dad part of their Pacific RC Jets team and will be following up on Shane's now-required education of who Bob Hoover was.
Scott Lampkin and Tom Messer
Another teen who tore up the sky over Peg Field was Kyler Solt. Many times, he could be seen flying formation with Shane. Watching him fly his T-One Mini Hawk, T-One Razor, or Banana Hobby Viper Jet was always a treat. For the noon-time demonstration and representing Banana Hobby, he swapped to his dad Jeremy's Banana Hobby/Jet Ruler F-16 to wow the crowd. He is going to be one to watch in the coming seasons.
Mike Adams and Kenny McSpadden, who represented Horizon Hobby, stunned the crowd with their morning team flyover to the national anthem using their Tomahawk F-86 Sabres in the Sky Blazers scheme. They followed up with a noon-time demonstration and the always-anticipated happy hour sundown flight each evening. They earned the Best Team Award for their seemingly effortless precision.
Bob Violett Models (BVM Jets) showed up in force all the way from Florida, with crew and aircraft who were ready to show why the company is a legend in the hobby. The flying by Bruce Pennington, Marvin Mauricio Alvarez, and Rob Lynch was spectacular. Rob took two awards home with him: Most Amazing Flight for his BVM F-4 Phantom and Pilot’s Choice for his BVM 1/4-scale F-16 flights.
Jack and Kiki Diaz were another father/son duo and part of the BVM team that filled the sky with more flights than we can remember anyone doing. Their airplanes, an Ultra Bandit, F-86, and an F-100, seemingly flew constantly and showed the reliability and versatility of BVM’s offerings.
Boomerang RC Jets came out with Greg Alderman and Dan Landis, putting on a show with the beautiful patriotic-schemed Atom Squared. The Atom always looked locked-in and solid.
Pablo Fernandez, of Elite Aerosports, made a rare West Coast appearance, bringing the whole East Coast crew of Elite Aerosports pilots with him. They showed the amazing flight characteristics of their beautiful sport jets. Pablo flew the new EA BDXL for many flights, with the jet’s performance being impressive enough to win the award for Best Sport Jet.
If you haven’t seen one of the new F-4 Phantoms from CARF-Models, you are missing out. They are quite literally museum quality in scale and fly as impressively as they look. Elad Fish was there with his gorgeous CARF F-4 Phantom, putting on many beautiful scale flights and receiving the Best Military Award.
Peter Goldsmith brought two of his hand-built, own-designed T-38s. One of them, in the U.S. Air
Scott Lampkin and Tom Messer
07. Gabriel Pellegrini traveled all the way from Brazil with his Flight Technique MiG-15. His model is pictured here lining up for takeoff. The MiG-15 later won Best of Show. Elad Fish, with his Best Military Award-winning F-4 Phantom, pulls up on a pass.
08. CARF-Models representative Elad Fish put his stunning 1/4.5-scale F-4 Phantom through its paces. This museum-quality jet turned a lot of heads throughout the week.
09. Kyle Mongiello makes a knife-edge pass with his U.S. Navy Aggressor-schemed 1/5-scale F-16. Will Schwartz, of Las Vegas, brings up the rear with his impressive Global Jet Club Viper XXL.
10. Father-and-son team Jack and Kiki Diaz filled the sky with a seemingly endless parade of BVM jets during the week. Kiki put his BVM F-100, shown here, through its paces.
Force Thunderbirds scheme, was built for his longtime friend, Don Corum, who took delivery at the event. They both put many flights on their extremely detailed 1/4-scale Talons. If you didn’t know that they were models, you would swear that they were full-scale aircraft flying by. It is a very impressive design.
Global Jet Club, led by Mike Lin, showed up with an armada of jets and pilots. The company’s team pilots were in the air virtually nonstop and showed off the vast range of jets it produces that fit pilots of different skill levels.
The events at our field are always popular with the local public, and many from the community came to enjoy the show. We were especially blessed with many veterans from a local retirement home and their families as visitors.
The event ended Saturday evening with a barbeque competition, awards banquet, and the much-anticipated auction. Jeanne White won the competition with her incredible kabobs, and Jane Verano came in second with her delicious tri-tip. We had several others who competed and were fantastic as well, with banquet attendees being able to sample the entries along with dinner. The banquet was a catered tri-tip and baby back rib meal provided by a local standout barbecue counter, The Meat Market.
The auction followed the banquet, with proceeds going to CAM. The 501(c)(3) organization was formed in 2017 to promote the RC hobby to the local area. Its purpose is to not only provide a home to like-minded modelers in the area where they can fly their models and share their passion for the hobby, but also to expose model aviation to the public and hopefully inspire others, especially younger generations, to pursue it as a hobby. Proceeds from events such as this help us achieve these goals.
SPONSORS
Aeropanda
(321) 312-0723
aeropanda.com
BadBoyz RC
(602) 881-1042
swiwinturbines.com
Baja Hobby USA
peter@bajahobbyusa.com
bajahobbyusa.com
Banana Hobby
sales@bananahobby.com
bananahobby.com
Boomerang RC Jets
(765) 548-3757
boomerangrcjets.com
BVM Jets
(407) 327-6333
bvmjets.com
CAM/Clovis RC Modelers
clovisrc.com
Elite Aerosports
(954) 444-8809
eliteaerosports.com
FrSky USA
(714) 987-3100
frskyna.com
Fuel Factor
fuelfactorrc@gmail.com
GForce Enterprises
(442) 461-4714
gforceenterprises.com
Global Jet Club
(888) 573-3883
globaljet.club
Horizon Hobby
horizonhobby.com
KingTech Turbines
(626) 793-4677
kingtechturbines.com
Pacific RC Jets
(626) 808-6122
pacificrcjets.com
Warbirds West
iccswarbirds.azurewebsites.net/home/about
in second with her delicious tri-tip. We had several others who competed and were fantastic as well, with banquet attendees being able to sample the entries along with dinner. The banquet was a catered tri-tip and baby back rib meal provided by a local standout barbecue counter, The Meat Market.
The all-volunteer crew from CAM made sure that everyone had a lighted tent over their heads, a carpet on which to roll their airplanes over the gravel, and was well fed. We take hospitality seriously and pride ourselves on putting on events where our guests feel like our field is their home field. With such a small club, it takes a lot of work, and thanks goes to those who stepped up to make it happen, namely Dan Carlson, Dave Fusinato, Jan Sundberg, Nick Zublin, and all of the others who pitched in.
11. Shane Roswell won the first annual Bob Hoover Best Pilot Award for flying the T-One Models F-22. The Raptor is an impressive model that he was able to handle with ease.
12. Shane Roswell is one of the “Young Guns” in the jet hobby on the West Coast. Here, he displays the wide flight envelope of the Bandit Models Diamondback.
SOURCES:
CAM/Clovis RC Modelers
clovisrc.com
