Dare County Radio Control Flyers

A perfect day of flying weather was made even better when twelve of our club members and four guests met at the field today for over four hours of continual flying.

The usual gathering of nine of our club's pilots was joined at the field today by three of our newest members: Pete Carros; Brandon Fregans, and; Gavin Fregans. In addition, Robin Handbridge, a guest from a club in Oregon, flew his Twin-Timber with us. Three other guests observed our planes flying and stopped by to visit, chat, and watch flight operations.

Jim Davis performed a maiden flight today with his Supermarine Spitfire. The flight went well, but unfortunately a second flight in which Jim was dog-fighting with Grant Dick's Spitfire ended with damage to his aircraft after the plane's receiver lost communications and went down in a corn field.

New club member Pete Carros also performed a maiden flight today with a FliteTest aircraft he constructed. Unfortunately, shortly after takeoff he lost a push-rod for an aileron, and had to put the plane down, resulting in minor damage. He was unable to fly again since he did not have the wire necessary to perform a field repair to his aileron linkage.

The highlight of the day was Brandon and Gavin Fregans performing a number of flights with instructor, Stephen Yanacek. Brandon and Gavin are beginners, however both successfully performed a takeoff and flew circuits up and down the field using Stephen's AeroScout. Both flew well, and Gavin was so confident, he was able to also perform a text-book landing. At the end of the day Gavin was also able to perform a supervised maiden flight with the Apprentice S2 that he and his father won at our public flying event earlier in the month.

We departed the field, a little tired, but are looking forward to meeting to fly again soon.

Since high winds made flying unsafe, ten of our members met for breakfast instead and used the morning to talk about recent club activities and model building projects at the Jolly Roger Restaurant.

Attending today's pilot's breakfast were: Peter Fynn; Mike Kirkpatrick; Charlie Doss; John Silva; Robert Yanacek; Jim Davis; Mike Alexander; Stephen Yanacek; Skip Wescott, and; Jim Watters.

Following breakfast, Robert and Stephen Yanacek met Carole Korupp, to receive a donation of a small-scale radio control P-51 Mustang and a new-in-box Spektrum 6-channel DX6i transmitter. Carole had purchased these items as a Christmas gift for her husband, Richard, unfortunately he passed-away before receiving them. In the spirit of giving back to an activity that Richard enjoyed, Carole has graciously donated them to the club as a memorial gift in honor of her late-husband, asking us to provide them to a young member to enjoy and as a means to encourage their participation in model aviation.

Dare County Radio Control Flyers appreciates Carole's gift and will be awarding the Richard Korupp Memorial Model Aviation Gift to a young club member as she wished. Further information and details about this gift will be provided in the future.

Jim Davis, our club president, had the pleasure to meet with Shannon Castillo today at First Flight High School and present her with an AeroScout S2 ready-to-fly airplane that she won as the third-place prize at the Outer Banks Festival of Model Aviation on October 7, 2023.

Shannon is the career and technical education director for Dare County Schools, and along with her husband, Juan, are looking forward to being back into the air with their new plane at our club's flying field very soon.

Our club wishes Shannon good flying weather, and many happy landings with her prize!

Our club conducted its monthly business meeting this evening, at which our club vice-president had the pleasure of presenting Brandon Fregans and his son, Gavin, with an Apprentice S2 ready-to-fly airplane that they won as the second-place prize at the Outer Banks Festival of Model Aviation on October 7, 2023.

The meeting was well-attended with fifteen members present, including four new members who joined this month. Those attending were: Robert Yanacek; Allen Massey; Jim Shiels; Peter Fynn; Mike Alexander; Virgil Kee; Jim Watters; Skip Wescott; Gavin Fregans; Brandon Fregans; John Silva; Charlie Doss; Mike Kirkpatrick; Pete Carros, and Stephen Yanacek.

A great deal of business was conducted with everyone looking forward to doing more flying, building, and social activities very soon. Our meeting concluded with Jim Shiels demonstrating, during our 'Show and Tell' session, the setup on his scratch-built, balsa-wood and Monokote-covered 'Yardstick' monoplane he recently designed and constructed.

Six club members went on a field trip today to visit the Military Aviation Museum, located in Virginia Beach. The museum is about one and a half hours from the Outer Banks and displays an extensive collection of original and reproduction piston-engine aircraft from both world wars as well as other exhibits related to aircraft and aviation of the period.

Jim Davis, Peter Fynn, Stephen Yanacek, Skip Wescott, Virgil Kee, and Robert Yanacek spent about five hours at the museum, viewing aircraft ranging from a 1911 Wright Flyer to a Douglas AD-4 Skyraider. The collection also includes many vehicles of the period, artifacts, and some very unusual allied and axis aircraft. In addition to the aircraft, they were also treated by the staff to a guided-tour of the museum's original control tower from U.S. Army Air Forces Station #345, Goxhill, England.

Following their visit, our members returned home, but not before stopping for lunch at the Coinjock Marina and Restaurant to talk about their wonderful experience and memories they made at the museum.