It’s a not-so-quiet Sunday afternoon in a local forest preserve. Four small planes race in a circle 50 feet in the air, their engines buzzing like giant bees. Two take a turn and swoop down, colliding in mid-air. Seconds later, two engines and a yellow tail lie amid scattered debris on the manicured airfield.
After the race, the crash “victims” receive good-natured ribbing and sympathy from friends as they clean up the shattered remains of the radio-controlled planes they spent months building. “It’s not always the fastest plane that wins,” admits Jim Scahill of Lombard, whose plane took first place after his opponents crashed.
” something you hate to have happen, but if it does, you want to be there to see it,” says Steve Dietrich, an Elmhurst resident and member of the Suburban Radio-Control Barnstormers. Although rare, collisions, nose-dives and planes that lose radio contact and crash are part of being a Barnstormer.
Elk Grove Village resident Hugo Mosquera, a retired electrical engineer, founded the Barnstormers in 1965. A native of Quito, Ecuador, Mosquera has been building model airplanes for 57 years.
“When I was 8 years old, the Air Youth of America was promoting modeling by sponsoring contests,” he says. “You could win a prize and they used your model to train pilots.
“There are many types of model planes. Some are propelled by a rubber band, some you simply throw into the air. Some are powered by an engine, so they go farther. Some have gasoline and you control them with two wires attached. And then there is RC , which was invented in 1956.
“We used to have a Chicago-area association of RC clubs, and that’s when we asked the forest preserves if we could use their fields. We also rented fields from farmers. Our club’s first field was where Stratford Square Mall is now located.”
During the club’s recent fun fly, an all-day event held at Pratts-Wayne Woods Forest Preserve in Wayne, club president Ron Walker of Bartlett had the dubious honor of owning one of the planes that crashed.
“You invest a lot of time and money in this sport, and if you make a mistake, you can watch it fly away,” Walker jokes. “Fortunately, most planes can be reconstructed with strong glue and lots of patience.”
In good weather, a fun fly attracts about half of the club’s 180 active members, some of whom bring two or three planes for competition and general flying.
Most build their own planes, scaled-down versions of war, civilian and sports planes. Some are exact replicas of actual planes, and some are created just for fun.
On this day, the Barnstormers are racing Four Star Fortys, which are equally matched in terms of construction and engine power. Fuel is provided by the club, so nothing except pilot skill is left to chance during the 10-lap race. Controlling these planes takes training, talent and an eye for detail during the critical preflight inspection of the craft.
When Barnstormers get together, they talk in terms foreign to the uninitiated: wing to stab alignment, engine thrust incidence, lateral balance, control throws set to plans, radio receive range check, and servo wires routing. These are just part of a recommended preflight check list.
At the fun fly, pilots stand behind pylons surrounding the manicured airfield, holding their radio transmitters. Joysticks control the ailerons, elevator, rudder and throttle.
To teach RC flying, instructors use a buddy-box system. It’s like high school driver’s education: The instructor and novice each have a radio, but the instructor can override the novice radio at any time.
“It’s better to hurt someone’s feelings than to allow them to hurt or destroy their plane,” says head flight instructor Simon Hernandez of St. Charles.
During the week, members who come out to practice are likely to find Hernandez.
“I really enjoy helping out,” says Hernandez, who has been involved in the sport for about four years. “We have about 15 flight instructors, and on Thursday afternoons we’ll work with anyone who shows up. This is a good hobby for kids, something they can do with their dads.”
At a recent fun fly, Hernandez took the transmitter from a novice flyer who had lost control of his plane. Hernandez wandered toward the edge of the airfield, trying to regain contact.
“He’s not going to make it,” says Dennis Majewski of South Elgin. “There it goes, no, it’s back up . . . there it goes.” The plane disappears in a field about 400 yards away.
“You can tell when the plane has lost contact, because it starts moving in a fixed pattern,” says Al Dyer of Batavia. “That means the switch has shorted out or the battery came unplugged. When you lose radio contact, there’s not much you can do.”
RC pilots are licensed and insured through the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA), which oversees all modeling activities in the U.S.
“You need insurance before you can fly these planes because there is always the possibility of an accident,” Mosquera advises, adding that the hobby is safer than Little League baseball.
Mosquera has at least 12 airplanes and three helicopters that are flightworthy. It can take more than a year to build a model plane of balsa, plywood, spruce and lots of glue. Giant-scale planes, which cost from $2,000 to $7,000, often require 18 months of labor in one’s spare time. RC engines add from $70 to $350 to the cost of the plane. Smaller planes will cost in the neighborhood of $200 to $300.
Glenn LaRocco of Wood Dale has been flying RC planes for seven years, such as a one-fifth scale F4U Corsair American War-Bird with an 85-inch wingspan. “It’s a rush, a lot of fun,” says LaRocco, a licensed pilot.
This year, the Barnstormers have decided to promote RC flying in the local community. “We visited Boy Scout troops in St. Charles and Wheaton to explain how they were built and what is involved in flying,” Walker says.
Community efforts in the past have included a Veterans Memorial Fly-In at Pratts-Wayne Woods to benefit a local chapter of the Disabled American Veterans.
“This is becoming a big industry,” Dyer says. “Planes are stronger, and engines and radios are better.”
As the planes move slowly toward the airfield, they take on an almost lifelike quality. A few yards away, a chipmunk nibbles on clover, eyeing the strange creatures suspiciously. It seems to know, however, that the bright figures circling in the sky are too noisy for birds of prey.
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A Barnstormer club meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Aug. 7 at the Bloomingdale Public Library. Upcoming fun flies are at 9 a.m. July 30 and Aug. 13 at Pratts-Wayne Woods just north of Army Trail Road in Wayne. Club competitions include races, acrobatic flying and “Top Gun” races for large scale planes. Call Simon Hernandez at 708-741-8924 after 8 p.m. for further information.
