The Fox Valley Aero Club started flying large model aircraft in the 1930s. Seventy years later, the hobby has taken off, forcing members to find a new home near St. Charles.
In the next few months, the club, whose members fly high-performance radio-controlled airplanes, expects to move from Campton Hills Park, which it has used for 29 years. At the new location, the club will build longer and wider runways on eight acres of city-owned property on the south side of Illinois Highway 38 about a mile west of Randall Road.
Club president Bob Walker said the move is due to the planes’ increasing popularity and the expansion of the St. Charles Park District’s soccer and football programs into the club’s existing space.
Recently, Walker, 71, and club member Paul Doud appeared at a Planning Commission hearing on the club’s plan to relocate to an open field. The idea drew no objections but still faces a few procedural steps and a council vote before it becomes a reality.
The club has 200 members. “Our members are seniors on down to teenagers,” said Doud.
The planes can cost from $300 to $20,000 and more, said Doud, 66, a former Marine pilot who owns 83 planes.
It is not uncommon to see Mustangs, Spitfires, Corsairs, German Stukas and famous bombers like the B-17 and B-29 roaring down the runways.
Doud said members put their planes through all kinds of stunts–loops, rolls and Immelmann turns.
“It’s not uncommon to fly so high that the planes are like little specks in the sky at 6,000 or 7,000 feet,” he said.
He said because model planes can fly up to 200 m.p.h., “you have to really think ahead all the time.”
Although a hobby for most, radio-controlled planes are serious business to Walker, who owns 12 planes and is president of Robart Manufacturing in St. Charles. It is one of the world’s largest producers of parts and engines for giant-scale model aircraft, he said.
This year, because of the club’s relocation, it will not sponsor its annual Festival of Giants air show, usually held in mid-July.
