Dare County Radio Control Flyers

Despite the after-effects of Hurricane Helene moving through the area, temperatures in the low-80s and flying conditions throughout the entire day proved to be near-perfect for our pilots and the sixty-three guests who attended the Outer Banks Festival of Model Aviation. The day was filled with excitement, food, and fun as our guests participated in flying and learning about model aviation as a family-friendly and educational recreational activity.

Each festival attendee provided at least one non-perishable food item as admission to the event, with these items being collected by Beach Food Pantry board-member Adrienne Palma, to aid local residents in-need.

Eleven club members and five family members worked at the event in various roles to make it a safe, rewarding, and enjoyable day for all. Diane Yanacek, Paul Yanacek, and Mary Alexander welcomed, checked-in and socialized with our guests while Virgil Kee directed his efforts to the youngest attendees to explain how an airplane flies and how a radio control aircraft works. Mike Alexander worked with attendees on a flight-simulator station that was set-up in our storage shed while Bernie Feaganes, Pete Carros, and Philip Garey performed the demanding task as flight-instructors, supervising our first-time guest fliers. Robert Yanacek and Mike Douglas photographed the day's activities to provide everyone with good memories to share. John Watkins worked to ensure that our club's flight instructors had fully-charged batteries while club president, Jim Davis, supervised the overall event activities and assisted in various roles as needed. Jim, along with Richard Boyd, thrilled our guests with a number of flight demonstrations that included aerobatics, high-speed flight with an electric-duct-fan jet, and a simulated pylon race.

Thirty-two of our guests took advantage of the opportunity to try flying a radio control airplane for the first time, under the watchful eyes of one of the club's three flight instructors. All those who flew, including a youngster who was just three years old, flew very well and without incident.

Around noon, attendees were treated to a lunch prepared by John Silva, Skip Wescott, and Matthew Yanacek, consisting of hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, and beverages. Our food preparation team did an excellent job in ensuring that everyone was well-fed.

After lunch, flight operations with our guests continued, along with a number of crowd-pleasing demonstrations performed by Bernie Feaganes with his large-scale Supermarine Spitfire and Mitsubishi A6M Type-0 aircraft, and by Mike Douglas with his highly-maneuverable helicopter.

Following the day's flying activities, our club conducted a drawing to determine the three guest attendee winners of our no-cost try-to-fly raffle. Liam McGarry was the grand prize winner and received a 1.2-meter ready-to-fly Apprentice S2 airplane, a one-year membership in the Academy of Model Aeronautics, and membership in our club. The second and third place winners, Allison Fregans and Brooke Bowser-Naser, each received a 1.1-meter ready-to-fly AeroScout S2 along with one-year membership in the Academy of Model Aeronautics following their acceptance into our club as members.

A second drawing was then held to determine the winners of a separate raffle to which tickets were sold to both members and guests. Emmett Thompson's ticket was selected and, as this event's grand-prize winner, he was awarded a 1.5-meter bind-n-fly Air-Tractor and a one-year membership to the Academy of Model Aeronautics. Krista McNeilly took home the second-prize, a bind-n-fly UMX Twin-Otter radio control plane.

All of our winners have received their prizes and we look forward to seeing them in the air when they fly with us very soon.

Our club wishes to thank everyone who participated in, and made this event so successful. Your donations for admission to the event for the Beach Food Pantry are greatly appreciated and will undoubtedly assist this worthy organization that does so much to help our local residents. We enjoyed meeting and flying with all of our guests, and we hope that you will fly with us again in the near future. We also wish to recognize the Academy of Model Aeronautics Foundation, Horizon Hobby, and Legend Hobby for their generosity in providing event funding and prize donations.