SEFF—2026
An exciting journey back to Hodges Field
By Lee Ray and Fitz Walker | leeray@modelaircraft.org and flying_fitz@yahoo.com | Photos provided by the authors, except as noted
This was my second trek to the Southeast Electric Flight Festival (SEFF), which was held April 20-25 and hosted by the Fayette Flyers at Hodges Field in Andersonville, Georgia. I attended it solo back in 2023. The long road trip from Texas was made more fun this time around with my good friend, Fitz Walker, riding shotgun. When he told me that it had been nearly 20 years since his last SEFF, I pressured him several months in advance to grab some vacation time and head back out with me.
Besides looking forward to seeing the many SEFF “regulars” when we arrived, I was also thrilled to find out that my son, Austin, who attends Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, was able to find time to break away from classes and meet us there as well. This was looking to be an awesome experience.
Side Trip
Prior to arriving in Georgia, Fitz and I were privy to an estate sale near Pensacola, Florida, and made arrangements to meet the homeowner. I encourage you to seek out an estate sale or swap meet if you are heading out on a long trip to an event. It’s a good distraction, and you might find some incredible deals like we did. We didn’t intend to spend 2-1/2 hours there, but we were given full access to a huge collection of model aircraft and hobby supplies. My trailer was absolutely full when we left Florida and made our way up to Hodges Field.
Upon our arrival, Austin met up with us at the main entrance riding his Onewheel skateboard. He guided us to an awesome spot on the flightline that was saved by the amazing “Virginia Delegation.” Next door was our good buddy, Joshua Orchard. It felt like a huge welcome mat had been laid out for us, and several people offered to help park the trailer and set up our canopy so that we could charge some batteries and fly before sunset. These are the kinds of model aviation buddies everyone needs because it made that long trip worthwhile.
For starters, the weather was terrific on Thursday and Friday. The two main flightlines were a constant buzz of activity. The nice thing about this event is the variety of aircraft that are flying at any given time. The eastside runway has a lot of helicopter activity, while the main line has park flyers, giant-scale aircraft, EDF jets, and floatplanes. Joshua was having a blast flying all of the Gee Bees that decorated the entrance around his canopy.
Fitz assembled an electric glider that he had picked up at the estate sale and flew it several times with a huge smile on his face. I picked up a Freewing F-22 for
Austin at the estate sale as well. He spent Thursday night putting it together and seemed to be flying the jet every time I turned around. He absolutely enjoyed it. One airplane that I flew quite a bit was an old foamy Cessna 337 Skymaster that I had picked up at a swap meet only a few months prior. It’s not an airplane that you often see at events, so I’m glad I was able to get some air time on it.
One place where Fitz and I hung out a lot was the pond. It’s not just for floatplanes or seaplanes—some folks were out with RC boats too. To say this was the favorite spot for the Virginia Delegation is an understatement. Those crazy fellas would get up early in the morning, cross the runway with carts and supplies, and spend hours over at the pond. I was having a whole bunch of fun with my Joysway Dragonfly seaplane until I lost radio signal and dorked it into the pond. That was on me for using an old Spektrum DSM2 receiver in it. Several other pilots were flying a gaggle over the main runway at the same time, so it was likely radio-frequency interference.
A public service announcement: If you’re flying Spektrum at SEFF, only use quality DSMX receivers.
The Big Surprise
I’d be amiss not to share one of the best surprises at SEFF this year for me and Fitz. It turned out that our
good friend and cohost of the RC Roundtable podcast, Terry Dunn, made super-secret plans with Austin to attend SEFF without our knowledge. He made a last-minute trip to see family in Florida, and then drove up to Hodges Field. I was standing at the raffle prize table when I turned to see Terry (who is normally in Wisconsin) standing there. I was shocked! He got an evil stare from me first, and then a big hug. I heard that Fitz used some colorful words to describe his encounter of seeing Terry for the first time.
This surprise really capped off a wonderful SEFF. Fitz and I had a trailer of airplanes for Terry to fly, and it felt like old times when we used to hang out together at the Best Electrics in South Texas (BEST) event in New Waverly, Texas.
A big thanks to all of the sponsors and vendors who helped promote this event, and a huge shoutout to Bob Barnard (the contest director for SEFF and an all-around friendly guy), as well as the Fayette Flyers staff for all of their hard work. Bob always had a smile on his face and was constantly checking on pilots, making sure that they were having fun. He popped under our canopy on Saturday while we were packing up and told us all about a few of his plans for the big 25th anniversary SEFF event that will be held next year from April 26 to May 1. It sounds like it will be amazing! Mark your 2027 calendar.
Fitz’s View
It’s been some 20 years since I last visited SEFF; it was a slightly different time, when 2.4 GHz radios were still very new and 72 MHz units were still in heavy use. Electric model aircraft were still somewhat experimental for the more adventurous modeler (brushless motors were becoming common, but LiPo batteries were not ubiquitous yet). Suffice it to say, flying electric-powered models was still something of a novelty, so much so that a large event dedicated to electric models was an especially big deal.
Now, two decades later (where did the time go?), I’ve once again made the trek to SEFF, this time with my constant travel partner, Lee. After dozens of hours of interstate driving and lugging a trailer full of airplanes, we hoped that all of our models had survived in one piece—or that they were at least in flyable condition.
Turning the corner into the event, I was greeted with a sea of RVs, campers, and tents. To my delight, the full-scale airplane weathervane remains at its post near show center, looking only slightly more weather-beaten than I last remembered but still standing as a proud icon of Hodges Field.
Despite the almost unending sea of vehicles, the flightline was relatively calm. Well, I should say flightlines (plural) because there were two perpendicular
runways that naturally segmented into multiple flying zones, plus a seaplane area, the latter being a new addition since my last visit.
helicopters that made their presence on the flightline.
I took particular delight in testing out the floatplane area. Float-flying is not something I do often, so I made sure to bring both a seaplane and an RC boat. A number of seaplane drivers and I enjoyed abusing the water in our little corner. I had the honor of hitting the only obstacle in the entire large pond with my airboat and capsizing it. Fortunately, we were supplied with a community-use paddle boat for such incidents.
A special treat was coming across an old flying friend who I had not seen or heard from in 20 years; he was on the other side of the country when we last met. I almost didn’t recognize him until I saw his name tag, but the decades melted away once we started reminiscing about our old adventures in modeling.
We ultimately set up base camp next to the great Virginia Delegation of pilots, who Lee and I met last year at the Northeast Electric Aircraft Technology (NEAT) Fair in Downsville, New York. On the other side of us was another friend from the East Coast who even brought a special gift for me (it’s good to have friends in high places), thus highlighting the real joy of SEFF: the people you meet there. It was a great opportunity to see old friends and make new ones.
In all, it was a great flying event, of which I’m greatly pleased I was able to attend, with (mostly) great weather, great friends, and great flying. Did I mention that it was great?
particularly impressed with some very large-scale
SOURCES:
SEFF
seffweek.com
“RC Roundtable-239/’SEFF Baby!’”
YouTube
youtube.com/watch?v=eDNrGaRMBOY
